A L i g h t f o r S c i e n c e

Number 74 December 2016

Soft matter Untangling complex systems

Hair reveals trip to dentist Microbe hints at RNA world

ESRFDec16COVER-2.indd 1 07/11/2016 15:53

X-Ray Spectroscopy

Exciting news….. SGX Sensortech (MA) Ltd is now RaySpec Ltd!

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Improved Resolution & Count Rates Single and Multi-Sensor SDD Detectors

RaySpec Multi-element detectors take advantage of the latest CUBE® and JFET developments in sensor readout and next generation Digital Pulse Processors to offer improved resolution and higher count rates. Example of single sensor design Example of multi-sensor design with UHV compatibility Design Features

X-Ray Spectroscopy  X-Ray Spectroscopy 1 to 19+ channels X-Ray Spectroscopy  Sensors with active areasX- Rofa y10, S30,pe 65,ct r100os c& o170mm2py Exciting news…..  Resolution from 126eV SGXSGX SensortechSensortechExciting (MA)news….. Ltd is now SGX SensortechRaySpec P/B (MA)>15k Ltd! Ltd is now RaySpec Focused Ltd!or planar sensor arrangements SDDSDD detectorsdetectors forfor beambeam-line High applications count rate to >4Mcps SDD detectors for beamExciting-line applications news….. ImprovedImproved ResolutionResolution && CountCount RatesRates Single Windows: and ThinMulti Polymer-Sensor / Beryllium SDD / Silicon Detectors Nitride / Improved Resolution & Count Rates SingleWindowless and Multi -Sensor SDD Detectors RaySpecRaySpec Multi Multi--elementelement detectorsdetectors taketake advantageadvantage ofof thethe SGXlatestlatest Sensortech Custom (MA) collimation Ltd andis applicationnow specific designs RaySpec Multi-element detectors take advantage of the latest CUBE®CUBE® andand JFETJFET developmentsdevelopments inin sensorsensor readoutreadout andand nextnext CUBE® and JFET developments in sensor readout and next generationgeneration DigitalDigital PulsePulse ProcessorsProcessors toto offeroffer improvedimproved resolutionresolution  High solid angle generation Digital Pulse Processors to offer improved resolution and higher count rates. Example of single sensor design Example of multi-sensor design with and higher count rates. Example of single sensor design Example of multi-sensor design with and higher count rates. RaySpec Ltd! Example of multi-sensor design with CUBE detectors offer improved resolution at shorter peaking times Example ofSlide single options: sensor design manual / adapted forUHV translation compatibility tables UHV compatibility CUBE® - Registered trademark of XGLAB Design Features  Gate valve and bellowsDesignDesign available Features Features for UHV compatibility

 1 to 19+ channels  11 toto 19+ 19+ channels channels  Sensors with active areas of 10, 30, 65, 100 & 170mm2  SensorsSensors with with active active areas areas of of10, 10, 30, 30, 65, 65,100 100 & 170mm2& 170mm2  Resolution from 126eV  ResolutionResolution from from 126eV 126eV  Examples of Customised Designs SDD detectors for beam-line P/BP/B applications >15k>15k  FocusedFocused or or planar planar sensor sensor arrangements arrangements  HighHigh count count rate rate to to >4Mcps >4Mcps  Windows:Windows: Thin Thin Polymer Polymer / Beryllium/ Beryllium / Silicon / Silicon Nitride Nitride / // WindowlessWindowless Improved Resolution & Count Rates Single CustomCustom and collimation collimation Multi -and Sensorand application application SDD specific specific Detectors designs designs  HighHigh solid solid angle angle CUBECUBECUBE detectors detectors detectors offer offer offer improved improved improved resolutionresolution resolution atat atshortershorter shorter peakingpeaking peaking timestimestimes  SlideSlide options: options: manualmanual / /adapted adapted for for translation translation tables tablestables CUBE®CUBE®CUBE® - - Registered Registered - Registered trademark trademark trademark ofof of XGLABXGLAB XGLAB  Gate valve and bellows available for UHV compatibility 4 Sensor Gate ‘Beam valve Through and bellows’ Detector available for UHV4 Sensor compatibility Vertical Circular Focused Array SDD Focused Array SDD RaySpec Multi-element detectors take advantage of the latest ExamplesExamples of of Customised Customised Designs Designs CUBE® and JFET developments in sensor readout and next

generation Digital Pulse Processors to offer improved resolution 4 Sensor ‘Beam Through’ Detector 4 Sensor Vertical 4 SensorCircular ‘‘Beam Focused Through Array’ SDD Detector Focused4 Sensor Array VerticalVertical SDD Circular Focused Array SDD Focused ArrayArray SDDSDD RaySpecand higher SDD detectorscount rates. - compatible with the latest Digital Pulse Proces- Example of single sensor designWindowless Example SDD of multi-sensor design with 7 Sensor Circular Modular SDD sors from XIA and Quantum Detectors with input count rates >3Mcps design for UHV Focused Array SDD UHV compatibility Vacuum Compatible

RaySpec SDD detectors - compatible with the latest Digital Pulse Proces- Windowless SDD 7 Sensor Circular Modular SDD RaySpecRaySpecsors SDD SDD from detectors detectors XIA and - Quantum -compatible compatible Detectors withwith the thewith latest latest input countDigitalDigital rates PulsePulse >3Mcps Proces-Proces- design for UHV Focused Array SDD Windowless SDD VacuumModular Compatible SDD 77 Sensor Circular Modular SDD RaySpecsorssors from from has XIAa XIA distinguished and and Quantum Quantum heritage Detectors Detectors in the with with manufacture input input countcount of rates ratesdetectors >3Mcps>3Mcps for energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. PreviouslydesignDesign known for Features UHV as Gresham, Vacuume2v scientific Compatible and FocusedFocused Array SDD Vacuum Compatible SGX Sensortech,RaySpec has RaySpec a distinguished specialises heritage in producing in the manufacture detectors fromof detectors standard for designsenergy dispersivethrough customised x-ray spectroscopy. assemblies Previously to complex known mul as Gresham,ti-element e2v detectors. scientific and RaySpecRaySpecSGX has hasSensortech, a a distinguished distinguished RaySpec heritagespecialisesheritage in in in thethe producing manufacturemanufacture detectors ofof detectorsdetectors from standard forfor energyenergy designs dispersivedispersive through customisedx--rayray spectroscopy.spectroscopy. assemblies Previously to complex known multi as-element Gresham, detectors. e2v scientific andand SGXSGX Sensortech, Sensortech, RaySpec RaySpec specialises specialises in in producing producing detectorsdetectors fromfrom standardstandard designsdesigns throughthrough customised assemblies to complex multi-element detectors. RaySpec Ltd Tel:Tel: +44 +44 (0) (0) 1628 1628 533 533 060 060 RaySpecSirius Ltd House, Watery Lane, High Wycombe, HP10 0AP, UK  1 to 19+ channelsEmail:Tel: [email protected] +44 (0) 1628 533 060 RaySpecRaySpec Ltd Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1628 533 060 SiriusSirius House, House, Watery Watery Lane, Lane, High High Wycombe, Wycombe, HP10HP10 0AP,0AP, UKUK Email: [email protected] Sirius House, Watery Lane, High Wycombe, HP10 0AP, UK  Sensors with active areas of 10, 30, 65, 100 & 170mm2

Ad.indd 1 02/11/2016 15:38  Resolution from 126eV  P/B >15k  Focused or planar sensor arrangements  High count rate to >4Mcps  Windows: Thin Polymer / Beryllium / Silicon Nitride / Windowless  Custom collimation and application specific designs  High solid angle CUBE detectors offer improved resolution at shorter peaking times  Slide options: manual / adapted for translation tables CUBE® - Registered trademark of XGLAB  Gate valve and bellows available for UHV compatibility

Examples of Customised Designs

4 Sensor ‘Beam Through’ Detector 4 Sensor Vertical Circular Focused Array SDD Focused Array SDD

RaySpec SDD detectors - compatible with the latest Digital Pulse Proces- Windowless SDD 7 Sensor Circular Modular SDD sors from XIA and Quantum Detectors with input count rates >3Mcps design for UHV Focused Array SDD Vacuum Compatible

RaySpec has a distinguished heritage in the manufacture of detectors for energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. Previously known as Gresham, e2v scientific and SGX Sensortech, RaySpec specialises in producing detectors from standard designs through customised assemblies to complex multi-element detectors.

RaySpec Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1628 533 060 Sirius House, Watery Lane, High Wycombe, HP10 0AP, UK Email: [email protected] Contents The European Synchrotron

ESRFnews Number 74 December 2016

EDITORIAL 5 Soft science, strong impact

IN BRIEF 6 ESRF user wins award 6 User meeting coming soon 7 Scientists glimpse X-ray ghosts 7 EPN campus welcomes international students 7 Smart window saves energy First EBS dipoles assembled in-house, p9. 7 Conferences prove popular

ESRF–EBS NEWS 8 New buildings take shape 8 EBS seminar 8 MAC praises developments 9 First dipoles assembled 9 Engineers test girder’s warp factor

10 USER CORNER

FEATURES 12 Hair betrays toxic procedure 13 Secret from the abyss

X-ray analysis of a hair strand reveals past dental work, p12. FOCUS ON: SOFT MATTER 15 Into the soft matter hub 16 Mimicking nature’s self-assembly 19 Shear success for opal fi lms 21 Slugging it out 23 A soft spot for the ESRF 25 An essential partnership

PORTRAIT 27 Why Jean Daillant likes soft matter

INDUSTRY 28 Jaguar Land Rover makes car foams safer

Scientists mimic self-assembly of natural proteins, p16. MOVERS AND SHAKERS 28 Helmut Schober; Robert Feidenhans’l; Amina Taleb-Ibrahimi; Laurent Chapon

BEAUTY OF SCIENCE A L i g h t f o r S c i e n c e 30 Full-fi eld diffraction probes silicon electrodes

Number 74 December 2016 IN THE CORRIDORS Soft matter Untangling complex systems 30 XFEL starts commissioning; #empty comes to the ESRF; mysterious X-rays come and go; rare fl ower spotted

Hair reveals On the cover: trip to dentist Microbe hints Microtomography at RNA world of a cross-section of car safety foam (p28)

December 2016 ● ESRFnews 3

ESRFDec16CONTENTS_p03-3.indd 3 07/11/2016 15:53 detecting the future

EIGER X 500K

Utmost speed for cutting-edge science

- Frame rates up to 9000 Hz - Economic base model - Gapless sensor - Compact housing - Optional vacuum compatibility

synchrotron [email protected] | www.dectris.com Editorial Soft science, strong impact

Editor Soft matter science is a truly interdisciplinary field of research, crossing the traditional borders Jon Cartwright Tel +44 (0)7424 304 570 between condensed matter, physical chemistry, biophysics, and bio, chemical and materials E-mail [email protected] engineering. In simple terms, soft matter refers to anything that feels soft to the touch.

