The latest Business updates from the science industry
by Heather Hobbs Launch Event Signals Diamond II Upgrade
“Our investment will ensure one of the most pioneering scientifi c facilities in the world continues to advance discoveries that transform our health and prosperity, while creating jobs, growing the UK economy and ensuring our country remains a scientifi c powerhouse.
She also highlighted the wide-reaching impact that Diamond-II will likely have on diverse scientifi c fi elds including:
• pharmaceutical development building on the contribution Diamond made to COVID-19 vaccination research
• physical sciences including the discovery of new materials for the renewable industry
• technological development for various industries including sustainable tech for the net zero agenda
The celebratory plaque for the funding announcement for Diamond-II is unveiled. L to R: Beth Thompson MBE Chief Strategy Offi cer at Wellcome, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP, Executive Chair of STFC Professor Mark Thomson, and Sir Adrian Smith, Chair of the Board of Diamond (Credit: Diamond Light Source)
A visit to Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron by Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, offi cially started the programmed upgrade to Diamond II, a £519 million UK government investment predominantly from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Infrastructure Fund (86%) and the Wellcome Trust (14%).
The investment will involve construction of a new, even brighter synchrotron machine, essentially a giant microscope producing light 10 billion times brighter than the sun. The work at Diamond, based at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, is expected to complete in 2030.
Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan, said: “Our national synchrotron may fl y under the radar as we go about our daily lives, but it has been crucial to some of the most defi ning discoveries in recent history – from kickstarting Covid drug development that allowed us to protect millions to advancing treatment for HIV.
Diamond-II is also expected to support the facility’s already considerable contribution to the UK economy. Since operations began in 2007, the economic and social impact of Diamond is estimated to be worth at least £2.6 billion, showing a signifi cant return on the £1.4 billion public investment to date.
Visitors to the launch event held in September included Professor Sir Adrian Smith, Chair of Diamond and President of the Royal Society, Professor Mark Thomson, STFC Executive Chair, Dr Beth Thompson, Chief Strategy Offi cer at Wellcome and members from the research and innovation community.
Professor Mark Thompson said: “The UK is home to incredibly talented researchers, but this alone is not suffi cient to stay at the forefront of globally competitive science. It is essential that we also invest in world-class research infrastructure programmes that provide our researchers with the necessary tools to work at the cutting edge.
“This investment in Diamond-II will play a crucial role in cementing the UK’s place as a Science Superpower and provide our talented researchers and innovators with the best opportunities to make major breakthroughs across a wide range of disciplines from structural biology to advance materials and battery technologies.”
Sir Adrian Smith added: “We are securing the next decades for Diamond through this upgrade which is due to be delivered by 2030. We are entering a new era of opportunity with the advent of fourth
Sarnjeet Dhesi, Science Group Leader for Diamond’s Magnetic Materials group explains the science of new beamline upgrades part of Diamond-II with David Burn, Principal Beamline Scientist (CSXID) (Credit: Diamond Light Source)
generation synchrotrons. This will be a massive transformation of our capabilities. Progress in accelerator technology means Diamond-II will offer the scientifi c community in academia and industry the opportunity to exploit much brighter beams and an increased coherence over a large energy range on all our beamlines plus additional beamlines.
It will help inspire the next generation of STEM professionals and create new opportunities for researchers in universities, research institutes and industry, ultimately having a lasting impact on our society and the economy.
UKRI’s commitment to Diamond is part of the £481 million UKRI has allocated to infrastructure within the UKRI portfolio between 2022 and 2025 for 23 major infrastructure projects and 9 scoping studies to maintain the UK’s position as a science superpower.
More information online:
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Superlensing Method Beats Object Distortion
Lead author Dr Alessandro Tuniz from the School of Physics and University of Sydney Nano Institute, said: “We have now developed a practical way to implement superlensing, without a super lens. To do this, we placed our light probe far away from the object and collected both high and low resolution information. By measuring further away, the probe doesn’t interfere with the high resolution data, a feature of previous methods.”
Previous attempts have tried to make super lenses using novel materials. However, most materials absorb too much light, such as low resolution data, to make the super lens useful.
Pictured (left) Alessandro Tuniz and Boris Kuhlmey
In attempts to break through the physical limits of observing objects using traditional optical methods, Physicists at the University of Sydney have shown a new pathway to achieve superlensing with minimal losses, breaking through the diffraction limit* by a factor of nearly four times. The key to their success was to remove the super lens altogether.
The work has possibilities for improved super-resolution microscopy, for example in fi elds as varied as cancer diagnostics, medical imaging, or archaeology and forensics, the researchers said.
Dr Tuniz continued: “We overcome this by performing the superlens operation as a post-processing step on a computer, after the measurement itself. This produces a ‘truthful’ image of the object through the selective amplifi cation of evanescent, or vanishing, light waves.
Co-author, Associate Professor Boris Kuhlmey, also from the School of Physics and Sydney Nano, said: “Our method could be applied to determine moisture content in leaves with greater resolution, or be useful in advanced microfabrication techniques, such as non- destructive assessment of microchip integrity. The method could even be used to reveal hidden layers in artwork, perhaps proving useful in uncovering art forgery or hidden works.”
“By moving our probe further away we can maintain the integrity of the high-resolution information and use a post-observation
technique to fi lter out the low-resolution data.”
The research was done using light at terahertz frequency at millimetre wavelength, in the region of the spectrum between visible and microwave.
Associate Professor Kuhlmey said: “This is a very diffi cult frequency range to work with, but a very interesting one, because at this range we could obtain important information about biological samples, such as protein structure, hydration dynamics, or for use in cancer imaging.”
Dr Tuniz concluded: “This technique is a fi rst step in allowing high- resolution images while staying at a safe distance from the object without distorting what you see.
“Our technique could be used at other frequency ranges. We expect anyone performing high-resolution optical microscopy will fi nd this technique of interest.”
*The diffraction limit is determined by the fact that light manifests as a wave. It means a focused image can never be smaller than half the wavelength of light used to observe an object.
The research is published in Nature Communications. More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/zBKD
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