Shining a Diamond Light

It’s not just the scientists at Diamond who are intent on using the best tools and techniques from around the world to push research forwards. Today’s guest, Diamond engineer Dr. Pete Docker, is a “technological talent scout” who is always on the lookout for new and better ways of doing things.

Pete had an unconventional path to academia, and his willingness to look “outside the box” has enabled research with lower cost and greater precision than ever before!

Listen on to find out how floating tomato ketchup inspired a new method for handling microscopic crystals.

Links

You can see the amazing acoustic levitation Pete has developed here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Tech-Updates/2019/22-10-2019.html

Our website always has the latest Diamond news: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

Find more audio highlights here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Highlights/audio-highlights.html

Science can be complicated, and no place demonstrates that more so than Diamond. There are sensors of every kind imaginable at our facility, and scientists need a way to record the right information at the right time to understand the results of their experiments.

Our guest today, Chris Kelley, works on a computer program used throughout Diamond to help solve this problem: the "Generic Data Acquisition" program, or GDA for short. Chris and his team are now pushing the boundaries, working to create an autonomous beamline - the first of its kind in the world.

We got a great insight into a part of Diamond which you might not think too much about, but which is absolutely vital for world leading science!

Links

You can see how GDA is used in a series of short videos here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Instruments/Mx/Common/Common-Manual/Using-New-GDA/Videos.html

Our website always has the latest Diamond news: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

Find more audio highlights here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Highlights/audio-highlights.html

This week’s episode features plenty of excitement, with lava, space, helicopters and lots and lots of rocks! We speak to the fascinating Dr Matt Pankhurst, a volcanologist and geologist who has been to Diamond many times, working on new ways to look at rocks in a whole new light. Matt has studied rocks from all over the world and further beyond, including some which were retrieved from the surface of the Moon by the Apollo astronauts!

Listen on to find out why Matt fell in love with geology, the stories that rocks can tell us, and what happened when the Moon came to Diamond!

Links

Find out more about Matt’s research at Diamond here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/News/LatestNews/2019/17-07-2019.html

The research facility Matt works at on Tenerife has a great website: https://www.iter.es/?lang=en

Our website always has the latest Diamond news: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

Find more audio highlights here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Highlights/audio-highlights.html

Today we are talking with Karen Marshall, who has been coming to Diamond to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease. The tools available at Diamond have enabled her to take a closer look at how specific molecules, called amyloids, form in conditions similar to the brain!

Karen didn’t always want to be a scientist, but her journey kept bringing her back to research and back to Diamond! She shared her experiences with us, told us how research really gets done and identified the one skill you should learn!

Links

Karen works at the Serpell Lab: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/serpelllab/

Find out more about our B24 Beamline here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Instruments/Biological-Cryo-Imaging/B24/FAQs.html

Our website always has the latest Diamond news: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

Find more audio highlights here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Highlights/audio-highlights.html

Today we are talking with Andrew McCluskey, who works at Diamond to help scientists understand the results of their experiments. He used to be a white coat wearing chemist, before turning his hand to coding. Andrew is now part of our data analysis team, which is vital for world changing science!

Listen to our conversation to find out what Andrew is working on, how he got here, and why some good ideas start with a blog!

Links

Andrew won an award for the work we talked about in the podcast: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/News/LatestNews/2018/19-10-2018.html

You can see it for yourself here: https://pythoninchemistry.org/

Our website always has the latest Diamond news: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

Find more audio highlights here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Highlights/audio-highlights.html

Diamond Light Source is one of the most complicated scientific facilities on Earth. A synchrotron is used to push the boundaries of human knowledge, giving scientists a view of the world at the smallest possible level.

In this episode, we will be breaking down how Diamond works, and introducing you to some of the amazing experiments and work which is done at Diamond every day! We are joined by Dr Toby Murcott, a former BBC World Service journalist and a longtime fan of Diamond. Toby first came to Diamond in 2005, when it was still being built, and has often returned to learn more about our world changing science!

We will also take you inside Diamond, so you can hear the buzz of the machinery for yourself!

Subscribe now to get notifications for our first series, which will be released every Tuesday.

Links:

Our website always has the latest Diamond news: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

Find more audio highlights here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Highlights/audio-highlights.html

A lap around Diamond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12KaFItjgl0

Just one amazing experiment at Diamond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWWyAklkYqM

Shining a Diamond Light is the new podcast from Diamond Light Source – a synchrotron which attracts researchers from all over the world. If you’re not sure what a synchrotron is, don’t worry! Before we dive into the details, we will bring you an introductory episode to help you understand what Diamond Light Source is and what it does. We will be talking with some of the amazing people, who work here on world leading science. Alzheimer’s research, rocks from the moon, and floating tomato ketchup all get a mention so you don’t want to miss it!

Subscribe now to get notifications for our first series, which will be released every Tuesday for the next few weeks.

Links

Our website always has the latest Diamond news: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home.html

Find more audio highlights here: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Science/Research/Highlights/audio-highlights.html

A lap around Diamond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12KaFItjgl0

Just one amazing experiment at Diamond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWWyAklkYqM