Light sources take on a different atmosphere during the night. Researchers develop their own strategies for surviving experiments that require them to be on a beamline when they would normally be fast asleep! We round off 2023 by sharing top tips from scientists from the Swiss Light Source, LCLS, Diamond and NSLS-II.
These measurements may reveal insights into the origins of life in our solar system
After an amazing journey, a grain from the asteroid Bennu will be brought to Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron, for scientific measurements. The grain is from the 100 milligrams of sample sent to the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, a small fraction of the approximately 70 grams of Bennu rock and dust brought back by NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA) OSIRIS-REx mission. It will be subject to intensive analysis at the Dual Imaging And Diffraction (DIAD) instrument in Diamond by Dr Ashley King and his team from the NHM and other OSIRIS-REx collaborators at the Open, Oxford and Manchester Universities.
The DIAD beamline at Diamond is a ‘one of a kind’ scientific instrument that can extract chemical composition information and enable virtual dissection at an unprecedented level of detail, non-destructively. This will provide a wealth of scientific data and new knowledge about the asteroid, and the origins of our solar system.
The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft launched to the near-Earth asteroid, Bennu on Sept. 8, 2016. In October 2020 it collected a sample of rocks and dust from its surface 330 million km (205 million miles) from Earth. The material, collected by the NASA mission, took almost three years to be returned to Earth (Utah desert, US) this Sept. 24, 2023.
Read more on the Diamond website
Image: Dr Sharif Ahmed from Diamond Light Source and Dr Ashley King from the Natural History Museum with the Bennu asteroid sample
Credit: Diamond Light Source
Researchers led by the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, have found that amyloid oligomers play a role in speeding up mitochondrial energetics during the early stages of Alzheimer’s, in contrast to what has been previously found in more advanced Alzheimer’s brain tissues.
The origin of Alzheimer’s disease, which affects 30 million people worldwide, is still not clear despite an international research effort and significant progress in research. And yet, identifying the factors driving this incurable neurodegenerative disease is essential to find better ways to diagnose Alzheimer, delay its onset and prevent progression. “Before understanding the pathology, we need to understand the biology”, explains Montse Soler López, head of the Structural Biology group at the ESRF and co-corresponding author of the study.
Alzheimer’s is an incurable disease that normally appears after the age of 65. However, changes in the brain begin 20 years before the disease appears. “We believe that malfunctioning of the mitochondria can take place 20 years before the person shows symptoms of the disease”, explains Soler López. For a long time, researchers have focused on the amyloid plaques in the brain as the potential cause of the disease. However, this hypothesis is currently being reconsidered.
Now Soler López’s team, together with scientist Irina Gutsche at the Institut de Biologie Structurale (CNRS, CEA, Université Grenoble Alpes) and researchers at the EMBL, conduct a new line of research focusing on aging factors, such as mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria are often referred to as the “powerhouse of cell” because of their essential role in energy production. Over time, mitochondria suffer oxidative stress and this leads to their malfunction. A recent finding indicates that individuals with Alzheimer’s may exhibit an accumulation of amyloids within mitochondria, challenging the previously belief that amyloids were solely present outside neurons.
Read more on the ESRF website
Dr. Digvir Jayas is on a mission to stop grain spoilage. The researcher has been helping farmers and grain managers reduce spoilage losses for 40 years. He recently published a new study that used the Canadian Light Source at the University Saskatchewan to peer inside grains themselves, looking for the signs of spoilage and resistance.
Spoiled grain represents a huge pool of potential food that could help feed a growing global population. Spoilage rates vary greatly between grains and storage conditions, from as low as 1% of stored grain lost up to 50%.
“So, if you took an average of 20% loss, that would mean 640 million tonnes of grain is being lost globally on an annual basis,” says Jayas, who conducted the research while he was in the Department of Biosystems Engineering (Price Faculty of Engineering) at the University of Manitoba. “We could feed 1.5 billion people by preventing that loss through spoilage.”
To understand how the grain itself can be bred, and specific varieties selected to maximize storage potential, his team focused on hard durum wheat, which spoils less easily than soft wheats.
