Colloquia
The ILL runs a colloquium series at which prestigious speakers are asked to give exciting and accessible talks of general interest to scientists having a wide range of backgrounds. In the past, ILL colloquia have included the Astronomer Royal, the editor of Nature, Hélène Langevin-Joliot (Marie Curie's granddaughter), and Sir Tim Hunt (Nobel Prize 2001).
All staff and visitors to the EPN site are warmly welcomed.
If you have suggestions for future speakers, please contact Ulli Köster (Koester@ill.eu).
The titles and abstracts of forthcoming colloquia as well as those of previous colloquia are in the corresponding pages.
2022
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
Neutron crystallography to inform drug design targeting SARS-CoV-2 main protease
Andrey Kovalevskyi
Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, U.S.A. (contact)
COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, remains a global health threat after two years of the pandemic even with available vaccines and therapeutic options. The viral main protease (Mpro) is indispensable for the virus replication and thus is an important target for small-molecule antivirals. Computer-assisted and structure-based drug design strategies rely on atomic scale understanding of the target biomacromolecule traditionally derived from X-ray crystallographic data collected at cryogenic temperatures. Conventional protein X-ray crystallography is limited by possible cryo-artifacts and its inability to locate the functional hydrogen atoms crucial for understanding chemistry occurring in enzyme active sites. Neutrons are ideal probes to observe the protonation states of ionizable amino acids at near-physiological temperature, directly determining their electric charges – crucial information for drug design. Our room-temperature X-ray crystal structures of Mpro brought rapid insights into the reactivity of the catalytic cysteine, malleability of the active site, and binding modes with clinical protease inhibitors. The neutron crystal structures of ligand-free and inhibitor-bound Mpro were determined allowing the direct observation of protonation states of all residues in a coronavirus protein for the first time [1,2]. At rest, the catalytic Cys-His dyad exists in the reactive zwitterionic state (Fig. 1), with both Cys145 and His41 charged, instead of the anticipated neutral state. Covalent inhibitor binding results in modulation of the protonation states. This information was used to design nanomolar hybrid reversible covalent inhibitors with robust antiviral properties. High-throughput virtual screening, utilizing ORNL’s supercomputing capabilities, in conjunction with in vitro assays identified a lead noncovalent compound with sub-micromolar affinity. The neutorn structure of Mpro in complex with the noncovalent inhibitor was used in a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study guided by virtual reality structure analysis to novel Mpro inhibitors with imporved affinity to the enzyme [3]. Our research is providing real-time data for atomistic design and discovery of Mpro inhibitors to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future threats from pathogenic coronaviruses.
[1] D.W. Kneller et al. Unusual zwitterionic catalytic site of SARS-CoV-2 main protease revealed by neutron crystallography. J. Biol. Chem.295, 17365-17373 (2020).
[2] D.W. Kneller et al. Direct observation of protonation state modulation in SARS-CoV-2 main protease upon inhibitor binding with neutron crystallography. J. Med. Chem.64, 4991-5000 (2021).
The authors acknowledge support by the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, US Department of Energy.
2021
Exploiting Small-Angle Neutron Scattering to Reveal the Structure of Food Materials
Webinar Monday 31 May at 14.00
Prof Elliot Paul Gilbert
Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering,
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation,
Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia
When designing food products for the market-place, it is important to understand and predict structure-function-property relationships within food constituents. This includes knowledge of not only the structure of native materials but also their structural changes across a wide range of length scales brought about by food processing. The inherent complexity of modern food systems calls for interdisciplinary scientific approaches to be applied.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) commenced the ‘Food Materials Science Programme’ to explore opportunities for the utilisation of the nuclear based methods, including small angle neutron scattering (SANS), in a quest to extend this understanding. This presentation will highlight the role of SANS in the context of broader materials characterisation methods, illustrating this approach using several examples [1-9].
[1] Elliot Paul Gilbert, Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science 42 (2019) 55.
[2] Amparo Lopez-Rubio, Elliot Paul Gilbert, Trends in Food Science and Technology 20 (2009) 576.
[3] James Doutch, Mark Bason, Ferdi Franceshcini, Kevin James, Douglas Clowes, Elliot P. Gilbert, Carbohydrate Polymers 88 (2012) 1061.
[4] Zhi Yang, Xu Xu, Yacine Hemar, Guang Mo, Liliana de Campo, Elliot P. Gilbert, Food Hydrocolloids 109 (2020) 106092.
[5] Arjen Bot, Elliot P. Gilbert, Wim G. Bouwman, Hassan Sawalha, Ruud den Adel, Vasyl M. Garamus, Paul Venema, Erik van der Linden, and Eckhard Flöter, Faraday Discussions 158 (2012) 223
[6] Constantinos V. Nikiforidis, Elliot Paul Gilbert, Elke Scholten, RSC Advances 5 (2015) 47466
[7] Steven Cornet, Liliana de Campo, Marta Martinez-Sanz, Elke Scholten and Elliot Paul Gilbert*, in preparation.
[8] Lirong Cheng, Aiqian Ye, Yacine Hemar, Elliot Paul Gilbert, Liliana De Campo, Andrew E. Whitten, Harjinder Singh, Langmuir 35 (2019) 12017-12027
Evolution and Growth of Neutron Sciences at Oak Ridge
Thursday, 18 March 2021, at 2:00 p.m.
