Scientists have discovered a new class of compounds which contain very large amounts of hydrogen, stored in tiny clusters of 13 molecules.
These clusters, known as “supermolecules” are as icosahedral balls with one central hydrogen surrounded by 12 others. The supermolecules are then packed together with other molecules to give compounds with an exceptionally high hydrogen content. In the iodane–superhydrogen compound there are 27 hydrogens for every iodine atom.
Their discovery opens the possibility of storing hydrogen in a molecular form within a chemical compound. Hydrogen storage is essential for fuel cells, but in most compounds the hydrogen is chemically bonded to another element, requiring energy to extract it before it can be used.
The Iodane-hydride compound was made by a team of researchers at the Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions in the University of Edinburgh, collaborating with former colleagues now working in Shanghai. The fundamental properties of various materials were predicted using the ARCHER supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh, by calculations involving advanced quantum mechanics. The Iodane compound was synthesized under high pressure in the laboratory in China. On releasing the pressure, it rapidly decomposed releasing the hydrogen molecules, but was shown to be quickly reformed by repressurization. Related material may release their hydrogen when heated.
The structure itself has unusual icosahedral (fivefold) symmetry. It is not possible to fill space with a repeating fivefold pattern, so alternate supermolecules have to be twisted to accommodate one another.
Visit the Postgraduate Open Day to find out about our MSc programmes and PhD opportunities.
On 14 November, academic staff, current students and alumni will be involved in a number of events including:
- MSc and PhD information sessions
- talks on student life
- tours of the facilities and labs.
The University is also running talks on careers and funding, and tours of accommodation and sports facilities.
To find out more, visit:
The School of Physics and Astronomy took part in a very successful Explorathon and Doors Open Day during the last weekend in September.
On Friday over 80 people experienced a dance co-created by Dr Susana Direito about her research on the physics of bio-films as part of the New Scots Ceilidh, organised by the Science Ceilidh Band.
On Saturday we opened our doors to the public and welcomed over 420 visitors to the James Clerk Maxwell Building at the University of Edinburgh. Students and staff delivered hands-on activities including examining meteorites and searching for alien life (astrobiology) and making slime to illustrate the study of squishy materials (soft matter physics).
130 visitors embarked on our tour of the acoustics rooms and soft matter research labs to get an insight into the work of some of our staff and students.
Doors Open Day visitors at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh got the chance to build telescopes from lego, make comets and explore the laboratories.
We would like to thank all those who visited us, and the students and staff who ran activities and tours during these events. We received some extremely positive feedback, and the smiley faces from visitors are signs that people enjoyed exploring physics and astronomy!
Sara, who visited us in the James Clerk Maxwell Building commented:
We had a fabulous time thanks! It was extremely interesting and very well delivered.
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These prestigious awards support highly talented early career researchers from across the world to develop their careers.
The School of Physics and Astronomy invites applications in the following area:
- Extreme Conditions/Astrobiology: examples of the sorts of expertise sought in this area could include the study of the biochemistry of life at extremes such as high pressure, biotechnological applications and science, for example in space manufacturing or missions in the extreme conditions of space, and the study of the earth and planetary processes at high pressure applied to understanding environments ranging from habitats for life in shallow sub-surface to deep planetary mantle and core processes.
The School is also involved in the recruitment of Fellows in the following areas which are led by other Schools which form part of the College of Science and Engineering. These are also likely to be of interest to physicists and astronomers:
- Biotechnology
- Energy
- Living with Data
About the Fellowships
Building on the outstanding successes of our previous tenure-track Chancellor’s Fellowship programmes and our world class research performance, the College of Science & Engineering is investing in a further cohort of 10 next generation research innovation leaders.
These prestigious awards are aimed at early career individuals of the highest potential and attainment who have begun to establish a reputation for the highest quality research at the forefront of their discipline and who have a commitment to learning and teaching at university level.
