Science and Technology Facilities Council Science and Technology Facilities Council Science and Technology Facilities Council Science and Technology Facilities Council One of Europe’s largest multi One of Europe’s largest multi One of Europe’s largest multi One of Europe’s largest multi- - -disciplinary disciplinary disciplinary disciplinary scientific research organisations scientific research organisations scientific research organisations scientific research organisations STFC funds, designs, builds and operates world-class large scale science infrastructure: •unique scientific insight •innovative technology …to government, academic and industry customers
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Science and Technology Facilities CouncilScience and Technology Facilities CouncilScience and Technology Facilities CouncilScience and Technology Facilities Council
One of Europe’s largest multiOne of Europe’s largest multiOne of Europe’s largest multiOne of Europe’s largest multi----disciplinarydisciplinarydisciplinarydisciplinary
scientific research organisationsscientific research organisationsscientific research organisationsscientific research organisations
STFC funds, designs, builds and operates world-class
large scale science infrastructure:
•unique scientific insight
•innovative technology
…to government, academic and industry customers
RCUK Executive Group
STFC is an independent, non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Research Council Funding Mechanism
• Provide large-scale
science facilities and
programmes for the UK
• A centre of ‘science-
technology’ expertise
• Economic Impact
Chilbolton ObservatoryStockbridge, Hampshire
Daresbury LaboratoryDaresbury Science and Innovation CampusWarrington, Cheshire
Rutherford Appleton LaboratoryHarwell Science and Innovation CampusDidcot, Oxfordshire
Neutron SourcesProviding powerful insights into key areas of energy, biomedical research, climate, environment and security
High Power LasersProviding applications on bioscience and nanotechnology and demonstrating laser driven fusion as a future source of sustainable, clean energy
Light SourcesProviding new breakthroughs in medicine, environmental and materials science, engineering, electronics and cultural heritage
STFC’s Asset BaseKnowledge
SkillsTechnologyInspiration
Innovation Resilient Economy
Delivering Economic Growth through Innovation
We work with international partners
o CERN
o European Southern Observatory
o European Space Agency
o European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
o Institute Laue-Langevin
o Gemini Observatory
World’s most productive sources of pulsed neutrons
World-leading intense lasers
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Central Laser Facility
Ultrafast
vibrational
spectroscopy
ARTEMISASTRA GEMINI VULCAN ULTRA OCTOPUS
Imaging, laser
tweezers and
microscopy
Laser applications in the physical and life
sciences (materials, chemistry, biology)
fs and as
ultrafast
spectroscopy
high harmonic
generation
IR to soft x-ray
High-power, ultra-intense lasers for
extreme conditions science & applications
Ultra high-power
laser
Up to 1 PW peak
power
Focused intensity
> 1021 Wcm-2
High power,
ultra-short
pulse dual
beams of 15 J,
30 fs pulses
Pulse every 20s
Octopus for Molecular & Cellular Imaging
A suite of advanced optical imaging stations for the life sciences
Imaging of biological systems
on the nanoscale
Techniques: Super-resolution (STED, PALM/STORM, SIM); single and multiphoton
confocal microscopy with fluorescence lifetime imaging; single molecule tracking and
localisation techniques for characterisation of molecular interactions on the nanoscale.
Plant membrane proteins anchored at the plasma
membrane(Credit: Dr John Runions,
Oxford Brookes University)
Using computation to understand materials and structures at many length scales
Science and Engineering with Supercomputing
Hartree Centre
•Co-laboratory with IBM
•Not just petaflops, need to parallelise
code for the application….
� atomic level systems
� computer aided formulation
� virtual engineering
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
• Produces Neutrons
• Nuclear level interaction
• Non-destructive
• Investigation of:
– Structure
– Atomic and Molecular Interactions
– Particularly useful for hydrogenated
systems
Neutrons are neutral
• Are highly penetrating
• Can be used as non-destructive probes,
• Can be used to study samples in extreme environments
Computational Sciences
• High Performance Computing
• Computational science and
engineering
• Data storage, handling, hosting,
security
• Visualisation and Analysis
• Big Data
• Cognitive Computing
• IoT
• Energy Efficient Computing
RAL SpaceSpace Science and Technology
• Earth Observation – Observation of land, sea and air.
– Space instruments provide continuous, global measurements for many years at a time, allowing events like El Nino to be studied
• The Sun– Use observations of the solar atmosphere to
determine its plasma characteristics.
• Planetary Science– Strong instrument programme, including missions
to all the inner solar system planets, as well as comets and the Saturnian system
• Facilities– Space manages and provides
help for many space projects involving universities and industry
• Data Management– Processing, analysis and
archiving of science data
Technology Department
• Detector Systems
• Engineering Technology Centre
• Advanced Materials and Composites
• Cryogenics and Magnetics
Detector Systems
– Design of sensors and
electronics
– Harsh environments
– Radiation hard sensors
– Examples
• Lassena: Radiation hard
wafer-scale x-ray sensor
for medical imaging
• Kirana: Ultra-high speed,
0.7Mp 5m f/s
• PimMS: Event based time-
stamping pixel sensor
• Puroindoline-a: A plant seed defence protein found in wheat
• Broad spectrum of antifungal and antibacterial properties
• Potential applications: Novel antibiotics, targeted drug delivery systems, etc.
Found that:• Puroindoline-a forms micelles in aqueous solution (only one other protein is
known to do this) • Highly elongated rather than spherical• The tryptophan-rich part is thought to be responsible for the structure and for
forming the water-insoluble interior of the micelle
• Used a combination of small angle neutron scattering (SANS), dynamic light scattering and size-exclusion chromatography
Neutrons could reveal how pesticides protect crops
Scientists have created a model of a leaf’s waxy surface, similar to those found in wheat crops and are now studying the interaction of surfactants with the model at ISIS.
Surfactants are a key component in pesticides and enter the plant through the leaf surface to take effect. By understanding on a molecular level how surfactants get through the leaf’s waxy surface pesticide formulations could be optimised to further increase crop yields.
• Developing an autonomous robot to conduct chemical soil tests and provide farmers with a greater understanding of soil quality.
• Remotely controlled arm to collect samples and crops
• A Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer to detects soil composition.
• A camera to create a 3D map of the farm land
Investigation of vulnerability of plants to pathogen attacks
This restricts their ability to move around and fight invading pathogens and so increases the plant’s vulnerability.
The information could hold the key to making crops more disease-resistant
Credit: Prof. Chris Hawes
By enabling the movement of individual molecules in living plant cells to be observed in real time it was possible to reveal that the cell wall allowed proteins to stabilise in the plasma membrane.
