Press releases

08.02.2012

Scientists make iron transparent

At the high-brilliance synchrotron light source PETRA III, a team of DESY scientists headed by Dr. Ralf Röhlsberger has succeeded in making atomic nuclei transparent with the help of X-ray light. At the same time they have also discovered a new way to realize an optically controlled light switch that can be used to manipulate light with light, an important ingredient for efficient future quantum computers. The research results are presented in the current edition of the scientific journal “Nature” (DOI: 10.1038/nature10741).

31.01.2012

20 years of DESY in Brandenburg

On 1 January 1992, the GDR Institute of High-Energy Physics was officially unified with the Hamburg research centre DESY. Today, the 20^th anniversary of this fruitful research unification was celebrated in Zeuthen with a symposium, with about 300 DESY staff members and guests.

29.01.2012

Scientists x-ray key enzyme for sleeping sickness

An international team of scientists has for the first time crystallised a key enzyme of the pathogen for African sleeping sickness in a living cell and investigated it with the world’s strongest X-ray laser. This new method will open new ways to study the structure of biomolecules, the scientists write in the professional journal “Nature Methods”. In the case of African sleeping sickness that affects more than 60 million people mainly in Central Africa this method might lead to a new treatment approach against the parasite Trypanosoma brucei.

26.01.2012

The first atomic X-ray laser

A group of scientists headed by Nina Rohringer from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) realized the first X-ray laser based on atoms at the Californian research centre SLAC. Using neon atoms, they generated ultra-short X-ray bursts of unique colour purity. In many cases, this allows a sharper look into the nano world, as scientists reported in the British journal “Nature” (DOI: 10.1038/nature.10721). CFEL is a joint enterprise of Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, the Max Planck Society and the University of Hamburg.

25.01.2012

Guinness World Record: X-ray laser FLASH shoots fastest movie

It's official: The world's fastest movie was shot by DESY's X-ray laser FLASH in Hamburg. In its 2012 edition, the famous Guinness Book of World Records lists an interval of a mere 50 femtoseconds between two frames for FLASH. A femtosecond is a quadrillionth of a second, meaning that the two images are separated by just 0.000 000 000 000 05 seconds – this is 800 billion times faster than a feature film. On Thursday, Professor Stefan Eisebitt from Technische Universität Berlin and the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin will present the record slow motion at the DESY light sources users’ meeting. As the film motif for the demonstration of the technique his group chose a micro model of the Brandenburg Gate, spanning only a few micrometres (millionths of a metre).

16.01.2012

World's best metronome enables slow-motion pictures of atoms and molecules

The world's most accurate metronome keeps stroke to an incredible 10 quintillionth of a second. The device enables slow-motion pictures from the world of molecules and atoms, scientists from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg, Germany, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report. The metronome, an ultrashort pulse laser, acting as an optical flywheel, is currently the most precise clock generator on short time scales, writes the research team headed by DESY scientist Prof. Franz X. Kärtner in the journal "Nature Photonics". CFEL is a joint venture of DESY, the German Max Planck Society and the University of Hamburg.

13.01.2012

The world's smallest magnetic data storage unit

Scientists from IBM and the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) have built the world's smallest magnetic data storage unit. It uses just twelve atoms per bit, the basic unit of information, and squeezes a whole byte (8 bit) into as few as 96 atoms. A modern hard drive, for comparison, still needs more than half a billion atoms per byte. The team present their work in the weekly journal "Science" this Friday (13 January 2012). CFEL is a joint venture of the research centre Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, the Max-Planck-Society (MPG) and the University of Hamburg. "With CFEL the partners have established an innovative institution on the DESY campus, delivering top-level research across a broad spectrum of disciplines," says DESY research director Edgar Weckert.

19.12.2011

Fastest X-ray images of tiny biological crystals

An international research team headed by DESY scientists from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg, Germany, has recorded the shortest X-ray exposure of a protein crystal ever achieved. The incredible brief exposure time of 0.000 000 000 000 03 seconds (30 femtoseconds) opens up new possibilities for imaging molecular processes with X-rays. This is of particular interest to biologists, but can be employed in many fields, explain lead authors Dr. Anton Barty and Prof. Henry Chapman from the German accelerator centre Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY. CFEL is a joint venture of DESY, the Max Planck Society and the University of Hamburg.

07.10.2011

Crab pulsar radiates beams of unexpectedly high energy

For the first time, researchers have detected gamma-ray emission from a pulsar at unexpectedly high energies. The gamma rays emitted by the Crab pulsar at energies of more than 100 billion electronvolts (100 GeV) were measured using the VERITAS telescopes at the Whipple Observatory in Arizona, USA. Their existence contradicts all previous models of pulsars. The results of the international team of astrophysicists and physicists, which also involves scientists from the DESY research centre in Zeuthen, are published in the journal Science this Friday.

26.04.2011

International Physics Olympiads at DESY

Today is the beginning of the national finals for the 42th International Physics Olympiads which for the first time takes place at the research centre DESY in Hamburg. From Wednesday until Saturday inclusive, Germany’s 15 best junior physicists put their skills to the test in two written exams and in practical tasks. The crowning final will be the presentation ceremony on Sunday, 1 May. In July, the five winners will pack their bags for Thailand where the German team of five pupils accompanied by their team leaders will compete for Olympic medals with participants from all over the world.

25.02.2011

The North strengthens nano research

Sweden collaborates in experiments of the X-ray source PETRA III

02.02.2011

First images of proteins and viruses caught with an X-ray laser

Experiments at LCLS show the scientific potential of X-ray free-electron lasers

02.02.2011

Terahertz flashes enable accurate X-ray measurements

Scientists devise a method to study processes with a precision of a few femtoseconds using high-intensity ultrashort X-ray pulses

20.12.2010

World’s largest neutrino telescope completed

Culminating a decade of planning and six years of construction, the neutrino telescope “IceCube” was completed on 18 December 2010. The world’s largest particle detector fills a cubic kilometer of deep Antarctic ice containing ultrasensitive light sensors. They record the tracks from neutrinos coming from outer space, to get information about distant galaxies from these astronomical messengers. Neutrinos are often called “ghost particles” because they pass undetected through most matter. Thus, enormous detectors are needed to prove their existence.

18.11.2010

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