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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

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Toward next-generation electronics, better medications and green energy solutions: "The First Five Years" point to a bright future of high-impact discovery at LCLS.

Press Release

A new study with the LCLS X-ray laser could change the way researchers take atomic-level snapshots of important biological machineries, potentially affecting research in...

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VIA SLAC Flickr

MFX First Light

For the first time in three years, LCLS has added a new instrument to its set of experimental stations. See photos of the brand...

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Ian Wilson explains how scientists have found a way to induce antibodies to fight a range of influenza viruses, which could some day eliminate...

News Feature

Researchers at SLAC have found a simple new way to study very delicate biological samples – like proteins at work in photosynthesis and components...

News Feature

X-ray research on 80-million-year-old fossilized burrows, likely the work of tiny marine worms, is helping scientists understand how living organisms affected the chemistry of...

Image - This marine worm, commonly known as a ragworm, can grow up to 4 inches in length. It is part of a class of worms known as polychaetes. A far smaller variety of polychaetes was likely responsible for creating ancient burrows studied at SLAC.
News Feature

A tiny change in the length of a chemical bond makes a big difference in the activity of a molecule important in health, drug...

Image - Courtney Krest Roach (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
News Feature

Using SLAC's X-ray laser, researchers have for the first time directly observed myoglobin move within quadrillionths of a second after a bond breaks and...

Image - Ilme Schlichting (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
News Feature

Visit the immersive Nobel Labs 360 website about Kobilka, including an interactive tour of his work at SSRL. To find the SSRL section, click...

News Feature

A major international effort at SLAC is focused on improving our views of intact viruses, living bacteria and other tiny samples using the brightest...

Researchers monitor the performance of a single particle imaging experiment
News Feature

Graham George and Ingrid Pickering, a husband and wife X-ray research team, are co-leading a new study in Bangladesh to test whether selenium supplements...

Image - Ingrid Pickering and Graham George, a husband-and-wife X-ray research team, stand next to the controls of SSRL Beam Line 7-3 during a research sabbatical at SLAC. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Press Release

A biomedical breakthrough reveals never-before-seen details of the human body’s cellular switchboard that regulates sensory and hormonal responses.

 Illustration shows arrestin (yellow), an important type of signaling protein, while docked with rhodopsin (orange).