Mithilfe von CHRISP untersuchen Forschende unter anderem mit der international leistungsfähigsten Quelle für ultrakalte Neutronen, wie unser Universum aufgebaut ist. So bestimmen sie beispielsweise fundamentale Naturkonstanten mit höchster Präzision und suchen nach Abweichungen im gängigen Standardmodell der Teilchenphysik. Zudem entwickeln und testen sie Detektoren für Experimente am PSI, für Weltraummissionen und für das europäische Forschungszentrum CERN in Genf.
Mehr dazu unter CHRISP
Magnets shine in a different color
Measuring -or feeling- magnetic interactions looks simple at first glance: holding two magnets close to each other gives an immediate idea. How about the case when the 'magnets of interest' are tiny and amount to nothing more than atoms? X-rays generated at the Swiss Light Source allow 'zooming in' on magnetic interactions relevant at inter-atomic scale: we bring forward the first evidence of local spin flips of atomic moments in a 'photon-in photon-out' scattering experiment.
Read full article
Dance of the domains
In a ferromagnet regions exist where all the atoms orient their atomic compass neddles into one direction. These regions are called domains. A recent experiment succeeded in exciting such domains and watching their vibration and subsequent relaxation to the original state. This is the Dance of the domains.
Controlling the ribosome
Ribosomes can be thought of as factories that build proteins from a set of genetic instructions. Translation relies on two selection processes: a) charging of tRNA by selection of the correct aminoacid to be covalently bound to it, b) the selection of the tRNA as specified by the codon of the mRNA. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases catalyse the first of these steps using hydrolysis of ATP.