October 2006 Archives

In Japan, a new award has been established in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) in order to encourage promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields. The joint recipients of the 1st award are: Dr. Kazuhiko Nakano (Osaka Electro Communication Univ., "Development of confocal 3D micro XRF spectrometer-using polycapillary X-ray lenses") and Dr. Yohko Yano (Ritsumeikan Univ., "Application of X-ray multilayer optics for a surface-horizontal X-ray reflectometer"). The ceremony was held during the 42nd Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan at Meiji University, Kawasaki city.

The National Center for X-ray Tomography (NCXT) has officially been dedicated at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The main objects are biological/biomedical imaging and cell biology. Currently, soft X-ray tomography is being developed as a new tool for visualizing the internal architecture of whole, hydrated cells. This emerging technique has several distinct advantages over existing imaging methods, and is contributing new insights into our understanding of cells, and their behavior. A new soft X-ray microscope will be constructed at the Advanced Light Source, and will be open for use by the biomedical community in spring 2007. For more information, visit the website at http://ncxt.lbl.gov/