Using a new mathematical approach to screen large groups for Covid-19 could be around 20 times cheaper than individual testing, a study suggests.
Applying a recently created algorithm to test multiple samples in one go reduces the total number of tests needed, lowering the cost of screening large populations for Covid-19, researchers say. This novel approach will make it easier to spot outbreaks early on. Initial research shows it is highly effective at identifying positive cases when most of the population is negative.
Testing approach
A team of researchers, including the School of Physics and Astronomy’s inaugural Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics, Professor Neil Turok, developed the method – called the hypercube algorithm – and conducted the first field trials in Africa.
Tiny quantities taken from individual swabs were mixed to create combined samples and then tested. The team showed that a single positive case could still be detected even when mixed with 99 negative swab results. If this initial test highlighted that the mixed sample contained positive cases, then researchers used the algorithm to design a further series of tests. This enabled them to pinpoint individual positive swab results within the combined sample, making it easy to identify people who are infected. If the initial test results indicated that there were no positive cases in the mixed sample, then no follow-up action was needed.
Regular screening
The new method is best suited to regular screening of a population – rather than testing individual patients – and may help to significantly lower testing costs, the team says.
So far, the method has been trialled in Rwanda, where it is being used to screen air passengers, and in South Africa, where it is being used to test a leading rugby team regularly. The study, published in the journal Nature, involved researchers from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and the University of Rwanda.
Attend the Postgraduate Virtual Open Days to find out about our MSc programmes and PhD opportunities
The School of Physics & Astronomy will take part in the University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Virtual Open Days 9-13 November. Academic staff, students and alumni will be involved in a number of online information sessions.
MSc programmes
- Monday 9th November: Introduction to MSc Particle and Nuclear Physics (10:00-11:00 UK time)
- Monday 9th November: Introduction to MSc Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics (11:00-12:00 UK time)
- Monday 9th November: Introduction to MSc Particle and Nuclear Physics (15:00-16:00 UK time) repeat of the morning session
- Monday 9th November: Introduction to MSc Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics (16:00-17:00 UK time) repeat of the morning session
PhD programmes
- Wednesday 11 November: PhD Information Session (09:30-10:30 UK time)
- Wednesday 11 November: Meet a PhD student (13:00-14:00 UK time)
- Wednesday 11 November: PhD Information Session (15:30-16:30 UK time) repeat of the morning session
To book a place visit the Virtual Postgraduate Open days 2020 page on the University of Edinburgh website
Join an international team of scientists as they unpack the mysteries of dark matter.
Scientists and members of the public are invited to attend events to mark Dark Matter Day.
Dark Matter Day
Dark Matter Day celebrates the work being carried out in laboratories and institutions around the world, and shares what scientists know about this cosmic puzzle.
School of Physics and Astronomy researcher Dr XinRan Liu is teaming up with international partners for ‘Deep Talks: An International Journey to Dark Matter Detection’ taking place 4 – 6pm GMT on 29 October. This event involves Sanford Underground Research Facility (in South Dakota, USA), Boulby Underground Laboratory (Yorkshire), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, and is part of a celebration that aims to shed light on the mysteries of dark matter.
Attendees can join this event via a Zoom webinar and answer polls, submit questions for speakers, take virtual tours of the underground laboratory spaces or watch live to learn about how far the search has come, and what might lie ahead in the field of dark matter research. As webinar space is limited, early registration is encouraged.
What is dark matter?
There’s far more to our universe than meets the eye. Everything we can see - everything we know exists - makes up just 5 percent of the matter in the universe. So, what about the other 95 percent? Astronomers and astrophysicists believe that approximately 25 percent of the missing mass and energy in the universe is made up of dark matter. This ubiquitous particle is everywhere, yet, so far, remains a mystery.
Fresh analysis of data that informed the government’s decision on lockdown reveals new information on school closures and social distancing.
Closing schools during the pandemic would result in more overall deaths in the long term than keeping them open, according to fresh analysis of the data that informed the government’s decision on lockdown. The study, led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, also revealed that social distancing is a more effective tool at reducing deaths when only employed by people over 70, compared with among the general population.
The findings are based on a re-analysis of Report 9, the study developed by Imperial College London and used by the SAGE advisory committee to initiate the UK’s nationwide lockdown in March 2020, to avoid overloading the NHS. Imperial’s original model predicted how the virus would spread, how the NHS would be affected and how many people would die in different scenarios.
