Congratulations to Dr Anna Lisa Varri who has been awarded one of the first UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowships which aim to grow the strong supply of talented individuals needed to ensure that UK research and innovation is world class. Anna Lisa’s profile has also been selected by UKRI as one the twelve inaugural case studies.
Rethinking the dynamical paradigm of low-mass stellar systems
Anna Lisa’s Fellowship focusses on some of the most ancient structures in the universe – globular clusters – dense groups of about a million stars emerged the dawn of the formation of galaxies. The new European space observatory Gaia can now observe these stellar systems with unprecedented detail and LIGO has detected gravitational waves from merging binary black holes, possibly formed in dense cluster cores. A revolution in our understanding of these building blocks of our universe has therefore started. With a combination of applied mathematics techniques and numerical simulations, Anna Lisa will study how this new-generation data can shed light on three big questions in modern astrophysics: the origin of the first stellar aggregates, the existence of intermediate-mass black holes, and the nature of dark matter.
Anna Lisa has been a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh since 2012 – first in the Applied and Computational Mathematics group of the School of Mathematics, then at the Institute for Astronomy, within School of Physics and Astronomy. She will now pursue her Fellowship research programme in collaboration with both Schools.
UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship
The scheme will help the next generation of researchers, tech entrepreneurs, business leaders and innovators get the support they need to develop their careers. Altogether the inaugural cohort of 41 early career researchers at universities across the UK will each benefit from a share of £40 million.
Colleagues at the School of Chemistry, School of Biological Sciences, and MRC Centre for Reproductive Health have also been awarded Future Leaders Fellows under the newly announced UK Government programme.
UKRI will provide up to £900 million in support over six competition rounds over three years for the Future Leaders Fellowships, typically awarding around 200 new fellows each year.
The science of what makes good chocolate has been revealed by researchers studying a 140-year-old mixing technique.
Scientists have uncovered the physics behind the process – known as conching – which is responsible for creating modern chocolate’s distinctive smooth texture.
A team led by the School of Physics and Astronomy studied mixtures resembling liquid chocolate created using the conching process, which was developed by Swiss confectioner Rodolphe Lindt in 1879. Their analysis, which involved measuring the density and flow properties of mixtures at various stages of the process, suggests how conching may have altered the physical properties of the microscopic sugar crystals and other granular ingredients of chocolate. Until now, the science behind the process was poorly understood.
The new research reveals that conching – which involves mixing ingredients for several hours – produces smooth molten chocolate by breaking down lumps of ingredients into finer grains and reducing friction between particles. Before the invention of conching, chocolate had a gritty texture. This is because the ingredients form rough, irregular clumps that do not flow smoothly when mixed with cocoa butter.
The findings may hold the key to producing confectionery with lower fat content, and could help make chocolate manufacturing more energy efficient. Their insights could also help improve processes used in other sectors that rely on the mixing of powders and liquids, such as ceramics manufacturing and cement production.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved a collaboration with researchers from New York University. The work received funding from Mars Chocolate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Professor Wilson Poon, of the School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the study, said:
Conching consumes a significant amount of energy. We hope that our work can help reduce this consumption and lead to greener manufacturing of the most popular confectionary product in the world. It is also interesting that by studying a subject as practical as chocolate making, we have been able to derive new insights into the fundamental physics of how complex mixtures flow, and then use these insights to help industries very far removed from chocolate manufacturing. It is a great example of how physics can build bridges between disciplines and sectors.
The School of Physics and Astronomy has had its Athena SWAN Silver status renewed in recognition of the work we have undertaken and our continuing efforts in addressing gender equality and fostering a more inclusive working environment.
Athena SWAN is a charter established and managed by Advance HE (previously the Equality Challenge Unit) that recognises and celebrates good practices in higher education and research institutions towards the advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all staff.
The School was first awarded Athena SWAN Silver status in September 2014, and continuously works to adopt the Athena SWAN charter principles within its policies, practices, action plans and culture. The School also holds an IoP Juno Champion award that recognizes and rewards physics departments that have taken action to address gender equality.
The Athena SWAN Charter covers women (and men where appropriate) in:
- academic roles in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine) as well as other subjects
- professional and support staff
- trans staff and students
In relation to their:
- representation
- progression of students into academia
- journey through career milestones
- working environment for all staff
Prof Arthur Trew, Head of School, reported:
This award reflects the widespread desire within the School to ensure that in our pursuit of excellence, we enable all to flourish. I am really pleased by the steps that we have taken and the commitment that everyone has shown. This is not the end, and we aim to improve our ways of working further over the coming years.
Dr Job Thijssen, Director of Equality & Diversity for the School said:
I am delighted that the work we have done, and continue to do, to make the School a fairer place to work has been recognised by the renewal of this award. I would like to thank members of the School’s Equality & Diversity Committee, as well as wider colleagues for their contribution and commitment to this work.
Professor Peter Higgs will celebrate his 90th birthday in May this year, and to mark this occasion, the School of Physics and Astronomy is planning a year of special events aimed at scientists, current students, alumni and the wider public.
We kicked off the series of events in January with a public talk by Nima Arkani-Hamed, renowned Professor of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and Director of the Center for Future High Energy Physics. This spectacular talk entitled “The End of Spacetime” challenged a number of standard physics principles.
At the end of January, we hosted the first “Beyond the Lab” event to bring together leading researchers and experts from industry. The event enabled valuable connections to be established and paved the way for future collaboration. It was held at The Higgs Centre for Innovation, which was established by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and University of Edinburgh after the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012.
In March, we held the Inaugural “Higgs Lecture”, which was made possible through the generous support of Walter Nimmo. A varied audience, from school pupils to senior professors heard from speaker Professor Gian Giudice, head of the Theory Group at CERN and prize-winning author.
We are currently running a birthday card competition which is open to all nursery and primary school children in Scotland. Studies show that children make up their minds about which subjects they like and dislike at a very young age, and through this competition we hope to raise awareness of physics and build on the local connection to Peter Higgs. Entries will be judged by Suzanne Higgs (local artist and Peter Higgs’ daughter-in-law), Christophe Englert (particle physicist and childrens’ author) and Lily Asquith (particle physicist and outreach expert). We can’t wait to see the entries!
We have a variety of further events planned for the rest of the year including an alumni event in the summer, a day of celebration at the end of September and a poster competition for secondary school pupils.
We trust that these will be fitting celebrations to mark this special year for Peter Higgs.
Topological entanglements severely interfere with important biological processes. For this reason, genomes must be kept unknotted and unlinked during most of a cell cycle. Computational evidence shows that structural-maintenance-of-chromosomes (SMC) proteins, such as cohesins and condensins, can cooperate with type II topoisomerase enzymes to establish a synergistic mechanism to resolve topological entanglements.
In each of our cells we have 2 meters of DNA stored and tightly packaged within a space that is about the width of a hair (10 µm or 0.00001 meters) (note that the thickness of DNA is about a thousand times thinner than a hair (2 nm or 0.000000002 meters).
Given such a huge length and such strong confinement, we would expect that our DNA would form complicated knots and links (a little bit like what you get when pulling headphones out of your pockets). The problem is that knots in DNA would impair vital biological processes such as gene transcription and cell division. Luckily for us, long-standing conjectures and recent evidence suggest that DNA is not heavily knotted at all.
While it is known that special proteins called topoisomerase can perform sophisticated 'topological" operations on DNA, no existing model has been able to explain how they maintain our DNA entanglement-free under the extremely confined and crowded conditions of the cell nucleus.
This latest research shows that a family of slip-link-like proteins called "Structural Maintenance of Chromosome" (SMC) can help topoisomerase to systematically resolve topological entanglements, even under physiological crowding and confinement. This slip-link protein is conjectured to act very much like a belay device for rock climbers: it links together two segments of DNA and can slide back and forth to enlarge or reduce the loop in between the linked segments. Through this action, knots or links that are caught in between the slip-link are squeezed and compressed until they are easily detectable and removable by topoisomerase, which would otherwise have a hard time to find them.
Given the ubiquity of topoisomerase and SMC proteins (which are found in virtually every life-form, from bacteria to humans), we argue that the mechanism that we uncovered in this work plays an important role throughout the cell cycle and across different organisms.
Image gallery
Congratulations to Dr Jean-Christophe Denis who received the University of Edinburgh’s Community Partnership Award for his work with the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Craigmillar community.
The Community Partnership Award recognises innovative and fruitful approaches where University staff and students work in partnership with the community on activities which lead to positive social impact. For his work around science engagement in the Craigmillar Community, Dr Jean-Christophe (JC) Denis received the Community Partnership Award, alongside his partners, at a ceremony organised in St Cecilia Hall last month by the University’s Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability.
