International research at BESSY II continued even in the corona year 2021
In 2021, our users at BESSY II came from 34 countries. © HZB
2021 was not an easy year for international research: owing to lockdowns and travel bans, science was hit hard by the pandemic situation. Nevertheless, experiments continued at a high level at the BESSY II light source in Berlin Adlershof – thanks in part to new remote service offers. Here are the figures at a glance.
“It makes us happy that BESSY II was dependably available to researchers for around 6000 hours despite the difficult conditions,” says Dr. Antje Vollmer, Head of User Coordination at HZB. The light generated at BESSY II is directed through 25 beamlines to 37 experimental stations. Thus, altogether, light was available for nearly 150,000 hours of research at all the beamlines. This light is used for experiments in many fields, including physics, chemistry and the life sciences.
47 percent of user groups from abroad
As was to be expected, given that travel had to be limited, COVID-19 left a dip in user visits in 2021. “We counted just under 1400 visits from users last year. What surprised us, in view of the tense situation, was that 30 percent of the user groups came from other European countries and 17 percent were from non-European countries,” reports Antje Vollmer. “In total, we had user groups from 34 countries, which is an astonishing number.”
The fact that researchers from abroad conducted their experiments at BESSY II even in the corona year 2021 underlines the attractiveness of the photon source and the experimental stations, some of which are unique worldwide. “It also shows that the users here are very well looked after by dedicated scientists at the experimental stations and are happy to come back.”
New remote services at BESSY II
To ensure that research could continue despite the travel bans, new remote services were offered at many experimental stations. Users submitted samples and took part in their experiments virtually. “Our beamline supervisors organised this service at very short notice to ensure that socially relevant research could continue wherever possible,” says Vollmer. A total of 27 percent of all experiments were conducted remotely or with remote participation.
The figures at a glance
- 1400 visiting user groups from 34 countries
- 67 percent of measurement time for external research projects
- 30 percent of user groups from other European countries
- 17 percent of user groups from non-European countries
- 6000 hours available for research at BESSY II
- 37 experimental stations provided with light (via 25 beamlines)
Altmetric highlights at BESSY II
Altmetric measures the attention that scientific publications attract on the Internet. It counts how many times the online link (doi) to a specialist publication is posted on Twitter, Reddit, Mendeley, blogs and forums. For topics in physics, an Altmetric score above 100 is considered unusual.
The three BESSY-related short news items that got the highest Altmetric scores (2021) are:
- DESY X-ray lightsource identifies promising candidates for COVID drugs, Data from the Macromolecular Crystallography team at BESSY II, Altmetric score: 542, Science - Link to paper
- Water as a metal - detected at BESSY II , In-house research at BESSY II, Altmetric score: 509, Nature -Link to paper
- World’s first video recording of a space-time crystal, Work of a Max Planck Society group at BESSY II, Altmetric score: 314, Physical Review Letters - Link to paper
- BESSY II: High-resolution insights into individual biomolecules and catalystsVery small biological samples and even individual biomolecules can now be examined under near-physiological conditions with high confidence at the BESSY II infrared beamline with a newly validated and improved technique: The nanoscale infrared spectroscopy (s-SNOM) with ultra-thin silicon-based membranes. An international team demonstrated after an initial proof of concept, that high-resolution (a few tens of nanometres) nano-IR measurements reliably match expected far-field IR spectra in an aqueous environment. This methodological advance provides a solid foundation for studying biomaterials or observing catalytic processes in a liquid environment.
- New method shows how molecular switches are influenced by their neighborsResearchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Centre Berlin (HZB) have, for the first time, been able to directly observe how the environment surrounding a molecular switch influences its electronic structure. Molecular switches are molecules that can be switched between two states by external influences such as changes in temperature—similar to a switch with the positions »On« and »Off«. Such molecules are being investigated as potential building blocks for future data storage devices or sensor materials. Using magnetic-field-dependent terahertz spectroscopy, the researchers have now, for the first time, been able to distinguish whether neighbouring molecules in a material are in the same or different states. The results have been published in the journal »Angewandte Chemie International Edition«.
- BESSY II is back in operation after maintenance shutdownOn 7 September 2026, BESSY II was set into operation after a four-week shutdown. BESSY II is scheduled to resume full user operation on 22 September.