Selection criteria
Applicants to the School of Physics and Astronomy must have a PhD in Physics, Biology, Astronomy or related discipline and present clear evidence of their potential to undertake leading research in collaboration with industrial partners. Successful candidates will demonstrate scientific excellence, capacity to contribute to knowledge exchange, and a track record in obtaining external funding for such projects.
A commitment to excellence in undergraduate teaching is essential for all academic posts as Chancellor's Fellows will be expected to teach and to contribute to curriculum development at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Holders of personal Fellowships are welcomed.
Applying
Follow the link below to see the particulars of the each position.
Job descriptions and how to apply
All applications should include a completed Application Form, a Curriculum Vitae, a Statement of Research Interests, and names and contact details for three referees.
Further information
Doors Open Day is an annual opportunity for the public to visit buildings and institutions across Scotland.
Take a guided tour of the School of Physics and Astronomy and go behind the scenes of physics research on Saturday 29 September at the James Clerk Maxwell Building on the King’s Building campus. You will have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of hands-on activities alongside staff and students, including having the chance to make and take away your own slime! Tours include a visit to the anechoid chamber (part of the acoustics group), a bio-physics lab (studying the life, death and motion of bacterias) and a rheo-imaging lab (looking at unusually behaving mixtures). There is also the opportunity to visit activities delivered by other Schools based on the King's Building campus.
On Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 September, you will have the chance to talk to astronomers from the Institute for Astronomy about their work on galaxy evolution, planet formation and computer simulations of the Universe. There will be talks, demonstrations and hands-on activities. Relax on the sofa in the astronomers’ corner while discussing the big questions of the Universe and get an insight into the working life of an observatory. These events take place at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
TRAIN@Ed research fellowship for candidates with a background in experimental particle physics and machine learning.
The TRAIN@Ed research fellowship programme, an ambitious scheme with the intention of bringing international researchers to the UK, is now open to applications. This is part of a €7.1 million Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions COFUND grant awarded to the University of Edinburgh.
The School of Physics and Astronomy, in collaboration with industrial partner Tindeco Financial Services, is looking for applicants with a background in experimental particle physics and machine learning, and a strong interest in financial applications (in particular: portfolio construction, risk management and systematic investment management). Candidates must submit a proposal outlining their vision on the collaborative research to be conducted during the three-year fellowship.
Eligible candidates will have finished their PhD ideally around two years previous to and no more than ten years beyond their application. They will not have lived and worked in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the submission deadline.
Full details of the scheme and opportunities are found on the TRAIN@Ed site.
Interested candidates should get in touch with Christos.Leonidopoulos [at] ed.ac.uk (Christos Leonidopoulos.)
The deadline for expression of interest is 15 October 2018.
Scientists gain valuable insight into how hydrogen behaves at extreme conditions, such as those found within Jupiter and Saturn.
A study of hydrogen at extreme temperatures and pressures has enabled researchers to build a clearer picture of conditions within Jupiter and Saturn – where hydrogen accounts for much of the mass. The findings also shed light on the fundamental physical properties of the gas, which is the focus of research into a sustainable form of energy known as fusion.
An international team of researchers carried out sophisticated experiments using the most advanced laser in the world, the National Ignition Facility in California, US. Powerful laser beams were fired across the stadium-sized facility towards a hydrogen sample, and optical sensors were used to detect changes in the sample. Researchers were able to observe how hydrogen behaved as the pressure and temperature were raised to 6 million times that of Earth’s atmosphere. Conditions were similar to pressures found in the interior of Jupiter.
Their observations helped pin down the physical conditions at which hydrogen begins to behave like a liquid metal. This elusive phase of the element has been little understood by scientists for many decades and has rarely been recreated in experiments.
The study, carried out by the University of Edinburgh with researchers in France and the US, was published in Science and supported by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.
Dr Stewart McWilliams, who took part in the study, said:
Being able to undertake high-energy experiments using the world’s biggest laser has afforded us valuable insights into one of the most important materials making up the planets of our universe, as well as future energy sources.