“The CLS has such a unique capability to look at the composition of materials at a nano or micro level. When grain spoils, there are unique changes occurring in the grain, and we were able to look at those changes.”
Read more on Canadian Light Source website
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the development of attosecond science – a field that sheds light on the movement of electrons on their natural timescale. Several researchers at the Swiss X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL are recognised in the scientific background to this prize. This is no coincidence. With recent technical developments enabling attosecond and fully coherent X-ray pulses, SwissFEL promises to rapidly advance this emerging research area.
“We can now open the door to the world of electrons. Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons. The next step will be utilising them.” So said Eva Olsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, at the announcement of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The prize was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”. These breakthrough experimental methods are based on table-top laser systems – that is, laser systems that roughly fit onto an optical table and generate light mainly in the extreme ultraviolet energy range. Yet, in order to truly utilise our new insight into the world of electrons, further technological advances will be important that probe the movements of electrons in a wide variety of functional materials.
The scientific background produced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognises the contributions from several researchers at PSI. There is a unifying theme to these researchers: they all now work at SwissFEL on upgrades that are enabling attosecond X-ray pulses, combining the possibilities of this astounding time resolution with the higher photon energies and higher photon fluxes offered by free electron laser light.
The contributions of these PSI researchers all lay in making the first steps of extending attosecond techniques, first developed in the gas phase, to new phases of matter – liquids and solids.
Read more on PSI website
Image: Contributions of a number of researchers at PSI were recognised in the scientific background to the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. These researchers include (L to R) Martin Huppert, Adrian Cavalieri and Stefan Neppl, all of whom are now working on the SwissFEL on advances that are enabling attosecond X-ray pulses. Here, they stand in the snow in the beautiful forest that surrounds SwissFEL.
Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer
Imagine an abandoned mine site, surrounded by dead trees and dotted with dark, red ponds with no signs of aquatic life. This is the result of mine waste left in the environment that gets weathered by water and air. With exposure to the elements over time, the waste produces toxic substances such as arsenic and lead.
“It is a major environmental problem facing the mining industry in Canada and worldwide,” said Aria Zhang, who studied a method for covering mine tailings as part of her Master’s degree at the University of Waterloo. “Once these toxins are released, it’s difficult to control. It pollutes the soil and seeps into lakes and groundwater. It can threaten people’s drinking water supply, agricultural production, and the ecosystem.”
Under the supervision of professors David Blowes and Carol Ptacek, and hydrogeochemist Jeff Bain, Zhang assessed the effectiveness of a cover of layers of soil, sand, and gravel placed over mine waste near Timmins, Ontario in 2008.
The cover was intended to inhibit the chemical reaction that produces toxins and prevent them from leaching into the environment. However, there were concerns within the remediation industry about how effective covers would be in containing toxins from the waste — which was deposited on this site between 1968 and 1972.
At old mine sites, metals like lead, arsenic, and copper have precipitated into unstable solids,” said Zhang. “It’s similar to limescale buildup in a kettle if there is hard water. They are sensitive to chemical changes, which means they could dissolve again under a cover and potentially get released into the environment.”
Using experimental techniques at the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan and the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, Zhang and colleagues determined the remediation approach had been successful. They found that the cover did not destabilize toxic minerals at the site and was preventing more toxins from developing. Their findings were recently published in Applied Geochemistry.
Read more on Canadian Light Source website
This is a story of miles and nanometers. Celline Awino Omondi and Miller Shatsala traveled from Kakamega, Kenya, to Berkeley, USA, through a grant from Lightsources for Africa, the Americas, Asia, Middle East, and Pacific (LAAAMP), a journey of over 9,400 miles. Their research interests, however, are best described with nanometers—very thin perovskite films to be used for solar energy.
At their home institution, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Omondi is a faculty member and Shatsala is a PhD student in the department of physics. Omondi’s interest in new materials began in graduate school. “I did a master’s in materials nanotechnology, and it was so interesting, I wanted to continue in materials science,” she said. Though her doctoral studies were in Germany, her research inspiration was closer to home. “In Africa, we have abundant solar radiation. So, we are looking for a way to tap into that solar radiation so that we can use it for our daily life.”
