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X-ray studies at SLAC facilities help scientists understand the fundamental workings of nature by probing matter in atomic detail.

atoms forming a tentative bond

News Feature

Anne Sakdinawat, a SLAC scientist, has been selected to receive a grant to advance her work in producing and using new types of X-ray...

Image - Anne Sakdinawat (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
News Feature

A commercial X-ray source with roots in SLAC research enables multi-mode computer tomography scans that outperform routine scans in hospitals. The technique could potentially...

News Feature

A team led by Stanford University scientists is using software to breathe new life into results from past biological experiments at SLAC’s X-ray laser.

This illustration shows Tiny crystallized biomolecules in a liquid solution (right) are streamed into X-ray laser pulses (shown as a white beam) in this illustration of crystallography at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser.
News Feature

Scientists at SLAC and Utrecht University have identified how catalysts degrade when used to refine crude oil.

Image - Research at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory could lead to more efficient gasoline production. (@iStockphoto/Patryk Kosmider)
Press Release

An experiment at SLAC's X-ray laser has revealed in atomic detail how a hypertension drug binds to a cellular receptor that plays a key...

Image - This photo shows a medical device used to monitor blood pressure. In a study at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser, researchers studied how a hypertension drug binds to a cellular receptor known as an angiotensin II type 1 receptor.
News Feature

Researchers use X-ray laser at SLAC to track light-triggered chemical reactions in a molecule that serves as a simple model for the conversion of...

IMAGE - Artistic rendering of a molecule severed by laser light, with a separate molecule (bottom right) from a solvent rushing in to bond with the just-split molecule. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
News Feature

SLAC study of tiny nanocrystals provides new insight on the design and function of nanomaterials

Image - In this illustration, intense X-rays produced at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source strike nanowires to study an ultrafast "breathing" response in the crystals induced quadrillionths of a second earlier by pulses of optical laser light.
News Feature

Developed at SLAC’s LCLS, it could also yield new information from hard-to-study samples in materials science, chemistry and other fields.

Image - These charts show (a) the energy profile of two electron bunches that are separated by about 6 picoseconds, which are later stimulated to emit (b) two X-ray pulses separated by femtoseconds.
News Feature

For the first time, researchers have produced a 3-D image revealing some of the inner structure of an intact, infectious virus.

Image - This rendering shows a 3-D reconstruction of a Mimivirus, based on an analysis of a collection of X-ray diffraction patterns obtained in an experiment at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser. (Uppsala University)
News Feature

An X-ray laser experiment could lead to new drugs that lessen the side effects caused by powerful painkillers like morphine.

Image - This rendering shows a type of cellular membrane protein known as a delta opioid receptor (purple) with a compound derived from a naturally occurring peptide (orange, blue and red) bound inside its “pocket.” The peptide compound shows promise as a
Press Release

Scientists have used an X-ray laser at SLAC to get the first glimpse of the transition state where two atoms begin to form a...

Illustration of a transition state in a chemical reaction.
Press Release

Technique Could Allow Study of Viral Infections, Cell Division and Photosynthesis in New Detail

A pond containing a visible bloom of cyanobacteria, with an artistic rendering of an individual cell