Dr Denis has been working since 2017 as Ogden Outreach Officer for the School of Physics and Astronomy and the National Biofilms Innovation Centre. After meeting colleague Dr Cathy Southworth from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, discussions between them led them to the organisation of the first ‘Craigmillar Community Science Festival’, in partnership with the local schools and a local community café, the White House. The first festival was a big success, with over 100 attendees and excellent feedback from all involved. It has since turned into an annual event, with the third festival (which has expanded from one afternoon to three days of activities) taking place last week. The festival is now a partnership between the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, the School of Physics and Astronomy, Castleview and Niddrie Mill Primary Schools, Castlebrae High School, the Craigmillar Library, the Community Alliance Trust, Glasgow Science Centre and the White House Café.
An original aspect of this festival is its strong focus on the community: the local schools are involved in its preparation. This year, Dr Denis (who is a Craigmillar resident) and physics and astronomy undergraduate outreach students led a science club for primary 4 and 5 pupils in Castleview Primary School, with weekly school visits for over 2 months before the festival. The pupils enjoyed doing a variety of activities, and then chose their favourite activities to present and deliver at the Craigmillar Community Science Festival. Thanks to a Principal Teaching Award Scheme grant, Dr Denis also setup science mentoring sessions and a science club delivered by second year undergraduate students in Castlebrae High School. This included a telescope building activity, with pupils encouraged to bring their telescope to a stargazing session during the ‘Science After Dark’ event at the festival.
Honours years students enjoyed a successful Undergraduate Research Conference, the first organised by the School, which showcased the research undertaken by students in their Senior Honours and MPhys projects, highlighted projects where new discoveries have led to the publication of undergraduate student work, and illustrated some of the research opportunities for students beyond their degree.
As part of their degree programme, year 4 and year 5 students undertake projects in order to develop independence in the skills of experimental design and project management, and the presentation of project results, methods, results and conclusions in a suitable format tests students’ communication skills.
During the conference, students had the opportunity to view the Senior Honours Project Posters produced by year 4 students and the MPhys Project Public Summaries produced by year 5 students, with prizes awarded to outstanding posters and summaries.
The conference also provided students with the opportunity to learn from alumna Anna de Graaff whose talk on ‘A search for missing baryons in the cosmic web’ reflected on her undergraduate project which became a refereed journal paper, and Dr Paul Clegg who described his supervision of a student’s project which formed the basis of a published paper.
Prof Judy Hardy, the School's Director of Teaching commented:
This conference gave our students a great opportunity to learn about the project work completed by their peers and learn about the new discoveries which have stemmed from such projects over the years.
Until now, the atoms in physical material were understood to exist typically in one of three states – solid, liquid or gas. Researchers have found, however, that some elements can, when subjected to extreme conditions, take on the properties of both solid and liquid states.
Applying high pressures and temperatures to potassium – a simple metal – creates a state in which most of the element’s atoms form a solid lattice structure, the findings show. However, the structure also contains a second set of potassium atoms that are in a fluid arrangement. Under the right conditions, over half a dozen elements – including sodium and bismuth – are thought to be capable of existing in the newly discovered state, researchers say.
Until now, it was unclear if the unusual structures represented a distinct state of matter, or existed as transition stages between two distinct states.
A team led by scientists from the School of Physics and Astronomy used powerful computer simulations to study the existence of the state – known as the chain-melted state. Simulating how up to 20,000 potassium atoms behave under extreme conditions revealed that the structures formed represent the new, stable state of matter. Applying pressure to the atoms leads to the formation of two interlinked solid lattice structures. Chemical interactions between atoms in one lattice are strong, meaning they stay in a solid form when the structure is heated, while the other atoms melt into a liquid state.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was supported by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The work was carried out in collaboration with scientists from Xi’an Jiantong University in China.
Dr Andreas Hermann, of the School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the study, said:
Potassium is one of the simplest metals we know, yet if you squeeze it, it forms very complicated structures. We have shown that this unusual but stable state is part solid and part liquid. Recreating this unusual state in other materials could have all kinds of applications.
A fascinating free new exhibition – part of a year-long series of events - opens in Edinburgh aiming to establish Charles Piazzi Smyth’s place in Edinburgh’s history. The exhibition, housed in Edinburgh’s iconic Nelson Monument on Calton Hill, presents Piazzi Smyth’s photography, paintings and drawings, alongside a newly commissioned short film and interviews in what will be the first major exhibition dedicated to Edinburgh’s forgotten astronomer.