The new analysis, published in the BMJ, combined Imperial’s epidemiological modelling with real-world data collected since March using a simulation model – known as CovidSim. The results verify that the predictions made from the original model were accurate. The study also used Imperial’s model with CovidSim to forecast the pandemic’s potential spread. The analysis concludes that the interventions implemented in March gave the NHS the best possible outcome in reducing peak demand for intensive care beds.
However, experts say these actions, which included closing schools and shops, if deployed again could prolong the epidemic and result in more long-term deaths, unless an effective vaccination programme is implemented.
General social distancing is predicted to reduce the number of cases, but increase the total number of deaths when compared with social distancing being practiced by the over 70’s only. This is because Covid-19 related deaths are highly skewed towards older age groups, experts said.
Finally, the CovidSim model predicts a second wave, which initially grows more slowly, but becomes larger than the first unless interventions are re-implemented.
To produce the new analysis, the team from Edinburgh co-ordinated thousands of scientists working from home as part of the Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP) project. RAMP’s computer experts took Imperial’s code and made it easily available to all UK researchers, with access to the country’s supercomputers. The code was then rewritten to professional software standards in order to run the new calculations.
The research considers only coronavirus deaths and does not take into account any other consequences of the lockdown.
The research was conducted by four scientists from the School of Physics and Astronomy's three research institutes. Graeme Ackland, Professor of Computer Simulation from the School of Physics and Astronomy who led the study, said:
In the short term, closing schools contributed to reducing the severity of the first wave, to the extent that Nightingale hospitals were not needed, but the decision has left us more vulnerable to subsequent waves of infection. Mitigating a Covid-19 epidemic requires very different strategies for different age groups and a different strategy from an influenza epidemic, with more focus on shielding elderly and vulnerable people.
The research was funded by UK Research and Innovation, Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP) initiative and coordinated by the Royal Society.
Congratulations to postgraduate research students who received a Winton Award in recognition for their theses.
The Winton Award is for postgraduate research students who have produced the best thesis in either Astronomy or Particle and Nuclear Physics. We are pleased to announce that the following PhD students received a Winton Award during the past 2 years:
2018 Winton Award recipients
Astronomy
- Johanna Vos
Particle and Nuclear Physics
- Maria Francesca Marzioni
2019 Winton Award recipients
Astronomy
- Adam Carnall
- Clemence Fontanive
Particle and Nuclear Physics
- Joel Mabillard
- Isobel Nicholson
- Andreas Sogaard
Congratulations to Dr Ross Howie and Dr Davide Michieletto who were awarded European Research Council starting grants.
The European Research Council (ERC) awards starting grants each year to talented early-career scientists who have already produced excellent supervised work and show potential to be a research leader.
Metallisation of hydrogen
Ross’s project concerns the metallisation of hydrogen. Element number one, hydrogen, is the simplest and most abundant element in the universe. The relative abundance is reflected in the gas giant Jupiter, where under extreme pressures and temperatures, hydrogen exists in a dense metallic fluid state. In 1935, it was predicted that such a metallic state could also be realised at considerably lower temperatures, but up to now this has not been achieved. The metallic state of hydrogen is expected to exhibit a whole host of fascinating properties at high pressure, from room temperature superconductivity, to a novel superfluid liquid ground state. It is thus the holy grail of extreme condition science. Recent experimental progress has brought us tantalizingly close to the metallisation conditions, but the metallic state has remained elusive. Ross proposes a novel hydrogen research programme that will combine complex diamond sculpting, time resolved spectroscopy and novel fast compression techniques to extend the pressures achievable in the lab. The project promises to resolve many outstanding questions surrounding one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in condensed matter physics: the metallisation of element one.
Topologically active polymers
Davide is a recently appointed Royal Society University Research Fellow. His project concerns synthetic and biological polymers: such as the ones that make every-day plastics and living cells. Most of the polymers in everyday materials have a fixed structure that cannot be changed in time. In this project, Davide proposes to shift this paradigm by considering polymers whose architecture can be modified in time via operations that cut and glue the polymers' backbone at the expense of energy. Davide names them "topologically active polymers" (TAPs). These novel polymers may find applications in medical devices, such as hydrogels that can selectively respond to the concentration of certain proteins. Given the fundamental importance of polymer science and the ubiquity of protein-regulated topology-altering operations on DNA in vivo, this exciting bottom-up project will not only open a new area of fundamental research with potential far-reaching applications but will also shed new light into the workings of certain vitally important classes of proteins.
Both Ross Howie and Davide Michieletto are based in the School’s Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems.
Identifying and tackling gaps in soft matter knowledge base to better prepare for viral pandemics.
