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How a Shape-shifting DNA-repair Machine Fights Cancer

By Guest PostMarch 2, 2014Scienceals beamline, berkeley lab, broken dna, cancer, cancer cells, dna repair functions, dna repair machine, fight, fix, john tainer, mre11 rad50, mutation, protein complex, shape shifting, sybils, tanya paull, university of texas

Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source reveals inner-workings of essential protein found throughout life.

Maybe you’ve seen the movies or played with toy Transformers, those shape-shifting machines that morph in response to whatever challenge they face. It turns out that DNA-repair machines in your cells use a similar approach to fight cancer and other diseases, according to research led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

As reported in a pair of new studies, the scientists gained new insights into how a protein complex called Mre11-Rad50 reshapes itself to take on different DNA-repair tasks. (more…)

Whirlpools on the Nanoscale Could Multiply Magnetic Memory

By Guest PostJune 22, 2013Scienceadvanced light source, als, als beamline, berkeley lab, billionths, brno university, czech republic, dynamics, electron spin, magnetic contrast, magnetic memory, magnetic states, magnetic vortices, meter, nanoscale, peter fischer, polarity, san diego, spin orientation, Technology, university of california, vojtech uhlir, whirlpools, xray optics

At the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab scientists join an international team to control spin orientation in magnetic nanodisks

“We spent 15 percent of home energy on gadgets in 2009, and we’re buying more gadgets all the time,” says Peter Fischer of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Fischer lets you know right away that while it’s scientific curiosity that inspires his research at the Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), he intends it to help solve pressing problems.

“What we’re working on now could make these gadgets perform hundreds of times better and also be a hundred times more energy efficient,” says Fischer, a staff scientist in the Materials Sciences Division. As a principal investigator at the Center for X-Ray Optics, he leads ALS beamline 6.1.2, where he specializes in studies of magnetism. (more…)

Space-Age Ceramics Get Their Toughest Test:

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2012Science3d imaging, abdel haboub, alastair macdowell, als beamline, bend magnet, berkeley lab, brian cox, ceramic composites, clay, ct scanning, david marshall, dilworth parkinson, Environment, failure envelope, fracture, function, gas turbine engine, hrishikesh bale, hypersonic jet, internal damage, james nasiatka, mechanical failure, mechanical properties, microcrack, microtomography, operational temperature, real time analysis, risk, robert ritchie, tesla superconducting, ultrahigh, ultraviolet light beams

Berkeley Lab Researchers Develop Real-Time CT-Scan Test Rig For Ceramic Composites at Ultrahigh Temperatures

Advanced ceramic composites can withstand the ultrahigh operational temperatures projected for hypersonic jet and next generation gas turbine engines, but real-time analysis of the mechanical properties of these space-age materials at ultrahigh temperatures has been a challenge – until now. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed the first testing facility that enables CT-scanning of ceramic composites under controlled loads at ultrahigh temperatures and in real-time.

Working at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of X-ray and ultraviolet light beams, the scientists created a mechanical testing rig for performing X-ray computed microtomography that reveals the growth of microcrack damage under loads at temperatures up to 1,750 degrees Celsius. This allows engineers to compute a ceramic composite material’s risk of structural or mechanical failure under extreme operating conditions, which in turn should enable the material’s performance and safety to be improved. (more…)

Salt Seeds Clouds in the Amazon Rainforest

By Guest PostSeptember 13, 2012Environmentabsorption, aerosol particle, airborne particle, als beamline, Amazon, amazon jungle, amazonian, asci, ballistospores, berkeley lab, biomass, brazil, chemistry, christopher pohlker, david kilcoyne, deep, emission, fine particle, fog, forest canopy, fungi fire, gas phase, Germany, graphitic, institute, isoprene, leaves, liquid droplet, manaus, mary gilles, max planck, meinrat andreae, microscopy, moisture, morning, mpic, natural forest, nexafs, organic carbon, organism, osmosis, photon, potassium level, potassium salt, rainforest, sacs, seed, soluble particle, stxm, sugar alcohol, terpenes, tree resin, trees, ulrich pöschl, water vapor, xray

It’s morning, deep in the Amazon jungle. In the still air innumerable leaves glisten with moisture, and fog drifts through the trees. As the sun rises, clouds appear and float across the forest canopy … but where do they come from? Water vapor needs soluble particles to condense on. Airborne particles are the seeds of liquid droplets in fog, mist, and clouds.

To learn how aerosol particles form in the Amazon, Mary Gilles of the Chemical Sciences Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and David Kilcoyne of the Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) worked with Christopher Pöhlker of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) as part of an international team of scientists led by MPIC’s Meinrat Andreae and Ulrich Pöschl. They analyzed samples of naturally formed aerosols collected above the forest floor, deep in the rainforest. (more…)

Tag Archives: als beamline

How a Shape-shifting DNA-repair Machine Fights Cancer

Whirlpools on the Nanoscale Could Multiply Magnetic Memory

Space-Age Ceramics Get Their Toughest Test:

Salt Seeds Clouds in the Amazon Rainforest