The Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank

By F. R. N. C. Maia

Data Analysis

Data Analysis group image

See also

No results found.

Published on

Abstract

www.cxidb.org

The Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank (CXIDB) is a database offering scientists access to data from Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) experiments, including serial femtosecond crystallography and single particle imaging.
www.cxidb.org

The Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank
Filipe R N C Maia
Nature Methods 9, 854–855 (2012) doi:10.1038/nmeth.2110
Published online 30 August 2012

X-ray lasers produce pulses of X-rays 1 billion times brighter than those of synchrotrons; this capability creates extraordinary research opportunities in physics, chemistry and biology1, 2. The high repetition rate of these machines leads to large volumes of data. For example, the Coherent X-ray Imaging beamline at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) produces three times more data per second than the ATLAS detector of the Large Hadron Collider. This data volume increase has created a need for tools to analyze and make efficient use of the new observations.

To address this issue, I created the Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank (CXIDB, http://cxidb.org/) as a permanent public repository of data from coherent X-ray sources (Fig. 1a–c), modeled after the Protein Data Bank3 and the Electron Microscopy Data Bank4. CXIDB allows the community to share and organize their data as well as distribute the burden of data analysis, thereby effectively speeding up the rate of scientific discovery. It also increases the availability of data from X-ray lasers and the impact of these facilities by allowing groups that were not awarded beamtime to test hypotheses and develop analysis methods using data from others. Finally, it enables the reproduction of calculations from observations, and the verification of conclusions, a process that is one of the cornerstones of science.

Submitter

Nadia Zatsepin

Arizona State University

References

Citing CXIDB

If you make use of CXIDB for your publication, please cite:

Maia, F. R. N. C. The Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank. Nat. Methods 9, 854–855 (2012).

The continued growth of CXIDBdepends on the support of institutions and research grants which ultimately use citations as a measure of quality.

 

http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v9/n9/full/nmeth.2110.html