Shining a Light on Kidney Disease

An emerging MRI technique lights up kidney metabolism, battling a disease that affects more people than breast or prostate cancer.

At right is an MRI image of healthy mouse kidneys (circled in red). At left, the same image is overlaid with CEST contrast obtained after the mouse was injected with creatine or phosphocreatine. The yellower areas indicate a higher concentration of the injected compound. Scientists can contrast these CEST images with others taken at different times or with diseased animals to visualize kidney function and detect kidney disease.

Meet Leo Li

Learn more about this frequent MagLab visitor's love for sci-fi, knack for fixing things and favorite scientist ever.

Jia (Leo) Li, a postdoctoral researcher in physics at Columbia University.

Technique Reaps Results

A technique called dynamic nuclear polarization is hitting its stride, using electrons to shine a light on complex molecules. Read more in fields magazine.

Fun & Games with Data graphic by Caroline McNiel

A Leap Toward Practical Superconductors

With hydrogen sulfide, scientists make the latest leap forward on the road to room-temperature superconductivity.

Superconducting upper critical fields as a function of temperature for two samples under pressures of 150 and 170 GPa.

Fluorine in a Fullerene

Researchers have generate the first fluorinated and metal-encapsulated carbon nanocages, a process that could lead to clean energy applications such as plastic solar cells.

Up to two fluorine atoms are added to the Sc3N@C80 fullerene cage, as shown in this FT-ICR mass spectrum.

Share Your Science

If you have conducted an experiment at the MagLab in 2018, it's time to report your findings to us — so that we can share them with scientists around the world.

Users at the MagLab

Research Initiatives

Research Initiatives - Materials

MATERIALS

Scientists use our magnets to explore semiconductors, superconductors, newly-grown crystals, buckyballs and materials from the natural world — research that reveals the secret workings of materials and empowers us to develop new technologies.

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Research Initiatives - Energy

ENERGY

Scientists here are working to optimize petroleum refining, advance potential bio-fuels such as pine needles and algae, and fundamentally change the way we store and deliver energy by developing better batteries.

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Research Initiatives - Life

LIFE

With the world’s strongest MRI magnet, scientists here study everything from living animals to individual cells, from proteins to disease-fighting molecules found in plants and animals — work that could improve treatment of AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

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Latest Science Highlights


  • Functionalizing molecular nanocarbon with fluorine atoms
    19 November 2018
    Functionalizing molecular nanocarbon with fluorine atoms

    Researchers have discovered a new method to create encapsulated carbon nanomaterials that contain fluorine. Known as fullerenes, these nanocages are promising candidates for clean energy applications.

  • Quasi-2D to 3D Fermi surface topology change in Nd-doped CeCoIn5
    5 November 2018
    Quasi-2D to 3D Fermi surface topology change in Nd-doped CeCoIn5

    Scientists found that the emergence of an exotic quantum mechanical phase in Ce1-xNdxCoIn5 is due to a shape change in the Fermi surface. This finding ran counter to theoretical arguments and has led investigators in new directions.

  • Destruction of Weyl nodes and a new state in tantalum arsenide above 80 teslas
    17 September 2018
    Destruction of Weyl nodes and a new state in tantalum arsenide above 80 teslas

    Weyl metals such as tantalum arsenide (TaAs) are predicted to have novel properties arising from a chirality of their electron spins. Scientists induced an imbalance between the left- and right-handed spin states, resulting in a topologically protected current. This was the first time this phenomenon, known as the chiral anomaly, has been observed.

See all Science Highlights

Featured Publications


Functionalizing Molecular Nanocarbon with Fluorine Atoms, A. Moreno-Vicente, et al., Carbon, 129, 750-757 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Quasi-2D to 3D Fermi surface topology change in Nd-doped CeCoIn5, J. Klotz, et al., Phys. Rev. B Rapid Commun., 98, 081105 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Destruction of Weyl nodes and a New State in TaAs above 80 Teslas, B.J. Ramshaw, et al., Nature Communications, 9: 2217 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Pinning and melting of a quantum Wigner crystal, T. Knighton, et al., Phys Rev B, 97, 085135 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Manipulating the ferryl tilt in a non-heme oxoiron(IV) complex that makes the complex a better oxidant, W. Rasheed, et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 57, 9387-9391 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

1.1 billion-year-old porphyrins evidence photosynthesis 600 million years earlier than previously established, N. Guineli, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 115, 1-9 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Metabolic assessment of migraines using ultra-high magnetic fields, N. Abad, et al., Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 79(3):1266-1275, (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Imaging pH levels with a CoII2 MRI Probe, A. E. Thorarinsdottir, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 15836–15847 (2017) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Dirac fermions detected via quantum oscillations, T. Terashima, et al., Physical Review X, 8, 011014 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online 

Phase diagram of URu2–xFexSi2 in high magnetic fields, S. Ran, et al., PNAS, 114, 37, 9826 (2017) See Science Highlight or Read online