Tracing bees using radiotransmitters

Public release date: 26-May-2010
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Contact: Jen Laloup
jlaloup@plos.org
415-624-1220
Public Library of Science

Researchers learn about role of bees in tropical ecosystems using radio transmitters
A New York State Museum scientist is one of several researchers who have become the first to use tiny radio transmitters to track bees over long distances in a forest habitat, yielding new insight into the role of bees in tropical forest ecosystems. The bee study research conducted by Dr. Roland Kays, the Museum's curator of mammals, and the other scientists, was published in the online peer reviewed journal PLoS ONE on May 26th.

Armed with radio antennas, Kays and the other researchers worked at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama City, Panama, to track unique signals from tiny transmitters glued to individual orchid bees. Although radar had been used to track bees in open areas, this is the first time it has been used in forested habitats. The research opens the door to future studies of bees in temperate forests, such as those in New York State.

Bees are important pollinators for plants worldwide. Pollination is critical for trees to make fruits and seeds, including domesticated edible fruits, as well as inedible species that are found in most New York State forest habitats. However, little is known about the movement of bees because they are so small and difficult to track.

Researchers, using helicopters, discovered that the orchid bees traveled surprisingly long distances, zipping through increasingly scarce patches of tropical forest as they moved pollen between rare flowers that grew miles apart.

"People disrupt plant pollination as they disturb and destroy tropical forests," said David Roubik, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian. "Radio-tracking significantly improves our understanding of bees and the plants they pollinate. Now we can track orchid bees to get at the distances and spatial patterns involved—vital details which have completely eluded researchers in the past."

The researchers chose 17 iridescent blue-green orchid bees called Exaerete frontalis -- fairly common in the forest. They are larger than New York state honeybees but similar to some of the state's other large bumble bees. Roubik determined that Panama's orchid bees weigh only 0.6 grams without nectar in their stomachs.

"These bees easily carry a 300 mg radio transmitter glued on their backs," said Martin Wikelski, co-author of the research paper and director of the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology, professor at Princeton University and Smithsoian research associate. "By following the radio signals, we discovered that male orchid bees spent most of their time in small core areas, but could take off and visit areas farther away. One male even crossed over the shipping lanes in the Panama Canal, flying at least five kilometres, and returned a few days later."

In the past, researchers have struggled to determine the distances that bees travel, following individuals marked with paint between baits, or using radar, which doesn't work well when trees are in the way. "Carrying the transmitter could reduce the distance that the bees travel, but even if the flight distances we record are the minimum distances that these orchid bees can fly, they are impressive, long-distance movements," said Kays, who is also a research associate at STRI. "These data help to explain how orchids these bees pollinate can be so rare."

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STRI, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the New York State Museum and the National Geographic Society provided support for the bee study. Other co-authors are affiliated with the University of Arizona, Tucson; Cornell University and EcolSciences, Inc. In addition to hand tracking bees, Wikelski, Kays and colleagues have set up the Automated Radio Telemetry System on Barro Colorado Island (IS THIS IN PANAMA). The system is available to interested researchers and is capable of tracking up to 200 different animals, 24 hours a day, at any given time. A unit of the Smithsonian Institution, STRI furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. More information is available at www.stri.org.

Citation: Wikelski M, Moxley J, Eaton-Mordas A, Lo´ pez-Uribe MM, Holland R, et al. (2010) Large-Range Movements of Neotropical Orchid Bees Observed via Radio Telemetry. PLoS ONE 5(5): e10738. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010738

Funding: The study was supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency, New York State Museum, EcolSciences, Inc., Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the National Geographic Society. EcolSciences, as the only commercial company among the funding organizations, had a role in the analysis, decision to publish, and preparation of the manuscript through the involvment of David Moskowitz.

Competing Interests: David Moskowitz is employed by EcolSciences, who is a funder of this research. The employment of this author in a commercial company does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Contact:
Joanne Guilmette
Jguilmet@mail.nysed.gov
518/474-8730

PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010738

Disclaimer

This title and abstract release refers to upcoming articles in PLoS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLoS. PLoS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.