Omondi envisions many applications for photovoltaics. With the new materials under development, solar energy could be used in the future for everything from household electricity to vaccine storage in hospitals and irrigation on farms. New materials to harness solar energy would be life changing. “Most parts of Africa aren’t on the grid, and if they have electricity, it’s very expensive,” Omondi explained.
Similarly, Shatsala’s master’s thesis research focused on silicon solar cells. “Then I discovered that there are new materials coming up in solar energy whose efficiency was almost passing silicon, so that’s why I shifted to perovskites,” he said.
To characterize the perovskites they’re studying, the two researchers came to the Advanced Light Source through a LAAAMP Faculty-Student (FAST) Teams grant. The program provides financial support for PhD students and their faculty advisors from Africa, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Pacific to spend two months in residence at a collaborative partner light source. With this training opportunity, scientists like Omondi and Shatsala will be able to take their newfound skills and knowledge back to a region that is still in the planning phases for its own synchrotron facility. One day in the future, the two researchers could be part of operating and using this facility—the African Light Source. “We were privileged to be picked to be among the few people in Africa to come to the ALS,” said Shatsala.
Read more on the ALS website
Image: The researchers at Beamline 7.3.3. Left to right: Yunfei Wang, Aidan Coffey, Miller Shatsala, Celline Omondi, Chenhui Zhu
Thanks to experiments at the Swiss Light Source SLS, a Swiss research team have resolved a long-standing debate surrounding laser additive manufacturing processes with a pioneering approach to defect detection.
The progression of laser additive manufacturing — which involves 3D printing of metallic objects using powders and lasers — has often been hindered by unexpected defects. Traditional monitoring methods, such as thermal imaging and machine learning algorithms, have shown significant limitations. They often either overlook defects or misinterpret them, making precision manufacturing elusive and barring the technique from essential industries like aeronautics and automotive manufacturing. But what if it were possible to detect defects in real time based on the differences in the sound the printer makes during a flawless print and one with irregularities? Up until now, the prospect of detecting these defects this way was deemed unreliable. However, a research team from EPFL, Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) have successfully challenged this assumption.
Roland Logé, head of the Laboratory of Thermomechanical Metallurgy at EPFL who led the study, stated, “There’s been an ongoing debate regarding the viability and effectiveness of acoustic monitoring for laser-based additive manufacturing. Our research not only confirms its relevance but also underscores its advantage over traditional methods.”
This research is of paramount importance to the industrial sector as it introduces a groundbreaking, yet cost-effective solution to monitor and improve the quality of products made through Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). Lead researcher, Milad Hamidi Nasab, remarked, “The synergy of synchrotron X-ray imaging with acoustic recording provides real-time insight into the LPBF process, facilitating the detection of defects that could jeopardize product integrity.” In an era where industries continuously strive for efficiency, precision, and waste reduction, these innovations not only result in significant cost savings but also boost the dependability and security of manufactured products.
LPBF is a cutting-edge method that’s reshaping metal manufacturing. Essentially, it uses a high-intensity laser to meticulously melt minuscule metal powders, creating layer upon layer to produce detailed 3D metallic constructs. Think of LPBF as the metallic version of a conventional 3D printer, but with an added degree of sophistication. Rather than melted plastic, it employs a fine layer of microscopic metal powder, which can vary in size from the thickness of a human hair to a fine grain of salt (15–100 μm). The laser moves across this layer, melting specific patterns based on a digital blueprint. This technique enables the crafting of bespoke, complex parts like lattice structures or distinct geometries, with minimal excess. Nevertheless, this promising method isn’t devoid of challenges.
