http://www.esrf.eu The latest scientific news daily 1 2006-03-23T07:14:04Z http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight150/index_html With dimensions close to a nanometre and the ability to store one bit of information, molecules that possess bistable magnetic states could represent the ultimate evolution of digital memory. Experiments at the ESRF have unravelled how such tiny metal-organic complexes interact with macroscopic ferromagnetic substrates, providing clues on how to stabilise their magnetic core and how to couple it to the outside world. These observations raise our hopes that one day it will be possible to incorporate single molecule magnetic elements into hybrid molecular–metal circuits. 2012-01-25 16:45:32 No publisher admans 2012-01-27T08:22:17Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight149/index_html “Don’t change a winning team” is a widely known sport paradigm on short-term success. However, it is also evident that success on the long-term is no longer guaranteed when teams do not further develop. In this respect, a coach must sooner or later answer the question how to integrate a new “high potential” player into a winning team, guaranteeing the optimal use of his high performance while conserving simultaneously the enthusiastic team spirit. Certainly, this is only possible when both sides – team & candidate – respect each other and face each other in a flexible way. 2012-01-09 14:39:29 No publisher admans 2012-01-10T07:46:06Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight148/index_html Since graphene was first isolated in a controlled way, it has been an optimal playground to test the most exciting ideas in condensed matter. Its curvature and elastic deformations can be modelled by means of fictitious gauge fields as if the system were in the presence of a magnetic field [1]. These fields have become an experimental reality after the observation of strain-induced Landau levels in graphene with effective fields up to 300 T [2]. We have theoretically explored the opposite (low-field) geometrical limit, where the electronic excitations can still be described in terms of plane waves rather than Landau levels. In particular, we have discussed a realisation of the Aharonov-Bohm effect due to mechanical deformations in graphene that can be used to detect stresses at the nanometre scale. 2011-12-27 08:00:00 No publisher admans 2012-01-16T10:39:23Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight147/index_html Metal/metal oxides supported on porous catalyst bodies represent the cornerstone of the heterogeneous catalysis industry. However, little is known about the process by which an active phase forms from an impregnation precursor and how this influences the final properties of the catalyst. Using dynamic X-ray diffraction computed tomography at beamline ID15, real time insight into both the catalyst evolutionary process and the stability of the catalyst under reaction conditions has been obtained for the first time in both two and three dimensions. 2011-12-19 11:19:25 No publisher admans 2011-12-19T15:44:45Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight146/index_html Co-implanted ZnO nanowires were explored by nano-X-ray absorption spectroscopy using a 100 nm monochromatic X-ray beam. This permitted discovery of the chemical state of the implanted ions, the short-range order in various regions of individual wires and the local order of the host wurtzite crystal. 2011-11-29 12:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-11-29T07:47:17Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight145/index_html Researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have unravelled how drugs such as sabutamol (Ventolin) interact with adrenergic receptors in the human body. These studies will aid future rational drug design to create more effective medicines and treatments of diseases such as asthma and heart disease. 2011-11-15 11:37:38 No publisher admans 2011-11-15T13:04:18Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight144/index_html Graphene, a single monolayer of carbon, features a set of fascinating properties. In particular, it has the largest tensile strength ever measured. Experiments at the ESRF now show that this large internal strength is in stark contrast to its weak bonding to the outside world, specifically to selected metal surfaces on which graphene can be produced by epitaxial growth. 2011-10-28 14:25:24 No publisher admans 2011-11-02T13:01:52Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight143/index_html Scientists working at the ESRF have discovered piezoelectric properties in non-polar block copolymers. The researchers, a team from RWTH Aachen University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, used home-built capacitors and small-angle X-ray scattering at beamline ID02 to monitor the behaviour of polymer solutions in electric fields. They found that the piezoelectric susceptibility of poly(styrene-b-isoprene) block copolymer lamellae is up to an order of magnitude higher than classical piezoelectric materials. The electroactive response increases with temperature and is found to be strongest in the disordered phase, which can be interpreted by the anisotropic behaviour of polymer coil conformations. 2011-10-18 07:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-10-18T06:37:52Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight142/index_html The human urinary tract is one of the most common sites for bacterial infection and most of the diagnosed urinary tract infections are caused by the uropathogenic Escherichia coli. During the infection process, the bacteria recognise and adhere to host epithelial cells by using specific extracellular adhesive organelles termed pili. Despite the wealth of structural information, little is known about how pilus formation is orchestrated at the bacterial cell surface. Recently, a crystal structure has captured the pilus assembly platform in the act of secreting its cognate substrate. This breakthrough from the Waksman group (UK) and collaborators provides new insights into the molecular details of pilus assembly and will serve as a new basis for drug-design. 2011-10-04 07:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-09-30T16:45:43Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight141/index_html Observing enzymes at work is a difficult task. Yet, scientists at the University of Pavia in Italy, in collaboration with colleagues from the ESRF, the IBS and the University of Groningen in The Netherlands have succeeded in generating and characterising several biologically relevant intermediate states of a Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase, a promising target for biocatalytic applications in synthetic and pharmaceutical chemistry. Their studies, combining X-ray crystallography, single-crystal microspectrophotometry, and X-ray induced photoreduction, have been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2011-09-20 07:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-10-05T14:26:08Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight140/index_html High-resolution RIXS spectra in the soft X-ray range can now be measured with linear polarisation analysis of the scattered radiation using the AXES spectrometer at beamline ID08. In June 2011, a first experiment on layered cuprates successfully demonstrated that this additional selectivity can be useful in assigning spectral features. The instrument, at present tuned to the Cu L3 edge and likely to be extended to the O K edge soon, will be available to users in the first semester of 2012. The combination of high energy resolution and polarisation analysis makes RIXS at ID08 unique. 2011-09-06 07:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-09-09T12:11:48Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight139/index_html A new way of making small molecules self-assemble into highly-complex nanopatterns has been discovered by researchers at University of Sheffield (UK) and Martin Luther University in Halle (Germany). It will help expand the capabilities of ‘bottom-up’ methods of nanopatterning for advanced functional materials through molecular self-assembly. 2011-08-23 07:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-08-18T16:30:05Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight138/index_html The recent discovery of non-molecular silica-like carbon dioxide motivated a team of scientists from Italy and France to attempt to react carbon dioxide with silicon dioxide under high pressure. They created a new silicon carbonate phase by reacting a micro-porous SiO2 zeolite and molecular CO2 in a diamond anvil cell. Evidence of this new phase was provided by optical spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray diffraction. A new oxide chemistry at high pressures and the potential for synthesis of a new class of materials are revealed, along with potential implications for CO2 segregation in planetary interiors and for CO2 storage. 2011-08-09 07:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-08-03T08:08:38Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight137/index_html X-ray nanobeam diffraction was used to explore the heart of a fully processed field-effect transistor. The structural and strain properties of a single SiGe island and the overlying strained Si channel, which represents the active area of the device, were investigated with a beam focused to a diameter of 400 nm. This is pioneering work in the application of X-ray diffraction as a local probe for the study of functional devices. 2011-07-26 10:34:49 No publisher admans 2011-07-26T15:13:33Z News Item http://www.esrf.eu/news/spotlight/spotlight136/index_html The complete automation of data collection is maximising the potential of bio-SAXS at the ESRF. Never before have SAXS studies of protein in solution been so easy. Academics and industrialists are getting excellent results and some are even using the beamline by remote operation. 2011-07-12 07:00:00 No publisher admans 2011-06-24T11:53:04Z News Item