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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

SLAC and Stanford researchers are developing a device that combines electrical brain stimulation with EEG recording, opening potential new paths for treating neurological disorders.

Neurostimulation
News Feature

The X-ray laser movie shows what happens when light hits retinal, a key part of vision in animals and photosynthesis in microbes. The action...

An image of San Francisco Bay salt ponds from space
Illustration
An artist’s depiction of a tiny pore in the crystalline shell of an ammonia-eating archaea microbe; surrounding proteins are shown...
Artist's depiction of a tiny pore in an archaea's crystalline shell
News Feature

Tiny pores in the shells of archaea microbes attract ammonium ions that are their sole source of energy, allowing them to thrive where this...

Artist's depiction of a tiny pore in an archaea's crystalline shell
News Feature

The researchers observed how an enzyme from drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria damages an antibiotic molecule. The new technique provides a powerful tool to examine changes...

Photo - CXI instrument at LCLS
News Feature

The National Institutes of Health center on the SLAC campus will make this revolutionary technology available to scientists nationwide and teach them how to...

Cryo-EM image of a proton pump involved in maintaining bone
News Feature

By placing the tiniest strands of proteins on one-atom-thick graphene, scientists capture promising X-ray laser images of these elusive biomolecules that play a key...

Illustration of amyloid fibrils on graphene
Press Release

The new facility provides revolutionary tools for exploring tiny biological machines, from viral particles to the interior of the cell.

SLAC-Stanford Cryo-EM Facility
News Feature

The staff scientist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource discusses his research and teaching, which includes training an international group of students to conduct...

Aerial view of University of Southern California’s Wrigley Marine Science Center
News Feature

Biochemical 'action shots' with SLAC’s X-ray laser could help scientists develop synthetic enzymes for medicine and answer fundamental questions about how enzymes change during...

SLAC associate staff scientist Thomas Joseph Lane at the Coherent X-Ray Imaging instrument
News Feature

With SLAC’s X-ray laser, a research team captured ultrafast changes in fluorescent proteins between “dark” and “light” states. The insights allowed the scientists to...

Aequorea victoria, a bioluminescent jellyfish
News Feature

The Scripps researcher is honored for groundbreaking research at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource that accelerated the development of a vaccine for deadly Lassa...

Photo - Kathryn Hastie, staff scientist at The Scripps Research Institute