Cells, the basic units of living organisms, are well delineated and separated from the outside by membranes. Capable of both enclosing the cellular constituents and allowing exchanges with the outside, these membranes are only a few nanometers thick. All the membranes of a human body cover an area of a few hectares, but only a small part of our mass. To study the dynamics and function of these amazing objects, physicists first seek to understand their structure. This involves experiments on model systems, simpler and better controlled than real membranes, and can profit from a probe of matter that accesses different scales of size and time: thermal neutrons.

Since the pioneering work in the seventies on cell membrane structure by neutron scattering, developments driven by better and better performances of neutron instrumentation, coupled to development of measurement and analysis methods, have involved both the optimization of samples towards more biologically relevant model systems and the use of more complex lipid mixtures up to natural extracts.

This brief and unexhaustive review gives an update of current developments in the field carried out mostly at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble.

细胞是生命有机体的基本单位，轮廓清晰，并通过膜与外界隔离。这些膜既可以封装细胞成分，又可以与外界交换，厚度仅为几纳米。人体的所有膜都占地几公顷，但仅占我们质量的一小部分。为了研究这些神奇物体的动力学和功能，物理学家首先试图了解它们的结构。这涉及到在模型系统上进行的实验，比真实的膜更简单，更好的控制，并且可以从探测不同大小和时间尺度的物质中获利：热中子。

自上世纪70年代通过中子散射对细胞膜结构进行开创性工作以来，中子仪器性能越来越好驱动的发展，再加上测量和分析方法的发展，不仅涉及朝着生物学上更相关的模型系统优化样本，而且还涉及使用更复杂的脂质混合物直至天然提取物。

这份简短而详尽无遗的评论提供了该领域最新进展的最新信息，这些进展主要在格勒诺布尔的Laue-Langevin研究所进行。