>*We spent many long nights at the Advanced Light Source, running on coffee, donuts and barbecued ribs from the legendary Everett & Jones BBQ in West Berkeley.* A very interesting historical reflection by Harry Noller entitled “By Ribosome Possessed” has just been published in JBC. It is his personal account of growing up in the…
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SIBYLS scientists have recently published and made available tools for generating [SAXS structural comparison maps](/saxs_similarity “SAXS structural comparison maps”). Details of the methods have been published in Nature Methods. >Biological macromolecular functions require distinct conformational states that are challenging to examine comprehensively. Current methods to quantify conformational similarities and distinguish different assembly states are underdeveloped.…
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Rob and John have a new review on SAXS and its application to systems biology published in the Annual Review of Biophysics. See if you can spot the musical theme. >Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a robust technique for the comprehensive structural characterizations of biological macromolecular complexes in solution. Here, we present a coherent synthesis…
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Rob Rambo and John Tainer describe new SAS metrics in a paper titled “Accurate assessment of mass, models and resolution by small-angle scattering.” The paper has been published in the journal Nature. > “In SAS imaging, beams of X-rays or neutrons sent through a sample produce tiny collisions between the X-rays or neutrons and nano-…
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A manuscript highlighting the technical capabilities of the SIBYLS beamline has been published in the Journal of Applied Crystallography: > The SIBYLS beamline (12.3.1) of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, supported by the US Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, is optimized for both small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS)…
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A recent IDAT [publication](http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S0909049512035571) from James, Chris, and Ken investigating the source of the point spread function in detectors using CCDs coupled fiber optic tapers. >The point-spread function (PSF) of a fiber-optic taper-coupled CCD area detector was measured over five decades of intensity using a 20 µm X-ray beam and 2000-fold averaging. The “tails” of…
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Hello DOMO users, [DOMO](http://bl1231.als.lbl.gov/domo/) is fairly robust, and is capable of handling your precious crystals mounted in a variety of bases: However, you must take some care when gluing or epoxying the pins into the bases. If there is too much glue or epoxy or you inadvertantly get some on the sides or bottom of…
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Summary of Options for Applying for Beamtime at the ALS 1. [RAPIDD](http://www-als.lbl.gov/index.php/component/content/article/701-rapidd-proposal-process.html) – a rapid access process, replaces the 2-month proposal system. SAXS proposals should use the RAPIDD system. MX applicants may apply for either RAPIDD or 6 Month Proposals. The aim is to provide quick turnaround. Proposals are fairly simple, requiring a one page…
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