Much of the science underpinning the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic lies in the soft matter domain. Coronaviruses are composite particles with a core of nucleic acids complexed to proteins surrounded by a protein-studded lipid bilayer shell. A dominant route for transmission is via air-borne aerosols and droplets. Viral interaction with polymeric body fluids, particularly mucus, and cell membranes controls their infectivity, while their interaction with skin and artificial surfaces underpins cleaning and disinfection and the efficacy of masks and other personal protective equipment. The global response to COVID-19 has highlighted gaps in the soft matter knowledge base.
The invited article in the journal Soft Matter written by Prof Poon and colleagues from the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership surveys these gaps, especially as pertaining to the transmission of the disease, and suggest questions that can (and need to) be tackled, both in response to COVID-19 and to better prepare for future viral pandemics.
Pupils from Craigour Park Primary School quiz physicists and share interviews about their research.
The School of Physics and Astronomy is keen to work with children in local schools in order to engage them in what we do, and encourage them to develop their interest in and understanding of science.
One recent project conducted prior to lockdown involved 20 Primary 7 pupils from Craigour Park Primary School in Edinburgh. At school, pupils learnt about science journalism and gained interview skills. They then had the opportunity to undertake preliminary research on the work of the scientists they were to interview.
After conducting the interviews with research staff and PhD students, they then wrote up their feedback, which feature some of the challenges and successes of our research colleagues. They also included some of the fun facts which they gleamed from researchers. They shared their resulting 'science journal' with the wider school community at a science fair organised earlier this year.
Their interviews are published on the School of Physics and Astronomy blog.
The School welcomes applications from both external and internal scientists interested in applying for personal fellowships. In particular we have internal deadlines in October 2020 for UKRI Future Leader Fellowships and Stephen Hawking Fellowships.
We are keen to attract outstanding researchers from Edinburgh and across the world to join us as Postdoctoral Fellows. We offer a high quality research environment and support for you in your fellowship application process.
Fellowship opportunities
The School operates an internal review process for a number of following fellowship opportunities.
This autumn's internal deadlines are:
- Stephen Hawking Fellowship round 2: 4pm Monday 5th October 2020
- UKRI Future Leader Fellowships round 6: 4pm Monday 19th October 2020
We also welcome applicants for other fellowships, including ESPRC Early Career Fellowships and Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships.
Application information
Candidates are expected to have a PhD in Physics, Astronomy or a related discipline, and in most cases a few years research experience, as well as the ability to present clear evidence of their potential to undertake leading research.
The School of Physics and Astronomy is committed to advancing equality and diversity, welcoming applications from everyone irrespective of gender, ethnic group or nationality. We particularly encourage applications from female and/or BAME candidates.
How to apply
Candidates must submit the information outlined in the link below.
This prize is granted in recognition of work of outstanding quality in the field of colloid and interface science.
ECIS-Solvay Prize
The European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS) works to advance colloid and interface science and to promote cooperation between scientists. The prize is granted annually to a European scientist for original scientific work of outstanding quality, described in one or several publications, patents or other documents made public in the previous five years.
The citation of Prof Poon’s award reads: “Wilson Poon is a world-leading soft matter and biological physicist, who has made seminal contributions across many areas of colloid and interface science. The ECIS-Solvay 2020 prize is awarded for the development of a unifying framework to describe rheology of concentrated particles suspensions, mechanism of shear thickening, and an explanatory frame to account for phenomena of industrial relevance.”
Colloidial research
Based in the School’s Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Prof Poon works on 'model' colloids to study phenomena that are ubiquitous across condensed matter and statistical physics, particularly the structure and dynamics of arrested states such as glasses and gels. Understanding such states is one of the challenges facing 21st century physics, and at the same time, they occur widely in a very large range of industrial processes and products. To exploit the latter connections, Prof Poon set up the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP) to coordinate industrial consultancy. ECFP clients now span many sectors, from food and confectionaries through personal care to specialty and agri-chemicals. The work for which he was recognised by ECIS has partly been inspired by real-life industrial problems and partly performed with industrial partners such as Mars Chocolate and Johnson Matthey. A lecture describing the relevance of his work to chocolate manufacturing can be found below under ‘Related Links’.
Prof Poon also works on the physics of active particles. These colloids are intrinsically non-equilibrium, in that they continually transduce free energy from their surroundings to engage in activities such as growth (in size and number) and self propulsion (i.e. they are micro-swimmers). The goal of Prof Poon and his team of researchers is to discover and understand new modes of collective behaviour in active particle systems, both on their own, and in the company of passive particles. The results should provide impetus for theory development in a frontier area of statistical mechanics, lead to new material designs, and throw light on selected biological phenomena (such as the growth of biofilms).