Chi-Chang's Corner

NSLS Ribosome Research Leads to Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 8, 2009

Chi-Chang Kao
NSLS Department Chair
kao@bnl.gov

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We found out today that the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is partially a result of research conducted at the NSLS. Venki Ramakrishnan, a former employee in Brookhaven's biology department and long-time user of the NSLS, now at Cambridge University, and Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University, also a long-time NSLS user, share the prize with Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science for their work on the structure and function of the ribosome. In the late 1990s, Ramakrishnan and Steitz used protein crystallography at the NSLS to gather atomic-level images of two ribosome subunits: 30S (Ramakrishnan) and 50S (Steitz). Both laureates solved the high-resolution structures for these subunits based on this data. I'd like to send a huge congratulations their way.

Nominations are being sought for the new Light Sources Directorate Science Advisory Committee (SAC), which will replace the NSLS Science Advisory Committee and the NSLS-II Experimental Facilities Advisory Committee. I'd like to thank the members of the NSLS SAC for their time and valuable advice through the years. We've now reached a point, though, where there is the need for one committee to oversee all of the Light Source Directorate's work. The new SAC will provide advice on all scientific and policy issues related to the utilization of the NSLS and NSLS-II and on future developments required to achieve the highest possible scientific productivity of the two facilities. Please send your recommendations to Steve Dierker, Associate Laboratory Director for Light Sources, at dieker@bnl.gov. You can find the charter for the new SAC here.

We've participated in and hosted a number of important workshops and conferences recently. In mid-September, there was a large BNL presence at a workshop on "Accelerator Physics of Future Light Sources" in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The workshop, hosted by DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES), gave the status of existing light sources (including energy recovery linacs, free electron lasers, laser-based sources, and storage rings) and identified accelerator physics issues that will require R&D to enable future light sources. The NSLS was represented by Yoshiteru Hidaka, Pete Siddons, and Jim Murphy, who co-chaired a session on free electron lasers. The workshop included both plenary sessions and working groups, and numerous innovative ideas were generated. The outcomes will be summarized in four peer-reviewed papers in Nuclear Instruments & Methods A early next year.

DOE's BES also hosted another meeting recently for the synchrotron and neutron user facility directors. Much of the focus was on increasing the usage of DOE facilities by industrial researchers. Issues including user agreements, proprietary research, fee for service, better reporting of publications, and funding were discussed. This is an issue the NSLS has devoted a lot of effort to lately, and we will begin to implement changes in our user access policy in the coming months to lower the barrier for industrial researchers.

In late September, more than 50 materials science experts gathered at Brookhaven for a workshop on the characterization of advanced materials under extreme environments for next-generation energy systems. Hosted by the Joint Photon Sciences Institute, the NSLS, NSLS-II, the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, and the Energy Sciences & Technology Department, the workshop exposed participants to the scientific opportunities at the NSLS today as well as those that will be available at NSLS-II in the near future. Most importantly, participants learned how synchrotrons can provide the capability to collect structural and chemical information on the mesoscopic scale, an ability that will help bridge our understanding of the atomic world and the one in which we live.

I am happy to report that this month we met a significant safety commitment to inspect and evaluate electrical equipment at the NSLS. During the past five years, a group of NSLS staff designated as Electrical Equipment Inspectors (EEIs) worked hard to locate, identify, and inspect thousands of electrical items at the facility to assure that they are safe to operate. Most were found to be acceptable, but some needed attention. This effort provided valuable information, allowed us to mitigate potential hazards, and, perhaps, steered us clear of an incident. I am grateful for the efforts of our inspectors and those who helped organize this project and I want to thank everyone who helped us meet this requirement on time. The project is not complete; new items that come to the NSLS through facility purchases or as part of an experiment also must be inspected before being placed into service, so I expect that our EEIs will stay busy. Please continue help them meet this ongoing need.

Finally, a team of international researchers revealed the chemical composition and structure of a self-assembling, copper-manganese diffusion barrier - a layer that's needed to separate the copper metallic lines that connect the various components in an electronic device from the silicon-based insulating material. They discovered that this layer is relatively easy to form on a material with a low dielectric constant - which has a lower ability to hold charge - but substantially more difficult to form on a material with a higher dielectric constant. This information is vital to producing smaller, cheaper, and faster devices. You can read more in this edition of eNews.