Prof. Paul Langan,
Associate Laboratory Director - Oak Ridge National Laboratory - USA
Delivering scientific discoveries and major scientific tools to transform our understanding of nature and advance the energy, economic, and national security of the US is a major part of the mission of the Department of Energy (DOE). To carry out this mission, DOE has developed powerful sources of x-rays and neutrons and provides additional capabilities at nanoscale science research centers. The DOE neutron sources - the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) - are located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The neutron beam characteristics at the SNS and HFIR are highly complementary and best matched to provide different types of scientific information. Both are needed to provide researchers with the broadest range of experimental capabilities for science. Visiting researchers from across the globe use these neutron beams to extend the frontiers of science and support the development of new materials and technologies with real-world applications. In this colloquium, the recent evolution and growth of neutron science research at ORNL will be discussed. Further, new avenues of research will be described that could be enabled by major upgrades to the SNS and HFIR facilities, the collaborative use of complementary user facilities and techniques, and advances in instrumentation, sample environments, neutron optics and detectors, and new computational methods.
Human droplets and aerosols
Friday 5 March 2021, at 14.00 webinar
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Bodenschatz
Director Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization,Goettingen
SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by human aerosols and droplets. I will give an overview of their formation, their propagation modalities and their deposition in the respiratory tract. I shall present measurements of 127 volunteers totaling more than 67 hours of measurements. We measured all age groups with 53 female and 74 male. We conducted 1362 experiments on breathing, singing, shouting, humming and coughing. We analyzed 9000 holograms and 2Mio images for 3D particle tracking. With this data we now have a very good data base that allows us to predict the risk of infection in a room. For this propose we wrote the webapp HEADS (aerosol.ds.mpg.de) and developed a theory for the infection risk, if more than one virus are within one aerosol. I will show why face masks give excellent protection , why playing wind instruments and singing is possible again. I shall also discuss ventilation strategies and simple solutions for it.
UPDATE (December 2021): Publication on the propagation distance of SARS-CoV virus and effectiveness of face masks :
https://www.mpg.de/17916867/coronavirus-masks-risk-protection
2020
ILL Colloquium
Friday 14 February 2020 at 14.00 in Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Andrew Goodwin
Professor of Materials Chemistry
University of Oxford Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory
South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QR, U.K.
andrew.goodwin@chem.ox.ac.uk
Crystalline materials can harbour disorder in many guises. Disorder can sometimes be random, but more usually it is correlated. Frontier research into disordered crystals now seeks to control and exploit the unusual patterns that persist within these correlated disordered states in order to access functional responses inaccessible to conventional crystals. This talk will survey some of our own recent contributions to this effort, focusing on the use of total scattering and single-crystal diffuse scattering methodologies to characterise disorder in a range of materials, including Prussian blues, metal–organic frameworks, supramolecular assemblies, and frustrated magnets.
ILL Colloquium
Friday 14 February 2020 at 14.00 in Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Andrew Goodwin
Professor of Materials Chemistry
University of Oxford Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory
South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QR, U.K.
andrew.goodwin@chem.ox.ac.uk
2019
ILL and ESRF Colloquium
Friday 6 December 2019 at 14.00 in Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Arnaud Desmedt
Groupe Spectroscopie Moléculaire
ISM UMR5255 CNRS
University Bordeaux, France
arnaud.desmedt@u-bordeaux.fr
Gas hydrates are ice-like systems made of a network of hydrogen-bonded water molecules (forming host cages) that is stabilized by the presence of foreign guest molecules [1]. The natural existence of large quantities of hydrocarbon hydrates in deep oceans and permafrost is certainly at the origin of numerous applications in areas such as energy, geophysics sciences and innovative technologies [2]. Their hypothetical occurrence in extraterrestrial objects (planets, comets and planetesimal) is also the subject of numerous researches in astrophysics [3]. At a fundamental level, their nanostructuration confers on these materials specific properties (e.g. molecular selectivity, transport properties) for which the host-guest interactions play a key role [4,5]. These interactions occur on a broad timescale and thus require the use of a multi-technique approach (Neutron scattering, Raman, NMR, Classical and ab-initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations). The presentation will review recent results obtained on the physical chemistry of clathrate hydrates towards two main issues - for which neutron scattering brings significant contributions: gas selectivity and structural metastability on one hand, and super-protonic conduction on the other hand.
Recent theoretical works suggest that the nitrogen depletion observed on the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko might be due to preferential encapsulation of carbon monoxide with respect to nitrogen inside mixed gas hydrate [6]. The presentation will report the first experimental investigations of such a preferential trapping, together with unusual structural metastability, as revealed by means of Raman scattering, Neutron diffraction and Quantum Mechanics calculations in various mixed gas (CO, CO2, N2) hydrates [7-13].
In addition to gaseous species, clathrate hydrates may encapsulate strong acids. Such supramolecular assembly leads to generate super-protonic conductors (i.e. with protonic conduction of the order of 0.1S/cm) [14]. Quasi-elastic neutron scattering is a unique technique for disentangling the proton transport mechanism involved in such ice-like systems [15,16]. This issue will be reviewed by outlining the contributions of Neutron scattering together with complementary techniques such as ab-initio Molecular Dynamics, Raman imaging or pulsed-field gradient proton NMR. Moreover, new opportunities in the area of energy (electrochemical energy production [17] and hydrogen storage [18-20]) are offered thanks to the strong acidic character of clathrate hydrates. These points will be outlined.
[1] E. D. Sloan and C. A. Koh, Clathrate Hydrates of natural gases, Taylor & Francis-CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 3rd edn, 2008.
[2] L. Ruffine, D. Broseta, A. Desmedt, Eds, Gas Hydrates 2: Geoscience Issues and Potential Industrial Applications, Wiley: London (2018).
[3] e.g. G. Tobie et al, Nature 2006, 440, P.61 // Nature 2015, 519, p.162.
[4] D. Broseta, L. Ruffine, A. Desmedt, Eds, Gas hydrates 1: Fundamentals, Characterization and Modeling, Wiley: London (2017)
[5] A. Desmedt, et al. Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 213 (2012) 103-127
[6] S. Lectez, et al, Astrophys. J. Lett., 2015, 805: L1.