Editorial committee More scientifically, it refers to a variety of physical systems that have a characteristic energy Gary Admans scale comparable to room-temperature thermal fluctuations, but have structures organised Nick Brookes Delphine Chenevier over much larger scales than regular solids. That definition includes liquids, liquid crystals, Andy Fitch colloids, polymers, detergents, foams, gels, granular materials and of course many biological Axel Kaprolat materials. Michael Krisch Gordon Leonard Joanne McCarthy This year, the ESRF had the privilege of organising, together with the ILL and local Edward Mitchell Pantaleo Raimondi institutions, the International Soft Matter Conference (p15). The conference helped to Harald Reichert showcase the EPN Science campus’s synchrotron and neutron activities, which are ideally Francesco Sette Jean Susini suited to the investigation of the structural organisation of soft matter. Indeed, the ESRF has had a strong portfolio in the field from the outset. At present, activity related to soft matter Contributors corresponds to roughly one-eighth of accepted proposals, and in the last five years has Montserrat Capellas Espuny Anya Joly generated more than 1000 publications.

Subscription Chantal Argoud One of the main reasons users studying soft matter come For subscriptions to the digital version of to the ESRF is that soft-matter systems of interest today ESRFnews (print subscriptions are no “The EBS will longer possible), visit http://www.esrf.eu/ are complex, and involve a hierarchy of structural scales: all UsersAndScience/Publications/Newsletter of these can be accessed in reciprocal space by scattering bring a paradigm methods, with nanobeams allowing us to see the larger ESRFnews is produced for the ESRF by shift for soft IOP Publishing range in real space. Other reasons are the high brilliance Temple Circus of the ESRF’s X-rays, which allow users to investigate time matter research” Temple Way Bristol BS1 6HG, UK dependent effects following an external perturbation, and Tel +44 (0)117 929 7481 the X-rays’ high coherence, which allows the probing of www.iop.org equilibrium dynamics in these systems. Finally, soft-matter Managing editor processes often take place at interfaces, which can be Susan Curtis Art director studied with surface-sensitive X-ray scattering. Andrew Giaquinto Production Probing the pathways of soft-matter, biomimetic and bioinspired self-assembly in the bulk Alison Gardiner Technical illustrator and at interfaces (p16), the slow dynamics of arrested systems such as gels and glasses, and Alison Tovey the elucidation of biological structure–function relations (p23) are some of the active areas Display-advertisement manager Edward Jost of soft-matter research to which the ESRF has contributed – not to mention various industry Advertisement production collaborations (p21). Of growing importance is the establishment, jointly with the ILL, of Mark Trimnell Marketing and circulation the Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter (p25), which helps users to make better use of Angela Gage our infrastructure by offering sample preparation facilities, complementary characterisation

ISSN 1011-9310 techniques and a platform for scientific discussion and collaboration.

©2016 ESRF Until now, X-ray scattering has been the primary technique at the ESRF for soft matter research. That will change with the Extremely Brilliant Source, which will see the X-ray coherence boosted by two orders of magnitude. Indeed, the source upgrade, together with higher specification detectors, will bring about a paradigm shift for soft matter research, allowing unprecedented time resolution in dynamic studies and lens-less coherent diffractive imaging for the direct imaging of complex structures at the nanoscale.

Theyencheri Narayanan, former head of soft matter group Jean Susini, director of research for life sciences

December 2016 l ESRFnews 5

ESRFDec16EDITORIAL-p05-7.indd 5 07/11/2016 15:54 In brief L’ORÉAL FOUNDATION L’ORÉAL Prizewinner Caroline Bissardon at work at the FAME beamline. ESRF user wins L’Oréal-UNESCO award

A regular ESRF user has won a little can lead to the onset of absorption near edge structure international collaborations. coveted award that highlights osteoarthritis. Conversely, too (XANES) spectroscopy and Named after the cosmetics the importance of women in much selenium in the body can Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) company and the United science. Caroline Bissardon, a be toxic. Bissardon, 25, has spent microscopy. Nation’s cultural agency that PhD student at the University her PhD trying to understand “The subject of my thesis was founded them, the L’Oréal– of Grenoble–Alpes in France the biochemical, biological quite unexplored until now”, UNESCO awards are designed and the University of Swansea and biomechanical impact of says Bissardon, who is starting a to “promote and highlight in the UK, received the €15,000 the element in cartilage tissue. postdoc this winter at the ESRF the critical importance of L’Oréal–UNESCO Award for Her research is based to a great with the University of Grenoble ensuring greater participation of Women in Science for her extent on studies performed at Alpes. “To gain recognition women in science”. Bissardon’s research into the impact of the ID16A beamline and BM30B as prestigious as this means prize was one of 30 awarded selenium in cartilage. (FAME)”, a French collaborating that my work is going in the to a “generation of young Selenium is one of the body’s research group beamline, right direction.” She intends to researchers” in France out essential trace elements, and using techniques such as X-ray use the prize money to attend of more than 1000 PhD and research has shown that too Fluorescence Microscopy, X-ray conferences and establish postdoc applicants. User Meeting coming soon Save the date and come to the of resonant inelastic X-ray 2017 ESRF User Meeting, which scattering, quantitative coherent will take place from 6–8 February. X-ray diffraction imaging and The User Organisation Committee “operando” structural studies (UOC), which plays a central role in materials science, will give in the meeting’s organisation, says attendees an opportunity to that the event will be a unique present their research to fellow opportunity for users to talk with users and staff, and will explore one another, ESRF staff and ESRF the new science enabled by Phase I management about their science of the Upgrade Programme. and ideas, for now and the future. One of the plenary day sessions The UOC and the ESRF will be dedicated to the flagship management have prepared a ESRF upgrade, the Extremely “rich and diverse” programme Brilliant Source, with presentations

including keynote lectures, the on its status and the outcome of its ARGOUD/ESRFC Young Scientist Award, user dedicated workshop taking place Users discuss ideas at last year’s User Meeting. poster clips, a poster session, in December. science, new possibilities and downloading its poster and the Director’s report and user- “The User Meeting is the new proposals,” says Joanne sharing it among colleagues. dedicated sessions with tutorials best forum for users to network McCarthy, Head of the ESRF ● More information, including the and three microsymposia. The directly with each other and with User Office. She encourages poster, is available at www.esrf. microsymposia, covering themes ESRF staff about ideas for new users to promote the event by eu/UM2017.

6 December 2016 l ESRFnews

ESRFDec16INBRIEF_p06-07-6.indd 6 07/11/2016 15:55 In brief Scientists see X-ray ghosts

The first demonstration of “ghost imaging” with X-rays has taken place at the ESRF beamline ID19. The new ability could lead to the development of low-dose medical X-ray diagnostics, and diffraction-imaging at X-ray free

electron lasers (XFELs). ENGINEERING OF SCHOOL COCKRELL Ghost imaging is an indirect Electrically darkened material. method of imaging in which most of the radiation never actually interacts with the sample. In its Smart window simplest form, it involves sending saves energy out two identical speckled beams. The sample transmits or An international team of scatters one of the beams to a researchers has invented a flexible

single-pixel “bucket” detector; APS “smart window” that can control meanwhile, the second, reference Ghost image (diagonal shadow in centre) of a metal wire the heat and light transmitted beam is imaged by a pixel-array through glass. The amorphous detector. The image is retrieved already been used for visible light of Technology in Australia and material, which the ESRF helped by correlating the bucket signals to improve satellite imagery of colleagues, suggests applications to characterise, could help to and the reference images, Earth, where the speckling results in medical diagnostics, where reduce heating bills for homes and and repeating the experiment from atmospheric turbulence, low X-ray doses are important, or businesses. many times, using different yet but not for X-rays until now. The in single-molecule diffraction at Some existing window coatings correlated speckle patterns. demonstration, by Daniele Pelliccia XFELs (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett. are amorphous metal-oxides, This type of technique has of the Royal Melbourne Institute 117.113902). produced at high temperature and with dense, three- dimensionally bonded structures. Now the research team, led by S CLAISSE Delia Milliron at the University of Texas at Austin in the US, has managed to create a linearly organised amorphous material made of chemically condensed niobium oxide. From X-ray scattering at the ESRF beamline ID15B (now ID15A), the scientists were able to show that the atoms formed one- dimensional chains, allowing ions to flow in and out freely. The material is flexible and electrochromic, meaning that a small electric charge can lighten or darken it, and control the transmission of near-infrared radiation. The team believes that it could be incorporated into windows, sunroofs and even curved glass surfaces (DOI: 10.1038/nmat4734). Popular conferences EPN campus welcomes international students Two conferences organised by the ESRF at the end of summer The joint ESRF–ILL International to working on large research Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark proved popular. The 2016 Student Summer Programme instruments, as well as a social and South Africa. Mostly in the International Workshops on on X-ray and Neutron Science programme to discover the local final stages of undergraduate Accelerator Alignment (IWAA) ran from 29 August to 23 culture and environment. science degrees, the students saw more than 130 participants September on the EPN campus. The 20 successful students chose to spend the last weeks gather at the synchrotron to join The event, which consisted of a were picked from more than of the summer in Grenoble to discussions on new and fast- four-week experimental project, 170 candidates and come from gain an insight into working changing alignment techniques. offered students a practical 10 different countries: Russia, with world-class research Meanwhile, the International Soft and theoretical introduction Norway, Israel, Hungary, the UK, technology. Matter Conference had some 700 attendees (see p15).