About PLoS ONE

PLoS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLoS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.





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New pathway to cheap insulin

This paper deserves wide publicity as it reveals a cheaper method of making insulin

K.S.Parthasarathy



Public release date: 26-May-2010
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Contact: Bastian Dornbach
bastian.dornbach@helmholtz-hzi.de
49-053-161-811-407
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

New pathway to cheap insulin
Researchers from Helmholtz Centre in Braunschweig, Germany, publish new and more efficient method to manufacture insulin
More than eight million diabetics live in Germany. Diabetes is not restricted to our prosperous society and the highest growth rates often occur in countries with aspiring economies such as in Asia. Worldwide, more than 285 million people suffer from this illness; with 50 million diabetics, India is the country with the most people affected by this disease. In Europe, Germany shows the highest prevalence in the population with twelve percent. In a German-Indo collaboration, researchers from the Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany have now developed a new method to cheaply produce insulin for the treatment of diabetes. The group's results have now been published in the open access online research magazine Microbial Cell Factories. With this, all information is freely accessible for everyone and is not subject to patent law.

"As we did last year with an alternative protocol for the development of a hepatitis B vaccine, we again decided to use this way and make our knowledge available for everybody," says Ursula Rinas from the HZI, who chairs the German side of the project. Thus, people can access "insider-information" that makes it possible to cheaply produce medicine which in return can be affordable to people in developing countries.

The researchers wanted to develop a new procedure to increase the yield of an insulin precursor from which the actual insulin can be obtained, and in this way reduce costs. They found the yeast Pichia pastoris and modified the cells so that they produce the building block for insulin while growing on a special medium. The results were highly gratifying: "With our procedure, Pichia pastoris delivers high yields – twice as much as known before", says Ursula Rinas. "Already with few cells it is possible to produce a lot of the insulin precursor."

In the early 1980s, insulin was the first recombinant product approved by the FDA for human application. Today, human insulin is produced as recombinant protein, using two major routes. One route involves the production of the insulin precursor using the bacterium Escherichia coli as expression host with complex subsequent isolation, solubilization and refolding procedures. The other route involves the well-known baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The advantage of the latter route lies in the secretion of a soluble insulin precursor into the culture supernatant, making it easier for isolation and chemical modification. The newly described method from Ursula Rinas and her group also uses this route. The isolation of the precursor from the culture supernatant is only followed by enzymatic finishing. Insulin produced with this new method can be used normally and is identical to human insulin. Currently, the researchers are working on a method to produce a vaccine against dengue fever using the same system as described here.

For most people in developing countries medicine is too expensive. The purchasing of insulin in those countries is often cost prohibitive. Another problem is patent law that makes it impossible to recreate medicine and sell it at low prices. Once a patent has expired, as is the case with insulin, the so called generic drugs can be produced cheaply. Unfortunately, emerging nations very often lack the insider knowledge to produce those generics.


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Original article: Application of simple fed-batch technique to high-level secretory production of insulin precursor using Pichia pastoris with subsequent purification and conversion to human insulin. Gurramkonda C, Polez S, Skoko N, Adnan A, Gabel T, Chugh D, Swaminathan S, Khanna N, Tisminetzky S, Rinas U. Microb Cell Fact. 2010 May 12;9(1):31. [Epub ahead of print]





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Lowly termite, not the lion or elephant, may be the star of Africa's savanna

It is an interesting observation. Termites are more important to the ecosystem that huge animals
K S Parthasarathy





Lowly termite, not the lion or elephant, may be the star of Africa's savanna

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- The majestic animals most closely associated with the African savanna -- fierce lions, massive elephants, towering giraffes – may be relatively minor players when it comes to shaping the ecosystem.

The king of the savanna appears to be the termite, say ecologists who've found that these humble creatures contribute mightily to grassland productivity in central Kenya via a network of uniformly distributed colonies. Termite mounds greatly enhance plant and animal activity at the local level, while their even distribution over a larger area maximizes ecosystem-wide productivity.

The finding, published this week in the journal PLoS Biology, affirms a counterintuitive approach to population ecology: Often, it's the small things that matter most.