[7] C. Petuya, et al, J. Phys. Chem. C 121(25) (2017) 13798–13802.
[8] C. Petuya, et al, J. Phys. Chem. C 122(1) (2018) 566 –573.
[9] C. Petuya, et al, Crystals 8 (2018) 145(1-13).
[10] C. Petuya, et al, Chem. Comm. 54 (2018) 4290-4293.
[11] C. Petuya, et al, J. Phys. Chem. C 123(8) (2019) 4871-4878.
[12] C. Petuya, et al, J. Chem. Phys. 150(18) (2019) 184705.
[13] C. Métais, et al, in preparation.
[14] J. Cha, et al. J. Phys. Chem. C 2008, 112, 13332−13335.
[15] L. Bedouret, et al, J. Phys. Chem. B 118 (2014) 13357−13364.
[16] A. Desmedt, et al, Solid State Ionics, 252 (2013) 19-25
[17] S. Desplanche et al, article in preparation // A. Desmedt, S. Desplanche et al, Patent FR 18 53886 (2018).
[18] E. Pefoute, et al, J. Phys. Chem. C 116(32) (2012) 16823
[19] A. Desmedt, et al, J. Phys. Chem. C 119 (2015) 8904-8911
[20] T.T. Nguyen, et al, in preparation.
ILL Colloquium
Thursday 28 November 2019 at 14.00 in Seminar Room ILL 4, 1st floor
Prof. Robert Mc Greevy
Director of ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
Science & Technology Facilities Council
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Harwell Campus
Didcot OX11 0QX
2019 is a watershed year for neutrons in Europe, with the closure of three facilities. It is not only timely, but necessary, to take a hard look at the future role of neutrons and our neutron facilities. The success of the past 50 years does not imply relevance for the next 50. How do we ensure capability to address the evolving scientific challenges as well as capacity to support a viable but less expert user community, over an increasingly broad range of science, and all within a finite budget? How do we best distribute that budget across the neutron source(s), the instruments, sample environment and software/data to maximise our impact, and what is the impact we are trying to maximise? How do we address societal concerns such as security or environmental sustainability? Will artificial intelligence help us or is it just a distraction?
In this colloquium I will take a (hopefully) thought provoking look at these questions – and more. All opinions expressed will be solely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer!
ILL - ESRF COLLOQUIUM
Friday 15 november at 14.00 in Chadwick Amphitheatre
Dr. Anders MADSEN
European XFEL
Hamburg, Germany
anders.madsen@xfel.eu
The European XFEL (EuXFEL) is the world’s most powerful hard X-ray laser since its inauguration in 2017. In the talk, I will discuss the science goals of the MID station at EuXFEL as well as the beamline design and scientific instrumentation. The design work started in 2011 with first beam received in Dec 2018 and a round of early experiments conducted in 2019. MID focuses on the use of extremely short, intense, and coherent hard X-ray beams that EuXFEL can produce to investigate dynamics processes in materials by imaging and scattering. Results of the commissioning and early science results will be presented. In 2020 the capabilities of the MID station will be further enhanced to include femtosecond optical lasers for pump-probe experiments as well as an X-ray split-delay line for speckle visibility studies of ultrafast dynamics.
ILL COLLOQUIUM
Friday 8 November at 14.00 in Chadwick Amphitheatre
Dr Yoshie OTAKE
Neutron Beam Technology Team Team Leader
RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics (RAP)
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, 315-0198, Japan
Neutron Application Facilities building
yotake@riken.jp
Neutron beam has high penetration power for such metals as iron and steel, aluminum and so on, and high sensitivities for such light elements as hydrogen, boron, lithium, while it interacts with nucleus. Until now, neutron beam can only be used at such large facilities as SNS in US, J-PARC in Japan, ILL in France, and so on. Now strong requests for the non-destructive quantitative analysis on-site for such bulk samples as iron deformed plate with some mm thickness, and for the development of Nano-materials in the universities, companies are increasing.
RIKEN Accelerator-driven compact neutron source, RANS, has been operated since 2013[1], with 7MeV proton with beryllium target.
There are two major goals of RANS research and development. One is to establish a popular compact neutron system of floor-standing type for industrial use as a non-destructive analysis equipment. Another goal is to invent a novel transportable compact neutron system for the preventive maintenance of large scale construction such as a bridge.
There are more than six kinds of instruments, and neutron measurements are available with RANS. The low energy transmission imaging, neutron diffractometer [2], small angle scattering instruments, fast neutron transmission imaging [3], fast neutron reflected imaging [4], neutron induced prompt gamma-ray analysis and neutron activation analysis are available with RANS. As an example of the results, neutron diffraction technique for the measurement of retained austenite volume fraction has been newly developed by using RANS, which allows us to perform the "on-site" measurement with the accuracy of 1%. Retained austenite is one of the key factors that dominate the mechanical properties of an advanced high strength steel sheet. Neutron beam has an important advantage in its large penetration depth which enables the measurement of bulk-average quantities. The developed measurement technique has a possibility to utilize the above advantages of neutron beam by installing the compact neutron source in laboratories.
For further compact neutron system, RANS-II with 2.49 MeV proton linac starts generating neutron. The neutron applications with RANS will be discussed in detail.
