Before conducting research at the Advanced Photon Source, researchers weren’t sure how the promising drug elesclomol delivered copper to cells. The facility’s bright X-rays revealed the answer.
Many of the Argonne employees who signed the magnet in 1994 still work for the laboratory, and their experiences building the original APS are vital to the ongoing effort to upgrade the facility.
With the start of the construction period, the Advanced Photon Source is now only a year away from re-emerging as a world-leading X-ray light source. Its brighter beams will lead to new discoveries in energy storage, materials science, medicine and more.
This team-up is paying dividends now, but it points to the future: an upgraded APS and an even newer supercomputer called Aurora, which will transform science at Argonne.
Argonne’s Aurora supercomputer and upgraded Advanced Photon Source will be powerful tools for discovery. Together, they’ll form a scientific supermerger: The combined data collection and computing power will advance discovery time and unlock new science.
Poxviruses are many and unpleasant, and they have an impressive ability to evade or deceive human immune responses. Scientists using the Advanced Photon Source want to outsmart them.
As part of a massive upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source (APS), scientists studying the “chemical map” of samples will have better proximity to colleagues, improved research tools and state-of-the-art facilities.
At the APS Upgrade’s offsite facility, powerful magnets and other components are being assembled in preparation for the year-long installation period beginning in April 2023.
The technology housed in the new Long Beamline Building will lead to more efficient solar cells, longer-lasting batteries, more durable materials for airplanes and much more.
Prototypes of new superconducting magnets for the upgraded Advanced Photon Source were successfully lowered to their operating temperatures, far below freezing. These new magnets will help the APS generate more powerful X-rays more efficiently.
To provide X-ray beams that are both very bright and very tightly focused, an Argonne team had to create a new system of mirrors, lenses and equipment for the upgraded Advanced Photon Source.
Construction continues one year after the groundbreaking ceremony for a new building that will house cutting-edge experiments in many fields of science.
In a recent practice session, workers assembled the first of what will be 200 modules of magnets that will be installed in the upgraded Advanced Photon Source. (See photo gallery below.)
The two new beamlines will be constructed as part of a comprehensive upgrade of the APS, enhancing its capabilities and maintaining its status as a world-leading facility for X-ray science.
From chemistry to materials science to COVID-19 research, the APS is one of the most productive X-ray light sources in the world. An upgrade will make it a global leader among the next generation of light sources, opening new frontiers in science.
The upgrade of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory will make it between 100 and 1,000 times brighter than it is today.
