Astronomers at Oxford University’s Physics Department have been involved in the first-ever detection of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) by a ground-based high-energy telescope. The GRB, likely associated with the catastrophic explosion of a massive star, was first detected on January 14, 2019, by the orbiting Swift and Fermi satellites.
A major breakthrough
The observed acceleration of the Hubble expansion rate has been attributed to a mysterious ‘dark energy’ which supposedly makes up about 70% of the universe.
Observers from the ThunderKAT project, co-led by Professor Rob Fender at Oxford University and Professor Patrick Woudt at the University of Cape Town, have discovered the first of what promises to be a bumper harvest of variable and transient radio sources in images from the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.
Dr Amalia Coldea and her group at Oxford University’s Physics Department, with the support of international collaborators at high-magnetic field facilities in Tallahassee, USA and Toulouse, France, have been able to access quantum oscillations and reveal the quantum behaviour of electrons in a new family of nematic superconductors.
How do we transform our research from something hidden in our labs into a technology you can use? In October, we shared some of our secrets through our Physics: Lab to Life initiative as part of the IF Oxford science festival. We opened our doors to some 200 curious teenagers and adults so they could find out more about physics and how it impacts daily life. Visitors were able to listen to lectures as well as take tours of our laboratories and speak to the physicists themselves about their work, how they go about it and what impact it might have on society.
Professor Donal Bradley, Visiting Professor of Physics and former head of the Mathematical Physical and Life Sciences division at Oxford University, was awarded the European Material Research Society’s Jan Czochralski Gold Medal this year. The award recognises Professor Bradley’s outstanding achievements in the field of advanced materials science and the ceremony took place in September.
Oxford Physics alumna Dr. Cecilia Muldoon and her team from VeriVin Ltd have been awarded a prestigious Institute of Physics Business Start-Up Award for VeriVin’s through-barrier analyser, that allows the authentication, characterisation and monitoring of complex liquids without opening their container.
The IOP Business Start-Up Award specifically recognises and celebrates young companies with a great business idea founded on a physics invention, with the potential for business growth and significant societal impact.
Researchers worked with young people and community groups in Oxford to design and build colourful creations inspired by our exciting space-related science for this year’s Cowley Road Carnival, thanks to funding from STFC.
The carnival takes place every year and regularly attracts 50,000 people. This year’s event, which was held on 7th July 2019, had the theme of ‘Space is the Place’ and celebrated the exciting work being carried out by scientists in and around Oxford, and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing in July 1969.
As James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz are announced as the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in physics, we look at the significance of their work.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to James Peebles for his theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology and to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.
Scientists at the University of Oxford are working with students to write new GCSE and A-level maths practice questions that help to integrate climate change into the school curriculum.
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