[reference]
[1] Y.Otake, "A Compact Proton Linac Neutron Source at RIKEN", “Applications of Laser-Driven Particle Acceleration” eds. Paul Bolton, et al. (2018) Chapter 19 pp.291-314 CRC Press
[2] Y. Ikeda, et al. "Prospect for application of compact accelerator-based neutron source to neutron engineering diffraction", Nucl. Instr. Meth. An 833(2016) pp 61-67
[3] Y. Seki et al. “Fast neutron transmission imaging of the interior of large-scale concrete structures using a newly developed pixel-type detector", Nucl Inst. Methods Phys Res A 870 (2017) pp. 148-155
[4] Y. Ikeda, et al. "Nondestructive measurement for water and voids in concrete with compact neutron source", Plasma and Fusion Research Vol.13(2018) pp.2406005-1-5
ILL Colloquium: MLZ – present status and vision 2030
Friday 20 September at 14.00 in Chadwick Aphitheatre
Prof. Dr. Peter Müller-Buschbaum 1,2
1 Technische Universität München, Physik-Department, Lehrstuhl für Funktionelle Materialien,
James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
2 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München,
Lichtenbergstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
E-mail: muellerb@ph.tum.de
The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) is a leading center for cutting-edge research with neutrons and positrons, offering a unique suite of high-performance neutron scattering instruments. The MLZ represents the cooperation between the Technische Universität München (TUM) and three research centres of the Helmholtz Association, namely Forschungszentrum Jülich, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB, inactive partner) to exploit the scientific use of the Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) in Garching near Munich. The MLZ relies on a network of strong partners such as the FRM II, the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS), the German Engineering Materials Science Centre (GEMS) at HZG as well as 10 different German universities and institutes of the Max-Planck-Society.
The present status of MLZ and future vision 2030 will be presented. Our recently formulated road map identifies the main scientific drivers for research at MLZ, the present status for the key scientific areas, and the consequential science driven development of instrumentation and services offered to the users.
With selected scientific highlights, the possibilities of neutron-based research will be briefly illustrated.
ILL Colloquium: Scientific Babel: English, German, and the Fall of Polyglot Natural Science.
Friday 12 July at 14.00 a.m. in Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Michael D Gordin
Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History
Director, Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts
Princeton University, USA
www.michaelgordin.com
Abstract
Communication, especially publication, in the natural sciences today takes place almost exclusively in English. This phenomenon is relatively recent, with a strong shift toward monoglot natural science taking place roughly half a century ago. This talk offers an account of the transformation of communication in the natural sciences from a primarily trilingual situation in 1850 (English, French, and German) to a bilingual situation after the Second World War (English primary, Russian secondary), to the monoglot system of today. In particular, the significant and sudden decline of German, due to political upheaval during the twentieth century (especially the First World War) and cultural processes within the scientific community, was the primary condition for the transformation of a polyglot linguistic system in the natural sciences to a monoglot one.
ILL and ESRF Colloquium: Bionic Hearing: The Science and the Experience
Tuesday 4 June at 11.00 am in Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Ian Shipsey
Henry Moseley Centenary Professor of Physics
Head, Department of Physics
University of Oxford
ian.shipsey@physics.ox.ac.uk
Abstract
Cochlear implants are the first device to successfully restore neural function. They have instigated a popular but controversial revolution in the treatment of deafness, and they serve as a model for research in neuroscience and biomedical engineering. After a visual tour of the physiology of natural hearing the function of cochlear implants will be described in the context of electrical engineering, psychophysics, clinical evaluation, and my own personal experience.
The audience will have the opportunity to experience speech and music heard through a cochlear implant. The social implications of cochlear implantation and the future outlook for auditory prostheses will also be discussed.
About the speaker:
Ian Shipsey is a particle physicist, and a Professor of Physics at Oxford University. He has been profoundly deaf since 1989. In 2002 he heard the voice of his daughter for the first time, and his wife's voice for the first time in thirteen years thanks to a cochlear implant.
The presentation will be at the level of Scientific American.
ILL – ESRF Colloquium: Spatial and Temporal CryoEM of Soft Molecular Assemblies and other Colloids
Friday 8 February at 2.00 pm in Chadwick Amphitheatre, ILL 4
Prof Dganit Danino
Biotechnology and Food engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute,
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,
Haifa, 32000, Israel.
email CryoEM@Technion.ac.il
“The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 was awarded for the development of cryoelectron microscopy, which both simplifies and improves the imaging of Biomolecules".
For nearly 20 years we use this powerful tool to unfold structure-function property relations of molecular assemblies, soft nanostructures and colloids, of natural and synthetic building blocks. Our work focuses on resolving complex structures and dynamic processes, using the unique ability of cryo-EM to simultaneously disclose coexisting structures, capture infrequent and short-lived intermediates, and directly illuminate fine structural details at ~1nm resolution, all at the hydrated state. Recent cutting edge improvements e.g., in detection by direct detectors, in optics through phase plates and in software, provide higher resolution, clearer and more precise structural, spatial, temporal and quantitative data.
We will discuss past, current and prospect application of cryo-EM to soft materials and colloids [1]. Specific examples will include complete analysis of micellar systems [2] including first presentation of their spatial organization achieved through cryo-electron tomography (CryoET), time-resolution investigations e.g., of 1-dimensional ribbons and nanotubes [3], lipid-nanoparticles and lipid-nucleic acid structures [4-6], and protein-membrane complexes. In line with the research in the EPN campus, we will emphasize the synergy between CryoEM and scattering, as well as the strength in combining morphological and high-resolution CryoEM for resolving biological and nanomedical questions.