December 2016 l ESRFnews 7

ESRFDec16INBRIEF_p06-07-6.indd 7 07/11/2016 15:56 ESRF–EBS news C ARGOUD

ESRF-10 will house spare accelerator equipment New buildings take shape

The first of the new EBS buildings Work on the other EBS The 1100 m² surface area of be used as workshops to was completed in October. buildings is in progress. A total ESRF-01 will be used to assemble perform radiation activation Known as ESRF-10, the temporary of eight new buildings will be the girders for the new machine measurements on the building will be used to store constructed in the centre of the and, once this is completed, components removed from spare accelerator equipment, ring over the coming months to serve as a workshop. ESRF-02A the tunnel and storage before freeing up space in the technical house the multitude of activities and ESRF-02B, occupying an area final disposal. An extension to zones surrounding the accelerator generated by the EBS. of 500 m², will be used to store another existing building is also tunnel for the stockpiling of newly Ground preparation for the newly delivered components planned for November 2018 to arriving girders. The foundations main buildings, ESRF-01 and before and during the assembly provide a new location for the were laid in September and, in ESRF-02, kicked off in August phase. radio-frequency test stand and spite of bad weather, the building and continued throughout the Three temporary buildings, additional space to store radio- went up in a matter of days. autumn. ESRF-11, -12 and -13 will frequency components.

invited to inspect the newly EBS seminar MAC applauds progress delivered dipole magnets, and posters and a video detailed The next EBS Seminar will be The fourth Machine Advisory for the new EBS buildings. the complex dipole production held on Tuesday 6 December Committee (MAC) meeting Procurement is at an advanced process. The members also at 3.00 p.m. in the ESRF was held at the ESRF on 22 stage and the first deliveries are visited the mock-up of the ring Auditorium. Following on and 23 September. The panel already being made on site. tunnel in which the prototype from Michael Borland’s talk of 14 experts listened to 15 The highlight of the event girder is housed for tests. in November on the status of presentations from staff on was a visit to the Chartreuse “The MAC is very pleased the Advanced Photon Source the current status of the EBS Hall where the committee was with the progress since the last upgrade to the accelerator at the project, and provided advice meeting in April,” says MAC Argonne National Laboratory accordingly. chairman Richard Walker. “The in the US, this month Ferdinand The members were impressed project is on track and there Willeke, Associate Director by the progress made since We see no haven’t been any changes to for Accelerator Systems at the last MAC meeting in April, “ the major project milestones. Brookhaven National Laboratory including the assembly of a showstoppers The MAC therefore sees no in the US, will give a status report prototype dipole magnet, showstoppers at this stage for the on the NSLS II synchrotron. thermal tests of the prototype at this stage.” successful and timely realisation girder, and ground preparations of the project.”

8 December 2016 l ESRFnews

ESRFDec16EBS NEWS_p08-09-8.indd 10 07/11/2016 15:56 ESRF–EBS news First dipole magnets assembled SANDRACARDOT

The assembly of the first EBS enough to be squeezed into the “dipole” magnets has begun, EBS’s tight magnetic lattice. following the successful test Over the summer, a magnet of a prototype last month. The assembly area was set up in dipoles, which are responsible for the ESRF’s Chartreuse Hall in steering the electrons around the preparation for the dipoles’ synchrotron, will be assembled assembly, measurement and entirely in-house from more than calibration. Everything has been 60 tonnes of metal. designed by in-house experts – “Our team has valuable from the special assembly tool experience in permanent for inserting the magnets into magnet systems and magnetic the modules, to the stretched- measurements, gained over wire measurement benches, years of building various types which test the induced voltage of insertion devices,” says and thus the magnetic field of Joel Chavanne, head of the each magnet. Insertion Devices and Magnets A prototype dipole, consisting team. “Assembling the dipoles of its support, container blocks in-house will give us not only and magnets was delivered at full control over the assembly the end of August, and assembly process, but also a new began in September. The experience in terms of large, engineers inserted the magnets series-based permanent magnet into their modules before

systems and their associated field testing their magnetic fields C ARGOUD tuning.” and mounting them on their Maxime Paulin (top left) and Chamseddine Benabderrahmane assemble Rather than being just one support. The whole five-block a dipole. The empty dipole blocks arrived in September. magnet, each dipole actually module was then tested. “All the consists of some 100 samarium– measurements were within the used in a fourth-generation During September and cobalt permanent magnets, expected range – with no bad storage ring, thanks to the October, material to construct distributed between five surprises!” says Chamseddine lower cost of stable permanent the dipoles was delivered from as modules made of low-carbon Benabderrahmane, who is magnet materials. However, far afield as China, Germany, Italy steel. The overall assembly has in charge of procuring the the construction of large series and the UK. Consisting of more pure iron poles, and a mass of magnets. The prototype test of dipoles needs to be carefully than 13,000 high-performance 380 kg. Unlike electromagnets, served to refine the assembly, controlled to reach the required permanent magnets, 640 which are used elsewhere in the measurement and calibration magnetic field quality and so the magnet modules and 128 synchrotron, the dipoles require process. magnets are being assembled dipole supports, the material is neither power nor water cooling. The dipoles are the first in-house, taking advantage of expected to be assembled within This makes them compact permanent magnets to be ESRF expertise. a year. Engineers test girder’s warp factor SANDRA CARDOT ESRF engineers are performing Over the last few months, and maximum ventilation, the tests on girders to see whether ESRF engineers have constructed girder deformed by 35–40 µm, power cables can be channeled a mock enclosure within the which, the engineers felt, was too through them, without warping Chartreuse Hall similar to the large to be acceptable. the metal. EBS’s storage ring tunnel, to test Thermal studies are now Girders are primarily for a girder in normal ventilation underway to evaluate a new supporting magnets, but they conditions. The girder was configuration, in which the cables take up a lot of space in the equipped with 18 temperature are not placed inside the girder tunnel. Ideally, the electric sensors and 57 other sensors to but on two wide trays to one side, cables used to power the detect any geometric changes in facing the cooling pipes. magnets would be channeled the girder. The cables were then Jean-Francois Bouteille, Head through them, but there is a powered on with different levels of Power Supplies for the EBS, risk that the heat generated of tunnel ventilation. is confident that a solution in such a confined area will The results showed that the will be found. “Studies such distort the girders and affect the temperature rose a maximum as these show the vital role of alignment of the magnets above. of 31°C in the cable bundle. the ventilation of heat sources Alignment tolerances require There was no change in the around the girder,” he says. that movement is restricted to horizontal plane of the girder, but “They will ensure that we choose less than 50 µm in any direction, vertically, it deformed into a near- the most effective solutions for to ensure the accuracy of the symmetrical banana shape. Even the EBS, and save precious time Girder tested for warping in the beam positioning. with nominal current in the cables during the installation phase.” mock tunnel.

December 2016 l ESRFnews 9

ESRFDec16EBS NEWS_p08-09-8.indd 11 07/11/2016 15:57 User corner

News from the User Office News from the User Organisation Committee

The ESRF received 1154 the Beam Time Allocation Panel The ESRF User Organisation comments or ideas. E-mail proposals for the last submission meetings on 27 and 28 October. met in September to finalise the addresses for user-community deadline in September – another The next deadline for the organisation of the ESRF User representatives can be found at record for September and the submission of standard proposals Meeting, which will take place tinyurl.com/ESRFusers. third highest ever. Faster and is 1 March 2017. The next on 6–8 February 2017 (see p6). Finally, we are happy to more efficient experiments are deadline for long term proposals We would like to remind announce that the User ensuring that more of these – those for completion by the users that the User Organisation Organisation now has a Twitter proposals are being accepted, shutdown of December 2018 – is provides a direct link between account: @ESRF_UserOrg. maintaining an acceptance 15 January 2017. them and the ESRF management. Follow us and help to create a rate of more than 40%. The Joanne McCarthy, Head of the They are therefore welcome to connected ESRF user network. proposals were reviewed during User Office contact us with any questions, Paola Coan, chair of the UOC