When the laser interacts with the metal powder, creating what is known as a melt pool, it fluctuates between liquid, vapor, and solid phases. Occasionally, due to variables such as the laser’s angle or the presence of specific geometrical attributes of the powder or of the part, the process might falter. These instances, termed “inter-regime instabilities”, can sometimes prompt shifts between two melting methods, known as “conduction” and “keyhole” regimes. During unstable keyhole regimes, when the molten powder pool delves deeper than intended, it can create pockets of porosity, culminating in structural flaws in the end product. To facilitate the measurement of the width and depth of the melt pool in X-ray images, the Image Analysis Hub of the Center for Imaging developed an approach that makes it easier to visualize small changes associated with the liquid metal and a tool for annotating the melt pool geometry.
Read more on PSI website
Image: By studying 3D metal printing in action simultaneously with X-rays imaging at the TOMCAT beamline and acoustic measurements, the research team could learn which sounds corresponded to defects in printing.
Credit:EFPL / Titouan Veuillet
DNA damage to the genetic material DNA drives cancer, ageing, and cell death. Therefore, DNA repair is crucial for all organisms, and a deeper understanding of this basic function helps us better comprehend how life around us survives and thrives. An international team of researchers has now revealed how the enzyme photolyase efficiently channels the energy of sunlight into DNA repair chemistry.
All life under the sun must cope with harmful UV rays. UV damage can take many forms, but DNA, the molecule that carries the genetic information of all living organisms, is especially vulnerable. For instance, UV can drive chemical cross-linking reactions of DNA, potentially introducing errors into the genetic code. This cross-linking can lead to cell death or – in the worst cases – mutagenesis and cancer. Such damage is not uncommon; under bright sunlight, a human skin cell can undergo 50-100 cross linking reactions per second.
“To survive, life has evolved powerful DNA repair mechanisms. One especially elegant solution is provided by the enzyme photolyase,” explains DESY scientist Thomas J. Lane, who is also a researcher in the Cluster of Excellence “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter” at Universität Hamburg. The enzyme uses sunlight to repair damage caused by sunlight. Photolyase is able to recognize the location where UV irradiation has cross-linked DNA and grabs onto those bits of damaged DNA. Then, it can capture a blue photon from the sun, and use it to perform repair chemistry, turning the DNA back into its original, healthy form.
To better understand how photolyase works, the scientists were particularly interested first in the form of the enzyme immediately after absorbing a photon, but before repairing the DNA. Second, they wanted to find out the exact sequence of bond-breaking chemical reactions necessary to turn damaged DNA into healthy DNA. As a third step, the team sought to better understand how photolyase can specifically recognize which DNA is damaged.
Conducting time-resolved crystallography at the SwissFEL X-ray free-electron laser of PSI the scientists were able to capture the excited state of the photolyase chromophore, letting them understand how the enzyme efficiently channels the energy of sunlight into DNA repair chemistry. “This research was only made possible by the recent development of X-ray free-electron laser sources. Their intense femtosecond-duration pulses let us record flash X-ray photographs that freeze all atomic motion so that we can follow the reaction step by step at the speed of molecules,” says first author Nina-Eleni Christou from DESY.
Read more on PSI website
Image: PSI researcher Camila Bacellar is pleased about the success in precisely analysing the DNA repair enzyme photolyase at the Alvra beamline of the Swiss X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL.
Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer
Our cells use an ensemble of histone proteins to fold and package the DNA genome into the nucleus. Histones also determine whether to expose DNA to enzymes to allow processes like gene expression, replication, and repair to occur. Although many in vitro studies have explored the mechanism histones use to fold and package DNA into higher-order structures called chromatin, less is known about chromatin organisation inside the nucleus of intact cells, and understanding this phenomenon could be key to understanding multiple DNA-associated processes. Recent advances in cryo-electron tomography have enabled scientists to observe these structures within the nucleus of rapidly cryopreserved cells. Reporting in Nature Communications, scientists at the University of Oxford collaborated with the electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) at the Diamond Light Source to capture chromatin in the nucleus of immune T cells, revealing that DNA is folded into more flexible and heterogenous fibres than previously modelled. Their experiments lay the groundwork for future studies into the roles of chromatin in health and disease.
