Scientific News

The 3D microstructure of coatings for nuclear fusion reactors is revealed by high-resolution synchrotron microtomography

While the LHC is delivering its first beams for experiments, the 50-year-old Proton Synchrotron is being used to investigate Earth’s climate.

The Orion Nebula reveals many of its hidden secrets in a dramatic image taken by ESO’s new VISTA survey telescope.

One of ESA’s future Earth observation missions will monitor Earth’s orientation in space with the help of the smallest gyro ever flown by Europe.

Stone cutting is nothing new – even our prehistoric ancestors knew how to cut stones. Nonetheless, this ancient industry has recently come under scrutiny from scientists using very modern techniques – beams of high-energy neutrons.

In humans and most other mammals, an individual’s sex is determined by its sex chromosomes: females have two X chromosomes, and males have an X and a Y. Scientists had long assumed that the female pathway – the development of ovaries and all the other female traits – was the default: if an embryo had a gene called Sry, which is located on the Y chromosome, it would develop into a male; if not, then the result would be a female.

A (2+2) photo-cycloaddition reaction in an organic crystal film was triggered by a fast laser pulse and studied with X-ray diffraction. This reaction and its thermally-activated reverse reaction were followed on the picosecond timescale, and intricate details of the reaction kinetics were revealed.

For the past two-and-a-half years, EMBL Hamburg’s campus partner, the German Synchrotron Research Centre (DESY) has been converting the PETRA storage ring into a dedicated low emittance synchrotron radiation facility with leading optical parameters, named PETRA III. Out of PETRA III’s 14 beamlines, three are being designed and built by EMBL.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientists at EMBL Hamburg describe the first protein structure of a family of nematode lipid binding proteins (LBPs).

The Auto-Rickshaw automated crystal structure determination platform has received a further upgrade to include a combination of molecular replacement and single-wavelength anomalous diffraction phasing for automated structure determination.

A tunable X-ray focusing apparatus based on compound refractive lenses, referred to as a transfocator, has been installed in the first optics hutch of beamline ID11.

Ferroelectric switching was observed for a nematic liquid crystal consisting of bent-core polar molecules. X-ray diffraction shows that this originates from the cooperative alignment of nanometric size polar and biaxial cybotactic groups present in the nematic phase. This discovery discloses the way toward ferroelectric fluids that can be aligned using a simple electric field.

Meningitis bacteria mimic human cells to avoid detection by our immune system. The crystal structure of a Neisseria meningitidis surface protein in complex with human factor H shows us how this happens and may pave the way for a new vaccine against the disease.

Spontaneous micellisation of block copolymers in selective solvents was investigated by time-resolved SAXS experiments at the ESRF. The kinetic pathway of the micellisation was observed for the first time and could be modelled by a nucleation and growth process.

Four decades ago, blasts of gamma-ray radiation were discovered originating from the farthest regions of the Universe. Once poorly understood, these powerful fits of stellar rage known as gamma-ray bursts are now revealing themselves.

A diamond-like material with high boron content could be expected to combine the best properties from its constituent elements, boron and carbon.

EFDA JET-JET serves up a new microwave recipe for ITER