An international research team lead by Dr G Gregori with fellow Oxford physicists Prof A R Bell, Dr C Murphy and Dr B Reville (from Atomic and Laser Physics) have used a laser to create magnetic fields similar to those thought to be involved in the formation of the first galaxies; findings that could help to solve the riddle of how the Universe got its magnetism.

Extreme conditions of temperature and pressure found in stars have been recreated on Earth using the world's brightest X-ray source.

An international team, led by Oxford University scientists, studied how solid matter responded to X-ray laser pulses produced by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) based in Stanford, California. The team focused the X-rays onto a spot 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair, heating a metal foil to two million degrees Celsius within a fraction of a trillionth of a second.

Andrea Schiavi, Dr Adam S Wyatt, Professor Ian Walmsley