Elettra and SHARPER 2024: A Journey into Scientific Research

Once again, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste played a key role in the "European Researchers' Night," contributing to the activities of the SHARPER project, an event that spotlighted science and innovation. Various activities took place over the span of about ten days.
On September 23, students from class VG of ITS Volta in Trieste, led by Professor Fabio Crisma, had an immersive experience within the initiative "Doing Research with Light." Designed to inspire new generations to pursue careers in research, the activity allowed students to engage in real scientific experiments, guided by researchers from Elettra and the European CERIC consortium. After an introduction by Marco Peloi, the students were divided into groups, led by Benedetta Marmiroli, a researcher at the SAXS and DXRL beamlines at TU-Graz, and Alessio Turchet, head of the Deep X-Ray Lithography beamline. The students explored advanced techniques such as micro-lithography and Raman spectroscopy, crucial tools for analyzing matter at the molecular level. Overseeing the activity were Loredana Casalis, head of the Innovative Nanotechnology Laboratory, Pietro Parisse, associate researcher at the Nanoinnovation Lab, and Francesco D’Amico, researcher at the IUVS beamline.
The following day, September 24, the conference "Dinosaurs and More: New Discoveries from the Villaggio del Pescatore" took place, organized in collaboration with the University of Bologna, the University of Trieste, the Municipality of Trieste, and Zoic Ltd. Participants included Federico Fanti, professor at the University of Bologna, Marco Muscioni, a PhD student from the same university, and Flavio Bacchia, geologist at Zoic Ltd., who presented how a research team used tomographic scans to reanalyze the fossils from the Villaggio del Pescatore without damaging them. This allowed, for example, the reconstruction of the vascular system of the dinosaur Antonio and the discovery of new details about the teeth of the prehistoric crocodile Acynodon. Representing Elettra were Diego Dreossi, researcher on the SYRMEP beamline, and Maurizio Polentarutti, coordinator of the XRD1 beamline, who shared their technical expertise in the field.




On September 23 and 25, in the main lecture halls of Liceo Scientifico Galilei and Liceo Scientifico Oberdan, in front of nine senior-year classes, sessions of the program "An Hour with a Researcher" took place. Professor Majed Chergui, leader of the CHIRAX project at Elettra and Honorary Professor at EPFL and the University of Lausanne, captivated the students with his lecture "Molecular Plot Twist: Orange and Mint in Your Hands," explaining the concept of chirality and how this property is crucial in drug synthesis. Only one of the two molecular forms can have beneficial effects, while the other could be toxic.










Meanwhile, Laura Foglia, a researcher at the EIS-TIMEX and EIS-TIMER beamlines of FERMI, and Michele Manfredda, researcher at the PADReS group of FERMI, led the interactive lesson "Extraordinary Light Sources Exploring the Nanoworld." The students discovered how matter, even seemingly inert, reveals lively activity at the atomic scale and how ultra-bright light sources, such as synchrotrons and free-electron lasers, enable the investigation of the "nanoworld."