The Government is investing the millions in the Harwell science campus near Didcot. The money will help scientists to search for dark matter, test satellites before launch and support work on quantum interferometry projects . The investment in the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) at Harwell includes £1 million for a Strontium Source Laboratory to allow work on cold-atom sensors and instruments. This will support work on quantum projects recently described as a future priority infrastructure for the UK, and act as a local testing ground for larger-scale devices to be delivered by RAL departments.
Harwell science campus. Picture: Science and Technology Facilities Council
A new species of mineral has been discovered by scientists who analysed a rock mined in Cornwall up to 220 years ago - and is now named after the county. The mineral was discovered by a team of scientists from the Natural History Museum in London including mineralogist Mike Rumsey. He was studying a rock taken from the Wheal Gorland mine in St Day, a former mining area near Redruth. The new mineral, which is dark green in colour, has been named Kernowite after the word Kernow - the Cornish word for Cornwall. The new species is currently known from a single location in Cornwall, which has given rise to its new name.
Dozens of people coming up with solutions to the myriad of problems created by the coronavirus pandemic have been recognised in the New Year Honours list.
Elite research scientists developing vaccines, effective therapies and also monitoring the secondary impacts of the crisis on public have received gongs as well as the medics helping the NHS adapt.
Professor Wendy Bickmore head the University of Edinburgh’s MRC Human Genetics Unit was honoured for the centre’s work identifying genes that put some people at greater risk of developing the most serious symptoms of Covid-19.
She was made a CBE for services to biomedical sciences and to women in science.