News from the beamlines

l The full-field diffraction microscope on ID01 is open for proposals. It allows imaging under diffraction conditions with a spatial resolution of 200 nm at an X-ray energy of 20 keV, with use of refractive lenses and a high-resolution detector at a distance of 6.5 m that can rotate in the horizontal plane. Typical samples include thin films or nanostructures in operando conditions. l BM01B has been transferred from BM01 (where it was part of a CRG split beamline) to a new bending magnet port on BM31. The Swiss-Norwegian Beamlines (SNBL) consortium will continue Users from the Sion campus, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, assisted by SNBL staff at BM01B/BM31. to operate both beamlines as a joint facility, open to academic l ID11 has commissioned a new spectra of phosphorous shutdown, and ID29 will be and industrial users from Norway end station optimised for sub- compounds has been created completed during the winter and Switzerland for its private micron beamsizes (0.15–0.6 µm) by ID21 users, collaborators and shutdown. The FLEX-HCD on time and to all ESRF public and at high energies (30–60 keV). staff and is now available online these beamlines will be able industrial users for its ESRF time. This greatly enhances its at tinyurl.com/PspecXANES to operate both with Spine After a brief commissioning capabilities to exploit the l From October 2016 to May and Unipucks for a maximum period in July 2016, BM31 is smallest focal spot sizes. 2017, ID23-2 will undergo capacity of 312 sample holders. now in full operation. It has been l ID15A began commissioning a major upgrade. This will The ID23-2 FLEX-HCD will only designed specifically for in situ in September and was reopened include the installation of a support Unipucks. experiments, in which powder to users in November 2016. high-precision vertical axis l A diffraction/diffuse scattering and EXAFS data can be collected l Since September 2016, goniometer with dramatically side station is now available for quasi-simultaneously under Experimental Hutch 1 (EH1) at improved raster scanning speeds users at ID28. The new station identical experimental conditions. ID20 has been available to users and precision, a new sample can operate in parallel with l The LISA-BM08 CRG beamline for non-standard experiments. changer, and the addition of a the main inelastic scattering will carry out the first phase of its Users can choose between a new beam size of approximately branch, providing high-quality refurbishment in the first months focused beam of size 40 µm 1.5 × 1.5 µm2 FWHM. These mapping of reciprocal space. of 2017. A new double crystal (v) × 250 µm (h) and a highly upgrades should push the Diffuse scattering data contains monochromator will be installed as collimated beam of size 0.4 boundaries of the minimum information about the local well as the associated cryo-cooler. mm × 2 mm with a vertical crystal size that can be studied environment of defects, short- Si(111) and Si(311) crystal pairs will divergence of less than 10 µrad on ID23-2, and boost the range correlations, anomalies be available with an accessible and a horizontal divergence speed and data quality of serial of lattice dynamics, etc. Tandem energy range of 4.9–72 keV. Run of approximately 30 µrad. The crystallographic experiments. work with the inelastic scattering 1 of 2017 will be dedicated to the experiments can use all high- l New FLEX sample changer station will be mutually installation and commissioning resolution monochromator robots and high-capacity beneficial for both instruments. of the instrument, with users capabilities of ID20 and dewars (HCDs) are being It uses a wavelength of 0.5–1 Å foreseen for April in Run 2. The polarization conditioning using a installed on both ID23-1 and with a flux up to 1012 photons new focusing mirrors will arrive in double phase plate. ID29. Following the installation per second and a focal spot of

June and thus the first quarter of l Following the success of the of new experiment tables to 50 µm. A PILATUS 1M detector 2017 will be run without horizontal ID21 sulphur K-edge XANES accommodate the HCDs during is used with a heavy load Euler focalisation. Completion of the database, a similar database the summer shutdown, final goniostat, compatible for use new optics layout is scheduled for composed of more than installation on ID23-1 was with a cryostream, heat blower Run 5 in 2017. 30 K-edge XANES reference completed during the October or diamond anvil cells.

10 December 2016 l ESRFnews

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ESRFDec16_p11.indd 1 08/11/2016 09:42 Feature

Safety first?

Hair betrays toxic procedure

organisms at a cellular level. “Our study high spectral resolution at ID26 to address X-rays trace mercury to is so advanced because of the ESRF,” says the chemical state of any detected mercury. Manceau. “We couldn’t have done it at any Neither technique had been performed dental work carried out other synchrotron facility.” before for such low concentrations (down a year earlier. to 0.5 ppm) of an atomic species at such Health risk high resolution (the width of a human hair). Mercury itself is a toxin high on the “Based on our estimates, we thought we international agenda. Although concerns could do it,” says Pieter Glatzel, who is in Colette was no stranger to the dentist. about its presence in amalgam fillings are charge of ID26. “And it worked out.” Unnerved by the growth of a benign tumour generally deemed unwarranted, there is It was the nano-XRF that, in the case of in her mouth, she had opted to have all nine deserved unease about the metal leaking Colette, allowed Manceau and colleagues of her amalgam fillings removed, one at a to the environment from gold mining and to correlate a peak in mercury level some time, in case they were leaking toxic levels coal-fired power plants in particular. The 20 cm along the hair’s length with a dentist’s of mercury. In May 2014, with the fillings World Health Organization believes that up removal of a filling more than a year earlier long gone, she allowed Alain Manceau, an to 17 in 1000 children living in traditional (top figure). A XANES spectrum (bottom environmental scientist at Grenoble Alpes coastal villages suffer mercury-induced brain figure) confirmed that the mercury was University in France, to cut a sample of her disorders, having eaten fish contaminated by inorganically bonded, as it would be from an hair and take it to the ESRF. His group’s industrial waste. amalgam source – putting an end to the view analysis did indeed reveal a peak in mercury, Regular chemical analysis can detect the that such mercury can only be detected in the consistent with that from dental amalgam. presence of mercury in the body, and give blood and urine. Tests on samples from two Strikingly, it could also precisely correlate the an indication as to its source. The organically residents of Pará, Brazil, who regularly ate distance of that peak along the hair strand bonded mercury typical of seafood and drugs fish from contaminated rivers, demonstrated to the removal of Colette’s last filling, 478 is thought to end up in the hair, while the that XANES could also detect organic days earlier. inorganic and elemental mercury typical of mercury, specifically that bonded to methyl As it turned out, the peak indicated a electronics and amalgam fillings is thought to groups (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b03468). mercury level of just 0.74 parts per million end up in the blood and urine. The detection The researchers’ method is unlikely to be (ppm), far below anything considered of mercury in, say, the hair but not the urine used in the future to trace incidents of mercury dangerous. For that very reason, however, might point to the ingestion of contaminated exposure, except perhaps in high-profile “Our study is Manceau and colleagues’ study sets a new fish, but this would not be certain. Moreover, forensic cases. But Manceau believes that it benchmark for the techniques known routine analysis requires a sample with a mass could “blaze a trail” for the study of mercury so advanced as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray of at least several milligrams, which precludes and other toxic metals at low concentrations at absorption near-edge structure (XANES) higher resolution studies. very small scales. Indeed, he already has ideas because of the spectroscopy. It demonstrates that it is For their study, Manceau and colleagues to study the way mercury is processed within possible to uncover the bonding environment came to the ESRF with hair samples from rice grains and fish brain cells, which could ESRF.” of a metal at extremely low concentration, seven volunteers. The researchers performed help in the understanding of how toxins are in an almost vanishingly small sample. The nano-XRF at the ESRF beamline ID16B to amplified up the food chain. “It is fascinating, ability could pave the way for studies of map the elemental composition along the and totally new,” he says. how toxins like mercury are processed by hair strands, and XANES spectroscopy with Jon Cartwright ●

12 December 2016 l ESRFnews

ESRFDec16FEAT-Mercury RNA-p12-13-5.indd 12 07/11/2016 15:58 Feature “We couldn’t Secret from the abyss have done it at any other A recent ESRF study of an RONA P organism that lives in synchrotron.” hydrothermal vents helps trace our evolutionary past.

DNA makes RNA makes protein: crudely put, this is life how we know it. The DNA holds the genetic information, while the RNA takes a copy of that information so that a protein can be created from it. Proteins are the working agents of all living things, catalysing reactions that are essential for an organism’s survival – including the formation of DNA and RNA. It wasn’t always thus. Most biologists agree that, in the earliest stages of evolution, DNA and proteins were absent, and life consisted solely of RNA. In this “RNA world”, all genetic information was contained in RNA molecules, which could fold into catalysing shapes that forced other RNA molecules to duplicate Hair betrays toxic procedure themselves. At some point, nature found that one-day organisms could become more complex if the growth catalysing role was handed over to proteins and, ultimately, the genetic role was partially handed over to DNA. The RNA world is an attractive hypothesis, not least because it answers the question of whether it was the proteins or the nucleic acids

mercury level – DNA and RNA – that came first. Nonetheless, smaller chicken-and-egg questions remain. Microbes living in underwater vents reveal a In today’s DNA, RNA and protein world, for possible link to the primordial ‘RNA world’. example, two quintessential processes – the 19.5 20.0 20.5 21.0 synthesis of new DNA, and the transcription of to the ESRF beamline ID23, where they distance (cm) DNA onto RNA – involve a protein, specifically performed macromolecular crystallography a polymerase, latching onto a strand of DNA X-ray diffraction to obtain the crystal structure. and copying its information. For synthesis, “They have some of the best beamlines in this polymerase comes in a special type of Europe,” says Delarue. Remarkably, the architecture known as a “Klenow” fold, while catalytic core of PolD was unlike other for transcription, it comes in a “double-psi known DNA polymerases. Instead, it closely beta-barrel” (DPBB) fold. One would assume resembled the DPBB fold seen in RNA evolution started off with just one polymerase polymerase. The similarity suggests that both architecture. So what came first? DNA and RNA polymerase evolved from a The question is one that has bothered Marc common ancestor – one that was shaped Delarue of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, much like the RNA polymerase seen in life absorption and colleagues. By studying tiny organisms today (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12227). known as archaea with the ESRF, however, The work will help to paint a finer picture they now believe they have found an answer. of the transition from the RNA to DNA world, 12,280 12,380 12,320 Archaea are a group of life midway and it might help in the understanding of X-ray energy (eV) between bacteria and eukaryotes – the latter later evolution, too. The researchers are now representing plants, animals, fungi and many planning to examine the structure of the other organisms. Often living in extreme entire archaean PolD complex, which they environments, such as deep hydrothermal believe shares some building blocks with DNA Top: Nano-X-ray fluorescence locates a peak vents, they are thought to have evolved little polymerase from eukaryotes, a more advanced in mercury concentration 20.7 cm along the over the ages, and therefore offer a window form of life. “It looks like evolution was very hair strand, equivalent to 478 days’ growth. into what life might have been like, billions opportunistic and made use of existing ‘units’ Bottom: XANES spectra distinguish between of years ago. They also host a class of DNA and merely combined them in many different inorganic mercury from dental amalgam polymerase known as PolD, the only class for combinations, until one of them worked better (blue) and organic, methyl-mercury from fish which the structure is still unknown. than the others,” says Delarue. “It would be (orange). This year, Delarue and colleagues managed interesting to learn how these common bricks to crystallise parts of PolD from the archaeon are arranged.” Pyrococcus abyssi, and took their samples Jon Cartwright ●

December 2016 l ESRFnews 13

ESRFDec16FEAT-Mercury RNA-p12-13-5.indd 13 07/11/2016 15:58

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Ad.indd 1 02/11/2016 16:38 Focus on: soft matter Into the hub of soft matter SERGE CLAISSE/ILLSERGE