"One of the kind of typical things I think that people think about is, what drives a savanna in terms of its structure and function?" said Todd Palmer, one of the paper's authors and an assistant professor of biology at the University of Florida."We think about big animals, but these termites are having a massive impact on the system from below."

Said Robert M. Pringle, a research fellow at Harvard University and the lead author, "As (famed biologist) E.O. Wilson likes to point out, in many respects it's the little things that run the world."

Prior research on the Kenya dwarf gecko initially drew Pringle's attention to the peculiar role of grassy termite mounds, which in this part of Kenya are some 30 feet in diameter and spaced some 180 to 300 feet apart. Each mound teems with millions of termites, who build the mounds over the course of centuries.

After observing unexpectedly high numbers of lizards in the vicinity of mounds, Pringle, Palmer and their colleagues began to quantify ecological productivity relative to mound density. They found that each mound supported dense aggregations of flora and fauna: Plants grew more rapidly the closer they were to mounds, and animal populations and reproductive rates fell off appreciably with greater distance.

What was observed on the ground was even clearer in satellite imagery. Each mound – relatively inconspicuous on the Kenyan grassland – stood at the center of a burst of floral productivity. More important, these bursts were highly organized in relation to one another, evenly dispersed as if squares on a checkerboard. The result is an optimized network of plant and animal output closely tied to the ordered distribution of termite mounds.

"In essence, the highly regular spatial pattern of fertile mounds generated by termites actually increases overall levels of ecosystem production. And it does so in such a profound way," Palmer said. "Seen from above, the grid-work of termite mounds in the savanna is not just a pretty picture. The over-dispersion, or regular distribution of these termite mounds, plays an important role in elevating the services this ecosystem provides."

The mechanism through which termite activity is transformed into far-reaching effects on the ecosystem is a complex one. Pringle and Palmer suspect termites import coarse particles into the otherwise fine soil in the vicinity of their mounds. These coarser particles promote water infiltration of the soil, even as they discourage disruptive shrinking and swelling of topsoil in response to precipitation or drought.

The mounds also show elevated levels of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. All this beneficial soil alteration appears to directly and indirectly mold ecosystem services far beyond the immediate vicinity of the mound.

While further studies will explore the mechanism through which these spatial patterns of termite mounds emerge, Pringle and Palmer suggest that the present work has implications beyond the basic questions of ecology.

"Termites are typically viewed as pests, and as threats to agricultural and livestock production," Pringle said. "But productivity – of both wild and human-dominated landscapes – may be more intricately tied to the pattern-generating organisms of the larger natural landscape than is commonly understood."

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Pringle and Palmer's co-authors on the PLoS Biology paper are Daniel F. Doak of the Mpala Research Centre and the University of Wyoming; Alison K. Brody of the Mpala Research Centre and the University of Vermont; and Rudy Jocqué of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. Their work was supported by the Sherwood Family Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Boston University reseachers develop faster, cheaper DNA sequencing method

Researchers have found a new method of DNA sequencing which is claimed to be cheaper and faster than the method used so far.In the method developed by them one needs onle a smaller quantity of DNA thereby eliminating the expensive, time-consuming and error-prone step of DNA amplification.By boosting capture rates by a few orders of magnitude, and reducing the volume of the sample chamber the researchers reduced the number of DNA molecules required by a factor of 10,000 – from about 1 billion sample molecules to 100,000.

K.S.Parthasarathy







Public release date: 20-Dec-2009

Contact: Mike Seele
mseele@bu.edu
617-353-9766
Boston University College of Engineering
Boston University researchers develop faster, cheaper DNA sequencing method






IMAGE: A team of researchers led by Boston University biomedical engineer Amit Meller is using electrical fields to efficiently draw long strands of DNA through nanopore sensors, drastically reducing the number...
Click here for more information.




(BOSTON) EMBARGOED UNTIL 1 P.M. EST 12/20/09 -- Boston University biomedical engineers have devised a method for making future genome sequencing faster and cheaper by dramatically reducing the amount of DNA required, thus eliminating the expensive, time-consuming and error-prone step of DNA amplification.

