News

Using neutron spectroscopy data taken at ILL, researchers achieved a novel understanding of molecular movement at the nanoscale, providing new insights that may impact the design of future materials and technologies. The study has just been published in the Nature Portfolio open access journal Communications Chemistry – and is featured (as a banner) on the journal homepage.

The first test measurements on the new instrument SAM at the ILL have been performed. SAM is the new small-angle neutron scattering instrument developed by LLB in collaboration with ILL (a so-called collaboration research group instrument, CRG). The first experiments are planned for the second cycle of 2024.

The goal of this study was to complete the mapping of the dynamics of the well-known protein Hsp90 by studying the 5-500 ns timescale using a combination of state-of-the-art complementary techniques, and to take the first steps towards understanding how this timescale relates to the slower dynamics known to drive the protein’s functioning.

After five intense weeks, HERCULES 2024 reached completion on 28 March. Here you can find a small photo gallery from the ILL side. HERCULES will be back in 2025!

The ILL Scientific Council met on site on 27-28 March. On the two previous days, 25-26 March, the Subcommittees of the scientific council met to analyse and select the proposals for beam time in 2025.

Eight new project proposals with ILL’s involvement have been submitted to the European Commission last week. ILL is leading two of these proposals, one for intense magnetic fields and another on artificial intelligence.

The global need to transition to a sustainable and clean energy future has brought hydrogen to the forefront as a promising clean energy carrier. Efficient and safe storage is a key challenge and hydrogen storage in activated carbons is a promising option. Investigating the fundamental interactions between hydrogen and nanoporous carbon at the atomic level can provide vital information for enhancing the storage efficiency of these materials. Neutron scattering is sensitive to hydrogen, thus opening the possibility for many different insights. This paper reports on a SANS (Small-Angle Neutron Scattering) study using ILL’s highly versatile neutron diffractometer D16 to investigate hydrogen and deuterium adsorption in nanoporous activated carbon cloth as a function of (micro)pore size. These findings will contribute to a better understanding of the processes involved and will influence the design of materials for efficient hydrogen storage devices working at realistic cryogenic conditions and low pressures.

The ILL's Science Strategy Working Group had its first meeting on 7/8 March on site in Grenoble. The aim of the first meeting was to define the research areas on which the group’s discussions will focus and set up a working structure.

On the 12th of March 2024 ILL responded to the HORIZON-INFRA-2024-TECH-01 call for proposals by submitting the project BOBINE — Bettering Our B-field Infrastructure for Neutrons in Europe. If financed, the BOBINE project will deliver unprecedented high-B/low-T capabilities and the design of the H…

An article recently published in Cell Reports reveals how researchers have for the first time directly visualized the position of protons within key functional elements of an enzyme that plays an important role in the metabolism of many microorganisms. Neutron diffraction measurements at ILL of protein crystals grown under microgravity conditions at the International Space Station (ISS) were key ingredients in this work.

The first 2024 reactor cycle at ILL started at 08:30 today, February 27th. It will go on for 49 days, until April 16th, at a power of 54.7 MW.

The Integrative Computational Biology Workshop brought together structural biologists with mathematicians and computer scientists on the EPN campus this week. The goal was to contribute to progress in the modelling of proteins' behaviour.