Smalltalks "Probing the missing link between micro- and macrostructure"

Abstract: 

The mechanical properties of many complex materials, including biological materials such as bone, depend on structural features at multiple scales. At the molecular level, bone is made up of approximately 300 nanometers long collagen proteins, locked in place by hydroxyapatite crystals; these proteins are collected into bundles called fibrils; the fibrils are collected into micrometer-sized fibers, and so on. Small-angle x-ray scattering tensor tomography is an exciting new technique that enables us to simultaneously study of these different levels of organization, resolved in three dimensions, in samples which are large enough to be visible to the naked eye. This opens up exciting new research avenues for the study of bone and other so-called hierarchical materials.