Users and staff give their impressions of the first experiments
In mid-September, fourteen metres under the European XFEL building in north Germany, users started their experiments at the first two instruments to go online: the FXE Femtosecond X-Ray Experiments (FXE) instrument, and the Single Particles, Clusters, and Biomolecules and Serial Femtosecond Crystallography (SPB/SFX) instrument. But what was it like to be among the first users to ever do experiments at the facility, and how did the European XFEL staff members who supported them during their stay experience it all? We asked some for our users and staff for their impressions.