Bionanoparticles, such as the cowpea mosaic virus, can stabilize oil droplets in aqueous solutions by self‐assembly at liquid interfaces. Subsequent cross‐linking of the bionanoparticles transforms the assemblies into robust membranes that have covalent inter‐bionanoparticle connections. The resulting membranes are nanoscopically thin sheets (see SANS image (SANS=small‐angle neutron scattering)), which were examined by fluorescent labeling.

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An efficient approach to the syntheses of amphiphilic rod-coil diblock and coil-rod-coil triblock copolymers was developed. Each diblock copolymer consists of a perfectly monodispersed oligo(phenylene vinylene) covalently bonded to a poly(ethylene glycol) block with a very low polydispersity (<1.05). The structure and basic physical properties of these copolymers were characterized by various spectroscopic techniques such as NMR, MALDI-TOF, GPC, DSC, UV/vis, and the fluorescence study. These diblock copolymers were shown to possess remarkable self-assembling abilities, and long cylindrical micelles (>1 µm) were formed. TEM, SANS, and AFM studies showed that the core of the micelles has a diameter of ∼8-10 nm and was composed of an OPV block. TEM and SANS studies revealed that these OPV-PEG micelles have a cylindrical OPV core surrounded by a PEG corona. Cryo-TEM and SANS studies indicate that fibers were formed even in very dilute THF/H 2 O solutions. Since the conjugated OPV blocks exhibit liquid crystallinity and electric and optical properties, these micelles are interesting for studying the electroactive effect in a nanometer scale.

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1 This article will form part of a virtual special issue on advanced neutron scattering instrumentation, marking the 50th anniversary of the journal.Oak Ridge National Laboratory is home to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), a high-flux research reactor, and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the world's most intense source of pulsed neutron beams. The unique colocalization of these two sources provided an opportunity to develop a suite of complementary small-angle neutron scattering instruments for studies of largescale structures: the GP-SANS and Bio-SANS instruments at the HFIR and the EQ-SANS and TOF-USANS instruments at the SNS. This article provides an overview of the capabilities of the suite of instruments, with specific emphasis on how they complement each other. A description of the plans for future developments including greater integration of the suite into a single point of entry for neutron scattering studies of large-scale structures is also provided.

We apply synchrotron-based small-angle X-ray scattering to investigate the relationship between compaction, metal binding, and structure formation of two RNAs at 37 degrees C: the 76 nucleotide yeast tRNA(Phe) and the 255 nucleotide catalytic domain of the Bacillus subtilis RNase P RNA. For both RNAs, this method provides direct evidence for the population of a distinct folding intermediate. The relative compaction between the intermediate and the native state does not correlate with the size of the RNA but does correlate well with the amount of surface burial as quantified previously by the urea-dependent m-value. The total compaction process can be described in two major stages. Starting from a completely unfolded state (4-8 M urea, no Mg(2+)), the major amount of compaction occurs upon the dilution of the denaturant and the addition of micromolar amounts of Mg(2+) to form the intermediate. The native state forms in a single transition from the intermediate state upon cooperative binding of three to four Mg(2+) ions. The characterization of this intermediate by small-angle X-ray scattering lends strong support for the cooperative Mg(2+)-binding model to describe the stability of a tertiary RNA.

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One of the significant successes in the field of neutron interferometry has been the experimental observation of the phase shift of a neutron de Broglie wave due to the action of the Earth's gravitational field. Past experiments have clearly demonstrated the effect and verified the quantum-mechanical equivalence of gravitational and inertial masses to a precision of about 1%. In this experiment the gravitationally induced phase shift of the neutron is measured with a statistical uncertainty of order 1 part in 1000 in two different interferometers. Nearly harmonic pairs of neutron wavelengths are used to measure and compensate for effects due to the distortion of the interferometer as it is tilted about the incident beam direction. A discrepancy between the theoretically predicted and experimentally measured values of the phase shift due to gravity is observed at the 1% level. Extensions to the theoretical description of the shape of a neutron interferogram as a function of tilt in a gravitational field are discussed and compared with experiment. ͓S1050-2947͑97͒04109-7͔PACS number͑s͒: 03.30.ϩp, 03.65.