MAX IV is a fourth-generation, or diffraction-limited, synchrotron light source with a number of state-of-the-art beamlines. The performance of a beamline is, to a high degree, set by the energy resolution it can achieve, which in turn is governed to a large extent by the monochromator. During the design phase of a monochromator, the mechanical requirements must be fully understood and met with margin. During commissioning, the performance must be verified and optimized. In this paper, six soft X-ray monochromators at MAX IV beamlines (Bloch, Veritas, HIPPIE, SPECIES, FinEstBeAMS and SoftiMAX) are examined with a focus on their resolving power, energy range and the time required to change measurement range, as those parameters are dependent on each other. The monochromators have a modern commercial design, planned and developed in close collaboration with the vendors. This paper aims to present the current status of the commissioning at MAX IV with emphasis on elucidating the mechanical limitations on the performance of the monochromators. It contains analysis of the outcome and our approach to achieve fast and high-resolution monochromators.

Mammalian Munc18 proteins are essential for membrane fusion and human health. Here, we review the literature describing structural and in vitro data, and identify a possible explanation for the conflicting functional roles that have been reported.

Leading scientists set out resource challenge of meeting net zero emissions in the UK by 2050  The Natural History Museum

British Geological Survey submits application for geoenergy observatory in Cheshire  ThinkGeoEnergy

Geoenergy Observatory to go ahead in Cheshire  The Engineer

The title compound, C24H18FNO3, crystallizes in the monoclinic centrosymmetric space group P21/n and its mol­ecular conformation is stabilized via C—H⋯O intra­molecular inter­actions. The supra­molecular network mainly comprises C—H⋯O, C—H⋯F and C—H⋯π inter­actions, which contribute towards the formation of the crystal structure. The different inter­molecular inter­actions have been further analysed via Hirshfeld surface analysis and fingerprint plots.

In fungi, the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes (complexes I–IV) are responsible for oxidative phosphorylation, as in higher eukaryotes. Cryo-EM was used to identify a 200 kDa membrane protein from Neurospora crassa in lipid nanodiscs as cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV) and its structure was determined at 5.5 Å resolution. The map closely resembles the cryo-EM structure of complex IV from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Its ten subunits are conserved in S. cerevisiae and Bos taurus, but other transmembrane subunits are missing. The different structure of the Cox5a subunit is typical for fungal complex IV and may affect the interaction with complex III in a respiratory supercomplex. Additional density was found between the matrix domains of the Cox4 and Cox5a subunits that appears to be specific to N. crassa.

This paper recounts the first successful cryo-cooling of protein crystals that demonstrated the reduction in X-ray damage to macromolecular crystals. The project was suggested by David C. Phillips in 1965 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain and continued in 1967 at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where the first cryo-cooling experiments were performed on lysozyme crystals, and was completed in 1969 at Purdue University on lactate dehydrogenase crystals. A 1970 publication in Acta Crystallographica described the cryo-procedures, the use of cryo-protectants to prevent ice formation, the importance of fast, isotropic cryo-cooling and the collection of analytical data showing more than a tenfold decrease in radiation damage in cryo-cooled lactate dehydrogenase crystals. This was the first demonstration of any method that reduced radiation damage in protein crystals, which provided crystallographers with suitable means to employ synchrotron X-ray sources for protein-crystal analysis. Today, fifty years later, more than 90% of the crystal structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank have been cryo-cooled.

Atrazine is an s-triazine-based herbicide that is used in many countries around the world in many millions of tons per year. A small number of organisms, such as Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP, have evolved to use this modified s-triazine as a food source, and the various genes required to metabolize atrazine can be found on a single plasmid. The atomic structures of seven of the eight proteins involved in the breakdown of atrazine by Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP have been determined by X-ray crystallography, but the structures of the proteins required by the cell to import atrazine for use as an energy source are still lacking. The structure of AtzT, a periplasmic binding protein that may be involved in the transport of a derivative of atrazine, 2-hydroxyatrazine, into the cell for mineralization, has now been determined. The structure was determined by SAD phasing using an ethylmercury phosphate derivative that diffracted X-rays to beyond 1.9 Å resolution. `Native' (guanine-bound) and 2-hydroxyatrazine-bound structures were also determined to high resolution (1.67 and 1.65 Å, respectively), showing that 2-hydroxyatrazine binds in a similar way to the purportedly native ligand. Structural similarities led to the belief that it may be possible to evolve AtzT from a purine-binding protein to a protein that can bind and detect atrazine in the environment.

A method for reconstructing the three-dimensional grain structure from data collected with a recently introduced laboratory-based X-ray diffraction contrast tomography system is presented. Diffraction contrast patterns are recorded in Laue-focusing geometry. The diffraction geometry exposes shape information within recorded diffraction spots. In order to yield the three-dimensional crystallographic microstructure, diffraction spots are extracted and fed into a reconstruction scheme. The scheme successively traverses and refines solution space until a reasonable reconstruction is reached. This unique reconstruction approach produces results efficiently and fast for well suited samples.

A recent study of dog bones excavated from archaeological sites on the Channel Islands of California has cast new light on the past ecology of the islands and the impact that domestic dogs--brought to the islands by Native Americans more than 6,000 years ago—may have once had on the islands’ animals and ecosystems.

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Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution examined the feather remains from the Jan. 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 bird strike to determine not only the species, but also that the Canada geese involved were from a migratory, rather than resident, population. This knowledge is essential for wildlife professionals to develop policies and techniques that will reduce the risk of future collisions. The team’s findings were published in the journal “Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment” in June.

