Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

So you think you know your egg yolk? You may have to think again, because if you look at it at the nanoscale, it's one of the most crowded biological fluids in nature. Our colleagues at European XFEL just used ultrafast X-rays to watch fat particles navigating a "nanoscale traffic jam" inside egg yolk plasma. What they found is fascinating: the particles get trapped in temporary cages formed by surrounding proteins, slowing their movement by up to 100 times. Yet somehow, the yolk stays liquid enough to deliver nutrients when an embryo needs them. Plus, the particles don't follow the classical physics rules we'd expect. The team discovered that particle softness and long-range interactions matter more than simple viscosity, meaning we need entirely new models to explain what's happening. This isn't just about breakfast either because understanding how particles move in these conditions could have real implications for medicine and biotechnology. Want to know more? https://lnkd.in/dMvQPiWB Image: DESY, Gesine Born

Join us on April 14th to talk #quantumtechnologies and #quantumcomputing and look at all aspects in science and with the entire innovation potential of these technologies. We are delighted that the quantum technology initiative Hamburg Quantum Innovation Capital (hqic) is co-organizer for the day. The event will start with keynote speeches from politics and business, followed by presentations on quantum computing and technologies, including poster sessions and ample opportunities for networking, making new contacts, and exchanging ideas. One example for the innovation potential and how cooperation between deeptech start-ups and industrial companies in this tech sector works is the 50-qubit quantum computer XAPHIRO, which QUDORA Technologies is developing with its cooperation partner NXP Semiconductors at the DESY Innovation Village as part of the DLR Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR-QCI). Learn about the advantages and challenges of such collaborations and how such initiatives are advancing Hamburg as a location for quantum technologies. Registration to the event is open: https://lnkd.in/dybecEyQ

Last week, the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the SESAME Synchrotron-light source in Jordan. DESY is since many years a major partner in context of the German support of the Middle East's international synchrotron infrastructure. Since 2018, DESY has led the German mandate and for the Federal Republic performed the observer role in the SESAME Council. Within this role, DESY has: -led a consortium of five research centres of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft / Helmholtz Association to build a soft-X-ray beamline (HESEB), -put together and coordinated a consortium of German research centres and universities to strengthen the German user community, such as in the area of cultural heritage studies, -strengthened cybersecurity infrastructure with through a project financed by the Wilhelm und Else Heraeus-Stiftung, -initiated a science diplomacy effort between Turkish and Israeli scientists to expand life science experiments at the small-angle–scattering beamline at SESAME, -active engagement and scientific advice as a member of the SESAME Council, and -organisation of numerous workshops, schools, and trainings for SESAME staff and users. We are proud to be so deeply involved in this important scientific effort!

Of the 51 people who went to the South Pole to perform the IceCube Upgrade, three were DESYans. Engineers Matthias Schust and Kalle Sulanke and postdoc Satoshi Fukami spent the Antarctic summer performing installations in the deep, ancient ice below the neutrino observatory alongside colleagues from across the world—an experience few get to have. Matthias Schust gives a short impression of what it was like to work on the upgrade: "The key to the success of great projects is having a team that trusts each other. And we had a very special international team that worked in three shifts, 24 hours a day—eternal daylight makes it possible. I myself was both a 'driller' and an 'installer,' which gave me a deep insight into how hard it is for both man and machine to drill 2,600-meter-deep holes in the ice under these environmental conditions. Whenever the water cycle was interrupted for whatever reason, the clock was ticking, because pipes freeze quickly at an outside temperature of -30 degrees Celsius. It was the most physically and mentally demanding work I have ever done in my life, but at the same time it was very satisfying to know that I had achieved something great. Now, after two months, I am really looking forward to seeing my wife and three children again." (All photos: IceCube / National Science Foundation (NSF))

CMWS Water Days 2026 is upon us! And so is a special research course on water-driven materials!   On 23–25 February 2026, the CMWS Water Days will once again bring together researchers from different disciplines to explore the many facets of water in science and technology. The annual meeting provides a platform for exchange across fields – from fundamental molecular insights to applications in materials science, environmental processes, and life sciences.   The Water Days will feature invited lectures, interdisciplinary discussions, and networking opportunities, fostering collaboration within the CMWS community and beyond.   Directly following the meeting, the CMWS Research Course 2026 on Water, focusing on Water-Driven Materials, will take place on 25–26 February 2026. The course will focus on the role of water in the design, functionality, and transformation of advanced materials and is organized together with the newly launched Cluster of Excellence BlueMat – Water-Driven Materials. The course is particularly aimed at early-career researchers and offers in-depth lectures by leading experts, as well as opportunities for discussion and scientific exchange.   Researchers at DESY and partner institutions are warmly invited to participate in one or both events.   For further information on the programme and registration please visit: https://lnkd.in/dJUz5YVA

Thank you for your visit, Alberto Salleo! We cherish the strong connection we have with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the science our two institutes have made possible through various collaborations and joint efforts. And yes, it doesn't usually snow here this much.

