Björn Nilsson: "The idea behind the try-outs was to give an opportunity to researchers to bring their own samples and test different methods"

Diamonds, biofilm, an old Roman knife, and soil samples. These were only some of the materials researchers brought to two recent try out workshops in Trieste and Munich.

The try-out workshops are a new initiative organised by LINXS in collaboration with the Elettra Sinctrotrone in Trieste and the research reactor FRM II at the Heinz Maier-Leinitz Zentrum of Technische Universität München in Munich to highlight the possibilities of using x-rays and neutrons. The ambition is to attract new users from a range of different academic fields and establish networks for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

– The idea behind the first try-outs was to give an opportunity to researchers in geology, archaeology and cultural heritage studies to bring their own samples and test different methods, types of radiation, and instruments, before a full beam time proposal is written, explains archeologist and member of the GeoArch: Geology, Archeology and Cultural Heritage working group, Björn Nilsson.

He is satisfied with how the workshops panned out, although he would have liked to see more researchers joining, and more scientists from Sweden.

– I am really happy with how it went. While we were less people from Sweden and less people overall, due to the uncertain circumstances, it was a good opportunity to establish LINXS in an international context and to establish networks. It also gave us ample time at both facilities to run tests and do the experiments.

– One can say that we were lucky in a sense, we managed to run the workshops just before the corona outbreak hit Europe. The mix of people and backgrounds was also good, with geologists, archeologist, and cultural heritage scientists, but also, computer scientists and biologists and physicists.

Many participants have expressed interest to continue to explore the techniques, and go on to write beam line proposals. At the try-outs, they got to test imaging techniques and synchrotron CT-scanning at Elettra, as well as neutron imaging with cold and thermal neutrons, and elemental analyisis (promt gamma activation analysis) in the FRM II in Munich. The initial idea was that researchers should attend both workshops, to get experience in both x-rays and neutrons, and to get the most out of their material.

– This set-up is good in terms of pedagogy since you get very different results with neutrons than what you do with x-rays. As it was now, very few people came to both workshops due to corona and budgetary restrictions.

– But it was great to see that the people who came were really keen to learn more about the techniques. There was a real sense of wonder and excitement amongst the participants.

New possibilities and research questions

One example of interesting early results is imaging data from an old Roman knife from the third century found at an archeological site in Blekinge, Sweden. The imaging data shows the structure of the knife, and how it is made from different hard metals, with a softer edge and a harder blade.

– An “ordinary” knife is actually a very complicated piece of craftmanship. With these types of workshops, you can be curious and try out new things, like run a simple iron knife in a beam line for example. Normally, you would not waste beam time on more common objects. Now, my colleague could see very interesting structures through the imaging experiments we did.

– This, in turn, could shed some new knowledge on conservation practices. What remains after a conservation process; is the structure still intact for example? We now want to go on and compare a non-restored knife with a restored knife to see whether we detect any differences.

Next steps – try outs in Lund?

Björn Nilsson says he would love to run try-outs in collaboration with MAX IV and ESS in Lund, and to develop the overall concept.

– Now we can think about what to do next. How can we get more PhD:s and early career researchers on board? As it is today, budgets look very different depending on what discipline and university you come from. It would also be nice to link in with system analysts to be able to help researchers to interpret their material as part of the try-outs.

– Collaborating with ESS and MAX IV would be the perfect way to extend the user base in Sweden, create local networks and boost the community. We want to get people to really start exploring these new techniques. And as it is now, with the current situation, this type of local collaboration is more important than ever, concludes Björn Nilsson.

Researchers at the try-out workshop at Elettra in Italy.