Research suggests that the surface properties of growing cell membranes and expanding bacterial colonies, for example, are fundamentally distinct.
Growing interfaces are dynamic boundaries - usually between two different phases of matter - which represent many nonequilibrium phenomena.
Almost all growing interfaces fall into the celebrated Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. One feature of KPZ interfaces is that in one dimension the interface reaches a stationary state in which it has the statistical properties of a random walk: the lateral width of the interface scales with the square root of its length.
A fascinating realisation of a growing interface is the lamellipodium, which is the leading edge of a growing mesh of actin filaments in a motile cell. The lamellipodium is an unusual growing interface in that it pushes against a constraining cell wall, producing a ratcheting effect, and enables the cell to move.
Inspired by the lamellipodium interacting with a cell wall, Justin Whitehouse (Condensed Matter CDT PhD student), Richard Blythe (Reader in Complexity Science) and Professor Martin Evans (Chair of Statistical Physics) have investigated the fundamental properties of an interface that is impeded by a diffusing barrier that either lies ahead of the interface (as in the case of the cell wall) or behind the interface (as in the case of a growing bacterial colony). When the diffusing barrier is ahead of the interface (and interacts with its peaks), they find the classic KPZ behaviour. The situation changes when the barrier is behind, interacting with the interfacial troughs: this creates a new universality class where the interface is less rough than a random walk, scaling as the cube root of its length.
The paper was made the Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review Letters.
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The European Physical Society (EPS) Nuclear Physics Division Board has announced the winners of PhD theses in the areas of experimental, theoretical or applied nuclear physics.
Carlo Bruno received this award for his thesis on Underground measurement of hydrogen-burning reactions on 17,18O at energies of astrophysical interest, which he completed in 2017 while at the School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh. Results from his thesis have been published in Physical Review Letters and Nature Astronomy. Carlo is currently working at the University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on nuclear reaction studies at storage rings within the School’s Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics.
The European Physical Society awards PhD prizes every three years to the best theses in nuclear physics. Winners give a plenary talk on their work and are presented with a diploma during the European Nuclear Physics Conference.
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The Gabor Medal is awarded annually for acknowledged distinction of interdisciplinary work between the life sciences with other disciplines.
The Royal Society announced that this year the medal is awarded to Professor Cait MacPhee CBE in recognition for her seminal contributions to understanding protein aggregation that inform our approach to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes, and for opening up new opportunities for creating self-assembled functional biopolymers.
Research on protein behaviour
Cait’s research concerns the behaviour of proteins: the molecules that are responsible for the vast majority of functions in living organisms. The controlled self-assembly of proteins into well-defined structures and functional assemblies is essential to our well-being, however occasionally protein self-assembly takes place inappropriately. When this happens in the body it typically causes disease, and familial diseases as well as diseases of ageing (such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, cataract and type II diabetes) are all recognised to be the result of improper protein self-assembly. Protein self-assembly can also cause havoc in industrial processes including the production of biopharmaceuticals (e.g. insulin). When this occurs, the pharmaceutical is often lost as an irretrievably tangled mass of gelled protein. All is not lost, however: the self-assembly of proteins also underpins the texture of foodstuffs including egg, meat and milk products. It is understanding this process of self-assembly - to prevent or reverse disease, or to drive the development of new materials and foodstuffs - that forms the focus of Cait’s research efforts.
Honours and Fellowships
In 2016 Cait was recognised in the Queen’s New Year's Honours list for her services to women in physics, and was elected to become Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).
The Gabor award was created in memory of the engineer Dennis Gabor, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of holography.
Prof Cait MacPhee commented:
I am delighted to receive this award from the Royal Society in recognition of this interdisciplinary work.
Prof Arthur Trew, School of Physics and Astronomy’s Head of School reported:
We are incredibly pleased by this recognition of Cait’s research contributions and collaborations. My congratulations to Prof MacPhee for this award.