In a study published in the Dec. 20 online edition of Nature Nanotechnology, a team led by Boston University Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Amit Meller details pioneering work in detecting DNA molecules as they pass through silicon nanopores. The technique uses electrical fields to feed long strands of DNA through four-nanometer-wide pores, much like threading a needle. The method uses sensitive electrical current measurements to detect single DNA molecules as they pass through the nanopores.

"The current study shows that we can detect a much smaller amount of DNA sample than previously reported," said Meller. "When people start to implement genome sequencing or genome profiling using nanopores, they could use our nanopore capture approach to greatly reduce the number of copies used in those measurements."

Currently, genome sequencing utilizes DNA amplification to make billions of molecular copies in order to produce a sample large enough to be analyzed. In addition to the time and cost DNA amplification entails, some of the molecules – like photocopies of photocopies – come out less than perfect. Meller and his colleagues at BU, New York University and Bar-Ilan University in Israel have harnessed electrical fields surrounding the mouths of the nanopores to attract long, negatively charged strands of DNA and slide them through the nanopore where the DNA sequence can be detected. Since the DNA is drawn to the nanopores from a distance, far fewer copies of the molecule are needed.

Before creating this new method, the team had to develop an understanding of electro-physics at the nanoscale, where the rules that govern the larger world don't necessarily apply. They made a counterintuitive discovery: the longer the DNA strand, the more quickly it found the pore opening.

"That's really surprising," Meller said. "You'd expect that if you have a longer 'spaghetti,' then finding the end would be much harder. At the same time this discovery means that the nanopore system is optimized for the detection of long DNA strands -- tens of thousands basepairs, or even more. This could dramatically speed future genomic sequencing by allowing analysis of a long DNA strand in one swipe, rather than having to assemble results from many short snippets.

"DNA amplification technologies limit DNA molecule length to under a thousand basepairs," Meller added. "Because our method avoids amplification, it not only reduces the cost, time and error rate of DNA replication techniques, but also enables the analysis of very long strands of DNA, much longer than current limitations."

With this knowledge in hand, Meller and his team set out to optimize the effect. They used salt gradients to alter the electrical field around the pores, which increased the rate at which DNA molecules were captured and shortened the lag time between molecules, thus reducing the quantity of DNA needed for accurate measurements. Rather than floating around until they happened upon a nanopore, DNA strands were funneled into the openings.

By boosting capture rates by a few orders of magnitude, and reducing the volume of the sample chamber the researchers reduced the number of DNA molecules required by a factor of 10,000 – from about 1 billion sample molecules to 100,000.

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The research was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the Institutes of Health and by the National Science Foundation. The article, "Electrostatic Focusing of Unlabelled DNA into Nanoscale Pores Using a Salt Gradient," will be available at the Nature web site beginning Dec. 20 at 1 p.m. at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/natureNNANO.2009.379.

Butterfly proboscis to sip cells

Nature does every thing the very best way. We shall get solutions to complex problems by keenly observing nature. This is substantiated by the following newsstory

K.S.Parthaarathy



Public release date: 22-Nov-2009

Contact: Jason Bardi
jbardi@aip.org
301-209-3091
American Institute of Physics
Butterfly proboscis to sip cells
Nature-inspired probes be presented at Fluid Dynamics Conference next week

WASHINGTON, D.C. November 18, 2009 -- A butterfly's proboscis looks like a straw -- long, slender, and used for sipping -- but it works more like a paper towel, according to Konstantin Kornev of Clemson University. He hopes to borrow the tricks of this piece of insect anatomy to make small probes that can sample the fluid inside of cells.

Kornev will present his work next week at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society's (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics will take place from November 22-24 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

At the scales at which a butterfly or moth lives, liquid is so thick that it is able to form fibers. The insects' liquid food -- drops of water, animal tears, and the juice inside decomposed fruit -- spans nearly three orders of magnitude in viscosity. Pumping liquid through its feeding tube would require an enormous amount of pressure.

"No pump would support that kind of pressure," says Kornev. "The liquid would boil spontaneously."

