CHESS eNews #45

From the Associate Director

While many of our users are busy, as are our scientists, analyzing and presenting results at summer conferences and workshops, the CHESS technical and engineering staff are tearing down and rebuilding whole sections of the lab as part of the CHESS-U upgrade project and preparations for it. See the article by Katie Moring for some impressive pictures. On a much smaller scale, don't miss an article by Jeney Wierman about the testing of compound refractive lenses (CRLs) for microbeam experiments, in her case applied to serial crystallography and BioSAXS. We're confident that as the CHESS x-ray source size gets smaller, CRLs will become even more efficient and desirable for many research needs. And lastly, besides some good science reports, read about the workshops hosted at the CHESS Users' Meeting in biology and engineering, as well as an x-ray fluorescence tutorial for high school teachers. Enjoy the rest of your summer...

2017 X-RAY RUNS

                     November 1 - December 21 (Proposals/BTRs due 9/1/17)

JOB OPENINGS

CHESS imaging reveals how copper affects plant fertility

Technological advances making it possible to image micronutrients in plant tissues are giving Cornell scientists additional tools to develop crops that thrive in marginal soils... more »

High-tech x-ray spots unusual element in ancient manuscript

Using extremely high-tech X-ray fluorescence, researchers at Cornell University have detected an unexpected trace element in manuscript pages dating back to the 13th to 16th centuries... more »

Energy-efficient accelerator was 50 years in the making

Cornell University and Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists are following up on the concept of energy-recovering particle accelerators first introduced by physicist Maury Tigner more than 50 years ago... more »

Focusing on microbeam: Initial installment of CRLs at CHESS

A great challenge at many x-ray beamlines is to direct x-rays into in a very small, very clean footprint while maintaining high photon flux. This is especially important when illuminating very small samples... more »

The 2017 CHESS Users' Meeting and Science Workshops

Unlike most years, this year there are unusual external forces shaping the CHESS running schedule and planning for the CHESS future... more »

Summer projects heat up in Wilson Lab

Staff in Wilson Lab have been very busy during our summer break from User Operations. This is a time when we focus on maintenance of the synchrotron and CESR, upgrading systems and equipment, and preparing for CHESS-U... more »

X-ray Fluorescence Workshop for high school science teachers and educators

As part of Xraise's initiative to provide high school teachers and educators with state of the art technology to use in their classroom, the outreach group has acquired two Bruker handheld x-ray fluorescence... more »