Have you ever rushed to pack clothes into a suitcase and skipped the folding step only to find the suitcase wouldn’t close? Though it may have been a struggle, it doesn’t compare to the challenge our cells face when they pack 2 metres of DNA into a nucleus 200,000 times smaller in width. Here an efficient folding mechanism is key, and histone proteins direct the operation.
A complex of histone proteins act as a spool around which 147 base pairs of DNA can wind like thread. Multiple histone spools called nucleosomes can be found along the length of a DNA molecule and coil its strands into so-called chromatin. When chromatin is purified and observed using electron microscopy, scientists have observed that nucleosomes are spaced apart at regular intervals like beads on a string. These beads can then cluster together to form thicker chromatin fibres that pack the DNA into an even smaller volume.
Beyond efficiently folding DNA to fit inside the nucleus, histones play vital roles in regulating gene expression, DNA replication, and repair by loosening or tightening their grip on DNA and controlling its exposure to enzymes. An in-depth understanding of the folding mechanism could help researchers understand how chromatin affects multiple processes within the nucleus.
Read more on the Diamond website
The ESRF Council has appointed Jean Daillant as the next Director General of the ESRF, the European Synchrotron.
A soft matter physicist, Jean Daillant has been Director General of the SOLEIL synchrotron since 2011. Under his guidance, SOLEIL has become a leading facility among the medium-energy synchrotron radiation sources. He is the current Chair of LEAPS, the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources, which aims to promote scientific excellence and strengthen the cooperation between synchrotron and X-ray free electron laser facilities to support an innovative and sustainable European Research Area. He also holds the role of Spokesperson of the Analytical Research Infrastructures in Europe (ARIE).
Jean Daillant will take over on 1 September 2024 from Francesco Sette, who, during a close to sixteen-year mandate, has overseen the implementation of the entire Upgrade Programme of the ESRF to become the world’s first and leading fourth-generation high-energy synchrotron radiation source.
“The Council extends a heartfelt welcome to Jean in his new role as Director General, and is looking forward to collaborating with him to steer the ESRF towards a bright future amidst challenging circumstances,” states Prof. Helmut Dosch, Chair of the ESRF Council.
Francesco Sette says: “I congratulate Jean on his appointment and welcome him on board on behalf of all of us at the ESRF. I wish him a lot of success in leading the ESRF in the years to come, keeping the facility at the forefront of X-ray science.”
Jean Daillant says: “I feel deeply honoured to be joining the ESRF to serve as Director General. Succeeding Francesco, who has so successfully lead the facility for many years, is a challenge I am taking on with humility. EBS provides extraordinary opportunities for scientific creativity that I will be most excited to develop further, together with the ESRF staff and the wider scientific community.”
Read more on ESRF website
Scientists have revealed how lattice vibrations and spins talk to each other in a hybrid excitation known as an electromagnon. To achieve this, they used a unique combination of experiments at the X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL. Understanding this fundamental process at the atomic level opens the door to ultrafast control of magnetism with light.
Within the atomic lattice of a solid, particles and their various properties cooperate in wave like motions known as collective excitations. When atoms in a lattice jiggle together, the collective excitation is known as a phonon. Similarly, when the atomic spins – the magnetisation of the atoms – move together, it’s known as a magnon.
The situation gets more complex. Some of these collective excitations talk to each other in so-called hybrid excitations. One such hybrid excitation is an electromagnon. Electromagnons get their name because of the ability to excite the atomic spins using the electric field of light, in contrast to conventional magnons: an exciting prospect for numerous technical applications. Yet their secret life at an atomic level is not well understood.
It’s been suspected that during an electromagnon the atoms in the lattice wiggle and the spins wobble in an excitation that is essentially a combination of a phonon and a magnon. Yet since they were first proposed in 2006, only the spin motion has ever been measured. How the atoms within the lattice move – if they move at all – has remained a mystery. So too has an understanding of how the two components talk to each other.
Now, in a sophisticated series of experiments at the Swiss X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL, researchers at PSI have added these missing pieces to the jigsaw. “With a better understanding of how these hybrid excitations work, we can now start to look into opportunities to manipulate magnetism on an ultrafast timescale,” explains Urs Staub, head of the Microscopy and Magnetism Group at PSI, who led the study.
