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:

Newly painted floor at 501!

The robot dewars have been taken off of 502 and 503 in order to replace the motors and perform maintenance on the stages.

Anthony installed the first pin base warmer on 5.0.2 today. We have to wait until the ALS has LN restored before we can test it. One thing to note: the people we spoke to at NE-CAT about their pin base warmer told us that it does not actually solve the icing issue completely. They still do see pins move on the goniometer after mounting. Hopefully the warmer will help a bit, though!

Marc collected a lysozyme dataset with the new Pilatus 6M detector. All modules are good.

The new Pilatus3 6M detector has arrived and is on the optical bench at 5.0.2, ready for testing tomorrow when we get light!

A special welcome to our SULI student, Sayan Roychowhury, who is majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Illinois. He is here with us for the fall term, and writing code to process visual images of protein crystals and center them automatically in the x-ray beam. SULI is the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program in which the host lab (in this case, LBNL) pays for a student to work for a few months to gain experience at a national lab and to encourage students to remain in STEM fields.

The compact dynamic beamstop (formerly known as the diode beamstop) has been announced as a finalist for this years R&D100 award! Simon Morton and Diane Bryant are invited to the Awards Banquet in Washington DC later this year.

Several BCSB staff teamed up with other ALS beamline scientists to represent the ALS at this year’s American Crystallographic Association meeting in Denver. In the picture are from left to right: Christine Beavers, Simon Morton, Diane Bryant, Stacey Ortega, Jay Nix, Corie Ralston: