Sail - Swansea University

Research news
Upping the anti
Scientists at CERN in Geneva – including
physicists from Swansea University – have
succeeded in trapping antimatter atoms for
over 16 minutes. The ALPHA (Anti-hydrogen
Laser Physics Apparatus) team have created,
trapped, and stored antihydrogen atoms long
enough to begin to study them in detail. It is
the longest time period that antihydrogen has
been captured and a significant development
on the experiment’s major advance last
November, when atoms of antimatter were
trapped for the first time.
Controlled production of antihydrogen atoms
in the laboratory has been possible for nearly
a decade, when CERN’s ATHENA project, the
first experiment to produce copious amounts of
cold antihydrogen, made its first breakthrough.
However, all of these anti-atoms were quickly
annihilated when they came into contact with
matter. This has now changed with the latest
ALPHA breakthrough.
The Swansea team, led by Professor
Mike Charlton, played a major role in
both the ATHENA and ALPHA projects.
Professor Charlton said: “Our aim is to study
antihydrogen, and make detailed comparisons
with ordinary hydrogen. Whilst hydrogen is
the most abundant element in the Universe, it
seems that antihydrogen has only ever been
formed in our experiments here on Earth.
Why there was no antimatter left when the
Universe became cold enough for atoms to
form remains a great mystery – and one we
hope to shed some light upon.”
“This latest development is a huge step towards
measurements on antihydrogen and we are
planning first experiments for later in the year,”
said Swansea University physicist Dr Niels
Madsen, who is currently on sabbatical at
CERN after winning a prestigious Royal Society
Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship.
“We have increased the efficiency with which
we trap the antihydrogen atoms and held
onto some of them for long periods, already
increasing our capability several thousand
times over what we reported last November.”
Professor Mike Charlton
Copperworks site link-up
seeks to promote
industrial heritage
Swansea Council is entering into a
Memorandum of Understanding with Swansea
University and will work with them as a
preferred development partner to explore
regeneration opportunities for the city’s
historic Hafod Copperworks.
A feasibility study will explore the potential to
preserve and develop the historic buildings on
the site, review the masterplan for the site and
investigate sources of funding.
The Hafod Copperworks site contains
12 Grade II listed buildings and structures,
an industrial heritage site of international
importance that reflects Swansea’s development
over the past 200 years.
Professor Huw Bowen, who leads the project
team on behalf of the University, said:
“Exploring ways of developing the Hafod
Copperworks site for the benefit of future
generations offers us the chance – perhaps
the last chance – of ensuring that visible signs
of Swansea’s immensely important industrial
achievements are not lost forever.
It is now hoped that the heritage-led feasibility
study can find ways of maximising the
economic, social, and educational potential
offered by the Hafod site.”
Top right: The Engine Houses on the site of the former
Hafod Copperworks site, credit: Huw Bowen
Right: Hafod Copperworks 1957,
image courtesy of City and County of Swansea
Fungus combats
Bluetongue disease
The University’s College of Science is home to
one of the UK’s leading insect mycopathology
(insect pest control) teams. Team member
Dr Minshad Ali Ansari has recently conducted
a study that shows for the first time that a
fungus known as Metarhizium anisopliae
V275 can effectively kill adult Culicoides
(biting midges) in the family of insects
that carry Bluetongue Virus (BTV).
Bluetongue disease affects sheep and cattle. It
has had a major economic impact in European
countries in recent years. Control of the disease
is becoming more important as the virus is
starting to survive further north over winter.
This study is particularly timely as new EU
directives are encouraging member states
to develop integrated pest management
programmes which use benign plant protection
products. Encouragingly, the efficiency of the
fungus was shown to increase when applied
to certain substrates such as manure,
suggesting success in future field tests.
Dr Ansari explained: “Although insecticides
have proved effective in killing Culicoides
species, they have been harmful to a range
of beneficial insects.
“As a result, the range of available insecticides
has diminished as the chemical-based products
are withdrawn from the market – because
of the perceived risk to humans and the
environment – and farmers face a growing
challenge to control the population of
biting midges.
The fungi can, potentially, be applied
cost-effectively to the places where adult
midges rest, such as animal housing and
livestock, to effectively target known
problem areas.
The next step is to test the fungus in large-scale
field trials with the eventual aim of developing
protocols for its simple and economical
application in BTV endemic countries.”
Healthy adult midges
Why the sudden change?
Dr Siwan Davies, Senior Lecturer in Geography,
has been awarded a prestigious, £1.47 million
European Research Council grant to unlock the
secrets of past climate change. Microscopic
layers of volcanic ash deposited in ancient ice
and marine sediments will be examined with
the research aiming to answer the key question
of whether the ocean drives or merely amplifies
atmospheric temperature jumps.
Dr Davies said: “Little has challenged our
understanding of climate change more than
the abruptness with which large-scale jumps in
temperature occurred in the past. The causes of
these rapid climate changes that saw temperature
swings of up to 16°C occurring within a few
decades are poorly understood.
These climatic events could be related to ocean
circulation behaviour, or be triggered by changes
in the atmosphere possibly in the tropics. This
project will test these opposing possibilities through
the analysis of microscopic layers of volcanic
ash that have been deposited in ancient ice
and marine sediments.”
Dr Davies will build a new team who will employ
a pioneering approach, using the microscopic
traces of ash left from volcanic eruptions to precisely
match Greenland ice-cores, which provide a
record of atmospheric variability, with North
Atlantic marine records, depicting changes in
the ocean circulation system.
Dr Siwan Davies helping with camp chores
during fieldwork in Greenland in 2009:
collecting snow to be used for drinking water.
In brief
Swansea University scientists are working with
the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural
Sciences at Aberystwyth University and collaborators
at Bangor University on the £20 million BEACON
project, a Welsh Government-funded initiative which
aims to pioneer bio-refining using plant material
or ‘bio-mass’ to dramatically reduce the world’s
dependence on oil.
A Coping with destitution report released in February
by Oxfam and the University’s Centre for Migration
Policy Research, paints a depressing picture of daily
life for people seeking asylum in the UK. The report’s
lead author, Professor Heaven Crawley, said: “This
research gives us a rare insight into what life is like
for refused asylum-seekers in the UK and shows
that there is a deep-rooted lack of faith in the
current system.”
The National Geographic Channel’s Great
Migrations series was made possible with the
expertise of a team of researchers led by the
University’s Rory Wilson, Professor of Aquatic
Biology. Filming for the series involved using some
of the Swansea Smart Tag Group’s revolutionary
electronic logging tags, to track and analyse the
behaviour of marine animals round the globe.
For further information about the world-class
research underway at Swansea University,
visit www.swansea.ac.uk/research
Sail – 02
Sail – 03