Latest news from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on News en-us Copyright 2024 News 115 31 / /images/newswise-logo-rss.gif /articles/how-microbes-create-the-most-toxic-form-of-mercury/?sc=rsin /articles/how-microbes-create-the-most-toxic-form-of-mercury/?sc=rsin Fri, 15 Nov 2024 14:20:43 EST SLAC's SSRL helps pin down key players in the microbial production of methylmercury, a poison that can accumulate in fish. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/a-modular-neutrino-detector-years-in-the-making/?sc=rsin /articles/a-modular-neutrino-detector-years-in-the-making/?sc=rsin Mon, 30 Sep 2024 12:05:41 EST The prototype DUNE 2x2 detector will capture up to 10,000 neutrino interactions per day. Researchers developed the new detector and advanced machine learning techniques to probe what all those neutrinos are up to. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/new-upgrade-will-supercharge-atomic-vision-of-the-world-s-most-powerful-x-ray-laser/?sc=rsin /articles/new-upgrade-will-supercharge-atomic-vision-of-the-world-s-most-powerful-x-ray-laser/?sc=rsin Fri, 27 Sep 2024 09:00:00 EST The Department of Energy (DOE) has given the green light for construction to begin on a high-energy upgrade that will further boost the performance of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world's most powerful X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) at the DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. When complete, the upgrade will allow scientists to explore atomic-scale processes with unprecedented precision and address fundamental questions in energy storage, catalysis, biology, materials science and quantum physics like never before. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/slac-led-energy-frontier-research-center-awarded-14-4-million-to-advance-new-manufacturing-solutions-for-microelectronics/?sc=rsin /articles/slac-led-energy-frontier-research-center-awarded-14-4-million-to-advance-new-manufacturing-solutions-for-microelectronics/?sc=rsin Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:05:00 EST Funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the Center for Energy Efficient Magnonics brings together a multidisciplinary group of researchers from SLAC and seven universities to discover how components of microelectronics can be built on spin waves that arise from magnetism. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/researchers-discover-a-surprising-way-to-jump-start-battery-performance/?sc=rsin /articles/researchers-discover-a-surprising-way-to-jump-start-battery-performance/?sc=rsin Thu, 29 Aug 2024 11:05:34 EST In a study published today in Joule, researchers at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center report that giving batteries their first charge at unusually high currents increased their average lifespan by 50% while decreasing the initial charging time from 10 hours to just 20 minutes. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/researchers-observe-locked-electron-pairs-in-a-superconductor-cuprate/?sc=rsin /articles/researchers-observe-locked-electron-pairs-in-a-superconductor-cuprate/?sc=rsin Thu, 15 Aug 2024 14:00:00 EST The finding could help future efforts to design superconductors that work at higher temperatures. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/slac-s-high-speed-electron-camera-uncovers-a-new-light-twisting-behavior-in-an-ultrathin-material/?sc=rsin /articles/slac-s-high-speed-electron-camera-uncovers-a-new-light-twisting-behavior-in-an-ultrathin-material/?sc=rsin Wed, 10 Jul 2024 14:45:51 EST Using SLAC's instrument for ultrafast electron diffraction (MeV-UED), one of the lab's world-leading tools for ultrafast science, researchers discovered how an ultrathin material can circularly polarize light. This discovery sets up a promising approach to manipulate light for applications in optoelectronic devices. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/slac-researchers-pioneer-new-methods-in-ultrafast-science-for-sharper-molecular-movies/?sc=rsin /articles/slac-researchers-pioneer-new-methods-in-ultrafast-science-for-sharper-molecular-movies/?sc=rsin Fri, 05 Jul 2024 13:05:44 EST Improvements to the lab's "electron camera" use AI and "time stamping" to help reveal nature's speedy processes more accurately. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/a-novel-spray-device-helps-researchers-capture-fast-moving-cell-processes/?sc=rsin /articles/a-novel-spray-device-helps-researchers-capture-fast-moving-cell-processes/?sc=rsin Tue, 11 Jun 2024 12:05:39 EST Researchers figured out how to spray and freeze a cell sample in its natural state in milliseconds, helping them capture basic biological processes in unprecedented detail. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/slac-completes-construction-of-the-largest-digital-camera-ever-built-for-astronomy/?sc=rsin /articles/slac-completes-construction-of-the-largest-digital-camera-ever-built-for-astronomy/?sc=rsin Wed, 03 Apr 2024 09:00:00 EST After two decades of work, scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and their collaborators are celebrating the completion of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/scientists-propose-a-new-way-to-search-for-dark-matter/?sc=rsin /articles/scientists-propose-a-new-way-to-search-for-dark-matter/?sc=rsin Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:05:56 EST In a new study, SLAC researchers suggest a small-scale solution could be the key to solving a large-scale mystery. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/slac-scientists-explain-what-is-inertial-fusion-energy/?sc=rsin /articles/slac-scientists-explain-what-is-inertial-fusion-energy/?sc=rsin Wed, 21 Feb 2024 14:05:47 EST Following ignition demonstrations at the National Ignition Facility, the prospect of developing a fusion energy source using lasers looks brighter than ever. Here, SLAC experts weigh in on what it will take to develop the science and technology toward that aim and how the lab and its partners will contribute. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/a-battery-s-hopping-ions-remember-where-they-ve-been/?sc=rsin /articles/a-battery-s-hopping-ions-remember-where-they-ve-been/?sc=rsin Thu, 15 Feb 2024 13:15:21 EST Scientists discover that ions hopping through a battery electrolyte can reverse direction in response to a jolt of voltage and briefly return to their previous positions - .the first indication that the ions remembered, in a sense, where they had just been. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/researchers-add-a-twist-to-classical-material-design/?sc=rsin /articles/researchers-add-a-twist-to-classical-material-design/?sc=rsin Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:05:09 EST Researchers with the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University and the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) grew a twisted multilayer crystal structure for the first time and measured the structure's key properties. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/researchers-release-solar-power-data-software-to-increase-clean-energy-generation/?sc=rsin /articles/researchers-release-solar-power-data-software-to-increase-clean-energy-generation/?sc=rsin Wed, 17 Jan 2024 13:05:15 EST The software tool sorts through messy data to reveal what's really going on with solar panels on cloudy and sunny days. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-mountaintop-telescope-builder/?sc=rsin /articles/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-mountaintop-telescope-builder/?sc=rsin Fri, 05 Jan 2024 12:05:03 EST Margaux Lopez is one of a team of engineers preparing the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile for the arrival of the largest digital camera ever built for astrophysics and cosmology. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/slac-brings-rapid-fire-laser-and-target-expertise-to-national-fusion-energy-research-hubs/?sc=rsin /articles/slac-brings-rapid-fire-laser-and-target-expertise-to-national-fusion-energy-research-hubs/?sc=rsin Thu, 07 Dec 2023 15:05:45 EST The lab will partner in two collaborations - one led by Colorado State University and the other by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - as part of a DOE-funded effort to speed up progress in fusion energy science and technology. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/researchers-show-an-old-law-still-holds-for-quirky-quantum-materials/?sc=rsin /articles/researchers-show-an-old-law-still-holds-for-quirky-quantum-materials/?sc=rsin Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:05:17 EST An 170-year-old law describing the ratio of heat conductivity to electronic conductivity in metals was thought not to apply to quantum materials. Now theoretical physicists suggest that the Wiedemann-Franz law does, in fact, apply to one class of quantum materials -- the copper oxides, or cuprates. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/how-tiny-hinges-bend-the-infection-spreading-spikes-of-a-coronavirus/?sc=rsin /articles/how-tiny-hinges-bend-the-infection-spreading-spikes-of-a-coronavirus/?sc=rsin Tue, 14 Nov 2023 09:05:35 EST Far from being stiff and pointy, a coronavirus's infectious spikes are shaped like chicken drumsticks with the meaty part facing out, and the meaty part can tilt every which way on its slender stalk. A tiny hinge makes that bendiness possible, and scientists say disabling that hinge could be a good way to thwart infection. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory /articles/researchers-aim-to-make-cheaper-fuel-cells-a-reality/?sc=rsin /articles/researchers-aim-to-make-cheaper-fuel-cells-a-reality/?sc=rsin Mon, 13 Nov 2023 14:05:31 EST The team reduced the amount of expensive platinum group metals needed to make an effective cell and found a new way to test future fuel cell innovations. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory