The following two contributions on phonon spectroscopy have benefited from the combination of an excellent synchrotron-radiation beam and the specific techniques available at the High Resolution and Resonance Scattering Group's beamlines.

The investigation of phonons in plutonium was possible thanks to the inelastic X-ray scattering technique and the microfocusing capabilities, whereby the complete set of phonon dispersion curves were mapped from a single grain of plutonium. In the subsequent article, the polarisation properties of synchrotron radiation and the element specificity of the nuclear inelastic scattering technique allowed the determination of the directional dependence on the vibrational modes of the metal center in a myoglogin single crystal.