Instead of pumping, Kornev's findings suggest that butterflies draw liquid upwards using capillary action -- the same force that pulls liquid across a paper towel. The proboscis resembles a rolled-up paper towel, with tiny grooves that pull the liquid upwards along the edges, carrying along the bead of liquid in the middle of the tube. This process is not nearly as affected by viscosity as pumping.

Kornev has been recently awarded an NSF grant to develop artificial probes made of nanofibers that use a similar principal to draw out the viscous liquid inside of cells and examine their contents.

The presentation, "Butterfly proboscis as a biomicrofluidic system" by Konstantin Kornev et al of Clemson University is at 12:01 p.m. on Sunday, November 22, 2009.

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Abstract: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD09/Event/110814

MORE MEETING INFORMATION
The 62nd Annual DFD Meeting will be held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis. All meeting information, including directions to the Convention Center is at: http://www.dfd2009.umn.edu/

PRESS REGISTRATION
Credentialed full-time journalist and professional freelance journalists working on assignment for major publications or media outlets are invited to attend the conference free of charge. If you are a reporter and would like to attend, please contact Jason Bardi (jbardi@aip.org, 301-209-3091).

USEFUL LINKS
Main meeting Web site: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD09/Content/1629
Searchable form: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD09/SearchAbstract
Local Conference Meeting Website: http://www.dfd2009.umn.edu/
PDF of Meeting Abstracts: http://flux.aps.org/meetings/YR09/DFD09/all_DFD09.pdf
Division of Fluid Dynamics page: http://www.aps.org/units/dfd/
Virtual Press Room: SEE BELOW

VIRTUAL PRESS ROOM
The APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Virtual Press Room will contain tips on dozens of stories as well as stunning graphics and lay-language papers detailing some of the most interesting results at the meeting. Lay-language papers are roughly 500 word summaries written for a general audience by the authors of individual presentations with accompanying graphics and multimedia files. The Virtual Press Room will serve as starting points for journalists who are interested in covering the meeting but cannot attend in person. See: http://www.aps.org/units/dfd/pressroom/index.cfm

Currently, the Division of Fluid Dynamics Virtual Press Room contains information related to the 2008 meeting. In mid-November, the Virtual Press Room will be updated for this year's meeting, and another news release will be sent out at that time.

ONSITE WORKSPACE FOR REPORTERS
A reserved workspace with wireless internet connections will be available for use by reporters. It will be located in the meeting exhibition hall (Ballroom AB) at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Sunday and Monday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Tuesday from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Press announcements and other news will be available in the Virtual Press Room.

GALLERY OF FLUID MOTION
Every year, the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics hosts posters and videos that show stunning images and graphics from either computational or experimental studies of flow phenomena. The outstanding entries, selected by a panel of referees for artistic content, originality and ability to convey information, will be honored during the meeting, placed on display at the Annual APS Meeting in March of 2010, and will appear in the annual Gallery of Fluid Motion article in the September 2010 issue of the journal Physics of Fluids.

This year, selected entries from the 27th Annual Gallery of Fluid Motion will be hosted as part of the Fluid Dynamics Virtual Press Room. In mid-November, when the Virtual Press Room is launched, another announcement will be sent out.

ABOUT THE APS DIVISION OF FLUID DYNAMICS
The Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society exists for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of the physics of fluids with special emphasis on the dynamical theories of the liquid, plastic and gaseous states of matter under all conditions of temperature and pressure. See: http://www.aps.org/units/dfd/


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Diagnostic errors in medicine

Diagnostic errors in medicine

The latest issue of the Archives of internal medicine[2009;169(20):1881-1887] published an interesting paper analyzing the diagnostic errors in medicine. Physicians from a few reputed hospitals in USA discovered that missed or delayed diagnoses are a common but understudied area in patient safety research. They surveyed clinicians to solicit perceived cases of missed and delayed diagnoses to better understand the types, causes, and prevention of such errors.

They administered a 6-item written survey at 20 grand rounds presentations across the United States and by mail at 2 collaborating institutions. They asked the respondents to report three cases of diagnostic errors and to describe their perceived causes, seriousness, and frequency.

