Sector 1 in the News

The Mystery of Ioannes Bos: The Metal Speaks - X-Ray Studies of Astrolabes (Jun. 28, 2000)
Using a focused, monochromatic beam of high-photon-energy x-rays from the Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation Collaborative Access Team beamline 1-BM at the Advanced Photon Source, researchers performed metallurgical analyses on two astrolabes: M-33a (Adler Planetarium, from the Mensing Collection), and DW0595 (Harvard University, from the David P. Wheatland Collection). These instruments are both signed "Ioannes Bos, 24 March 1597." Results indicate that the composition and microstructure of the main components of M-33a are consistent with the 1597 date, while those of DW0595 reveal a much more recent origin.
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Physicists Challenge Reports of Accelerated Decay of Nuclear Excited State (Aug. 17, 2001)
Using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, which has more than 100,000 times higher X-ray intensity than the dental X-ray machine used in the original experiment, and a sample of isomeric Hf-178 fabricated at Los Alamos, the team of physicists expected to see an enormous signal indicating a controlled release of energy stored in the long lived nuclear excited state. However, the scientists observed no such signal and established an upper limit consistent with nuclear science and orders of magnitude below previous reports.
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A Breath of Fresh Air for Insect Physiology (Jan. 27, 2003)
A surprising insect breathing mechanism similar to the way lungs work in vertebrates has been discovered by scientists from The Field Museum in Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, using brilliant x-ray beams from the Advanced Photon Source (APS).
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APS Research Fuels Engineering Interest (Jun. 5)
Award-winning research on the characteristics of fuel sprays from injectors is one of the featured articles in the May 2003 issue of Mechanical Engineering and on the Web site of that magazine. The studies, carried out at APS's X-ray Operation and Research beamline 1-BM and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, revealed startling new information about fuel sprays, including the presence of a shockwave as the spray leaves the injector nozzle.
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