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In southeastern Greenland, two rivers of ice named Helheim and Kangerdlugssuaq flow in spurts and starts toward the coast. They are much like any other […]

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The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has opened a new Public Observatory that contains a 16-inch, 3,000-pound Boller and Chivens telescope, on loan from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Through this powerful telescope, museum visitors can now observe the sun (with a special filter), the moon and the brighter stars and planets, such as Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, during daylight hours. Funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.

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A major new exhibition hall dedicated to the discovery and understanding of human origins will open next year at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History: The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins

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For the first time in its history, the National Zoo has bred strawberry dart frogs (Oophaga pumilio), which are known primarily for their vibrant colors and poisonous skin. These frogs also stand out among others because of their dedication to their young as they undergo metamorphosis from egg to tadpole to frog.

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Birds do it. Bees do it. And in a laboratory in northern California, scientists using bumblebees recently figured out the best way to measure it--vertical lift!

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The Stephen L. Wood collection brings the collection of bark beetles held in the Natural History Museum’s Department of Entomology to an impressive 180,000 specimens, making it one of the most extensive collections in world.

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Unless action is taken now, coral reefs and many of the animals that depend on them may cease to exist within the next 40 years, causing the first global extinction of a worldwide ecosystem during current history.

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Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found evidence of the youngest black hole known to exist in our cosmic neighborhood. The 30-year-old object is a remnant of SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy M100 approximately 50 million light years from Earth.

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The Scarlet Knight, as the glider is called, made nautical history as the first submersible glider to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean.

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A. sediba was discovered in 2008 in the Malapa Cave at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site located outside Johannesburg.

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A study published in the journal Global Change Biology finds that while fertilizer has been the dominant source of nitrogen pollution in Caribbean coastal ecosystems for the past 50 years, such pollution is on the decline, thanks in part to the introduction of more advanced, environmentally responsible agricultural practices during the last decade.

The post National Museum of Natural History’s coral collection used in Caribbean agricultural and sewage pollution study appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and partnering organizations will build a frozen repository of Great Barrier Reef coral sperm and embryonic cells. Genetic banks composed of frozen biomaterials hold strong promise for basic and applied research and conservation of species and genetic variation.

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A local supernova factory has recently started production, according to a wealth of new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory on the Carina Nebula.

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Using the deepest X-ray image ever taken, astronomers found the first direct evidence that massive black holes were common in the early universe. This discovery from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows that very young black holes grew more aggressively than previously thought, in tandem with the growth of their host galaxies.

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The 5.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the eastern United States on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 23, caused minor damage to some of the Smithsonian's natural history collections. All public Smithsonian museums are open and have been determined safe for visitors and staff.

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The fossil represents the youngest nodosaur ever discovered, and the only known specimen of a new genus and species of dinosaur that lived approximately 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Era.

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History and geology, not current ecology, are likely what has made tropical forests so variable from site to site.

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Astronomers are confident the Cygnus X-1 system contains a black hole, and with these latest studies they have remarkably precise values of its mass, spin, and distance from Earth.

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Researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and other partnering organizations spent two weeks at the end of November collecting sperm and embryonic cells during spawning from two species of coral and have built the first frozen repository for the Great Barrier Reef.

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The fastest wind ever discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole has been observed by a team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

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The National Museum of Natural History will construct a new dinosaur exhibition hall made possible by a $35 million donation from David H. Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries and philanthropist.

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stronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to find evidence our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years.

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The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory has been awarded a NASA project to build the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument. TEMPO will measure North American air pollution, from Mexico City to the Canadian tar/oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hourly and at high spatial resolution.

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New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a highly distorted supernova remnant (shown here) may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy.

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Small migratory male birds that winter in a stressful environment age faster than those that winter in a high-quality habitat, according to research stemming from […]

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Rope, golf balls, sweat pants, bottles and aluminum cans are a few of the discarded items biologist Matt Klope says he has found inside the […]

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Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered an unprecedented bonanza of black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the nearest galaxies […]

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The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum announced that it will receive a $6 million donation from the Thomas W. Haas Foundation to establish an […]

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Hopes are high for Comet ISON, which has the potential to become the most spectacular comet seen in years. ISON is speeding through the inner […]

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Fifteen years ago, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Since its deployment on July 23, 1999, Chandra has […]

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New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory offer a glimpse into the environment of a star before it exploded earlier this year, and insight into […]

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Before iPhones and laptops there were human computers, some of whom worked at the Harvard College Observatory. Women like Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Williamina Fleming, and […]

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Tucked in the shadow of the towering Skylab exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, there’s an inferno raging. Lucky for all of […]

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Researchers who examined thousands of migratory birds arriving in the United States from Central and South America have determined that three percent carry ticks species […]

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In 1935, 101 cane toads from Hawaii were set loose in Australia to help control beetles that were decimating the Australian sugar crop. But instead […]

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With its homely featherless head, undertaker’s charcoal coloring and association with death and decay, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) tops few lists as a favorite […]

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When “2001: A Space Odyssey” premiered April 2, 1968 at Washington, D.C.’s Uptown Theater—not far from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum—not everyone was […]

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Warner’s narrative covers the major natural sweeteners, including sugar, molasses from cane, beet sugar, corn syrup, honey and maple, as well as artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame and sucralose.

The post New Book: “Sweet Stuff: An American History of Sweeteners from Sugar to Sucralose” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.