Many developments to discusss

a complete statistical-mechanics model of The International Soft Matter Conference held in these systems, even defining proper intensive thermodynamic variables. The ultimate goal Grenoble in September shone a light on a thriving field. of active matter research is to reach a comprehensive understanding of the There are many international conferences and, of course, much less time. As highlighted complex spatio-temporal behaviour exhibited focused on various areas of soft matter, in the conference’s opening plenary lecture by by living organisms. but when it comes to the field as a whole, Jasna Brujic of New York University in the US, The other plenary speakers were the the International Soft Matter Conference DNA linkers can control interactions between SoftComp founder Dieter Richter of the Jülich (ISMC) has become one of the standard- particles, and drive the self-assembly process Research Centre in Germany; Matthias Ballauff bearers. This year saw its fourth edition, the along predictable pathways. The following of the Helmholtz Centre Berlin in Germany; ISMC2016, which was held at the Alpexpo plenary lecture, by Francesco Sciortino of the Igor Muševič of the University of Ljubljana in convention centre in Grenoble, France, University of Rome in Italy, illustrated how one Slovenia; Regine von Klitzing of the Technical 12–16 September. Co-organised by the ILL, can exploit the specificity of the interactions University Berlin in Germany, who won the the ESRF and local institutions, under the between complementary DNA base pairs to Pierre-Gilles de Gennes prize, sponsored by auspices of the SoftComp consortium, the build a wide range of nanostructures that the European Physical Journal E; Joao Cabral of conference brought together some 700 replicate computer models, with exciting new Imperial College London in the UK; and the Soft scientists, including more than 200 students, physics and potentially novel applications. Matter Lectureship awardee Damien Baigl of from over 30 countries. Indeed, pathways of self-assembly of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. Soft matter is a highly interdisciplinary field. It amphiphilic molecules such as surfactants, As expressed by many participants, the comes as no surprise, therefore, that the ISMC’s block-copolymers, and lipids have been an conference overall was a great success in terms scientific programme covered a broad range of active area of research, and now the interest of the quality of presentations, the technical fundamental and applied aspects of soft matter is shifting towards biological and bio- organisation and the scientific exchanges. and complex systems, including conventional inspired molecules such as peptides, synthetic It made a great showcase of the ESRF and areas such as colloids and polymers, soft matter peptoids and so on (see p16). ILL, though of course it would not have been technology, microfluidics, dynamical processes, possible without the active involvement of soft glasses and cellular biophysics. From over Active research colleagues from Grenoble–Alpes University, 800 submitted abstracts, we had more than Another common theme was active matter the French National Centre for Scientific 150 talks and nearly 500 posters – including – self-propelling particles that mimic the Research, and the French Alternative Energies the plenary lectures, keynote presentations, collective patterns of motion seen in the and Atomic Energy Commission, as well as lunchtime sessions and award ceremonies. swarming and flocking of bacteria, insects, sponsorship by various other institutions and With such a large number of excellent birds and other creatures. The particles private companies including the Nanoscience contributions, it is nearly impossible to pick self-propel with use of a chemical motor, Foundation in Grenoble, the Grenoble Alpes out highlights. Among the central themes, similar to the chemotaxis employed by Métropole and the International Union of DNA-guided self-assembly featured in many microorganisms. These are nonequilibrium Crystallography. We look forward to the next presentations. Nature has optimised complex systems that break time-reversal symmetry. ISMC in 2019; the venue will be announced by self-assembly processes over millions of years In the closing plenary lecture, Mike Cates the SoftComp consortium soon. of evolution– now soft matter scientists are of the University of Cambridge in the UK Theyencheri Narayanan, ESRF, and Peter striving to do the same, with fewer ingredients illustrated the challenges involved in building Lindner, ILL ●

December 2016 l ESRFnews 15

ESRFDec16FOCUS-ISMC-p15-6.indd 15 07/11/2016 15:58 Focus on: soft matter The natural route to complexity In nature, complex nanostructures assemble themselves. The ESRF is helping scientists to master this trick.

The creation of a protein is a slick operation. micro and nano X-ray beams have From a score of possible amino-acid building allowed users to pick out individual blocks, it self-assembles via a neat interplay of domains within a heterogeneous hydrogen bonds, electrostatic attractions and sample, gradually building a water-repelling “hydrophobic” interactions. map of local nanostructures. The resultant structure is so distinctive – and Meanwhile, BioSAXS so specifi c to the protein’s function – that at BM29 has allowed a mutation in just one of the amino acids is the straightforward enough to cause serious diseases, from sickle- observation of small cell anaemia to cancer. amounts of biological Scientists have long aspired to this kind of macromolecules in complexity in the lab. In an attempt to mimic solution, in their nature, they have managed to induce self- natural state. assembly among simple synthetic materials, One way to such as polymers, colloids and surfactants. manage nature- Granted, the structures produced have had inspired self- distinct overall shapes – spheres, cylinders and assembly of so on. But a closer look at these structures has nanostructures too often exposed the rudimentary character is to start off with of the self-assembly, with the component biological building parts haphazardly distributed and the function blocks – in particular ill-defi ned. When it comes to nanostructures, peptides, which are then, there has been a large gap between protein fragments what is achieved in nature, and what is containing just short chains achieved in the lab. of amino acids. Depending That gap could soon be closed. Our group is on the chemistry of their amino one of several that is developing self-assembly acids, peptides can be attracted to the point where it can create nanostructures only to themselves, or only to other of truly protein-like complexity, opening peptides. Combining both types can lead up new avenues in nanotechnology and to orthogonal – that is, simultaneous yet biomedicine. If we can master the process, it independent – mechanisms of self-assembly. Self- might be possible to create nanostructures assembly with highly specialised functions – targeting Going viral does not diseased cells, boosting or hindering bodily This year, in a group led by He Dong at have to start reactions, regenerating tissue, or simply Clarkson University in the US, we looked at with biological creating new materials for niche products. the orthogonal self-assembly of two types of components, Synchrotron science has been key to peptide. BioSAXS at BM29 showed that the however. Peptoids are understanding self-assembly, and the ESRF process led 12 peptides to form a spherical, similar to peptides, but can has long played a unique role. At the beamline star-like nanostructure (DOI: 10.1002/ be constructed artifi cially in ID02, a combination of wide, small and ultra- smll.201600910). Similar to a virus, which the lab from amino acids and other small angle X-ray scattering (WAXS/SAXS/ consists of a well-defi ned number of protein monomers. In fact, unlike the peptides USAXS) has given a unique “bottom up” view subunits, the nanostructure is another step and proteins found in nature, which of structural organisation, even in real time towards engineering biological systems are limited to 21 amino-acid components, (see “Caught in the act”, below). At ID13, predictably and reliably. peptoids can be built up from over 300

Caught in the act Yvette, France, and colleagues have been Filming self-assembly could have using ID02 to watch proteins self-assemble applications outside of biology, too. In The high brilliance of X-rays at the ESRF around RNA to form virus particles, potentially recent years, together Jan Skov Pedersen’s makes it possible to shoot pulses just a helping us understand how viruses propagate group at Aarhus University in Denmark and few milliseconds in length and still obtain (DOI: 10.1021/ja403550f). Similarly, in 2015 Theyencheri Narayanan, scientist in charge structural information. This has allowed the Frank Schreiber of the University of Tübingen of ID02, have used this ability to watch beamline ID02 to “fi lm” self-assembly in in Germany and colleagues watched the surfactant micelles self-assemble and change real time. For the past few years, Stéphane crystallization of a protein, which could help shape – results that could help to develop Bressanelli of the CNRS Laboratory of in the understanding of diseases, such as consumer detergents (DOI: 10.1021/acs. Molecular and Structural Virology in Gif-sur- Alzheimer’s (DOI: 10.1021/ja510533x). jpclett.6b00767).

16 December 2016 ● ESRFnews

ESRFDec16FOCUS-Self-assembly-p16-17-8.indd 16 07/11/2016 15:59 The natural route to complexity

different building blocks – meaning there is below). BioSAXS at the BM29 beamline was almost no limit to the nanostructures that can again particularly useful, as it enabled us to be created. Peptoids are also insensitive to the accurately determine the dimensions of the Self-assembling enzymes present in the body. This suggests nanotubes, and – with help from computer against resistance they can circulate longer in the bloodstream modelling – show that they were hollow – which is great news for pharmaceuticals. (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1517169113). By altering Antimicrobial resistance is the tendency their component peptoids, we can vary the of bacteria and other microbes to adapt On the tiles diameters of the nanotubes and the chemical during exposure to antibiotics and other Again this year, in a group led by Ronald groups exposed in their interiors. That could antimicrobial drugs, and is a serious global Zuckermann at Lawrence Berkeley give us the power to decide what passes health problem. Nearly half a million people National Laboratory in California, US, through them, for use in drug delivery, and for are thought to develop drug-resistant we discovered a family of peptoids fi ltering polluted or salt water. tuberculosis every year, and resistance is with two ends of similar size and thought to be affecting the fi ght against shape but different chemical Best of both HIV and malaria, too. But there is one properties. When placed The fact that biological and synthetic building class of antimicrobials that is much less in water, these peptoids blocks can both self-assemble into novel susceptible to resistance than conventional acted like molecular tiles, nanostructures suggests there may be a way medicines: antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). joining up into rings to combine their benefi ts. This is the thinking These already exist throughout nature, which then stacked behind “biohybrid” materials. A simple in humans, animals and even bacteria to form regular example is the attachment of a biologically themselves, and kill a broad class of nanotubes compatible synthetic polymer to peptide or pathogenic bacteria by disrupting their cell up to 100 protein drugs. This hinders the degradation membranes. nm long due to bodily enzymes and prolongs the drug’s The problem with AMPs is twofold: (see lifespan in the bloodstream. Alternatively – as they can be toxic to non-pathogenic cells, image, was recently demonstrated by a group led by and, like other peptides, they suffer from Ting Xu at the University of California, Berkeley, an instability towards enzymes that can in the US – one can choose a synthetic polymer lead them to break apart before they are with a fatty-acid tail to promote compact able to kill any harmful bacteria at all. In self-assembly, forming a stable nano-sized recent studies at the ESRF’s BM29 beamline capsule that is unlikely to discharge a drug led by He Dong at Clarkson University in prematurely (DOI: 10.1021/bm5005788). Potsdam, US, however, we have found that Other peptides encouraged to self- the toxicity and instability issues can be assemble in this way could tackle signifi cantly reduced by designing AMPs the major problem of antibiotic that self-assemble into nanostructures shortages (see “The fi ght (DOI: 10.1039/C4CC08808E); the effect is against resistance”, right). even better if the peptides are conjugated Self-assembly, with polyethylene glycol (DOI: 10.1039/ synchrotron science, C5RA24553B). Importantly, the conjugation and biological and also appears to dramatically reduce the synthetic building destruction or “haemolysis” of red blood blocks: together cells, thus signifi cantly decreasing the these comprise a AMPs’ toxicity. fantastic toolbox to create new Tuberculosis: getting harder to beat. functional nanomaterials. The breadth of combinations means that scientists will be able to build up entirely new nanostructures from scratch, or tailor those already Clear cut: existing to better suit peptoid ‘tiles’ their needs. The results with different so far are some of the side-group most exciting in soft matter chemistry self-assemble research – and we are still only into regular nanotubes. at the beginning. Credit: Ronald Zuckermann/LBL. Reidar Lund, University of Oslo, Norway. ●

December 2016 ● ESRFnews 17

ESRFDec16FOCUS-Self-assembly-p16-17-8.indd 17 07/11/2016 15:59 Advertising feature Positioning loads accurately to the micrometer: hexapod at PETRA III

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ESRFDec16_PhysikInstrumente_full.indd 1 08/11/2016 09:28 Focus on: soft matter Shear success for opal films

Structural colour developed The colouring of natural opal at the ESRF may soon be (pictured) can now be achieved by found on everything from shearing a film of banknotes to clothing. plastic beads.

The ancient Greeks believed they sprung from the tears wept by Zeus after he defeated the Titans. Science suggests that they grew over millions of years, as rainwater gradually washed silica into the crevices of underground rocks. Whatever the process, natural opal doesn’t come about easily. People desire them all the same, of course, and largely because of their deep ethereal colouring. The appearance is an example of structural colour, which results from the interference of light as it scatters off different aspects of the gemstone’s microscopic composition. Structural colouring can also be found in peacock feathers, scarab beetles and various butterflies – but rarely in manmade objects, which mostly rely on dyes to absorb different wavelengths of light. Various and speeding it up is tricky because the beads BM26B beamline to observe the long- industries would like to get their hands on all too easily “crash out” of the nascent range order between the beads (see figure structural colour, partly because of its unique structure, forming a disordered lump at below), they tried shearing the beads appearance, and partly because it would the bottom of the vessel. Baumberg and in the same direction, and then in two avoid the pollution associated with making colleagues wanted to find a way to quickly directions, while oscillating the rollers. synthetic dyes. encourage them into the ordered state from The SAXS data showed that shearing in Their wish may soon be granted, now which iridescence arises. two directions gave the best result (DOI: that Jeremy Baumberg at the University of Just under a decade ago, they had the 10.1038/ncomms11661). “The samples were Cambridge in the UK and colleagues have idea of ditching the solvent altogether. fantastic,” says Baumberg. developed a new fabrication technique that Instead, they coated microscopic plastic promises to make the manufacture of structural beads with a softer, stickier polymer, the Easily tailored colour an industrial process. Simply by shearing consistency of chewing gum. At first they The structural colour of the films depends on plastic beads between a pair of rollers, the tried squeezing the beads between heavy the size of the plastic beads and their spacing, researchers claim to be able to make kilometres plates, then they tried extruding them so can easily be tailored from the infrared to of opalescent film at a time. If their hopes are from a nozzle – but they could not get the the ultraviolet. But the films are elastic too, realised, the other worldly sheen may soon be ordering to last. Finally, they tried squashing and since stretching them makes the beads sported on everything from car tyres and bank the particles into a film, before subjecting separate, the colour changes as a result. notes to medical bandages and clothing. “It’s them to an oscillating shear between several That suggests a raft of applications, from the completely different to what anyone’s done rollers. The particles neatly slipped into a aesthetic to the practical: clothes that change before,” says Baumberg. permanently ordered state. colour when worn; car tyres that turn green Chemists have been able to make The researchers wanted to hone the when inflated to the right pressure; bras opals artificially in the past, by allowing technique to produce the best opalescence and bandages that indicate when they are microscopic silica beads to settle in acidified possible – hence coming to the ESRF. Using correctly fitted; even banknotes that display water. But the process takes several months, small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) at the an anti-counterfeit pattern when stretched. The researchers have spun out a company, Phomera Technologies, which is now scaling up the fabrication process in China, and claim to already have 150 companies interested, including Nike, Mars and Unilever. If progress continues apace, the opalescent sheen may go from being a jewel of the natural world to a commonplace colouring of many manmade objects. Jon Cartwright ●

Left: SAXS data show that order in the opalescent films is greater when they are (a) (b) sheared in two directions (a) rather than one (b).

December 2016 l ESRFnews 19

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ESRFDec16_p20.indd 1 08/11/2016 09:39 Focus on: soft matter

Soft at heart?

Slugging it out An ESRF study ends the debate over how sea cucumbers turn soft. Drugs for people who suffer from skin hardening could follow.

Most creatures can be scared stiff, but the containing potassium-rich sea water, which 100 sea cucumber is scared soft. Alarmed by a naturally makes MCT stiffen; one containing predator, the slug-like organism softens the 10–1 calcium-rich seawater, which naturally makes collagen in its body wall, forms a hole and MCT soften; and one containing regular expels its guts. The predator is distracted – sea water, which has no effect. They placed 10–2 leaving the sea cucumber to slither to safety, individually treated samples into a purpose- where it gradually grows some new innards. built micro-mechanical chamber, which could 10–3 Scientists have long been fascinated by apply a tensile stress to them while in the this phenomenon, and not just because of its 10–4 beamline. grisly nature. In most animals the stiffness of Fibril–matrix strain ratio Using a computer model, the researchers collagen hardly changes, but sea cucumbers, 10–5 predicted two stress–strain relationships starfish, sea urchins and other echinoderms 010 20 30 40 for the samples, depending on whether the have the peculiar ability to turn it soft or stiff sample stress (MPa) softening in MCT arises from the fibrils or the at will. The special variant is called mutable Strain derived from SAXD patterns (red dots) matrix. They then measured the actual strain collagenous tissue (MCT), and it is key to the match a prediction for matrix (solid line) in each component as a function of applied creatures’ survival. While softening allows rather than fibril (dashed line) softening. stress, by measuring the shift in SAXD peaks it to eviscerate itself, the sea cucumber will generated by the fibrils’ periodic banding also stiffen its MCT to lock itself inside rocky (see figure). The data clearly matched the crevices, out of harm’s way. “That change in relationship for softening in the matrix, stiffness gives it a lot of flexibility, in terms of rather than in the fibrils (DOI: 10.1073/ where it can squeeze itself,” says biophysicist “Human collagens pnas.1609341113). “We have conclusively Himadri Gupta of Queen Mary University of proved it,” says Mo. London (QMUL) in the UK. could be made Although the researchers cannot yet say MCT consists of two components, and with certainty how the matrix changes the there has been a debate as to which provides soft, too.” MCT’s mechanical properties, there is past the softening ability. Some scientists believe it evidence that it depends upon cells secreting arises from the special makeup of the collagen certain proteins or peptides that either cause fibrils, which give the MCT its texture, while stiffening or softening. Indeed, previous work others believe that it arises from the protein- in certain human health problems, such as the by Elphick has identified a softening peptide based matrix, which binds the fibrils together. skin-hardening disease scleroderma. (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044492), and Now, an ESRF study by Gupta, together with Gupta’s group brought a sea cucumber to he speculates that a human variant of it could his PhD student Jingyi Mo, neurobiologist the ESRF beamline ID02, where they could provide a therapeutic basis for those suffering Maurice Elphick and others, demonstrates perform small-angle X-ray diffraction (SAXD). from scleroderma. “Human collagens could that it is indeed the latter. The result could They isolated samples of the middle layer of be made soft, too, inspired by how MCT resonate way beyond the depths of the ocean, the skin, which is composed entirely of MCT, works in echinoderms,” he says. as the tough nature of collagen is implicated and dipped them into one of three vials: one Jon Cartwright ●

December 2016 l ESRFnews 21

ESRFDec16FOCUS-Sea cucumbers-p21-6.indd 23 07/11/2016 16:00 IHEP Recruitment of Overseas High-level Talents Insti tute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The Insti tute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Research Areas: (CAS) invites applicati ons for permanent staff positi ons at all levels. IHEP is Experimental Parti cle and Nuclear Physics, Theoreti cal Physics, Astronomy and a comprehensive research laboratory for parti cle and astroparti cle physics, Astrophysics,Nuclear Technology, Multi disciplinary Research, Accelerators, accelerator physics and technology, radiati on technologies and applicati ons, as Neutron physics, Condensed matt er physics well as for nuclear analyti cal techniques and interdisciplinary research. Contact: For More Informati on: htt p://english.ihep.cas.cn/ Division for Human Resources, Insti tute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Recruitment Objecti ves: Based on the needs of the research areas and the disciplines development E-mail: [email protected] of IHEP, we are now publicly recruiti ng overseas outstanding talents and Tel: (86)010-88235879, Fax: (86)010-88233102 scholars of relevant disciplines who possess research abiliti es and innovati on Address: No. 19 (B), Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, (Postcode: 100049) awareness. Applicati ons should include a CV, an outline of academic accomplishments, Programs: descripti on of current research and plan for future research, 3 – 5 published 1 Nati onal “Thousand Talents Program” (full ti me & part ti me programs) for papers representati ve of your work, and a record of citati ons for your work. You established scienti sts. should arrange for 3 lett ers of reference from experts in your 2 Nati onal “Thousand Young Talents Program” for outstanding fi eld to be sent by post or email (established scienti sts are not junior scienti sts. requested). 3 Pioneer “Hundred Talents Program” of CAS, for outstanding junior scienti sts, For detailed informati on please visit excellent junior detector or accelerator experts. htt p:// english.ihep.cas.cn/ju/201303/ 4 “Outstanding Talents Program” of IHEP, for scienti fi c research or technical W020130326502657080582.pdf talents.