References :
[1] Danino, Curr Opin Colloid In (2012) 17, 316–329;
[2] Danino et al., J Phys Chem Lett (2016) 7, 1434–1439;
[3] Danino and Egelman, Curr Opin Colloid In (2018) 34, 100-113;
[4] Michel et al., Angew Chem (2014) 3, 12441-12445;
[5] Dahlman et al., Nature Nanotechnology (2014) 9, 648-655;
[6] Dong et al., Nano Letters (2016) 16, 842-848;
2018
New Phases of Magnetic Quantum Matter Studied by Neutrons and Photons
Friday 16 November at 2.00 p.m. Chadwick Amphitheatre, ILL 4
Prof. Dr. Christian Rüegg
Division Research with Neutrons and Muons, Paul Scherrer Institute and Department of Quantum Matter Physics
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Email: christian.rueegg@psi.ch
Materials made of arrays of quantum spins forming well-defined lattices serve as model systems to study the phases of correlated magnetic quantum matter like spin Luttinger-liquids, magnon Bose-Einstein condensates, or spin super-solids. Neutron and X-ray scattering are unique tools for high-precision studies of such phases and of their correlations and excitations with high energy and momentum resolution and under multi-extreme conditions. Our results for a selection of low-dimensional and frustrated quantum magnets will be discussed in the context of recent developments in neutron instrumentation and computational physics, and exciting new opportunities that free electron lasers will offer to study the time-dependence and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of such systems.
B. Wehinger et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 117201 (2018).
M. Kubus et al. Inorg. Chem. 57, 4934 (2018).
M. Skoulatos et al. Phys. Rev. B 96, 235154 (2017).
M. Zayed et al., Nature Physics 13, 962 (2017).
S. Ward et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 177202 (2017).
A. Biffin et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 067205 (2017).
Self-Assemblies Bridging the Length Scales for Biomimetic and Functional Materials
Friday 7 september at 2.00 p.m. Chadwick Amphitheatre, ILL 4
Prof. Olli Ikkala
Aalto University,
Department of Applied Physics, Molecular materials
Puumiehenkuja 2, P.O. Box 15100,
00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland
Self-assemblies have extensively been used towards well-defined structures and functional materials. An overarching challenge is to bridge the different length scales to transfer the local structures to useful macroscopic materials properties. This talk addresses selected examples thereof using colloids and polymers. Inspired by the attractive mechanical properties of nacre, we show that aligned clay nanosheets, self-assembled with polymer layers, allow nacre-mimetic bulk materials with strength of 220 MPa and fracture toughness of 3.4 MPa m1/2, approaching those of nacre (1). The fracture processes can be followed by laser speckle methods (2). Then reasons are discussed why atomically precise metallic nanoclusters decorated by ligands mediating hydrogen bonds lead to 2D colloidal hexosome-like sheets and hollow virus-like capsids (3,4). Nanocelluloses are colloidal rods or nanofibers with extraordinarily good mechanical properties. Directed polymer self-assemblies on their surfaces are discussed to facilitate "brushes on brushes", architecturally resembling proteoglycans (5). Nanocelluloses allow porous films towards efficient light scattering media (6), mimicking white beetles. Finally, complex block copolymer self-assemblies are discussed. Diblock copolymer micelles lead to tunable photonic fluids and photonic crystals, once the micellar coronae become super-stretched by their promoted repulsion by charging (7). Upon involving more blocks, complex self-assemblies are obtained (8-9). The challenges in the phase identification are discussed.
[1] M. Morits, T. Verho, J. Sorvari, V. Liljeström, M. Kostiainen, A. Gröschel, O. Ikkala, Adv. Funct. Mater. 27, 1605378, 2016; [2] T. Verho, P. Karppinen, A. Gröschel, O. Ikkala, Adv. Sci, 1700635, 2017; [3] Nonappa, T. Lahtinen, J. Haataja, T.-R. Tero, H. Häkkinen, O. Ikkala, Angew. Chem., Int Ed., 55, 16035, 2016; [4] Nonappa, J. Haataja, J. Timonen, S. Malola, P. Engelhardt, N. Houbenov, M. Lahtinen, H. Häkkinen, O. Ikkala, Angew. Chem., Int Ed. 56, 6473, 2017; [5] J.-M. Malho, M. Morits, T. Löbling, N. Nonappa, J. Majoinen, F. Schacher, O. Ikkala, A. Gröschel, ACS Macro Lett. 5, 1185, 2016; [6] M. S. Toivonen, O. D. Onelli, G. Jacucci, V. Lovikka, O. J. Rojas, O. Ikkala, S. Vignolini, Adv. Mat, 2018, in press; [7] M. Poutanen, G. Guidetti, T. Gröschel, O. Borisov, S. Vignolini, O. Ikkala, A. H. Gröschel, ACS Nano, 2018, in revision; [8] Löbling, T. I.; Borisov, O.; Haataja, J. S.; Ikkala, O.; Gröschel, A. H.; Müller, A. H. E. Nature Comms, 7, 12097, 2016; [9] J. S. Haataja, N. Houbenov, V. Aseyev, P. Fragouli, H. Iatrou, R. Sougrat, N. Hadjichristidis, O. Ikkala, Chem. Comm. 54, 1085, 2018.
Atomic nuclei as building blocks of the interdisciplinary quantum many-body science
Monday, 2 July 2018, at 2:00 p.m. Chadwick Amphitheatre, ILL 4
Prof. Gianluca Colo
Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita` degli Studi and I.N.F.N.
Milano - Italy
Email: colo@mi.infn.it
Atomic nuclei are relevant for applications, and at the same time, they constitute a formidable intellectual challenge for scientists who are still striving to answer the fundamental question: how do the complex nuclear phenomena emerge from the interactions between the neutrons and protons? The nuclear many-body problem has many similarities with the electronic many-body problem, as recognised already long ago.
In this Colloquium, I will try to update this vision. I will first give a brief survey of the status of nuclear structure theory, and emphasise the role of Density Functional Theory (DFT) as the framework in which the mutual cross-fertilization between nuclear physics and physics of matter, or chemistry, may work at best. I will also discuss some applications of the most recent DFT-based theoretical models to the global ground-state properties of nuclei.
