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SEPTEMBER 29, 2000
Three technologies developed for use at APS have won R&D 100 awards for the year 2000. The awards are given annually by R&D Magazine to the 100 most significant technical products of the year.
OCTOBER 17, 2000
Materials ranging from massive steel girders to the microscopic aluminum wires in computer chips are made of grains-tiny crystals with diameters measured in millionths of a meter (microns). If scientists could "see" these individual grains, they could determine their orientation, as well as the effects of stress and chemical activity on them. They might also be able to determine how to make circuits in microelectronic components smaller and faster and find out to what extent grains of a superconducting material mimic the alignment of the substrate on which the material is grown, which is essential to the design of effective high-temperature superconductors. Scientists are now able to study the fine details of grain behavior in materials, thanks to new x-ray beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source (APS). Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a leader in efforts to develop microbeams at the APS.
OCTOBER 11, 2000
X-ray beams from the Advanced Photon Source and the Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg have been used to set a potential new standard of length for short distances, based on radiation from the excited nuclei of iron atoms. Further improvements may make this standard an important tool for probing the structure of matter, where physicists must gauge the separations between nuclei with an accuracy of millionths of an angstrom.
OCTOBER 11, 2000
Researchers have applied high-brilliance x-ray beams from the Bio-CAT undulator insertion-device beamline at the Advanced Photon Source to small-angle x-ray diffraction and obtained high-quality, <i>in vivo</i> patterns from the flight muscles of live fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). This new experimental system facilitates investigation of the relation between molecular structure and muscle function in living organisms.
OCTOBER 3, 2000
Researchers from Northwestern University and the Harvard Medical School have identified the structure of the interaction complex of two molecules, the antibody immunoglobin-E (IgE) and its high-affinity receptor, that are central to the allergic response in humans. This work was carried out APS beamline 5-ID, which is operated by the E.I. Du pont de Nemours & Co.-Northwestern University-The Dow Chemical Company Collaborative Access Team.
JUNE 28, 2000
Recent studies carried out on the Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation Collaborative Access Team's beamline 1-ID-C at the Advanced Photon Source provide important new insights into the relation of polarons to collossal magnetoresistance (CMR), which is of great interest to both basic science, which has led to CMR discoveries such as charge and orbital ordering, and applied science, where the potential for technological applications is significant.
JUNE 28, 2000
Using a focused, monochromatic beam of high-photon-energy x-rays from the Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation Collaborative Access Team beamline 1-BM at the Advanced Photon Source, researchers performed metallurgical analyses on two astrolabes: M-33a (Adler Planetarium, from the Mensing Collection), and DW0595 (Harvard University, from the David P. Wheatland Collection). These instruments are both signed "Ioannes Bos, 24 March 1597." Results indicate that the composition and microstructure of the main components of M-33a are consistent with the 1597 date, while those of DW0595 reveal a much more recent origin.
