Sibyls: Structurally-Integrated Biology for Life Sciences

Overview

Our LBL X-ray beamline is called Sibyls - for Structurally-Integrated BiologY for Life Sciences. The Sibyls mission is high-impact insights, not high throughput numbers.

The Sibyls beamline (Beamline 12.3.1) is located at the Advanced Light Source at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California USA. The Sibyls beamline has two interchangeable endstations, one for macromolecular crystallography and one for small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). For technical information and instructions to apply for beamtime go to the Beamline 12.3.1 homepage.

Key ideas are:

1. prediction rather than description, and
2. interpretation depends upon asking good questions

Sibyls would give answers whose value depended upon good questions - unlike prophets who tell you things you have not asked about.

The three sibyls from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel (below) represent the three key aspects of the beamline.

The Delphic Sibyl highlights the ability to use x-ray scattering in solution to look at continuous events scrolled out in time. Details of SAXS experiments. The Erythræan Sibyl illustrates photons as a source of prediction, not just description, as an aim of the program. By choosing given conditions we can jump to future time steps like turning many pages at once. Details of high resolution x-ray crystallographic experiments at tunable wavelengths. The Libyan Sibyl emphasizes the importance of motion and dynamics in understanding and prediction, embodied in the movements of the sibyl herself. Details of low resoution experiments.