Diamond Lightsource Podcast

This month, we venture into the synchrotron along with members of the public to bring you a glimpse of the Inside Diamond open days. We meet the engineers and technicians that design the components of the synchrotron to keep it running smoothly, hear from Diamond CEO Gert Materlik about the main highlights of these open days. Plus, we talk to a scientist working on one of Diamonds latest Beamlines, I-24, that's enabling research that wasn't possible before including new insight in the fight against allergies!

This month we attract your attention to the power of magnetism as we explore just what magnetism is and how it can be induced. We also explore the role of magnetism in superconductors, as well as a class of materials known as multiferroics! Plus, we bring you the latest news and events from the light source.

This month we look back at Diamond's scientific highlights of 2010 to reveal how microbes are eroding away our coastline and how metal organic frameworks could help find the holy grail of chemistry! We also hear how the synchrotron was improved to provide more beamlines as well as bring you the latest research from these beamlines including stresses on jet engines and the never-ending fight against antibiotic resistance.

This month we probe down into the world of structural biology to find out just what this field is and the molecules it can enable us to see. We discover how visualising molecules such as DNA and proteins can help us understand the development of our nervous system, the repair of our DNA and find better treatments for conditions like hypertension and pre-eclampsia, as well as bring you the latest news and developments from Diamond.

In this edition we find out how the synchrotron can be used to understand and clean up our environment. We investigate a new form of solar cell, using plastics, which could make solar power more accessible as well as find out the use of microbes to clean up arsenic contaminated groundwater. We also discover an alternative form of rust which could prove useful in the fight against nuclear contamination and reveal a biological side to weathering! All that plus the latest news and events from Diamond including the unveiling of the world's largest diffraction pattern!

This month we bring you the highlights of Diamonds events at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition including hydrogen cars, stressed-out bacteria and science in extreme conditions. We also explore how understanding our gut bacteria could lead to personalised diets in the future as well as hear what the rest of the exhibition is all about!

This month we enter the clinic to discover how clinicians at hospitals across the UK are using Diamond to investigate a variety of medical concerns. We discover why some women may be prone to pre-term labour, and why metal-on-metal hip replacements cause inflammation in some patients and not others. Plus, we've got the the latest news and events from Diamond!

This month we investigate the role Diamond can play in industrial research to reveal how synchrotron radiation can help the pharmaceutical industry to enhance the activity of certain drugs, and also how these X-rays can help develop more efficient catalysts to clean up our car exhausts. All that plus the latest news and events from the Diamond Light Source.

This month, we step away form the research and bring you the science behind the synchrotron! We investigate how a machine like Diamond is designed to create X-ray beams that are stable down at the micron level, as well as reveal how the high speed electrons are controlled and manipulated to produce intense beams of light. Plus we bring you the latest news and events, including how scientists are using Diamond for earlier diagnosis of lung cancer!

This month, we peer into the world of engineering to see how scientists are exploring and improving materials for industry, including how the structure of metals can be modified for greater resilience and how an understanding of corrosion could be crucial for the storage of nuclear waste. Plus, we investigate how to prevent crack formation in aeronautical materials as well as bring you the latest news and events from Diamond.