ALSNews is a biweekly
electronic newsletter to keep users and other interested
parties informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source,
a national user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing
list, send your name and complete internet address to
ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content.
1. SOLVING THE RIBOSOME PUZZLE: After decades of effort, techniques for crystallizing ribosomes and analyzing their structures have
begun to yield rich dividends. Within the space of a month, several research groups recently
reported on the solution of ribosome structures. Among these, the results obtained at the ALS by
Harry Noller and his team from the University of California, Santa Cruz, stand apart. While other
groups focused on the component parts (subunits) of the ribosome, Noller's group looked at the
overall ribosome and how its parts fit together. About 2.5 million times more massive than a
hydrogen atom, these ribosomes are the largest asymmetric structures solved by crystallography to
date.
Read the full story at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/science/sci_archive/ribosome.html.
Publication about this research: Cate, J.H., M.M. Yusupov, G.Zh. Yusupova, T.N. Earnest, and
H.F. Noller, "X-ray crystal structures of 70S ribosome functional complexes," Science
285(5436), 2095-2104 (1999).
2. ALS WORK MAKES RUNNER UP FOR BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR
In its December 17 issue (Volume 286, Number 5448), Science Magazine announced its
assessment of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the past year, and work carried out at
the Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (MCF) at the ALS is noted among the runners up.
The recent advances in understanding the structure of the ribosome, featuring work conducted by
Cate et al. (see above) at the MCF, ranked fourth among the top ten science news stories of the
year. In addition, the MCF was also mentioned in a reference for the first runner up, the year's
many advances in genomics. The article about the runners up is currently available to subscribers
(including all computers on site at Berkeley Lab) on the Science Magazine Web site at
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/286/5448/2239.
3. ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE TO REQUIRE POWER OUTAGES DURING SHUTDOWN During the February/March shutdown of the ALS, electrical maintenance will be performed on the
ALS's power distribution system. Buildings and facilities that are supplied by the substation
located outside the southeast corner of Building 6 will have power interruptions lasting 4 to 8
hours. The times and durations of the outages will vary from location to location. The schedule
below shows the outages scheduled for the affected areas around the ALS. Where necessary, a
limited amount of temporary power can be made available on request, but the need must be
identified well in advance of the scheduled outage to allow installation of a temporary power
source. Contact Art Ritchie, ext. 4785, or George Ames, ext. 6837, for further details.
Previous Issues are available.
ALSNews Vol. 143 December 22, 1999
Table of Contents
1. Solving the Ribosome Puzzle
2. ALS Work Makes Runner Up for Breakthrough of the Year
3. Electrical Maintenance to Require Power Outages During Shutdown
4. Changes Made to ALS Access Procedure
5. ALSNews Starts New Year January 19 with New Editor
6. Who's in Town: A Sampling of ALS Users
7. Operations Update
Contact: harry@nuvolari.ucsc.edu)
By Lori Tamura
(Contact: ALRitchie@lbl.gov)
Date and Time Areas Affected
Tue. Feb. 29, 0700-1200 Booster rf, linac, BTS bend magnets,
BTS beamline, all storage-ring sectors
Tue. Feb. 29, 1200-1600 Storage-ring sectors 7, 8, 9, and 10
Wed. Mar. 01, 0700-1600 Booster rf, linac, BTS bend magnets,
BTS beamline, storage-ring sectors 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 11, and 12
Thu. Mar. 02, 0700-1600 Booster ring
Fri. Mar. 03, 0700-1200 Storage-ring rf power supply
Sat. Mar. 04, 0700-1600 Beamline experimental areas; Building 6
cranes, heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning; mezzanine offices and labs
Mon. Mar. 06, 0700-1600 All large storage-ring power supplies,
Power-supply maintenance area
Sat. Mar. 11, 0700-1600 Buildings 4, 5, 7, 14, 41, and 48.
4. CHANGES MADE TO ALS ACCESS PROCEDURE
(Contact: RCJones@lbl.gov)
ALS staff and users should all be familiar with the ALS Procedure "Access to the ALS (Building 6)." It is required reading for all ALS staff and users and outlines the visitor escort policy. The procedure was recently revised with regard to walking across the storage-ring shielding when the red beacons above the ring are flashing. The beacons flash whenever beam is being injected into the ring. Previously, the procedure read, "do not walk across the shielding when the red beacons flash." The revision reads, "do not linger when walking across the shielding when the beacons are flashing." The change comes as the result of an analysis by Ray Statam, the ALS's Radiological Control Technician, who has determined that the top of the shielding does not warrant being identified as a radiation area during injection. The procedure, in its entirety, may be accessed on site via the ALS Procedure Center Web site at http://alsintra.lbl.gov/procedures/pdf/hp/hp0201.pdf.
Questions regarding the new shielding policy or procedure may be directed to Ray Statam (ext. 6212) or to Rita Jones (ext. 7723) at the ALS Procedure Center.
5. ALSNEWS STARTS NEW YEAR JANUARY 19 WITH NEW EDITOR
The next issue of ALSNews will be published on January 19. We are skipping one issue because of the holiday shutdown. The first issue of the new year will bring an editorial change. With that issue, Lori Tamura will take over as ALSNews editor. Annette Greiner will be leaving ALSNews in order to devote more time to the ALS Web site and other projects. Inquiries and suggestions about ALSNews can be directed to Lori by email at alsnews@lbl.gov or by phone at (510) 486- 6172.
6. WHO'S IN TOWN: A SAMPLING OF ALS USERS
Following are some of the experimenters who will be collecting data during the next month at the ALS.
Beamline 1.4.1: Wei Shan, Eugene Haller (Berkeley Lab)
Beamline 1.4.2: Chris Weber, Joe Orenstein (Univ. of California, Berkeley) Sherry Zhang, Phil Ross (Berkeley Lab)
Beamline 1.4.3: Mary Kauffman (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory) Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab) Ron Simms, Karl Neiman (Utah State Univ.) Sherry Zhang, Phil Ross, (Berkeley Lab) Felicia Hendrickson, Bob Glaeser (Berkeley Lab)
Beamline 7.3.1.1 Eric Tober (Berkeley Lab) Gary Mitchell (Dow Chemical)
Beamline 9.0.2.3 Prof. Richard Bersohn (Columbia Univ.)
Beamline 10.3.1 Alexander Ziegler (Univ. of California, Berkeley) Marni Goldman (Berkeley Lab) Steve Cliff (Univ. of California, Davis) Tom Cahill (Univ. of California, Davis)
7. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: RMMiller@lbl.gov)
Beam reliability for the last two weeks (December 6 to 19) was 98% for user shifts. There were no significant outages. The ALS will shut down at midnight on the night of December 23 for the holidays. Startup will be on January 4, and user operations will resume on January 6.
Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www- als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bob Miller (RMMiller@lbl.gov, x4738) by 1:00 p.m. Friday. The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to- date information on the operational status of the accelerator.
ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your email address to ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content. Submissions are due the Friday before the issue date.
Editors: amgreiner@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, lstamura@lbl.gov
Last updated December 22, 1999
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