First the atoms, then the spins
In their experiments at SwissFEL, the researchers used a terahertz laser pulse to induce an electromagnon in a crystal of multiferroic hexaferrite. Using time-resolved X-ray diffraction experiments they then took ultrafast snapshots of how the atoms and spins moved in response to the excitation. With this, they proved both that the atoms within the lattice really do move in an electromagnon and also revealed how energy is transferred between lattice and spin.
A striking outcome of their study was that the atoms move first, with the spins moving fractionally later. When the terahertz pulse strikes the crystal, the electric field pushes the atoms into motion, initiating the phononic part of the electromagnon. This motion creates an effective magnetic field that subsequently moves the spins.
“Our experiments revealed that the excitation does not move the spins directly. It was previously unclear whether this would be the case,” explains Hiroki Ueda, beamline scientist at SwissFEL and the first author of the publication.
Going further, the team could also quantify how much energy the phononic component acquires from the terahertz pulse and how much energy the magnonic component acquires through the lattice. “This is an important piece of information for future applications in which one seeks to drive the magnetic system,” adds Ueda.
Read more on PSI website
Image: Hiroki Ueda, first author of the paper, working at the new Furka experimental at SwissFEL Here, using soft X-rays, Ueda and colleagues could reveal the motion of the spins during an electromagnon, complementing hard X-ray measurements of lattice vibrations made at the Bernina experimental station.
Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer
Using CMCF beamline, researchers from Hospital for Sick Children decode how human antibodies protect us against malaria
Researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) recently decoded how human antibodies protect us from the malaria parasite, which kills more than 600,000 people worldwide annually. The CMCF facility at the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan helped them identify the precise structures involved in identifying and fighting off the disease.
“The key question that we hoped to address was what made a protective antibody protect? What makes it tick, what makes it better than some that might not be so protective and might not be so potent?” says SickKids researcher Elaine Thai.
They were able to see that protective antibodies lock on to a vulnerable point on the malaria parasite in a specific form, making it easier to neutralize the infection.
The results, published in Cell Reports, point to a way forward to better treatments and vaccines.
While there are two vaccines approved today, they can only be used on the very young, have limited protective power, and the effects fade over time. Researchers can take the maps created by projects like this to engineer better tools for healthcare.
Read more on Canadian Light Source website
Researchers from Universidad de Castilla la Mancha, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences – CSIC proved the potential of wine production residues as biopesticides in agriculture, thus reducing the waste management problem and contributing to a circular economy. Their work shows that recycled biochar from grape pomace is effective to reduce the parasitic nematode infection of tomato plants in pots. Biochar characterization by synchrotron light infrared spectroscopy was performed at MIRAS beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron.
Cerdanyola del Vallès, 22nd November 2023 The large amount of grape waste generated after wine production can be transformed into a valuable product such as biochar, a form of charcoal. A new published study shows that biochar soil amendments can help to control the infection of a group of plant parasitic nematodes: the root-knot nematodes.
Nematodes are a big group of invertebrates also known as roundworms. They are among the most widespread pests and can be found in almost every crop worldwide, causing annual global agriculture losses of approximately $125 billion. In particular, root-knot nematodes parasite plants penetrating the roots and inducing knots or galls. The plant becomes their host and will nourish them until life cycle completion.
Root-knot nematode infection is difficult to eradicate and usually requires the use of toxic nematicides that are banned in most countries. In this sense, the research team, formed by scientists from the Universidad de Castilla la Mancha (UCLM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ICA-CSIC), proposes the use of biochar as an environmentally friendly and economic alternative.
To run the studies, tomato plants were infected withMeloidogyne javanica, a root-knot nematode, and grown in hydroponic system over a clay sandy substrate mixed with different proportions of biochar. After several days of post-inoculation, nematode infection progression was analysed. The infective and reproductive traits of a Meloidogyne javanica population in tomato were significantly reduced (egg masses and eggs per plant) for the biochar pyrolyzed at 350ºC.