Three hundred and ten physicians reported 669 cases from 22 institutions. They excluded cases without diagnostic errors or lacking sufficient details; Of the 583 cases that remained ,162 errors (28%) were rated as major, 241 (41%) as moderate, and 180 (31%) as minor or insignificant. Pulmonary embolism was the most common missed or delayed diagnoses(26 cases [4.5% of total]followed by drug reactions or overdose (26 cases [4.5%]), lung cancer (23 cases [3.9%]), colorectal cancer (19 cases [3.3%]), acute coronary syndrome (18 cases [3.1%]), breast cancer (18 cases [3.1%]), and stroke (15 cases [2.6%]).

Clinicians made errors most frequently in the testing phase (failure to order, report, and follow-up laboratory results) (44%), followed by clinician assessment errors (failure to consider and over-weighing competing diagnosis) (32%), history taking (10%), physical examination (10%), and referral or consultation errors and delays (3%).

The researchers concluded that physicians readily recalled multiple cases of diagnostic errors and were willing to share their experiences. Using a new taxonomy tool and aggregating cases by diagnosis and error type revealed patterns of diagnostic failures that suggested areas for improvement. Systematic solicitation and analysis of such errors can identify potential preventive strategies.


The authors were from Departments of Medicine (Drs Schiff and Kim and Mss Krosnjar and Wisniewski) and Emergency Medicine (Dr Cosby), Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Illinois; Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (Drs Schiff and Hasan); Department of Medicine, Rush University, Chicago (Drs Schiff, Abrams, Hasler, and McNutt and Mr Odwazny); Departments of Health Policy and Administration (Dr Kim) and Medical Education (Dr Elstein) and College of Pharmacy (Dr Lambert), University of Illinois at Chicago; and Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego (Dr Kabongo).

Spallation Neutron Source first of its kind to reach megawatt power

Public release date: 29-Sep-2009
Great news
DR Parthasarathy

Contact: Bill Cabage
cabagewh@ornl.gov
865-574-4399
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Spallation Neutron Source first of its kind to reach megawatt power

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Sept. 28, 2009 -- The Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), already the world's most powerful facility for pulsed neutron scattering science, is now the first pulsed spallation neutron source to break the one-megawatt barrier.

"Advances in the materials sciences are fundamental to the development of clean and sustainable energy technologies. In reaching this milestone of operating power, the Spallation Neutron Source is providing scientists with an unmatched resource for unlocking the secrets of materials at the molecular level," said Dr. William F. Brinkman, Director of DOE's Office of Science.

SNS operators at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory pushed the controls past the megawatt mark on September 18 as the SNS ramped up for its latest operational run.

"The attainment of one megawatt in beam power symbolizes the advancement in analytical resources that are now available to the neutron scattering community through the SNS," said ORNL Director Thom Mason, who led the SNS project during its construction. "This is a great achievement not only for DOE and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but for the entire community of science."

Before the SNS, the world's spallation neutron sources operated in the hundred-kilowatt range. The SNS actually became a world-record holder in August 2007 when it reached 160 kilowatts, earning it an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most powerful pulsed spallation neutron source.

Beam power isn't merely a numbers game. A more powerful beam means more neutrons are spalled from SNS's mercury target. For the researcher, the difference in beam intensity is comparable to the ability to see with a car's headlights versus a flashlight. More neutrons also enhance scientific opportunities, including flexibility for smaller samples and for real-time studies at shorter time scales. For example, experiments will be possible that use just one pulse of neutrons to illuminate the dynamics of scientific processes.

Eventually, the SNS will reach its design power of 1.4 megawatts. The gradual increase of beam power has been an ongoing process since the SNS was completed and activated in late April 2006.

In the meantime, scientists have been performing cutting-edge experiments and materials analysis as its eventual suite of 25 instruments comes on line. As DOE Office of Science user facilities, the SNS and its companion facility, the High Flux Isotope Reactor, host researchers from around the world for neutron scattering experiments.

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ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.

NOTE TO EDITORS: You may read other press releases from Oak Ridge National Laboratory or learn more about the lab at http://www.ornl.gov