Acelerador de particulas México Fuente de luz sincrotrón

Una luz muy especial

"El pelo fue tomado de Beethoven por mi pap�, el Dr. Ferdinand von Hiller, un d�a despu�s de que Ludwig van Beethoven muri�, el 27 de marzo de 1827. Mi padre me dio el cabello como regalo de cumplea�os el 1 de mayo de 1883 en Colonia (Alemania)�, dice Paul Hiller

�l habr�a de conservar el cabello por mucho tiempo, hasta que en 1943 alg�n miembro de su familia lo dio como regalo al Dr. Kay Alexander Fremming, quien viv�a en Dinamarca en los tiempos de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Todo parece indicar que el Dr. Fremming ayud� a escapar a un grupo de jud�os amenazados y, en esa ocasi�n, uno de ellos le dio como presente la peque�a caja que conten�a el cabello del compositor.

Regina professor uses modern technology to shed light on dinosaur bones

University of Regina Professor Mauricio says the synchrotron helps scientists look at the interaction between bones and the surrounding environment and how outside minerals ended up in the bone.

REGINA—A University of Regina physics professor is using modern technology to examine some really old bones — and it all started with his child’s fascination with dinosaurs.

Mauricio Barbi is using a synchrotron to take a deeper look inside fossils. The machine can look for traces of the original elements that were in the animal while it was alive.

“If I can measure not only the chemistry, but the concentration of elements in bones, different bones, and I can associate that to the environment, maybe I’m going to be able to tell about . . . the impact of environment on those animals,” Barbi said recently in an interview with The Canadian Press.

X-ray emission cracks enzyme's mystery atom

Members of the research team, from left, Serena DeBeer, Michael Roemelt (University of Bonn) and Frank Neese (University of Bonn; Max Planck Institute for Bioinorganic Chemistry).

Like a shadowy character just hidden from view, a mystery atom in the middle of a complex enzyme called nitrogenase had long hindered scientists' ability to study the enzyme fully.

But now an international team of scientists led by Serena DeBeer, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, has pulled back the curtain using powerful synchrotron spectroscopy and computational modeling to reveal carbon as the once-elusive atom.

The research was published online Nov. 17 in the journal Science.

Light Sources Help Discover New Drug Against Melanoma

Deadly skin cancer faces a powerful new challenger thanks to Office of Science labs.

Representation of drug developed in part at SLAC at work against melanoma.

It was front page newsExternal link around the world: a drug designed to disrupt malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, was so successful in its latest round of testing in humans that the tests were halted – like an early-round knockout in boxing – so patients in the trial who were receiving other treatments could be moved to the new medicine.

A crucial part of the research for developing this new drug, called vemurafenib, took place at three DOE national laboratories: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A Berkeley-based drug-discovery company, Plexxikon, used the labs' powerful X-ray facilities, supported by DOE's Office of Science, to determine the precise structure of a mutated protein involved in this cancer – and potential drug candidates that could stop its spread.

Faster 3D nanoimaging a possibility with full colour synchrotron light

Researchers can now see objects more precisely and faster at the nanoscale due to utilising the full colour spectrum of synchrotron light, opening the way for faster 3D nanoimaging.

This new methodology will provide for enhanced nanoimaging for studying bio samples for medical research, improved drug development and advanced materials for engineering.

Using the Advanced Photon Source, a synchrotron facility in Chicago, USA, researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science (CXS), headquartered at the University of Melbourne, revealed that by utilizing the full spectrum of colours of the synchrotron, they increased the clarity of biological samples and obtained a 60-fold increase in the speed of imaging.

Professor Keith Nugent, Laureate Professor of Physics at the University of Melbourne and Research Director of CXS, said the discovery was an exciting development.