ESSential science

IN the latest in a series of Friday features we Introduce the mega-microscope poised to unlock secrets of the atomic world.

By Professor Bob Cywinski, Forensic Science lecturer at the School of Applied Sciences at University Campus Oldham’s degree partners, the University of Huddersfield.

Imagine a microscope so powerful that it can look deep into the materials from which our world is made.

So powerful that it doesn’t only reveal how atoms and molecules are arranged, but how they move and interact with each other — and how they bond together to form metals, alloys, chemicals, plastics and even the biological substances upon which life itself depends.

Such a microscope could unlock the secrets of materials at the atomic level enabling us to modify and tailor their properties and performance to satisfy the demands of our increasingly technological society.

The benefits for medicine, energy production, transport, electronics, manufacturing, and the environment would be enormous.

It might be a surprise to learn that, in a way, such “microscopes” already exist, and that they are being used now to help us understand materials in more detail than ever before.

But, unlike conventional microscopes, they don’t use light and magnifying lenses. Instead they rely upon the remarkable quantum physical properties of neutrons to illuminate the atomic world.

It might also be a surprise to learn that the application of beams of neutrons in the analysis of materials is one of the few areas of science for which Britain can really claim a world lead.

Ironically, in order to visualise nature’s smallest objects, we have to use some of the world’s largest science facilities to produce beams of neutrons, either by fission in nuclear reactors or by spallation, a process by which high energy sub-atomic particles from a giant accelerator are used to “spall” or chip-off neutrons from the nuclei of heavy atoms.

These neutron facilities are widely used in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, geology and even palaeontology and archaeology. British scientists are fortunate to have access to the very best of these facilities.

Britain owns the most powerful spallation source, ISIS, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, and also has a one-third share of the world’s most powerful reactor source of neutrons, the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France.

Scientists at the University of Huddersfield not only make use of these “megascience” facilities in their materials research, they are also playing a key role in developing a next generation facility — the European Spallation Source (ESS) helped by a substantial share of a £5 million grant from the European Union.

ESS is designed to be the “Hubble Telescope” of neutron sources. Just as the Hubble Telescope allows us to see deep into outer space, ESS will help us to see deep into “inner space”.

Ten times more powerful than any existing or planned facilities in the world, ESS will reveal where atoms are in unprecedented detail, maintaining Europe’s position at the forefront of materials research and development for the next 50 years.

Everything about the ESS is big — the accelerator, which is the pulsing heart of the facility, is almost a kilometre long!

Correspondingly, the price tag is also enormous — £1billion. However, ESS will take seven years to build and will create thousands of jobs both in the construction and operational phases.

In fact, the ESS will bring tremendous scientific and economic advantages to any European region in which it is built.

At this very moment, scientists in Sweden, Spain and Hungary, supported by their national governments, are in fierce competition to host this amazing science facility. A political decision on where ESS should be built will be taken within the next month or so.

Sadly, we could easily have had ESS on our very own doorstep.

For several years, Yorkshire was a leading contender to host ESS, and a site with planning permission was secured near Selby.

Unfortunately, lack of UK Government support has meant Yorkshire has had to abandon the fight for this tremendous prize.

Nevertheless, because of the University of Huddersfield’s central role in the preparatory phase of ESS, the North of England remains deeply involved in, and committed to, this world-leading project.

For more information on ESS you can see a short film, narrated by Professor Robert Winston, at www.ess-neutrons.eu