Then, I will focus on nuclear excitations and single out a few specific aspects. I will discuss the low-lying nuclear spectra, that play an important role to identify relevant nuclear correlations like those related to the coupling between single-particle motion and the vibrations or rotations of the nucleus as a whole. The comparison with the electron-phonon coupling in superconductors will be stressed.
Moving to the high-lying nuclear excitations, or giant resonances, I will discuss their importance to deduce from the experiment the so-called nuclear equation of state (EoS), that is, the relationship between pressure and density in nuclear matter. This also connects nuclear physics and the physics of a gas or a liquid.
Finally, a link will be set with the macroscopic scale of those "nuclei" that have dimensions of km, namely neutron stars. In neutron stars, the many-body physics under extreme conditions (high density) manifests itself. They are also good laboratories to study superfluidity, and matter under the highest magnetic fields that have been identified so far.
Supra-molecular and Biomaterial Chemistry
Monday, 11 June 2018 at 2.00 pm in ILL Chadwick amphitheatre
Prof. Luisa De Cola
Professor at Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires, Strasbourg and KIT-INT, Karlsruhe, Germany
Despite the substantial progress that has been made in biomaterials synthesis and functionalization, the challenge of delivery in vivo in desired organs biomolecules or drugs and to mimic the ECM with implants that are able to reduce immunoresponse is still unmet.
Towards this aim, we reported a novel biocompatible hydrogel with the ability to release a migration-inducing factor, for the recruitment of stem cells [1]. The hydrogel is a composite made of breakable container –type materials able to respond to an external stimulus. In particular in the last 5 years we devoted much effort in the creation of “containers’ able to break in small fragments (<5 nm) by a redox reactions,[2] enzymatic degradation,[3] and pH. They can also be capsules in which large biomolecules such as enzymes and proteins can be entrapped and release on demand [4]. The hydrogels that contain such containers are formed in physiological conditions, without any catalyst and at room or at body temperature. They are perfectly biocompatible and can be made degradable. Cells are able to populate and proliferate in the matrices and even stem cells are able to grow and differentiate . Interestingly these soft materials can be injected as liquid and are able to solidify in few seconds or even in milliseconds in different tissues and organs.
Finally I wish to close my talk showing novel capsules that can be realized using a unique approach to template virus proteins to reconstruct virus-like particles. We use luminescent Pt(II)-complex amphiphiles, able to form supramolecular structures in water solutions, that can act as templates of viruses capsid proteins. The platinum assemblies can have different morphologies and extremely high emission of which the color depends on the assembly. Interestingly we are able to change the size and shape of the particles even though we use the same natural proteins. The obtained virus-like particles can be visualized by their intense emission at room temperature, generated by the self-assembly of the Pt(II)-complexes inside the capside [5].
[1] F. Fiorini, L. De Cola et al. Small, 2016, 12, 4881
[2] L. Maggini, L. De Cola et al. Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 7240
[3] L. Maggini, L. De Cola et al. Chem. Eu. J., 2016, 22, 3697
[4] E.A. Prasetyanto, L. De Cola et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 3323.
[5] S. Sinn, L. De Cola et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, DOI 10.1021/jacs.7b12447
Diamond Light Source
Monday, 23 April 2018 at 2.00 pm, Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Andrew Harrison
Chief Executive
Diamond Light Source
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus,
Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, UK
Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility, will complete its third phase of construction later in 2018 with 32 operational beamlines. The new experimental capabilities of some of the recent additions to the beamline portfolio will be presented, together with complementary, integrated facilities for Cryo-EM and high-resolution TEM, and high throughput sample delivery systems developed for both macromolecular crystallography beamlines and XFEL endstations around the world. The rapid pace of development of all aspects of enabling technology for synchrotrons means that it is vital to have long-term plans to remain competitive. Diamond is planning a very significant upgrade to its machine, has a rolling upgrade programme for its beamlines, and is developing a strategy to address the increasing challenge of ‘big’ - and complex – data. These developments will be outlined together with the broader challenge of ensuring the long-term sustainability both of Diamond and the increasing number of large-scale research infrastructures across Europe.
Quantum Biology
Friday 6 April 2018 at 2.00, Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Johnjoe McFadden
University of Surrey
Professor of Molecular Genetics, Associate Dean (International)
BSc (Biochemistry), PhD (Biochemistry)
Quantum mechanics and molecular biology were the two revolutionary scientific disciplines that grew out of the twentieth century. Quantum biology can be said to have been initiated by a physicist, Erwin Schrödinger, in his lecture, essay and book entitled “What in Life” (published in 1944) in which he proposed that heredity was based on non-trivial aspects of quantum mechanics. The book was very influential to molecular biology pioneers, such as James Watson and Francis Crick, who speculated that quantum tunnelling may be the driver for mutation in DNA. This idea was given a firm theoretical foundation by the Swedish physicist Per-Olov Löwdin in the 1960’s; but thereafter the field of quantum biology largely languished; albeit with occasional bursts of interest, such as the speculation that consciousness is based on quantum mechanics, stimulated by Roger Penrose’s book, “The Emperor’s New Mind” in 1989. However, the twenty-first century has seen a revival of quantum biology with the arrival of new experimental evidence of quantum mechanical effects in a range of biological phenomena such as photosynthesis and enzyme action. In this talk I will provide an introduction to quantum biology, returning to Schrödinger’s original insight that quantum phenomena may be found in biological processes that involve very small numbers of molecules. I will review the kinds of biological phenomena that may be subject to these quantum stochastic effects and present some recent experimental evidence that proton tunnelling is involved in mutation as well as highlighting areas for future research.
