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Chemist Manfred Weiss manages the MX beamlines at BESSY II in Berlin-Adlershof, Germany. Here, researchers and pharmaceutical companies study the structure of crystalline molecules and discover triggers of disease – mostly in the search for new medicines. He still clearly remembers the call that came in at 4 a.m.: Manfred Weiss was the scientist on standby in case of problems, and on the other end of line were the scientists currently experimenting at one of his beamlines. “We’re finished. Everything went well, thank you,” they informed the sleepy chemist. This was a few years ago and it still makes Weiss smile to think back toRead More →

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In: International, Lightsources, Students, Summerstudents

By Elżbieta Wątor How to get back to BESSY II ? From Kraków where I study, it’s really easy. By car – it’s around 6 hours and the route is quite convienient. There is also a Ryanair flight to Berlin Schönefeld every morning or Flixbus several times per day. But how to organise that? Here’s my brief story: My participation in the 2017 Summer Student Programme was a happy coincidence. In November 2016 I took part in a small student seminar at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, where Rafał Piwowarczyk (a summer student in MX group at BESSY II in 2016) talked about his stayRead More →

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In: Careers, Energymaterials

Adopting the reader’s perspective might help to set your proposal into a broader context and suggest relevant potential impact Some weeks ago, EU expert Seán McCarthy gave a workshop at HZB entitled “How to Write a Competitive Proposal for Horizon 2020”. The lecture hall was packed with scientists waiting for instructions and McCarthy delivered plenty. “The secret is understanding the evaluation process”, McCarthy pointed out. In other words: Put yourself into the shoes of the evaluators who will read your proposal and make the decisions. Peer reviewers want facts at a glance, details by further reading Scientific experts who may not be native English speakersRead More →

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At HZB about 150 young scientists are working on their doctoral dissertation. 81 come from abroad to Berlin to do their PhD in the HZB labs in Wannsee or Adlershof. The PhD students at HZB have organized themselves: twice a month, they invite to an informal get-together, they plan workshops and an annual PhD retreat in a country hotel in Brandenburg. This is actively supported by the management. I recently asked Daniel Meza, one of eight current doctoral student representatives about their activities. Daniel, why do you work as a representative in the PhD students organization ? Daniel: Maybe it’s a bit romantic, but forRead More →

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Thermoplastic ionomer materials such as Nafion do have many talents: they can be used as membranes for proton exchange in fuel cells, but they have also attracted attention as shape memory materials: Via external stimuli such as heat or an electric field, it is possible to trigger a change in shapes. Applications in textiles, biomedicine, aerospace, sensors and coatings are possible. Nafion: a membrane with shape memory Nafion is one of those materials: as a membrane in a fuel cell, its high proton conductivity allows a fast pass of hydrogen ions (protons). And its internal shape plays a crucial role. Now a team from Brazil hasRead More →

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by Jonas Böhm The last finishing touches are being made to the cryogenic undulator CPMU-17 before it will be installed in the BESSY II storage ring next week. A good moment to look back. The long way of undulators: 70 years old and still up-to-date Home of the first undulator was Stanford. Its linear accelerator (you can see its tunnel in the image) is claimed to be “the world’s most straight object”. In 1952, the Austrian scientist Hans Motz and his team conducted the first experiment, in which a 100-Mev electron beam from the Stanford linear accelerator passed through the undulator. Light radiated by the beam wasRead More →

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by Katharina Kolatzki With the new cryogenic undulator CPMU-17 being installed into the BESSY II storage ring, I thought it a good moment to get everyone who may not be that familiar with this essential part of the synchrotron up to speed. What is an Undulator? By now, you might have noticed that undulators are pretty cool things (even the room temperature devices) that are an essential part of synchrotron sources such as BESSY II. In order to understand a little bit more about them, here is a brief introduction to undulators. Synchrotron sources provide especially brilliant light that can be used to examine aRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Students, Summerstudents

Quantum Mechanics Can Be Useful Too! Nowadays, it seems that quantum mechanics is seen more as “spooky” than practical. Thus, I am here to “de-mystify” some of the science behind a fascinating process that’s yet to be simulated properly. My research group investigates the theory behind what is called Interatomic Coulomb Electron Capture (ICEC). This fascinating universal quantum process is yet to be fully understood, and we are here to change that. Someday, this could be an incredibly useful tool to revolutionize atomic and quantum chemical energy transfers. ICEC In A Nutshell The general process includes 3 main steps that occur simultaneously. We’ve got two atoms, atom A andRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Summerstudents

Far-sighted hydrogen economy During one of the winter nights, while talking in the interior of Granite House, “well lighted with candles, well warmed with coal, after a good dinner”, the settlers of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island were discussing about the fact that the coal will be entirely consumed. After a roughly estimation, Cyrus Harding, an engineer of great capabilities, concluded that it would happen “for at least two hundred and fifty or three hundred years.” To everyone’s surprise, when he was asked what they will burn instead of coal, he said: “Water”. “Water” cried Pencroft, “water as a fuel for steamers and engines! water toRead More →

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  I am living in a room at Rudow, I have never liked to use the public transport even if it is as organized as I have found it is in Berlin. In my first week in Germany I realized that most of the streets have a good bycicle road. That’s really nice!!. I bougth  roller skates and every day I get to Adlershof on those. It cought my attention that at 3/4 of my way to the institute, I had  to cross a diagonal “deffect” on the floor. I was wondering why if the street is straight it is divided by that section. IRead More →