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ESRFDec16_p22.indd 1 08/11/2016 09:40 Focus on: soft matter A soft spot for the ESRF Many companies approaching the synchrotron have one type of science in mind.

What do washing liquid, margarine and diesel fuel all have in common? Not much to the average consumer – but for scientists, they are all examples of soft matter. In fact, a high proportion of manufactured products are one form of soft matter or another. Whether undisputedly squishy, like processed food, or at the harder end of the spectrum, like plastic composites, these types of products all have characteristic properties lying somewhere between the classic solid and liquid states – which, scientifically at least, makes them soft. According to Michael organic solvent. The detergent even cleaned Sztucki, the ESRF’s industry liaison for soft at 15°C, saving energy. matter, roughly one in five of the companies “Our study Soft matter collaborations are not always approaching the ESRF have soft-matter one-off. The consumer-goods company studies in mind. Unilever has a long-running collaboration Fortunate, then, that the ESRF is well needed highly with the ESRF to find healthier alternatives to geared up for this kind of work. While most the saturated fats found in oily food products, industry scientists may head straight to ID02 brilliant X-rays. such as processed meat, chocolate and to perform ultra small-, small- and wide- margarine. One possibility are the cholesterol- angle X-ray scattering (USAXS/SAXS/WAXS), The ESRF lowering sterols γ-oryzanol and β-sitosterol, or to ID13 to perform micro- and nano- which are found in sunflower oil. A few years diffraction, several other beamlines also provided that.” ago, SAXS and WAXS data taken at the ESRF come in handy – ID19 for micro computed- beamline ID02 showed Unilever scientists tomography and ID16A for nano computed- that, within sunflower oil, the sterols self- tomography, for instance. “Having a wide assemble into hollow tubules – suggesting range of beamlines and, critically, sample they might lend oily foods a similar texture to environments to watch soft matter under PhD student Arthur Zarrouki and other saturated fats. real conditions, opens the door for industrial researchers from C2P2 laboratory visited The researchers wanted to know whether research and innovation,” says Sztucki. “Our ID02 to perform USAXS, SAXS and WAXS the sunflower oil was strictly necessary for facilities are pretty much unmatched for soft- on diesel samples as they were cooled down the tubules’ formation. Returning to ID02 matter experiments.” in situ, to better understand how polymer recently, therefore, they performed SAXS and additives affected the crystal structure. “A differential scanning calorimetry on samples Fuelling innovation kinetic study of the cooling of diesel requires with different amounts of oil. The data One of the latest industrial soft-matter a rapid measurement, and hence highly showed that, in samples containing less than a collaborations with the ESRF has been on the brilliant X-rays,” says Zarrouki. “The ESRF third or so of oil, the tubules collapse – giving subject of diesel fuel with the oil company provided that.” the Unilever team an idea how little oil they Total in collaboration with C2P2, a joint Sometimes a collaboration with the ESRF can get away with. laboratory of the CNRS, CPE Lyon and the can lead to a completely new product. One thing is for certain, there is no limit Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 in France. This was the case with Ariel Excel Gel, an to the number of soft-matter products Diesel consists of various naphthenes, invention of the consumer-goods company whose chemistry and structure could be aromatics and paraffins, the last of which Procter & Gamble (P&G). Drawing on ID02 improved based on data taken with the ESRF’s have a tendency to crystallize in frosty SAXS data, P&G scientists were able to instrumentation. Says chemist Eric Robles, weather, clogging up fuel injectors. Certain pioneer a stable liquid-crystal microstructure P&G’s global coordinator for synchrotron polymers can be added to control this that enabled the washing detergent to be research: “There are only very few capabilities crystallisation, but a lack of clarity over how manufactured with very little water, without that the ESRF doesn’t have.” they work is preventing further development. the use of an environmentally unsound Jon Cartwright ●

December 2016 l ESRFnews 23

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Ad.indd 1 07/11/2016 11:25 Focus on: soft matter An essential partnership Soft matter studies with X-rays and neutrons have a much-needed ally. PONTONI/ESRF DIEGO

Imagine starting a long-awaited study at the ESRF, only to discover that your precious biological samples degraded on the flight to Grenoble. Or imagine that, once here, you suddenly have an idea for a novel sample environment that doesn’t exist yet. Or perhaps you have a long-term vision for your soft-matter work – one involving not just synchrotron and neutron science, but sustained assistance and complementary techniques. These are all real situations at the EPN campus for which the Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter (PSCM) has been indispensable. A joint ESRF–ILL initiative, the PSCM comprises a dozen laboratories in the The PSCM takes up the second floor, and some of the ground floor and basement, of the EPN EPN campus’s Science Building, which adjoins campus’s Science Building. the ESRF and ILL experimental halls (see photo right). Here visitors can find more than 30 completion of the PSCM implementation phase laboratory tools, including atomic force and at the Science Building this year. optical microscopes, rheometers, calorimeters, The PSCM instruments are shared between “The PSCM is ellipsometers and light scattering apparatuses the ESRF and the ILL, and access is designed to – not to mention various sample preparation be easy and transparent. That can be facilities and technical expertise. The PSCM is ad hoc for a single beamtime, or recurrent dedicated to dedicated to advanced soft-matter research, over multiple beamtimes. There was the with applications ranging from nano-materials occasion, for example, when visitors came to advanced soft- and environmental science, to energy and rescue a jeopardised experiment by making biotechnology. and checking some new liposome samples; matter research.” or when our engineers designed, produced Stronger science and installed for some visitors a specialist The PSCM concept was born in 2004 “magnetic actuation” sample environment in to the PSCM Steering Committee, which when an ILL scientific output study suggested a particular beamline. The PSCM is also a hub makes a decision based on independent, that soft matter research could be further for networking and scientific exchange, and expert scientific evaluations in a confidential strengthened if neutron experiments were contributes to the organisation of soft matter manner. Four PSCM Partner institutes have complemented with conventional laboratory seminars, colloquia, workshops and large already started their programmes, with techniques onsite. With the ESRF on board, international conferences. A dedicated office results going from “one shot” texture analysis a number of leading European scientists and is reserved for scientific visitors willing to exploiting photon energy (DOI: 10.1002/ representatives of the two facilities – notably explore and test the PSCM environment. anie.201603784), to the imaging of keratin Giovanna Fragneto of the ILL and Theyencheri Besides ad hoc visitors, the PSCM caters bundles in cells using a combination of X-ray Narayanan of the ESRF – began to make the for those who need longer-term continuous techniques (see “Seeing in cells” below). concept a reality. The entire process took about access, for the development of particularly The PSCM’s support is ever-growing, and its a decade, from the organisation of the first complex projects. In this case, their hosting large community of ILL users is being joined by joint Soft Matter User Meeting in 2006, to the institutions can freely apply for Partner status an expanding range of ESRF users. The PSCM welcomes all users who find its services useful – regardless, in fact, of whether their samples Teamwork helps to see inside cells are technically “soft” enough. We have those studying biomimetic nano-systems, bulk X-ray imaging of biological cells is a promising by combining two X-ray techniques, and interfacial self-assembly, complex fluids, complement to fluorescence and electron ptychography and nanodiffraction, on bio-minerals, colloids, polyelectrolytes and microscopy. But while resolution is verging the same sample. The data gave the nanoparticles. The PSCM will do its best to on the nanometre scale, the doses risk group, which was led by Sarah Köster, support everyone, and hopes to be expanding destroying samples. structural information on the number of its services in preparation for the upcoming This year, scientists at the first official 10 nm-thick single keratin filaments making ESRF Extremely Brilliant Source (EBS), from its Partner of the PSCM, the Institute for X-ray up bundles inside a cell, without inflicting inception in 2020 onwards. Physics at the University of Göttingen strong radiation damage (DOI: 10.1021/ Diego Pontoni, ESRF–PSCM coordinator ● in Germany, demonstrated at the ID13 acsnano.5b07871). beamline that doses could be lowered Jon Cartwright • For further information visit tinyurl.com/ PSCMinfo or e-mail [email protected].

December 2016 l ESRFnews 25

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ESRFDec16_p26.indd 1 08/11/2016 09:43

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Visit connect.physicsworld.com/newsletter Portrait A story of length scales Jean Daillant, director of France’s SOLEIL synchrotron, explains why he finds soft matter so interesting.