SmartGrids: Stakes, Research Needs and Opportunities for Energy Transition
Friday, 23 March 2018 at 2.00 pm, Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Nourredine Hadj-Said
Director GIE-IDEA - G2Elab
Grenoble Electrical Engineering
UGA Saint Martin d'Hères
Nouredine.Hadjsaid@g2elab.grenoble-inp.fr
Among the technical objectives of the SmartGrid concept, one can mention an increased integration and management of distributed generation as well as PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid and Electric Vehicles) in the best economical and security conditions, an increased participation of consumers (concept of active consumer and optimization of consumption), a reduced environmental impact of the whole electricity supply system (reducing losses, improving energy efficiency, among others), and an improved power quality and overall system security for examples. The field of expected achievements is as broad as efficient devices/structures for interconnecting DGs (Distributed Generation), control and supervision, energy chain optimization, reduction of peak consumption, anticipation of equipment failures and self-healing to manage outages and improve network resilience, etc.
The extent of technologies to be developed for reaching these objectives encompasses several areas that include generating and storage technologies, information and communication technologies, new monitoring and control devices, smart equipment for fault management, advanced forecasting tools, etc. For the various technologies, some specific technology enablers in the process of innovation and expected breakthroughs play a key role in SmartGrids. Examples of the key roles for the advanced energy materials are PV (Photovoltaic), storage technologies, power electronics components and new generation of sensors needed to enhance distribution grids monitoring.
The presentation will address the advent of SmartGrids, solutions being developed to meet the increasing complexity of the whole electrical system and the opportunities offered for the energy transition. It will cover both up to date research and development in the field of SmartGrids and industrial applications including some examples on large scale pilot projects for SmartGrids.
2017
Nanotechnology to repair and rebuild human organs: bench to patients
Thursday, 14 December 2017 at 2.00 pm, Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Alexander Marcus Seifalian
CEO/Professor of Nanotechnology & Regenerative Medicine
Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine Commercialisation Centre (Ltd)
The London BioScience Innovation Centre, London, UK
Nanotechnology is revolutionising the repair and replacement of human organs. Nanomaterials have the unique physical, chemical, mechanical, and optical properties that naturally occur at that nanoscale. We have developed a family of nanocomposite materials for clinical application. The nanocomposite materials have been used in repair and development of human organs. The materials have been fabricated to the 3D scaffold using coagulation, casting, electrospinning as well as 3D printing. Then the scaffold has been functionalised with bioactive molecules and antibodies for capturing and differentiation of stem cells to mature cells either in vitro or in vivo using the body as a bioreactor.
In this talk present the research and development as well as route of taking laboratory research to patients and towards commercialisation. The organs will be discussed in details world first synthetic trachea, tear ducts, small diameter bypass graft for replacement of coronary and vascular arteries. Taking organs to patients and commercialisation is challenging in term of regulatory as well as manufacturing under GMP/GLP. In this talk will discuss the pathway and timescale taking the organs to the clinical trial from laboratories products.
Scientific and technical challenges on the road towards fusion electricity
Friday 3 November 2017 at 11.00, Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Tony Donné
Programme Manager,
EUROfusion Consortium, Garching, Germany
tony.donne@euro-fusion.org
The European Roadmap to the realisation of fusion energy breaks the quest for fusion energy into eight missions. For each mission, it reviews the current status of research, identifies open issues, proposes a research and development programme and estimates the required resources. It points out the needs to intensify industrial involvement and to seek all opportunities for collaboration outside Europe.
The presentation will focus on the strategy behind the fusion roadmap and will describe the major challenges that need to be tackled on the road towards fusion electricity. Encouraging recent results will be given to demonstrate the outcome of the focused approach in European fusion research.
Genèse et naissance d'un pôle scientifique international : Grenoble d'un siècle à l'autre...
Vendredi 8 Septembre 2017 à 14.00, Amphithéatre Chadwick
Dr. Denis Guthleben
Attaché scientifique au Comité pour l'histoire du CNRS Rédacteur en
chef d'Histoire de la recherche contemporaine
Octobre 1940. Dans une France qui vit les heures les plus sombres de son histoire, un jeune physicien de 36 ans, exilé de l'Université de Strasbourg, décide de s'établir à Grenoble. Avec le soutien du doyen de la faculté des sciences et du directeur de l'Institut Polytechnique, il parvient à fonder un petit « laboratoire de ferromagnétisme » dans des locaux fraîchement aménagés près du centre-ville. L'aventure de Louis Néel débute ainsi, sur les rives de l'Isère, entre pénuries et menaces. Rapidement, d'autres naufragés, emportés comme lui par le tourbillon des événements, viennent le rejoindre. Louis Weil, tout d'abord, un spécialiste des très basses températures, qui fuit les persécutions anti-juives. Puis Noël Félici qui, major de sa promotion à l'École normale supérieure, se passionne pour la construction des machines électrostatiques. Et Félix Bertaut, de son vrai nom Erwin Lewy, le fils d'un rabbin de Haute-Silésie qui a trouvé refuge en France où il a acquis une solide compétence dans le domaine des rayons X. Autour de Louis Néel, ces quelques chercheurs vont poser les bases d'une grande épopée scientifique et humaine qui ne s'est jamais interrompue depuis et a fait de Grenoble une capitale de rayonnement international.
Relativity in Global Navigation Satellite Systems
Thursday 27 June at 2.00, Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Neil Ashby
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Boulder, Colorado
USA
Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BEIDOU, and related augmentation systems have revolutionized a number of scientific disciplines and industrial activities, and have an impact every day on hundreds of thousands of people. Careful consideration of fundamental relativity concepts such as proper time, coordinate time, clock synchronization, the constancy of the speed of light, and the Equivalence Principle is required. Numerous relativistic effects must be accounted for, including time dilation, gravitational frequency shifts, and the Sagnac effect. The importance of a relativistic effect arising from orbit adjustments was realized only in 2000. Relativity in the GPS was controversial from the beginning and up until recently. The success of GPS has led to the development of other similar navigation systems. These relativity concepts will be explained from the point of view of the GPS and some interesting applications will be discussed.
