November 8, 1895.
German physicist Wilhelm
Rontgen is testing out
an early kind of vacuum
tube in his lab when
he notices something strange.
A ghostly light
from the tubes seems
to pass right through opaque
objects of differing densities,
illuminating what lay inside.
It was a new kind of
electromagnetic radiation never
seen before.
He tested his new device
on his wife's hand
over a photography plate.
When she saw the
world's first x-ray,
she reportedly said,
I have seen my death.
A whole new world was
instantly illuminated.
Rontgen's discovery immediately
transformed medicine.
And these x-ray visions quickly
became a cultural phenomenon.
So miraculous and
alien, x-rays even
became one of the world's
first super powers.
This amazing stranger, Superman.
And powered with x-ray vision--
But in reality,
x-rays were the key
to unlocking one of the
greatest scientific mysteries
of the age.
London, 1952.
Scientists race to
solve the structure
of a mysterious molecule, DNA.
Rosalind Franklin, a master
of a new technique called
x-ray crystallography,
photographed
DNA for the very first time.
But unbeknownst to
her, the photograph
was shared with James Watson and
Francis Crick, her competitors.
Careful study of photo 51
enabled Watson and Crick
to deduce the structure
and function of DNA.
Soon, they burst
into a local pub
and declared they had
discovered the secret of life.
That discovery
spawned a revolution
and promised tremendous
breakthroughs.
But despite incredible
progress, the promise
remains unfulfilled.
We need a new breed
of x-ray visionaries
who can save lives, help treat
chronic pain without addiction,
and advance the
future of energy.
It was exactly like
falling in love.
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When Nicole Zeig was 16,
she injured her back.
Her doctor prescribed
opioid pain pills.
It took care of the pain, but
then a new problem developed.
And that first time I took that
pill, I was instantly addicted.
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It provided
everything in my life
that some people would say
a higher power or true love
or something would provide.
Zeig became one of the over
2 million people dealing
with substance abuse from
prescription opioids.
It took me over eight years
to get off of the pills.
I've had four abortions, and
that was really hard on me.
And I endangered my
life multiple times.
I stopped breathing many
times, and I ruined my family.
You know, I really,
really hurt them.
And what happens when those
prescriptions run out?
Addicts turn to the only
available opioid they
can get their hands on, heroin.
I was seeking pain
relief, not getting high.
If I had been able to manage the
pain without the side effects,
I would have saved myself
years of literal hell.
People like Nicole are
hoping for a new wonder drug
to find relief without
the threat of addiction.
But we've reached the limits
of current x-ray technology.
So life is a dynamic.
It's not a static picture.
And what we want to
get is actually a movie
of biomolecules at work.
But there's one fundamental
problem, x-rays damage
biomolecules.
Without a clear
picture, scientists
are effectively
left in the dark,
unable to address the problem.
But researchers
at ASU are racing
to bring a powerful new tool to
bear, the x-ray free electron
laser.
It's illuminating secrets
from deep inside the brain
for the first time.
So the electron laser gives
you very fast time resolution
and it avoids radiation damage.
We get the information
we want first
before we blow up the sample.
The XFEL repurposes a
particle accelerator
to create the world's
most powerful x-ray beam.
This allows scientists to
see deeper than ever before.
ASU researcher, Petra
Fromme is pioneering
this innovative
new field of study.
We let little crystals
which only contain hundreds
of molecules instead
of trillions,
fly at room temperature in
their native environments
for the beam and then
essentially get snapshots
of the molecules in action.
It makes solving protein
crystal structures
and getting [INAUDIBLE]
much more efficient.
Using the XFEL, researchers are
now seeing, for the first time,
how opioids bind to
receptors in the brain.
This could enable
the development
of a new class of drugs
that could deal with pain
without euphoric side effects.
We want to see if we can inhibit
this receptor so that the drugs
cannot bind anymore.
Developing drugs which
can block the receptor
without making you dependent,
overcoming this drug abuse.
And essentially,
then the patients
could be more or less cured.
The XFEL also brings
us closer to glimpsing
the heart of one of
nature's greatest mysteries,
the mechanics of photosynthesis.
Every day, the sun produces
enough energy to power
the world many times over.
But there's no way to store it.
Artificial photosynthesis
would create
the possibility of near
limitless energy generation
and storage.
Photosynthesis makes
possible life on Earth.
It splits water to
make the oxygen that
keeps living things all alive.
If we would know how
plants can do it,
then you could build
artificial systems,
which are as efficient
as nature but as stable
as a man-made system.
The XFEL may one day
help us reach our goal
of creating molecular movies.
We will finally see nature in
action on the atomic scale.
This groundbreaking approach is
the focus of ASU's John Spence.
Our aim is to make molecular
movies of the machines
in living things,
which have a job to do.
And we want to
see how they work.
So in the case of
photosynthesis,
the sunlight falling on a leaf.
You extract a molecule
from the leaf that actually
does the photosynthesis.
With any conventional method,
you cannot get this movie
of the molecule in action
because you undo what you do
with the light with
the [INAUDIBLE]..
To start the cycle
of photosynthesis,
we shine light on them briefly.
And then we can get a picture
of the molecule in action.
And we have, just two
years ago, published
the very first snapshot of the
so-called double excited state.
And now we want to get the
complete movie of the matter
splitting process.
Richard Feynman once said
that all life on Earth
can be reduced to the jiggling
and wiggling of atoms.
So we want to see
those wiggles, you
know, the wiggles that
correspond to life.
But there are major obstacles
associated with the XFEL.
There's only a few in the world.
They're enormous.
They cost about $100
million a year to operate.
So it takes between
one and two years
of waiting to get your one
day, actually, on the facility.
As we know from computing,
where if you only
had three computers
in the world,
you wouldn't get
much computing done.
Researchers at ASU,
such as William Graves,
have a revolutionary solution.
Using new technology,
they can shrink the XFEL
and create a compact version
that could fit into a lab.
By combining modern
laser technology
and modern accelerator
technology.
What we want to do is allow you,
at a cost hundreds times less,
to be able to do
the same science.
Even the first simplified
machine that we'll build
can have a tremendous
impact on medical imaging.
Currently, x-rays are
primarily used to image bone
versus soft tissue.
We can't use x-rays to look
at soft tissue injuries
or plaques in arteries
or cancerous cells
versus healthy cells.
And so we think we can have
a really revolutionary impact
on medical imaging by using
the so-called phase contrast
imaging that allows us to see
differences in soft tissue.
We think it's going to
be, in many aspects,
better than the bigger machine.
We think it will have an
enormous scientific impact.
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ASU seeks to be the
world's first institution
with a compact x-ray
free electron laser.
Once built, researchers will
have the power of an XFEL
at their fingertips.
The CXFEL, combined
with the innovation
of serial femtosecond
crystallography,
will exponentially accelerate
drug and energy research.
Major breakthroughs in
fields like health and energy
won't be far behind.
We are the x-ray visionaries who
want to see the world like it's
never been seen before.
We are the trail blazers.
We have the technology to
open up unlimited vistas.
Are you ready to
change the world?
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