In parallel, researchers performed a complete characterization of biochar after a thermal treatment (pyrolysis at 350ºC and 700ºC) by determining their elemental composition and analysing the particulate structure. To do so they use, among other techniques, infrared spectroscopy at MIRAS beamline of ALBA. The analysis with synchrotron light enabled scientist to visualize the large changes in the biomolecular composition of biochar, occurring during grape pomace pyrolysis.
Read more on ALBA website
Researchers from the Laboratory of Protein Structure at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, led by Prof. Marcin Nowotny, used the KRIOS cryoelectron microscope located at the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre to study the human TRPM8 protein.
The structure they obtained will enable a better understanding of the binding mechanism of small-molecule compounds affecting the activity of this ion channel. It will facilitate the design of new small-molecule compounds that can be used as therapeutics to treat numerous diseases associated with TRPM8 protein, such as neuropathic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, oropharyngeal dysphagia, chronic cough, and hypertension. As an example, in collaboration with scientists from Italy led by Dr. Carmine Talarico of Dompé Farmaceutici SpA, they have performed modeling of the binding of icilin, a small-molecule compound showing 200 times stronger TRPM8 channel activation than menthol.
Read more on SOLARIS website
Image: Structure of human cold receptor TRPM8
Credit: Mariusz Czarnocki-Cieciura
Every year the PSI Founder Fellowship Programme supports new ideas for innovative applications with up to 150,000 Swiss francs. Whether smart glass or music restoration at the synchrotron – the resulting spin-offs are as diverse as the research at PSI.
Glass is no modern invention – in fact, archaeological finds show that this material has been manufactured and used by humans for more than 5,000 years. Glass is not only used as a vessel for fine wines – optical lenses are also ground from glass to make the smallest or most distant objects visible. Our communications flow through glass fibres in optical cables. Windows keep out the wind and rain while letting light pass through. The translucent material finds application in numerous areas of our civilisation. Yet glass is not just glass – we adapt it to our needs and reinvent it more or less constantly.
Barbara Horvath works with glass. The materials scientist, a candidate for the PSI Founder Fellowship, has been working to establish her spin-off Inveel since August of this year. Using tiny nanowires, the young entrepreneur wants to print electrodes on glass, for example to change its optical and electrical properties.
Smart glass
“One possible application for our technology is socalled switchable glass – also called smart glass,” Horvath explains. “That is a special material that can turn opaque, transparent dark or coloured, automatically or at the touch of a button.” This capability is enabled by a thin nanostructured coating sandwiched between two panes of glass. When electrical charges are applied to this layer, it becomes optically active and can change its colour as a result. This not only puts privacy at your fingertips, but can also be used to regulate the temperature in buildings.
The invention itself is not new. Such glass is already in use for windows in modern office buildings and aircraft, for example. However, producing them is very complex and thus costly. “To be able to apply the weak electrical charges to the switchable glass, thin wires must be accommodated – so thin that they will not impair visibility,” Horvath explains.
During her work at PSI, Horvath and her group leader Helmut Schift developed a method for the production of such fine conductor tracks. “Our method makes it possible to produce wires with a diameter of around one hundred nanometres,” the scientist explains. It functions much like a printer: nanoparticles are applied as liquid droplets and fuse together to form linear structures. This allows large areas to be printed with extremely fine, parallel conductors. Using conductive materials such as silver and gold, a wide variety of surfaces can be furnished with invisible electronics quickly and inexpensively.
Switchable glass is just one possible application. The nanowires could also be used to change the direction of polarisation of incident light in the glass so that only certain wavelengths penetrate. This could be used, for example, for temperature control in greenhouses or for laser protection in eyeglasses. “In the laboratory, we have shown that the technology works in principle,” Horvath adds. “The Founder Fellowship has now made it possible for us to take the next step towards practical applications.”
Read more on PSI website
Image: Barbara Horvath wants to use thin nanowires to alter the optical and electrical properties of glass.
Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer
