Microfluidic mixing chips are used by scientists to analyze biological molecules. They have small channels in which biological solutions, usually solutions of protein, are mixed. Biological small angle x-ray solution scattering (BioSAXS) is then used to study how these biomolecules change under different conditions, for example when they mix with hormones and drugs or when they interact with other biomolecules. These observations can help further our understanding of how cells function.

Our 8^th BioSAXS Essentials training workshop drew a wide-ranging and enthusiastic crowd of 36 students, including 6 from University of Puerto Rico, 1 from Korea, 2 from Estonia and 1 from Canada. About half of the students had never collected data at a synchrotron before!

Participants from 23 institutions and companies joined the meeting in person on the Cornell campus and online via YouTube live.

Although the desire to streamline was paramount along with a responsive display that works across multiple devices, we wanted to visually highlight our users and scientists in action at the lab and sprinkle their news articles across the site. We chose a CMS platform, Drupal 8, which in addition to those and many other engaging digital experience features, allows for accessible content entry. The results of the project were revealed last month.

One of her research specialties is using two-dimensional high-resolution elemental maps of small sections of fish ear stones, called otoliths, as time-stamped records of the histories of fishes’ lives and marine conditions. Her studies have challenged many CHESS scientists over the years to further develop scanning x-ray fluorescence microscopy (SXFM) at the F3 station, including Don Bilderback and Rong Huang who produced microbeams with tapered glass capillaries and Darren Dale who built software for rapid data collection, analysis and visualization of elemental maps (1,2).

From the start, RAW was designed specifically with novice users in mind: when scientists arrive at the beamline, they need something fast and easy to learn in the very limited time available … often late at night. The program was literally designed by looking over the shoulders of beamline users as they collected data. But rather than simply create an automated data processing pipeline, we opted to give people the power to fully process data on their own computers at home, if they choose.