Sixth Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting
The annual Joint HZB User Meetings will provide an overview of the many exciting and inspiring research results obtained at our facilities in the past year. The Sixth Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting will take place at Berlin-Adlershof from December 3rd to December 5th, 2014. The neutrons session will take place at Berlin-Wannsee on Wednesday, 3rd December, followed by Dinner at Café Jahn.
On Thursday morning, at WISTA, Bunsen Auditorium, Adlershof, Christof Wöll, KIT, will ask in his keynote lecture “What Supramolecular Chemistry can do for Solid State Physics?” The meeting continues with plenary talks, discussions, and a poster session, which will provide vast possibilities of information and discussion. In his public lecture, Christoph Lienau, University Oldenburg, will give an overview on “Solar cells and artificial light harvesting systems”.
Traditional highlights are the bestowals of the Prizes for Young Scientists donated by the “Freundeskreis Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e. V. “
After hours of inspiring scientific presentations we hope to meet you Thursday evening at the Berliner Buffet. The buffet is sponsored by the companies participating in the accompanying vendor exhibition. As well as this generous gesture the exhibitors will be happy to have the opportunity to inform you on the latest developments in all fields of research equipment.
Download User Meeting Booklet
- Protein crystallography at BESSY II: faster, better and more and more automaticMany diseases are linked to malfunctions of proteins in the organism. The three-dimensional architecture of these molecules is often highly complex, but it can provide valuable insights into biological processes and the development of drugs. X-ray diffraction at the MX beamlines of BESSY II can be used to decipher the 3D structure of proteins. To date, more than 5000 structures have been solved at the three MX beamlines. Here, we present a review and an outlook with Manfred Weiss, head of the research group for macromolecular crystallography.
- What Zinc concentration in teeth revealsTeeth are composites of mineral and protein, with a bulk of bony dentin that is highly porous. This structure is allows teeth to be both strong and sensitive. Besides calcium and phosphate, teeth contain trace elements such as zinc. Using complementary microscopy imaging techniques, a team from Charité Berlin, TU Berlin and HZB has quantified the distribution of natural zinc along and across teeth in 3 dimensions. The team found that, as porosity in dentine increases towards the pulp, zinc concentration increases 5~10 fold. These results help to understand the influence of widely-used zinc-containing biomaterials (e.g. filling) and could inspire improvements in dental medicine.
- Fascinating archaeological find becomes a source of knowledgeThe Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (BLfD) has sent a rare artefact from the Middle Bronze Age to Berlin for examination using cutting-edge, non-destructive methods. It is a 3,400-year-old bronze sword, unearthed during archaeological excavations in Nördlingen, Swabia, in 2023. Experts have been able to determine how the hilt and blade are connected, as well as how the rare and well-preserved decorations on the pommel were made. This has provided valuable insight into the craft techniques employed in southern Germany during the Bronze Age. The BLfD used 3D computed tomography and X-ray diffraction to analyse internal stresses at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), as well as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at a BESSY II beamline supervised by the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM).