Imaging Plant Viruses Could Yield New Ways to Safeguard Crops

October 3, 2008

Flexible filamentous viruses make up a large fraction of known plant viruses and are responsible for more than half the viral damage to crop plants throughout the world. New images of the viruses’ structures have been revealed by scientists using an x-ray beamline at the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. The findings could lead to new ways of protecting crop plants from these viruses.

Extreme Pressure Reveals a Volume Expansion Phenomenon

September 26, 2008

Understanding the behavior of materials under extreme conditions is an important area of investigation in materials science and a key to developing new materials with superior qualities. Researchers using an x-ray beamline at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source answered a long-standing question about the electrical properties of an important material subjected to extreme pressure, and showed that a new x-ray technique holds great promise for gaining insights about the properties of materials.

A Nuclear Receptor with Implications for a Host of Diseases

September 25, 2008

The molecular structure of a nuclear receptor that may serve as a drug target for diseases related to heart and blood-vessel development, human embryonic development, and female infertility has been solved by researchers using an x-ray beamline at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

Unexpected Materials in Earth’s Lowermost Mantle

September 25, 2008

Materials deep inside the Earth have unexpected atomic properties that might cause scientists to revise their models of Earth’s internal processes, according to a team of researchers carrying out experiments at an x-ray beamline at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne Advanced Photon Source.

Nailing Down the Exciton in LiF

September 17, 2008

Excitons are a key element in the functioning of semiconductors and insulators. Understanding their structure and behavior is vitally important to the development of new materials and technologies. Research by experimenters using two beamlines at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne Advanced Photon Source could set the stage for improving materials used for alternative energy sources, while settling a 70-year-old controversy.

SESAME and the APS: Opening Doors Helps the Light Shine In

September 16, 2008

As Guvenc Akgul goes about learning the finer points of x-ray spectroscopy from his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source, he represents a bridge between countries that, while separated by culture, distance, or regional factionalism, can find common ground in science at synchrotron x-ray research facilities.