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Tiny microbes and molecular machines have an outsized impact on human health, and they play key roles in the vast global cycles that shape climate and make carbon and nitrogen available to all living things. 

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Science of life

This illustration shows arrestin, an important type of signaling protein

News Feature

Scientists developed a new method to unlock the secrets of RNA. The implications are wide-reaching, from better understanding diseases to designing new therapeutics. 

CXI hutch
News Feature

Peter Dahlberg has combined two complex imaging techniques into one. The 2021 Panofsky Fellow adds cryo-ET and biosensors to fluorescence microscopy to give context...

A green, red and blue outline encloses small yellow dots and orange circles, representing parts of a cell.
Press Release

With up to a million X-ray flashes per second, 8,000 times more than its predecessor, it transforms the ability of scientists to explore atomic-scale...

LCLS-II first light
News Brief

They aim to help society respond ten times faster with treatments for future disease outbreaks.

This is a portrait photograph of SSRL scientist Aina Cohen.
News Feature

In our rapidly changing world, plants must adapt to new environments or die. Ritimukta Sarangi discusses how researchers and users at SSRL are tackling...

A graphic illustrating a plant and the many kinds of interactions it has with its environment.
News Feature

Bringing ultrafast physics to structural biology has revealed the coordinated dance of molecules in unprecedented clarity, which could aid in the design of new...

molecular control
News Feature

The results should further our understanding of similar reactions with vital roles in chemistry, such as the production of vitamin D in our bodies.

UED transition state
Press Release

After decades of effort, scientists have finally seen the process by which nature creates the oxygen we breathe using SLAC’s X-ray laser.

Photosystem II
Press Release

Researchers used cryo-EM (left) to discover how a chamber in human cells (right) directs protein folding. 

A pom-pom like object with curly tangles in purple and blue shades and yellow tangles at center, reminiscent of a zinnia blossom.
News Brief

His work has led to new treatments for advanced lung cancer and a better understanding of dangerous parasites.

Blaine Mooers
News Brief

The protein could play a key role in soil carbon cycling and soil decomposition.

A three-dimensional structure of the soil virus AMG product, an enzyme known as a chitosanase.
News Brief

Fan’s X-ray crystallography work at SLAC’s synchrotron moves us closer to a more protective coronavirus vaccine and a better understanding of how vital materials...

Fan wins this year's Klein award from SSRL.