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Understanding the interactions of biomolecules such as proteins or drugs with the membrane of cells is important in biomedical research and for the pharmaceutical industry. The sensitivity of neutrons to hydrogen atoms make neutron scattering a unique probe.

Magnetic skyrmions are unique magnetic structures. A breakthrough has been achieved through neutron scattering techniques, revealing the presence of hybrid skyrmion phases. Skyrmion-based magnonic crystals offer promising possibilities in signal processing and communication

On 29 November, a half-day event was organized to celebrate 50 years since the UK joined France and Germany as equal partners (Associates) at the ILL.In the first session, former directors and scientists entertained an audience of about 150 (in the Chadwick amphitheatre and virtually) with insights, achievements and anecdotes from the 1970s and the following decades. The second session focused on…

Today, physicists can describe our world with ever increasing precision: The Standard Model of particle physics successfully describes all observation concerning three out of four fundamental interactions - the electromagnetic, the weak and the strong interaction. Gravitation, the fourth known interaction, is fully explained by General Relativity. The application of General Relativity to the enti…

In september 2022, we celebrated 50 years of D11 and its exceptional delivery of high quality science in biology, chemistry, soft matter and materials science. …

Credit PCCP Fullerenes are molecular cages made purely from carbon, the most well-known being C-60 which is a molecular sphere made of 60 carbon atoms. The Nobel prize for chemistry in 1996 was awarded to Richard Smalley, Harry Kroto and Robert Curl for their seren…

The ILL (Institut Laue Langevin, Grenoble, France), and the Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) intend to cooperate more closely in research and development in the field of neutron instruments and technologies. This was agreed during the visit of Dr Ken Andersen, the new ILL Director General, to Jülich. Jülich CEO Prof. Astrid Lambrecht and Dr Andersen signed a declaration to this effect.The links bet…

Figure 1: (click to enlarge) Clockwise from left: SuperSUN phase I installed at its beam end-position, with radiological shielding removed; cut view of the cryogenic system including the octupole magnet planned for phase II; circular cold-neutron replica guide with m=3 supermirror coating; taper…

Experimental evidence of rare magnetic behaviour in LiYbO2 will help to open the door to a new family of materials with potential applications in spintronics, quantum computing and more. Though continuous down-scaling in microelectronics has enabled the industry to achieve phenomenal success, the trend is now approaching fundamental limits. Promising alternative technologies for next generation d…

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Professor John White, who died very suddenly, most probably of a heart attack, in his garden on 16 August.  John was the UK’s first Director of the ILL, a post which he held from 1977 to 1980 after serving for two years as Associate Director. He was one of the architects of the ILL’s very first instrument upgrade programme, known as …

In an article published in ACS Macro Letters, a team of physicochemists describes a novel approach which uses neutron and light scattering to monitor in situ the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers in near-equilibrium conditions. These results offer a wealth of possibilities for observing and better understanding the organisation of complex biological and synthetic macromolecules in aqu…

Following the signature of the Sixth Protocol in September 2021, the Associates decided to create a Working Group to elaborate a strategy for the ILL for the period 2024-2033. The strategy proposed to the ILL’s stakeholders, the Associates and the Scientific Members, focusses on defining the core …