Sound, light sources and the thrill of glimpsing the future
Friday, March 1, 2013 - 09:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Scientific research is a process fraught with fits and starts, dead-ends, dashed dreams, unexpected turns, and the occasional exhilarating insight. As scientists, many of us continue along our career path in part because of those rare moments of joy felt when contributing to the frontiers of science. We experienced one of those rare moments this past January at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) X25 beamline, when we successfully tested a new method to collect data from protein crystals—by using sound waves to eject the crystals through the air into an X-ray beam.