Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17 2006
First Research Papers using data from Canadian Light Source Published
The Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan recently marked an important science achievement with the publication of the first research papers resulting from experiments performed at Canada's national synchrotron facility.
The research groups, whose papers appeared online the same day, are from the two universities generally credited with leading the quest for a Canadian synchrotron, the U of S and The University of Western Ontario.
"This is an important milestone for the CLS," says Research Director Thomas Ellis. "High quality science is always exciting. These two success stories in particular will always have a special meaning for us."
The U of S paper, from the research group of Canada Research Chair Alex Moewes, documents the work of graduate student Regan Wilks on the movement of electrons along peptide molecules.
"Everything came together," said Wilks, who is starting his Ph.D. with Moewes. "I'm working with a great group and a great machine [the CLS]. I grew up here in Saskatoon and it's wonderful to be able to stay here and do work that can't be done anywhere else in Canada."
Understanding how electrons move between atoms within peptide molecules (the building blocks of proteins) is important to learning how processes essential to life work. By adding metal atoms to these peptide chains, electrons can be made to move across the peptides like tiny wires, raising the possibility of creating molecular wires for new kinds of computers and nanotechnology devices.
"This is very substantial work," said Moewes. "This project has both experimental and theoretical significance in biology and materials science."
While Wilks, Moewes and the rest of their team were using the synchrotron to shine a light on molecules that could pave the way for molecular wires, long-time synchrotron researcher and Canada Research Chair T.K. Sham, colleague Franziskus Heigl and Western graduate student Simone Lam were using the CLS as a giant strobe light to study the behaviour of a chemical used in organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
The technique, called time-resolved X-ray Excited Optical Luminescence, required that the synchrotron produce flashes of light spaced 10 millionths of a second apart. This made it possible to excite the chemical's molecular structure and observe how it changed between flashes. This kind of imaging is a first for the CLS, and has been performed at only a couple of synchrotrons in the world.
"This experiment took a lot of hard work and dedication by the scientists and engineers at the CLS," said Sham, the Western researcher who pioneered the technique. "Not many places in the world can do this kind of experiment at present. Now this [the CLS] is the place."
The results of both groups' research will be featured at the CLS Annual User Meeting, to be held in Saskatoon June 16 and 17, 2006. The U of S paper appears in the Journal of Physical Chemistry; the Western paper appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Located on the U of S campus in Saskatoon, the Canadian Light Source synchrotron is one of Canada's largest science projects in a generation. Synchrotron light is used to determine the chemical nature and molecular structure of materials, with applications in a wide variety of scientific fields.
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For more information contact:
Alex Moewes and Regan Wilks
Department of Physics and Engineering Physics
University of Saskatchewan
Ph: (306) 966-6431
moewes@usask.ca
regan.wilks@usask.ca
T.K. Sham
Department of Chemistry
The University of Western Ontario
Ph: (519) 661-2111 ex. 86341
tsham@uwo.ca
Matthew Dalzell
Communications Coordinator
Canadian Light Source Inc.
University of Saskatchewan
Ph: (306) 657-3739
Fax: (306) 657-3535
matt.dalzell@lightsource.ca
www.lightsource.ca
Michael Robin
Research Communications Officer
University of Saskatchewan
Ph: (306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
Douglas Keddy
Research Communications Coordinator
The University of Western Ontario
Ph: (519) 661-2111 ex. 87485
Fax: (519) 661-3921
dkeddy@uwo.ca
www.uwo.ca
Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:42