Hey German speakers!...or rather, listeners! Im Podcast „Goethe“ erkunden der Wissenschaftsjournalist Marcus Anhäuser und der Wissenschaftshistoriker Thomas Schmuck in lockerer Folge die wissenschaftliche Seite Johann Wolfgang von Goethes. Die neueste Ausgabe (https://lnkd.in/edZwwZNg) rückt den aktuellen sensationellen Fund eines Forschungsteams an DESYs Röntgenlichtquelle PETRA III in den Mittelpunkt: eine 40 Millionen Jahre alte Ameise, die in einem Bernsteinstück aus Goethes persönlicher Sammlung gefunden wurde. Bernd Bock ist für die Präparation der Sammlung im Phyletischen Museum in Jena verantwortlich, einem einzigartigen Naturkundemuseum für Stammesgeschichte und Evolutionsforschung. Hören Sie DESY-Nutzer Bock zu, wie die Bernsteinstücke zur Analyse nach Hamburg gekommen sind und welche Erkenntnisse sein Team aus den Untersuchungen gewonnen hat.

The IceCube Upgrade, carried out by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory international collaboration, has been a great success – over 650 sensors of different types are now bound in the deep Antarctic ice at the South Pole. Around 430 of those are the German-designed mDOMs. A little more about the mDOMs: they are a major improvement on the previous DOM sensors that have been helping deliver excellent results for the past 15 years. The mDOMs comprise 24 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), which are devices that convert a tiny light signal into an electrical one. IceCube detects neutrinos, which, when they interact with matter, produce such a tiny light signal. The 24 PMTs are arranged in such a way that they can see in all directions in the ice, which acts as the medium for "catching" the neutrinos. When a small light flash occurs in the depths of the dark ice, it is taken as a signal and analysed to see if it is a neutrino or some other cosmic particle. Assembly and quality control of the sensors had been a rigorous, time consuming process – made more challenging in that the height of pandemic coincided with their production. that needs to survive extreme conditions. "It's not dissimilar to the testing procedure for sending a satellite into space," says Summer Blot, a DESY astrophysicist who was in charge of monitoring the assembly process for quality control as well as the subsequent calibration of the mDOMs. "They must be radiation-resistant and water-tight. Additionally, they had to survive transport through extreme temperatures, including being on a ship across the Equator to the South Pole. So it's a rigorous testing procedure – even if we're not sending them to space, we're putting them into a glacier and, like a satellite, we don't expect to get them back. So we need to make sure they survive the difficult set of conditions under which they need to perform." Read more about the upgrade here: https://lnkd.in/dzNUxiit Images: (1) DESY / Matthias Schust, (2) DESY / Susan Niedworok, (3) Emmett Krupczak / IceCube NSF University of Wisconsin-Madison National Science Foundation (NSF)

Water, water everywhere—inspiring new materials? That's what a new Cluster of Excellence called BlueMat – Water-Driven Materials aims to do. Officially launched this week, BlueMat (coordinated through Hamburg University of Technology) will investigate deeper properties of water and work out how those properties—such as water's unusual hydrogen bonding and flexible charge polarisation—can be used to drive new functional materials ("blue" materials). TUHH professor and DESY senior scientist Patrick Huber is spokesperson for the effort, which is the third of these prestigious German Clusters of Excellence wherein DESY plays a major role. More here: https://lnkd.in/dQ7YqgPH

Designed in Germany, built at DESY and Michigan State University: the mDOM is one of the key sensors in the new upgrade of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. A major accomplishment has been reached: six strings covered in these mDOMs and other sensors are now successfully sunken into the Antarctic ice. A 51-person team (including three DESYans) traveled to the South Pole during the height of the Antarctic summer to perform the upgrade. The team suspended the sensors into the ice by boring ca. 2.5-km-long holes vertically and carefully but quickly lowering the long cable strings into the ice sheet. Within a few weeks, the ice is completely refrozen. The mDOM project was part of a major German contribution: DESY, RWTH Aachen University, Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Technical University of Munich, the University of Münster, and Bergische Universität Wuppertal worked together to design these state-of-the-art sensors, which can capture tiny light signals at every angle around the spherical glass enclosure. Other sensors deployed include acoustic monitors and various other light sensors. IceCube uses the Antarctic ice sheet as a detector for neutrinos, fundamental particles that are generated by nuclear reactions and that barely interact with matter. Neutrinos can form in a variety of cosmic occurrences, including the fusion that powers the Sun. They can carry important information about phenomena from across the universe, meaning that alongside visible light, gamma rays, cosmic rays, and gravitational waves, neutrinos provide an important view of the furthest reaches of the universe. The new sensors pick up the tiny light signals produced when neutrinos interact with the ice, and IceCube has so far made numerous major discoveries about neutrinos and universal phenomena that make it one of the most valuable observatories on the planet. DESY contributes significantly to IceCube, which is run by an international collaboration coordinated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US.