ALSNews is a biweekly
electronic newsletter to keep users and other interested
parties informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source,
a national user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing
list, send your name and complete internet address to
ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content.
1. ZOOMING IN ON RIBOSOMES
The structure of the ribosome—the site for the crucial process of turning genetic code into functional proteins—is coming into focus, and the work has been advanced considerably by a team from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Working at the Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (MCF) at the ALS (Beamline 5.0.2), this team has determined the structure of the ribosome with bound messenger RNA (mRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA) at 5.5-Å resolution. This work builds on the group's previous efforts at the MCF, in which they solved the structure to 7.8 Å. Among the new observations is structural evidence that the two main parts of the ribosome (the 30S and 50S subunits) move relative to each other during protein synthesis. The new view also offers insight into how the ribosome interacts with tRNA.
Read the full story at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/science/sci_archive/45ribosome.html.
Publication about this research: M.M. Yusupov, G.Zh. Yusupova, A. Baucom, K. Lieberman, T.N. Earnest, J.H.D. Cate, and H. F. Noller, "Crystal Structure of the Ribosome at 5.5 Angstrom Resolution," Science 292, 883 (2001).
2. SUPERBEND MILESTONE: BEAM STORED SUCCESSFULLY
At 1:00 a.m. on Friday, August 31, the ALS storage ring held a beam of electrons for the first time with three superbend magnets in place. This milestone in ALS history occurred just hours after the superbend project entered the commissioning phase and only five minutes after the first injection attempt. An hour later, the current in the storage ring was increased to 100 mA (current limited by vacuum) at 1.5 GeV. By Friday afternoon, the energy was ramped to 1.9 GeV, and by Wednesday, September 5, the current reached 400 mA at 1.9 GeV.
Teams of accelerator physicists, engineers, and operators have been working around the clock to test and characterize the machine performance with the superbends in action. The Accelerator Physics Group reports that, so far, the injection rate and beam orbit stability are the same as they were before the shutdown. Also, the dynamic properties (dynamic aperture and momentum acceptance) are similar to what they were before, indicating that, once the vacuum improves, the presence of the superbends should not have a negative impact on beam lifetime. Initial values of the horizontal emittance and coupling look reasonable as well. The bottom line, according to Accelerator Physics Group Leader David Robin, is that, although there is a lot of work still ahead, commissioning is going remarkably well and is progressing faster than expected.
3. USERS' MEETING ABSTRACT INITIAL DEADLINE EXTENDED
All ALS users, staff, students, and postdocs now have until Thursday, September 13, to submit abstracts of their recent work to be considered for an oral presentation and/or the student poster competition at this year's ALS Users' Meeting. From this pool of abstracts, the meeting's Program Committee will select several for oral presentations during the Young Researchers session on Monday, October 15. The student poster competition will be judged during the general poster session on Tuesday, October 16. Awards for the student posters will be presented during the Tuesday evening dinner. For more information about abstract submissions and forms, see the Abstract Submissions Web page at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/abstracts.html.
4. CALL FOR ALS USERS' MEETING AWARD NOMINATIONS
Each year, the ALS Users' Executive Committee (UEC) presents awards to scientists and staff who have made significant contributions to the ALS scientific and user support programs. This year, the UEC invites ALS users and staff to submit nominations for any or all of the following awards:
5. CONGRATULATIONS TO FIRST ALS FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS
The ALS is extremely pleased to announce the first five recipients of ALS Doctoral Fellowships: Alejandro Aguilar, Henry Chong, Steven Johnson, Cynthia Morin, and Kevin Wilson. These exceptional Ph.D. students have been selected to perform a major part of their thesis work at the ALS during a one-year appointment covering the 2001-2002 academic year. Alejandro Aguilar (Univ. of Nevada, Reno) will be developing ion spectroscopy capabilities at Beamline 10.0.1. Henry Chong (Univ. of California, Berkeley) plans to do femtosecond x-ray spectroscopy with a slicing source at Beamline 5.3.1, and Steven Johnson (Univ. of California, Berkeley) will also perform femtosecond x-ray spectroscopy experiments, but with a streak camera at both Beamlines 5.3.1 and 7.3.3. Cynthia Morin (McMaster Univ., Canada) will be characterizing protein interactions with biomaterials at Beamlines 7.0.1 and 5.3.2. Kevin Wilson (Univ. of California, Berkeley) will perform x-ray spectroscopy experiments on liquid microjets at Beamlines 8.0.1 and 9.3.2. Congratulations to all five! The selection committee consisted of Harald Ade, David Attwood, Steve Kevan, and Neville Smith. Detailed information about the fellowships, along with links to frequently asked questions and the application form, can be found at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/fellowships/index.html.
6. REMINDER: USER PUBLICATIONS DUE SEPTEMBER 21
If you have recently published any ALS-related work in a scientific journal, conference proceedings, or Ph.D. thesis, please let us know (if you haven't already) by going to the User Services Online Forms Web page at http://alsusweb.lbl.gov. Click on the "Publications Search & Submittal" link. Please DO NOT submit unpublished talks; abstracts; or journal articles that are still "submitted," "accepted," or "in press." The deadline for this year is September 21, 2001. Your timely response will be greatly appreciated, as it is imperative that we accurately report the number of ALS-related publications, an important measure of the good science being done at this facility.
Because a majority of the ALS's editorial staff will be on travel to a conference for most of the week leading up to the next scheduled issue, we have decided to delay publication of ALSNews by one week. The next issue will be distributed three weeks from today, on October 3.
The ALS is currently in a planned shutdown for installations and maintenance. User operations are scheduled to resume at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 4, 2001.
Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bruce Samuelson (BCSamuelson@lbl.gov, x4738) by 1:00 p.m. Friday. The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to-date information on the operational status of the accelerator.
LBNL/PUB-848
This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.
Previous Issues are available.
ALSNews Vol. 184 September 12, 2001
Table of Contents
1. Zooming in on Ribosomes
2. Superbend Milestone: Beam Stored Successfully
3. Users' Meeting Abstract Initial Deadline Extended
4. Call for ALS Users' Meeting Award Nominations
5. Congratulations to First ALS Fellowship Recipients
6. Reminder: User Publications Due September 21
7. Next Issue: October 3
8. Operations Update
by Annette Greiner
(Contact: harry@nuvolari.ucsc.edu)
(Contact: CSteier@lbl.gov)
(Contact: alsum2001@lbl.gov)
The nominations may be for an individual or a group, and a brief rationale for the nomination(s) is required. Past award winners, along with a representative from the UEC and the ALS, will serve on the award selection committees. To submit a nomination, go to the 2001 ALS Users' Meeting Award Nominations Web page at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/awards/nominations.html. The deadline for nominations is Monday, October 1. The awards will be presented at the ALS Users' Meeting dinner/buffet on Tuesday, October 16.
(Contact: ZHussain@lbl.gov)
(Contact: alsuser@lbl.gov)
ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users informed about
developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of
California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your email address to
ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content. Submissions
are due the Friday before the issue date.
Editors: lstamura@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, amgreiner@lbl.gov, ejmoxon@lbl.gov
Last updated September 12, 2001
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