Recent Highlights

14/03/13: Stargazers turn inwards to study “beating hearts at high resolution”: The mutlidisciplinary research of CfAI's John Girkin features on the University's new Breakthrough Website. John and colleagues have applied a technique called adaptive optics, used in astronomy to take the twinkle out of starlight, to microscopy allowing the beating heart of a zebrafish to be studied in high resolution. The website also features a video of John describing why the zebrafish is so remarkable and how it can help the study of heart disease.

Single Plane Illumination Microscope

04/03/13: CfAI Staff to lead two instrument projects for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT): CfAI's Simon Morris and Richard Myers are leading two pivotal projects to provide instruments for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), one of the biggest science collaborations in history. The full story can be found on the University's News Page.

E-ELT (Image credit: ESO)

01/03/13: CfAI provides help to young rocket scientist: CfAI's Paul Clark and Simon Morris have been helping first year physics undergraduate Ioana Ciuca with her team's project which has been selected by SNSB/ESA for a REXUS rocket launch in 2014. The local TV coverage can be found on itv.com. The full story can be found on the University's News Page. Details of the REXUS rocket programme can be found at rexusbexus.net.

Ioana Ciuca and Paul Clark

The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB). The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).

EuroLaunch, a cooperation between the Esrange Space Center of SSC and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles. Experts from ESA, SSC and DLR provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project.

02/01/13: A Clean Solution (Physics World): CfAI's John Girkin features in an article in the January edition of Physics World. The article describes how an unusual cross-disciplinary collaboration between Procter & Gamble and Durham University is generating benefits for both sides.

Physics World (Jan 2013)

17/12/12: Dr Buttenschon! Kim Buttenschon today passed her PhD and received a KTP Award that will fund her research for the next three years. She will be continuing her study of the tracking of pharmaceutical drugs through the eye and skin, dividing her time between Durham and Lein Applied Diagnostics. Congratulations Kim!

Dr Buttenschon

12/12/12: KMOS First Light Press Release: Both ESO and STFC have announced KMOS' successful installation on the VLT. The articles can be found on ESO's news page and STFC's news page.

KMOS installed on ESO VLT UT1 (Image credit: ESO / G. Lombardi)

1/12/12: CfAI paper makes the front cover of Biomedical Optics Express: Jonny Taylor, John Girkin and Gordon Love's paper entitled "High-resolution 3D optical microscopy inside the beating zebrafish heart using prospective optical gating" was today published in Biomedical Optics Express and also made the front cover!

Biomedical Optics Express

22/11/12: First Light for KMOS: The KMOS spectrograph has achieved first light! Project manager Alasdair Fairley reported that "after a very successful and smooth on-site integration phase at Paranal, KMOS achieved first light on VLT UT1 on all 24 of its pick-off arms. All the re-constructed images were comfortably within each IFU field, in focus and with good image quality. ESO are very impressed with the speed of progress and quality of this early result." Project Co-PI Ralph Bender warmly congratulated the team on a "superb job". Project systems engineer Phil Rees commented that "The installation in the telescope was a doddle. No real problems and it worked first time." Fantastic news indeed!

KMOS first light spectra

21/11/12: Dr Scobie! Fraser Scobie today passed his PhD entitled "Adaptive Optics in Ophthalmology". He is now gainfully employed as an IT consultant. Congratulations Fraser!

Dr Scobie

16/11/12: Sun's Corona Observed with FASOT:  CfAI's Jeremy Allington-Smith and Graham Murray, together with colleagues from the Yunnan Astronomical Observatory were today able to observe the sun's corona using a new prototype instrument named FASOT. The team were able to detect traces of iron atoms in the corona which had been stripped of half of their electrons by the extreme conditions. The observations took place during a total solar eclipse viewed from northern Queensland, Australia. Further information can be found on the University's news page.

Photo: Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, Yunnan Province, China

9/11/12: Dr Shepherd! Harry Shepherd today passed his PhD entitled "Turbulence Characterisation for Astronomical Observatories". He will be remaining at Durham until the end of the year before joining the Meteorological (Met) Office in Exeter. Congratulations Harry!

Dr Shepherd

5/11/12: ELT Funding Announced: CfAI's Simon Morris and Richard Myers have been awarded £348K from STFC for project work supporting the development of the European Extremely Large Telescope.

1/11/12: KMOS on VLT: The KMOS spectrograph was today moved successfully from ESO's integration facility to the UT1 "Antu" telescope. The image below shows the instrument arriving at the telescope. Further information about the project can be found in the news archive

KMOS arrives at VLT UT1