Jean Daillant was doing his Collaborating Research Group doctorate at the University of SOLEIL beamline BM32, he and his Paris–South in France when colleagues from the University of the buzz really began to grow Strasbourg in France have found around synchrotron science. that electric fields cause lipid It was 1989, and he was using membranes to lose tension but lab-generated X-rays to study gain rigidity – a surprising result, how a liquid spreads when it due, he thinks, to a capacitor-like wets a surface – a phenomenon accumulation of charges on either that, back then, was considered side of the bilayer (DOI: 10.1103/ important in the performance of PhysRevLett.116.228101). Indeed, all sorts of coatings, from paints he believes that the result might to pesticides. His instrumentation help scientists to understand could see the average fluctuations how electric fields boost the of liquid molecules – but over at permeability of cell membranes the German Electron Synchrotron during gene therapy. in Hamburg, physicists Peter Pershan and Jens Als-Nielsen Finding time were demonstrating that A director’s duties are many, of synchrotron X-rays had the course, and it is not always easy potential to see much finer to squeeze in the science. “I try details. Suddenly, says Daillant, to do some research in the early “there was excitement about morning, before 9 o’clock,” the possibilities X-rays could Jean Daillant in brief he says, “and participate in open up”. Born: 1963, Chalon sur Saône, France. experiments from time to time.” In 1994, having joined Between the many meetings the French Atomic Energy Education: Ecole Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud and Université that he must attend, he keeps Commission (CEA), Daillant Pierre et Marie Curie; PhD, Paris-Sud University (1989). an eye on recent developments had his first opportunity to in soft matter. At the moment, get in on the excitement. Now Career: Research scientist, CEA (1989); deputy director, LURE (1999); for instance, he is particularly focused more on the surfaces head of LIONS, CEA, (2003) head scientific council, SOLEIL (2006); intrigued by research into nano- of bulk liquids, which govern director, SOLEIL (2011). confined fluids. how a liquid interacts with a “In some sense, soft matter neighbouring solid or gas, he is a story of different length visited the newly opened ESRF – scales. So you have the famous the only synchrotron in Europe Debye length for the electrostatic that had enough flux to observe “The ESRF brought interaction, which can be microns the correlations of fluctuations, to angstroms, and you have van known as capillary waves, among possibilities you couldn’t der Waals forces, which are at water molecules on the surface the nanoscale, and you have of water. “It was clear that with previously imagine.” the molecular length and so on. the ESRF, we had the tool we What’s interesting about nano- needed,” he says. “It brought confined fluids is that all these possibilities that you could not about a decade, during which which was primarily designed for length scales are confined to be imagine doing before.” time he became a joint director X-rays of high energy. of the same order of magnitude, of the now decommissioned By this time Daillant had turned and you start to have some very Promising start Laboratory for Electromagnetic his attention towards a topic that interesting effects.” It also brought the start of Radiation (LURE) synchrotron in has occupied him to this day: lipid So what is it that attracts Daillant’s career in synchrotron Orsay, France. In 2006, SOLEIL, membranes – bilayers of fatty- Daillant to soft matter in science, specialising in soft the French national synchrotron, acid molecules – in water. This general? “What I personally find matter. Although capillary waves was opened near Paris, and was a “natural extension” of his interesting,” he says, “is this had been studied at large scales Daillant chaired its scientific previous work, he says, as the interplay between very precise before, using the scattering council; five years later, he would membranes act like almost pure, experiments and statistical of laser light, the synchrotron be named its director. Being two-dimensional surfaces; for physics. At synchrotrons, you allowed Daillant to see down to optimised to cover the entire other, biology-focused scientists, really can get a very precise nanometre scale, where the subtle electromagnetic spectrum, from they have potential implications description, and use that along effect of van der Waals forces hard X-rays up to terahertz and for the way biological cells with theory to understand quite could be observed. It was a line infrared wavelengths, SOLEIL was transmit nutrients. In a recent complex systems.” of research he would pursue for designed to complement the ESRF, study, conducted at the French Jon Cartwright ●

December 2016 l ESRFnews 27

ESRFDec16PORTRAIT_p27-5.indd 23 07/11/2016 16:02 Industry Foam boosts car safety Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Warwick team up with the ESRF to observe how safety foams deform in situ.

Energy absorption is important for the safety of car passengers. Besides the seat foam used for MALCHICK743 (ALJMW) MALCHICK743 comfort, modern vehicles have a denser foam such as WARWICK/JLRU. expanded polypropylene (EPP) inside headrests and bumpers that decelerates passengers in such a way as to minimise any stresses on them. Ideally, a foam would do this by deforming in a controlled manner, reducing the maximum forces experienced by the occupant.​ Researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK and the car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have Microtomography (above) reveals tried to optimise the use of EPP how safety foam disperses foam by studying its energy- energy under load for car absorption properties under headrests (right). deformation at the ESRF. The work was carried out by Craig enabled them to continually to use in a vehicle for optimal use of polymer foams as energy Carnegie, a JLR-sponsored image their EPP foams (see performance. absorbers in our vehicle range.” engineering doctorate student figure above) as they were slowly “As an automotive Materials scientist Darren at Warwick, who developed new compressed with a dedicated manufacturer, we’ve been Hughes at Warwick believes material models to improve a press facility. Incorporating the following the progress of this the benefit of the ESRF was the computer-aided design process. images into a three-dimensional research closely,” says Mark ability to track the deformation At the beamline ID19, assisted computer model, the researchers Blagdon, a materials engineer in situ and in great detail. “It by ESRF scientist Alexander could analyse them to who led the project from JLR. clearly showed the response Rack, the researchers performed understand how to improve “The facilities available at the that the EPP material provides,” microtomography, which the foam, and how much of it ESRF will allow us to improve the he adds.

Movers and shakers

Helmut Robert Amina Taleb- Laurent Schober ls the Feidenhans’l Ibrahimi is the Chapon is the new director of will be the next new director of new director of the ILL, taking chair of the matter sciences physical sciences over from Bill management at the SOLEIL at Diamond Stirling. The board of the synchrotron Light Source on appointment comes as part of European X-ray free electron laser near Paris, France. A condensed- the Harwell campus in the UK. a whole new management (XFEL) in Hamburg, Germany, matter physicist, Taleb-Ibrahimi Chapon has worked at Harwell team at the ILL, including after the retirement of the current has been the director of before as group leader for Mark Johnson as the new chair Massimo Altarelli at the end research at the French National the crystallographic and director of science and Associate of this year. Feidenhans’l, who Centre of Scientific Research engineering group at the ISIS British Director, which came into is currently heading the Niels (CNRS) and the deputy science neutron facility, as well as being effect on 1 October. A physicist Bohr Institute at the University director of Very Large Research a regular user of Diamond, who has studied fullerenes, liquid of Copenhagen in Denmark, Infrastructures at the CNRS working on new materials and and glass dynamics and neutron has previously chaired the XFEL Physics Institute; previously, she multiferroics. In 2011 he moved instrumentation, Schober was council, and has been involved oversaw the development of to the ILL and, in 2013, became previously the ILL’s director of at major synchrotron facilities the photoemission beamline its diffraction group leader. science and Associate German including the PSI in Switzerland, Cassiopée at SOLEIL. She began He began his new role on 14 Director. DESY in Hamburg and the ESRF. her new role on 1 September. November.

28 December 2016 l ESRFnews

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10-1 1 mA 5 keV 100 µA 10 keV 10 µA 15 keV 10-2 1 µA 20 keV 100 nA 25 keV 10 nA Current 10-3 1 nA 100 pA Position resolution [%] Position resolution 10 pA 10-4 1 pA 107 108 109 1010 1011 1012 104 105 106 107 108 109 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 Total incident flux at 12.6 keV [photons/s] Intensity [photons/s]

Figure: Measurements at Diamond Light Source Ltd., UK, Figure: The detector response as a function of the photon show the measured position resolution at 1 kHz bandwidth for energy and intensity demonstrates the wide dynamic range of various beam intensities of the 12.6 keV photons. A position the XBPM System in combination with the C8 Electrometer resolution of better than 0.1% of beamsize is obtained even for Amplifiers. an incident flux as low as 109 photons/s.

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Unstable: A silicon battery electrode absorbs lithium ions, forming regions of high order (blue) and low order (yellow). This image of diffracted X-rays, recorded at one angle with the new Full Field Diffraction X-ray Microscope (FFDXM) on the ESRF’s ID01 beamline, suggests that the lithium ions are not being absorbed everywhere in the same manner – a trait that could lead to electrode instability. Silicon is a promising electrode material because it has the potential to outperform current materials in terms of capacity and charging speed, but currently undergoes strong structural changes that can lead to rapid degradation. FFDXM, which was made possible thanks to the ESRF upgrade, helps to study this by resolving structural information over a large surface area. In the corridors

Council issued a report in August mass black holes, though cannot

ET AL calling for the construction of explain the reason for the a UK XFEL by 2020. The move phenomenon. EUROPEAN XFEL marks a strong turnaround for the country: in 2009 it pulled out of Rare flower on site the European XFEL, only to re-join The EPN campus in 2014. A UK XFEL is expected to upped its cost £500 m (€550 m), and could biodiversity XFEL starts open by 2026. ASA/CXC/UNIV. BIRMINGHAM/M BURKE credentials this commissioning Mysterious X-rays summer after a few specimens How many officials does it take ESRF hosts #empty come and go of a rare orchid to fit a two-metre length of Astronomers have glimpsed were spotted. tube? In the case of the European mysterious objects in Spiranthes X-ray free electron laser (XFEL), neighbouring galaxies that, autumnalis, the answer is 11 – one for each for about an hour, emit X-rays known member country. The officials with a luminosity of up to 1034 commonly

– together with some 350 other watts – making them brighter ERNDH as Autumn politicians, administrators and than neutron stars. Trawling lady’s-tresses, is a small grey– scientists from around the through archival footage from the green orchid producing white

world – oversaw the “symbolic” @STEPHV38 Chandra and XMM-Newton space flowers just 5mm long with a installation of one of the final Instagrammers were overjoyed observatories, the astronomers green interior, in a helix around sections of beamline at the site to visit the the ESRF in October, as found the objects on the outskirts the stem. Though not currently in Hamburg, Germany, to mark part of an #empty event to expose of the Virgo galaxy NGC 4636 threatened with extinction, the the beginning of commissioning scientific and cultural institutions and the Centaurus A galaxy, species may become so, according in October. The first experiments to the younger generation. A NGC 5128. No-one knows for to the international Convention on by external scientists are due to rare opportunity for the public certain what the objects are: they International Trade in Endangered begin in summer 2017. to go behind the scenes at the are unlikely to be neutron stars or Species of Wild Fauna and • Meanwhile, XFELs are getting synchrotron, #empty brought magnetars because the flares last Flora, as its natural habitats are ever more popular. The UK’s together science, digital art and a too long. The astronomers believe disappearing due to urbanisation Science and Technology Facilities certain playfulness. they could be intermediate- and environmental change.

30 December 2016 l ESRFnews

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