It turns out there is a small cyclotron at LBNL! It is used to produce medical isotopes used for PET scans. Some of the BCSB staff were lucky enough to be invited on a tour of the cyclotron, which is in building 56, not too far away from our more familiar synchrotron in building 6.
From July 2017 to May 2018, the BCSB received (and shipped back after beamtime) 758 dewars. Most of these were handled by Anthony. Wow!
The Advanced Light Source is planning a major upgrade, which will result in brighter, more coherent beams. The upgrade will occur in 4-5 years, and so now is the time for the biosciences community to define our vision of synchrotron capabilites for biosciences (scattering, diffraction, tomography and IR methods) in the years to come, and…
After our last PRT meeting on Nov 4, Steve Rossi took a group on a tour inside the ALS ring to point out the future site of the Gemini insertion device. This month and next are a great time to visit the ALS, since the ring tunnel is open and available for touring.
Sadly, today was Charlie Eigenbrot’s last PRT meeting, since he is retiring from Genentech in June. We will miss him! (But we do hope we comes back to visit us periodically at the synchrotron)
We measured the temperature at the sample during warming of the pin base, and preliminary tests so far show that the heat is not transferred to the loop during two minutes of base warming. Tests are continuing now to determine how well the warmer removes ice and frost from the bases.
Images of a crystal in a loop before and after using the pin base warmer:
We held a jelly bean counting contest at our booth at the ACA. Matt Clifton of Nurix was the winner. Good job, Matt!
