Registrations are now open for the online edition of the international PALSA 2021 and its satellite event, the 2nd AgroEnviro Workshop, to be held from April 12 to 16, 2021 via the Whova platform. Deadline for registrations and abstract submissions is March 1st, 2021.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), one of the world’s leading laboratories in particle physics and the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), an organization supervised by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology for Innovations (MCTI), have signed today, December 4^th, a wide scientific and technological collaboration agreement.

The agreement establishes legal conditions for collaboration in research and resource sharing in any area of mutual interest, especially in technologies applied to the physics of particle accelerators, magnets, and superconducting materials. Such knowledge is of enormous value for the development of new technologies, both in science and in the industry.

In the last few months, the first experiments on the MANACÁ beamline were carried out by external researchers dedicated to studying the molecular mechanisms related to the action of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Now, continuing the scientific commissioning phase of this beamline, researchers from other fields are invited to submit their proposals to use the MANACÁ beamline, dedicated to macromolecule crystallography, which allows the study of the three-dimensional structure of human proteins and enzymes and pathogens, with atomic resolution.

In response to the pandemic, the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), a private non-profit organization under the supervision of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovations (MCTI), anticipated the opening of Sirius' first beamline to support research related to Covid-19. Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) were the first users of the largest and most complex scientific infrastructure in Brazil.

The new Brazilian synchrotron light source, Sirius, from the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), carried out the first experiments on one of its beamlines this week. The first research station to start operating, still in the commissioning stage, can reveal details of the structure of biological molecules, such as viral proteins. These first experiments are part of an effort by CNPEM to provide a cutting-edge tool to the Brazilian scientific community working in SARS-CoV-2 research.

We are pleased to inform that Sirius has reached another milestone in its commissioning. In the last few days, the first experiments were carried out on the MANACÁ beamline. The initial tests reproduced structural data already reported in the literature, including the 3CL protein from SARS-CoV-2, indicating that the beamline, still in the scientific commissioning phase, is already able to generate reliable data.

The new director of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), Harry Westfahl Junior, took office on January 13^th, at a ceremony held at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM). Westfahl has worked in CNPEM since 2001, and, for the last seven years, held the position of LNLS Scientific Director. Westfahl succeeds French physicist Yves Petroff, one of the world's leading synchrotron light experts.

The engineer and physicist Ricardo Rodrigues (Antonio Ricardo Droher Rodrigues), leader of the engineering team which developed Sirius, has died on January, 3rd, 2020. Sirius is the second synchrotron light source in Brazil, and it is currently being commissioned at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM).

Two days after storing electrons in Sirius’ storage ring, the CNPEM´s team have performed the first x-ray microtomography analysis at the new Brazilian synchrotron light source. Through a simple proof of concept experiment, using less than ten thousandth of the expected power, it was possible to observe the arrival of synchrotron light for the first time in one of Sirius' future experimental stations. This is a major milestone for the project, and a victory for Brazil's science and technology.