So-called "warm dense matter" (neither solid, liquid, gas, nor plasma) tends to be drastically transient and difficult to study in the laboratory. Researchers have now demonstrated that, at the ALS, fast-changing electron temperatures of matter under extreme conditions can be determined with picosecond resolution.

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In genome engineering, a single position within a DNA sequence is altered without affecting the rest of the genetic code. The structure of a new gene-targeting system, the TAL effector nuclease, reveals its mechanism of action and provides crucial details for its future development.

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A research team has acquired nanoscale, element-specific images of a crystallographic boundary in an a new magnetic shape memory compound. Knowledge about these magnetostructural domain boundaries will be useful in adapting these compounds for robotic and medical applications.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and the ALS conducted the first demonstration of quantitative Polarization-dependent Imaging Contrast (PIC) mapping on the prismatic layer of a mollusk shell, revealing multiply-oriented nanocrystals.