PLANCKS UK & IRELAND

Physicists are used to dealing with quantum mechanics, but biologists have thus far gotten away without having to worry about this strange yet powerful theory of the subatomic world. However, times are changing. There is now solid evidence that enzymes use quantum tunnelling to accelerate chemical reactions, while plants and bacteria use a quantum trick in photosynthesis – sending lumps of sunlight energy in multiple directions at once. It even appears that some animals have the ability to use quantum entanglement – what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance” – as a compass to ‘see’ the earth’s magnetic field. In our research at Surrey, we are discovering that life may even have evolved mechanisms to control genetic mutations caused by quantum tunnelling of protons between strands of DNA. Welcome to the exciting new field of quantum biology.

Jim Al-Khalili CBE FRS is a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Surrey and a well-known author, broadcaster and science communicator. He received his PhD in theoretical nuclear physics in 1989 and has published widely on few-body quantum scattering methods to study nuclear structure. He has more recently focussed on the foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum thermodynamics and quantum effects in biology. He currently heads the Quantum Foundations and Technologies Research Group here in the School of Maths and Physics. Jim has written 15 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages, and is a regular presenter on TV and hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific. He is a past president of the British Science Association and a recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday medal and Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medals, the Institute of Physics Kelvin medal and the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.

In the Universe there are billions of galaxies just like our own: learning how these galaxies evolve over time can help us understand more about our own Galaxy and our place in the Universe. Some galaxies are incredibly bright and are what we call “quasars”; these consist of a supermassive black hole, surrounded by a disc of luminous material. These objects can be thousands of times brighter than our own Milky Way and are one of the brightest objects in the Universe. Most quasars appear very blue, but recently we have found quasars with much redder colours (“red quasars”). There are several theoretical models which attempt to explain this red/blue appearance. My research uses radio and optical data to test a model whereby red quasars represent a phase in galaxy evolution. If this model is correct, then red quasars could be a crucial element in galaxy evolution and so this will ultimately help us understand how the billions of galaxies in our Universe, including the Milky Way, evolved into what we see today.

Vicky is an astronomer at Newcastle University and researches extremely bright galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. Vicky is part of two major astronomy collaborations: the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), an optical spectrograph on the Mayall telescope in Arizona, and the Multi-object Optical and Near-IR spectrograph (MOONS), an infrared spectrograph soon to be installed on the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Vicky is keen on astronomy outreach and loves talking to the public about space, having given many talks at schools, science festivals, museums, and astronomical societies.

Website:
https://sites.google.com/view/victoria-fawcett/home
https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/astro-obs/group/

Recent multi-messenger observations of explosive astronomical events are generating exciting new challenges for nuclear physics and force a rethinking of old paradigms. In particular, advanced, space-based telescopes have provided unprecedented insight into the production of chemical elements across the Galaxy, while the detection of massive neutron stars has ruled out a variety of hypotheses regarding the nature of nuclear matter. Unfortunately, despite the wealth of observational data available, many broad and open questions relating to stellar nucleosynthesis throughout the cosmos still remain, owing to large uncertainties in the underlying nuclear physics processes that drive explosive stellar scenarios.

In this regard, exceptional advances in experimental nuclear physics, over the past few years, offer an exciting means to address this issue. Specifically, the latest generation of radioactive beam facilities can now act as terrestrial laboratories for the direct reproduction of astrophysical reactions, while state-of-the-art detection systems offer the possibility to study key unstable nuclei, that govern the pathway of nucleosynthesis in explosive astronomical events. In this talk, direct and indirect methods for studying astrophysical reactions will be discussed, with a specific emphasis on innovative techniques and advanced detection systems.

Prof. Gavin Lotay is Director of Research and Innovation for the School of Maths and Physics at the University of Surrey and is a member of the Nuclear Physics Group. His main area of research expertise is in nuclear astrophysics, which aims to determine the origin of all the chemical elements we find on earth and observe in our Galaxy. In particular, by studying the reactions that occur in explosive astrophysical environments in terrestrial laboratories, Prof. Lotay endeavours to obtain the microscopic nuclear physics information needed to understand the macroscopic properties of the Universe.

Prof. Lotay completed an MSci degree in Physics at the University of Birmingham in 2004 and a PhD in experimental Nuclear Physics at the University of Edinburgh in 2009. After a three-year postdoctoral research position, also in Edinburgh, he secured the first Ernest Rutherford Fellowship in Nuclear Astrophysics research. In September 2013, he took up a permanent position at the University of Surrey and is now a Professor and the Director of Learning and Teaching.

In the first such experiment of its kind to be performed at CERN’s HIE-ISOLDE facility, the structure and collectivity of the semi-magic, two-proton-hole, radioactive ²⁰⁶Hg nucleus was studied via low-energy Coulomb excitation. This talk will give an overview of the radioactive beam facility used to perform the experiment, the physics behind Coulomb excitation, and the results & outcomes of the experiment.

Lisa’s childhood ambition of becoming a pilot led her to find work spending summers working in a hangar in Essex, fixing and maintaining small aircraft. Through this, she realised she was more fascinated by how planes fly, rather than doing the flying herself, and so decided to pursue a physics degree. Being the first in her family to go into higher education, and having a rocky path through school and college, she went on to achieve a PhD in experimental nuclear physics, performing experiments in labs around the world, such as CERN. She is now a lecturer at the University of Surrey, teaching across a range of modules and academic years.

The new boom in space technology has given rise to some fantastical and impressive machinery capable of both civilian and military operations. However, with this development comes lots of risks, in particular, financial and security risks. The development of space law enables agencies and private companies to be more secure when conducting high risk space activities. This ranges from liability protection and insurance, to rules around the militarisation of space. As the law can only preemptively develop so far in regards to future technologies, it is important for global security, that such technologies are developed and used in accordance with international law and principles established by the United Nations. This will give bodies such as the UN the time to develop new international principles and for countries to enact their own national space law, boosting their internal space economy.

A 1st class graduate from Nottingham Law School and current Legal Practice Course student, William’s passion is strongly rooted in space law. During his second year he established the first university space law society in Europe and has been its president ever since, teaching members. He has completed multiple space law/politics courses alongside his studies.