News
Up one levelCurrent News Articles
ESRF and Saha Institute agree on cooperation
The ESRF and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) in Kolkata (India) have agreed to strengthen their scientific and technical collaboration in all fields of synchrotron radiation science. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 16 January 2012 by Francesco Sette,…
Landmark discovery has magnetic appeal for scientists
A fundamental problem that has puzzled generations of scientists has finally been solved after more than 70 years. An international team discovered how a subtle electronic effect in magnetite – the most magnetic of all naturally occurring minerals – causes a dramatic cha…
X-rays reveal an unfinished self-portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn
Studies at the ESRF and at Brookhaven National Laboratory have helped to reveal a hidden painting, thought to be a self-portrait by Rembrandt, below an unknown painting entitled Old Man with a Beard. …
Breaking the ground for ESRF’s future
On 29 November 2011, a ground-breaking ceremony in Grenoble, France, marked the start of the civil construction works for several major building extensions of the ESRF. Thanks to these new buildings to be inaugurated in June 2013, the ESRF will be able to operate eight new b…
A new technique to see crystals like never before
An international team of scientists led by the Fresnel Institute (CNRS/University of Central Aix-Marseille/Ecole Marseille) and the ESRF has developed a new technique to make visible nanometre-sized structures in crystalline materials. This technique combines two pioneering …
Refurbished ROBL beamline inaugurated
After an extensive upgrade, beamline BM20 (ROBL) at the ESRF which is operated by the German national research centre HZDR, is now offering vastly improved experimental capabilities for material science and radiochemical research. On 28 November 2011, the upgraded beamline w…
Plate tectonics coming of age
Plate tectonics in its current form is believed to have started one billion years ago. A study of two billion year old rocks from African gold mines has now shown that the same process of subduction we observe today as a by-product of these large-scale continental movements,…
Scientists defuse the Vietnam time bomb
A key mechanism by which a bacterial pathogen causes the deadly tropical disease melioidosis has been discovered by an international team of scientists.…
Exploring the last white spot on Earth
Grenoble, 10 November 2011 – Scientists will soon be exploring matter at temperatures and pressures so extreme that the conditions can only be produced for microseconds using powerful pulsed lasers. Matter in such states is present in the Earth’s liquid iron core, 2500 k…
A grand year for European structural biology
For the first time ever, more than 1000 protein structures have been deposited in a single year in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) from data collection at the ESRF.…
A CRISP with four flavours
Large European R&D project launches in Paris …
Intruder alarm within our cells: RIG-I senses viral DNA
A molecular switch activates the antiviral innate immune response.…
French Science Minister visits the ESRF
Laurent Wauquiez, French Minister for Science and Higher Education, visited the ESRF on 6 October, in the company of numerous national and local officials. Francesco Sette, ESRF Director General, used this opportunity to highlight the numerous opportunities for science and i…
X-rays help advance the battle against heart disease
Scientists from Imperial College London and Diamond Light Source have revealed the structure of a cholesterol-lowering drug target. Published in the journal Nature, this finding could lead to much more effective drugs to tackle high cholesterol levels, a condition that incre…
A hydrogen reservoir made of … mostly hydrogen
Crystalline hydrides, made of hydrogen and light elements such as boron, contain huge quantities of hydrogen but do not release it easily, due to their strong chemical bonds. Scientists have now, for the first time, succeeded in crystallising a highly porous hydride that can…
Human brain evolution, new insight through X-rays
An experiment at the ESRF reveals the brain shape of an early human ancestor.…
Scientists observe smallest atomic displacements ever
A breakthrough in understanding materials for next-generation electronic devices.…
The structure of the Kinesin-1 motor-tail complex reveals the mechanism of autoinhibition
Scientists from Glasgow and Pittsburgh reveal how a kinesin motor is inactivated to save energy in their paper published today in Science. The structural data was collected at the ESRF and the Swiss Light Source. …
Structure of the membrane domain of respiratory complex I
This result by a team from MRC Cambridge, published in Nature, will aid in the combat of diseases relating to genetic disorder. Beamlines at the ESRF and the Swiss Light Source provided structural data.…
Improving corneal surgery
Combined data from SAXS/WAXS experiments at the ESRF and Diamond provide a better understanding of the structure of the human cornea, which in turn has the potential to improve the results of corneal surgery.…
Inauguration of ID24
Users' Meeting 2012 & Associated Workshops