Status and Developments of the NIST Center for Neutron Research
Wednesday, 17 May 2017, at 2:00 p.m. Chadwick amphitheatre.
Dr. Robert Dimeo
Director, NIST Center for Neutron Research
NIST Gaithersburg campus
USA
In this talk I will describe the NIST Center for Neutron Research, a national neutron user facility operated by the U.S. Department of Commerce. In particular I will describe the latest instrument developments, planned facility upgrades, and future opportunities at the NCNR as well as selected scientific highlights. The science highlights will be presented as sketchnotes which are one-page, hand-drawn visual summaries of the research.
Amyloid, amyloidosis and therapeutic progress
Thursday 4 May 2017 at 2:00 p.m. Chadwick amphitheatre
Prof. Sir Mark Pepys
Director, Wolfson Drug Discovery Unit
Centre for Amyloidosis and Acute Phase Proteins
Royal Free Campus, University College London
m.pepys@ucl.ac.uk
Words and names are important in science and medicine. Amyloid and amyloidosis provide an instructive paradigm of this eternal truth. Although the definition of these terms is simple, straightforward and unequivocal, they are widely and grossly misused, to the detriment of understanding and, crucially, potentially also to progress in treatment for major unmet medical needs. These issues will be defined and discussed in relation to the very exciting and encouraging recent progress in development and testing of novel therapeutic approaches to systemic amyloidosis and Alzheimer’s disease.
CH3NH3PbI3 hybrid halide perovskite: beyond photovoltaics
Friday, 24 March 2017, at 2:00 p.m. Chadwick amphitheatre.
Prof. Dr László Forró
Laboratory of Physics of Complex Matter
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
CH-1015 Lausanne
laszlo.forro@epfl.ch
Recently, it has been shown that CH3NH3PbI3 is very promising material in photovoltaic devices1 reaching light conversion efficiency (η) up to 22%2. A strong research activity has been focused on the chemistry of the material to establish the most important parameters which could further improve η and to collect photons from a broad energy window. The major trend in this field is in photovoltaic device engineering although the fundamental aspects of the material are not yet understood.
In my lab we have devoted considerable effort to grow high quality single crystals at different length scales, ranging from large bulk crystals (up to 100 mm3) through nanowires3,4 down to quantum dots of tens of nanometers of linear dimensions. The structural tunability of the material allows to study a broad range of physical phenomena including electrical and thermal transport, magnetism, optical properties, spectral features by photoemission etc. Furthermore, we have discovered that with a suitable doping the material becomes ferromagnetic, which could be modulated by photoelectrons via the RKKY interaction5. A selected set of measurements will be reported in this presentation together with some device applications6, 7.
Acknowledgement: The work has been performed in collaboration with Endre Horvath, Massimo Spina, Balint Nafradi, Peter Szirmai, Alla Araktcheva, Andrea Pisoni, Jacim Jacimovic, Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Claudio Grimaldi, Hugo Dil, Henrik Ronnow and many others.
References:
1. Lee, M. M. et al.,Science 338, 643-647 (2012).
2. see reports of the Gaetzel and Hagfeldt groups
3. Horvath et al., Nano Letters 14, 6761, (2015)
4. Spina et al., (2016) Scientific Reports, 6, 1
5. Nafradi et al., Nature Communications, 7, 13406, (2016).
6. Spina et al., (2015) Small, 11, 4823 ; Spina et al., Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 4888
7. Nafradi et al., J. Phys. Chem. C 2015, 119, 2520
ESA space research and technology: highlights and opportunities
Thursday, 2 March 2017 at 14.00, Chadwick amphitheatre
Dr. Bernard Foing
Executive Director, International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG).
European Space Agency
Noorwijk - Netherlands
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens.
Space research contributes to answer fundamental questions: How did our Earth and our Solar System evolve? Where are we in the Universe? Where are we going? Where did life come from, and are we alone?
We shall present some highlights of recent and upcoming ESA science missions: astronomical observatories or planetary probes.
ESA's Living Planet Programme comprises a science and research element, which includes the Earth Explorer missions, and an Earth Watch element, which is designed to facilitate the delivery of Earth observation data for use in operational services.
Copernicus most ambitious Earth observation programme (in partnership with EU) will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.
For the development of future spacecraft, ESA staff and contractors work at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) to design and manage the building of spacecraft and their instruments in European industry and academia. Space research is a strategic asset. With it, ESA ensures technological independence, it safeguards a European cultural identity, it supports a science-based society, and clearly demonstrates European capability and vision.
We shall discuss opportunities of collaborations in research & technology, for instance in future science missions or exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.
Cryo-electron microscopy in structural biology - revolution or evolution?
Friday 3 February at 14.00 - Chadwick Amphitheatre
Prof. Helen Saibil
Professor of Structural Biology Crystallography,
Dpt of Biological Sciences
Birkbeck College London
Cryo-EM provides a powerful set of approaches to understanding the operation of macromolecular machines, both in isolation and in their cellular context. The methods have been developing over the last half-century in parallel with macromolecular crystallography, but lagging behind it by several decades. The recent major acceleration in the pace of development has brought cryo EM to prominence with a wider audience of structural and cell biologists, and the methods are also broadly applicable in materials science. In this lecture, I will cover the main principles and capabilities of cryo EM for molecular and cellular structure determination, and present examples of its application to the operation of macromolecular machinery, specifically molecular chaperones involved in protein folding, unfolding and disassembly of protein aggregates.