The location of the exhibition itself carries strong significance as in 1852 Piazzi Smyth started the Time Ball service which involved hoisting a large ball from the top of Nelson Monument which would drop at exactly one o’clock every day as a time signal to ships docked in Leith harbour. In 1861 Piazzi Smyth added an audible element and set up the One O’Clock Gun service from Edinburgh Castle, stretching a cable all the way from Calton Hill to another clock on Castle Rock, which fired the Gun. The cable is no longer in place but both the Time Ball on Nelson Monument and the One O’ Clock Gun still remain active today, providing a daily reminder of Piazzi Smyth’s legacy to the city.
Pioneering early photographer, accomplished artist, writer, meteorologist, traveller, enthusiastic investigator of pyramids and of course, ground-breaking astronomer and yet despite such achievements, very few will have heard of Charles Piazzi Smyth or of his innovative work, the influence of which is still felt around the world today. Housed in the Nelson Monument Museum, the new exhibition aims to bring about a new awareness of Piazzi Smyth’s work and that of his wife Jessica (a geologist who became a good practising astronomer), forming part of a series of activity around the 200th anniversary of his birth.
In 1845 at the age of just 26, Piazzi Smyth was appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland at the Calton Hill Observatory in Edinburgh, and also Professor of Astronomy in the University of Edinburgh. Whilst working as Astronomer Royal of Scotland in the nineteenth century, Charles Piazzi Smyth found that the polluted skies obscured the stars. So, along with his wife Jessica, he decided to take state of the art telescopes to Tenerife in 1856, climbing to altitudes of over 10,00ft. Thanks to his superb photography, scientific recording and drawings we can see how he clearly demonstrated why observatories should be at high altitude. It is through this work he can be said to have pioneered today's practice of positioning telescopes on mountain tops to obtain better observations.
As Astronomer Royal for Scotland he spent much of his time and did much of his work from the City Observatory on Calton Hill, which recently reopened to the public after 100 years and can be visited today.
Piazzi Smyth’s later measurements of the Great Pyramid at Giza won him a medal, but his beliefs around pyramids caused him to resign from the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Scotland after arguments about science and religion. His scientific legacy was marred by the controversy, regardless, his influence in the development of astronomy is undeniable, an influence which can still be felt in Edinburgh and across the world today.
Regius Professor of Astronomy at the School of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Andy Lawrence said:
Piazzi Smyth and his wife Jessie are great Edinburgh characters but are forgotten in the city where they worked. Astronomers tour the world to observatories because of Charles’ work. His scientific work underpins much of our work today.
He added:
As we launch the exhibition, we are also beginning a grand Time Gun Public Experiment. As a first step, we just want to find out who can hear the One O’ Clock Gun. Any day between Monday April 8th and Sunday April 14th, we are asking citizens and visitors to listen out for the Gun, and let us know via social media with the hashtag #IHeardTheGun, and tell us where they were. Later in the year we will get more ambitious and time the delay all over Town!
The exhibition is a partnership between Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh and the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh. The exhibition is part of the celebration of Charles Piazzi Smyth’s 200th anniversary including a series of public talks, a citizen science experiment with the One O'Clock Gun, and a Symposium at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The Institute of Physics is launching a bursary scheme to help under-represented students to become physics researchers, thanks to the donation of prize funds from Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was awarded the Breakthrough Prize last September for the discovery of radio pulsars and decided to donate all her £2.3m prize money to support PhD students from groups currently under-represented in physics, including female students, black and other minority ethnic (BAME) students, students who require support for disabilities, LGBT+ students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund will be administered and managed by the Institute of Physics and will support graduates who wish to study a PhD in physics. The fund will also support students from low socio-economic backgrounds and those who qualify for refugee status.
Featured in the Institute of Physics’ promotional videos of the scheme is School of Physics and Astronomy current year 4 Astrophysics student, Ozioma Kamalu. Ozioma is a member of the School’s Equality and Diversity Committee and is Campus Ambassador for the Institute of Physics.
She reported:
I am so pleased that such a generous donation has been made available to support under-represented students in physics. I am also privileged to have this opportunity to support the scheme and help encourage fellow students by working to reduce inequalities in this field.
Dr Job Thijssen, the School’s Director of Equality & Diversity commented:
I am delighted to hear the news of this initiative, funded by the generous donation of Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, which aims to encourage greater diversity in physics by supporting graduates from currently underrepresented groups who wish to do a PhD in physics. I would also like to thank Ozioma for her continuing efforts to promote an inclusive environment in the School and beyond.
Prof Bell Burnell was awarded a Breakthrough Prize for her discovery in 1967 of radio pulsars - rapidly rotating star remnants.