9
NEWS
June 2024 ESRFnews
A public conference in Brussels,
Belgium, about the future of European
research and innovation has featured
various speakers from the ESRF.
Among them was Michael Krisch, the
ESRF’s interim director of research
for life sciences, chemistry and
soft matter science, who told the
Science|Business Annual Conference
about some of the major findings that
have been published since the light
source’s upgrade. “What we have seen
since we started in 2020 is a tsunami of
mind-blowing results,” he said.
Held in February, the
Science|Business Annual Conference
featured a wide range of high-profile
speakers from science, industry and
government. With the European Union
celebrating the 40th anniversary
of its first Framework Programme
(FP) for research, the annual event
was dedicated this year to its future
directions in science and technology.
The central themes addressed included
the evolution of the current FP, “Horizon
Europe”, into FP10, which is set to
begin in 2028; what the world will need
from science and technology over the
next 40 years; and how the world can
continue to work together in research
and innovation, instead of following
divergent paths.
The ESRF speakers presented
evidence of their facility’s importance
in the discussions. Krisch gave
examples of how the ESRF has made it
possible to carry out research into new
pharmaceuticals, enzymatic plastic
recycling, SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins,
new materials and entire human
organs – with much of it assisted
by machine learning. There were
also contributions from Marie-Ingrid
Richard, an ESRF visiting scientist and
ERC grant holder; Bernd Hinrichsen,
the co-founder of a start-up that
harvests ultra-high throughput ESRF
X-ray data; and Francesco Sette, the
ESRF directorgeneral
ESRF speaks up for science
and business
The world’s most famous violin, “Il
Cannone” of the Italian virtuoso
Niccolò Paganini, has come to the
world’s most advanced synchrotron
tomography beamline to be imaged in
3D in unprecedented resolution.
Built in 1743 by the great
Cremonese luthier Bartolomeo
Giuseppe Guarneri, “Il Cannone”
is legendary for its powerful acoustic
tone and was literally instrumental
in Paganinis development of new
playing techniques Today it is rarely
played and conservationists are keen
to better understand its structure
and composition to preserve it for
future generations
For this reason the Municipality
of Genoa and its conservators teamed
up with ESRF scientists to perform
multiresolution propagation phase
contrast Xray microtomography at the
BM18 beamline The data provided
a 3D reconstruction of the violin at
the cellular level, with the possibility
to zoom in locally anywhere down to
the micrometre scale. They revealed
tantalising hints about how other
luthiers may have made alterations to
the instrument throughout its life.
“The investigations undertaken at
the ESRF represent one of the most
important events in the second life
of the Cannone said the violins
conservators Bruce Carlson Alberto
Giordano and Pio Montari in a
joint statement For us working
with such a team of scientists and
with such fantastic equipment is an
unforgettable experience
Nevertheless the full potential of
BM18 is yet to be realised In a few
months well be able to work on much
larger instruments up to the size of a
doublebass says Paul Tafforeau the
beamlines scientist in charge
X-rays at BM18
create a 3D model
of a legendary
violin, so that it can
be explored inside
and out, in fantastic
detail.
E S R F/P. J A Y E T
‘Il Cannone’ visits the ESRF
S C I E N C E B U S I N E S S
The
investigations
at the ESRF
represent one
of the most
important
events in the
second life of
the Cannone