As soon as the grey cast iron hardened in its mould at Volvo’s Skövde foundry, the brick of still-hot metal was lifted with pliers, placed in a fireproof steel box filled with sand, and loaded into a car. Within hours, it would be sliced, and studied at MAX IV’s ForMAX beamline.
New views of complex biological tissue with fourth generation light
A group of Danish researchers have demonstrated three-dimensional sub-micrometre imaging of a whole, multi-millimetre sized, mantis shrimp eye. The eye was chosen to show the imaging opportunities of highly complex biological tissue at a fourth generation synchrotron.
New insights into how nanoparticles move in swirling flows
It’s a morning routine: pour milk into coffee and watch the liquids come together in swirls. The pattern is familiar, but the behavioural patterns driving these swirls are hidden from coffee drinkers.
The structural twist of narwhal tooth
Recent research in Nature Communications led by Aarhus University reports on the intriguing life history of narwhals, a species of Arctic marine mammal. The study reveals atomic-level details of the helical structure of the whale tusk. This knowledge of complex tooth construction advances understanding towards potential innovations in materials design.
Electrochemistry researcher Alfred Larsson receives MAX IV PhD prize plaque
Alfred Larsson, presently working as a Postdoc at Leiden University, received the MAX IV PhD prize for his thesis “The Formation and Breakdown of Passive Film on Ni Alloys in situ synchrotron studies” at the User Meeting in January 2026. During his recent visit to MAX IV as a user, he was presented with the
A particular order – keys to artificial solid materials
Semiconductor nanoparticles can emit light or act as sensors, and their properties can be tailored to specific purposes. One particle alone is often not enough, but in an ordered material composed of many nanoparticles, the properties are amplified. A research team has used MAX IV to show that such ordered materials can be formed from low-cost, versatile perovskite semiconductor nanoparticles.
High-resolution imaging opens doors for low-power information storage
Electronics built from ferroelectric materials have low power consumption and are well-suited for information storage. Their competitiveness depends on developing novel architectures on the nanoscale. A research team from Lund University and ETH Zurich in Switzerland has used the NanoMAX beamline at MAX IV to image through metal contacts on the ferroelectric material bismuth ferrite to see how they affect the material beneath them.
Unique biomaterial found in a lizard
Researchers have found a biomaterial with surprising features in the skin of a lizard. The material is hard like enamel but is structured differently. Understanding the material on the nanoscale opens up new routes in designing for hard-wearing applications.
MAX IV and BESSY II initiate new collaboration to advance materials science
Swedish national synchrotron laboratory MAX IV and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) BESSY II light source announce the signing of a 5-year cooperation agreement. The new agreement establishes a framework to strengthen cooperation for operational and technological development in the highlighted fields of accelerator research and development, beamlines and optics, endstations and sample environments as well as digitalisation and data science.
Inventive AI and robotic self-driving lab accelerates material discoveries
To find solutions to real-world challenges, researchers often need to do labour-intensive work that requires a time-consuming trial-and-error process. Developing a synthesis method for custom-made materials is one of them. The process can take years and is very hard to replicate. But what if technology could help solve this and accelerate the application of new functional materials? An international collaboration led by Andy Sode Anker from the Technical University of Denmark came to MAX IV and accomplished just that.