Technical conference winners

Oxford Instruments, Superconductivity’s 1st Annual Technical Conference was held on 18 December 2000. This was the launch of what the company hopes will become an annual event. As a company of 600 employees there is a diverse range of highly-qualified technical experts from a wide range of physical sciences. To celebrate this technology expertise and to create awareness and exchange of ideas, the Company’s Technical Director Mr Alan Street launched the initiative of an annual technical conference. The company’s scientists were asked to submit abstracts for presentation and a display of technical posters. From a very impressive collection of material, two overall winners were chosen: Mr Graham Hutton for his presentation on “Test strategy employed on the first 900/54 MHz magnet”, and Mr Jeff Parrell for his poster on “High Field Nb³Sn conductors made by internal Sn process”. The prize awarded to each winner is the opportunity to attend the MT (Magnet Technology) Conference in Geneva in 2001. The scientists who took part in the meeting voted the event a great success and found it encouraging that the company supports a forum such as this for the exchange of ideas. www.oxford-instruments.com.

From left to right: Martin Wilson, Graham Hutton, Sir Martin Wood, Jeff Parrell and Alan Street.

Benzene in space

A Spanish team of astronomers, led by José Cernicharo (Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC), have observed with ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) the first detection in interstellar space of benzene, which is the first ring molecule to have been detected there. They think benzene is produced by stars at a specific stage of evolution, and that it is an intermediate in the synthesis of more complex organic molecules, which have been found but not identified.

These compounds have been detected through their “Unidentified Infrared Bands” (UIBs) in many places in the Universe, and, although it has not been possible yet to confirm their nature for certain, it is suspected that they are aromatic. Indeed many astronomers already refer to them as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

The team thinks that benzene is the “missing link” in the creation of the complex molecules responsible for UIBs, known to be made of hundreds of carbon atoms. This theory therefore implies that the UIBs are indeed due to aromatic hydrocarbons, a possibility that, according to the authors, becomes stronger after the first confirmed detection of an aromatic molecule in space.

Thermo …

An extensive new corporate identity strategy is under way for the subsidiaries of Thermo Electron. Previously they have tended to operate under the original name of the business bought by Thermo, but now all are being renamed as Thermo and, usually, the old company name.

So, Nicolet becomes Thermo Nicolet, Spectronic Unicam becomes Thermo Spectronic, Mattson becomes Thermo Mattson, ARL becomes Thermo ARL, and TJA Solutions becomes Thermo Elemental. The renaming programme is designed to establish a strong affiliation between Thermo Electron and its 80-plus brands, and to promote Thermo Electron as a single, unified company.

Rammal Award

EUROSCIENCE’s President Claude Kordon announced today that the Rammal Award for 2000 will be shared by André Mégarbané (Lebanon) and Abderrahmane Tadjeddine (Algeria). The Rammal Award, created in memory of the Lebanese physicist Rammal Rammal (1951–1991), is awarded each year to an outstanding personality of strong scientific stature from one of the Mediterranean countries, who, through his life and activity, has elevated the scientific exchanges in this part of the world.

André Mégarbané is deputy director of the Unit of Medical Genetics and Professor of genetics at University Saint Joseph in Beirut. Abderrahmane Tadjeddine, 56, is director of the Laboratory for Use of Synchrotron Radiation (LURE) in France. He has made innovative contributions to the study of the physico-chemical mechanisms in the solid–liquid interfaces, a subject of importance both from the fundamental and the industrial point of views. With great efforts and constancy, he has supported and supports scientific training and research activities in several universities of Algeria. He has also taken an active part in the project of delocalisation of the BESSY-1 synchrotron from Berlin to Jordan, under the auspices of UNESCO, for the benefit of Middle-East scientists.

Atmospheric pollutants

A spectrometer aboard the European Space Agency’s ERS-2 satellite designed to detect the presence of total ozone in the atmosphere is being used to map the abundance of a number of atmospheric pollutants. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) gathers sunlight backscattered by the atmosphere and scattered by the Earth’s surface and analyses it the IR to UV region. With the range of wavelengths scanned by the spectrometer, GOME is able to detect and measure levels of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, formaldehyde, bromine and chlorine compounds, and water vapour, providing a picture of the chemistry of the atmosphere on a worldwide scale.

Some of results from the GOME: a yearly map of global troposheric nitrogen dioxide. Photo: ©ESA.

Scientists around the world are using GOME data in a variety of projects. Many are focused on the detection of natural and man-made air pollution emission sources from space. The following have been measured by GOME:

• Nitrogen dioxide due to biomass burning, in forest or grassland fires for example, or by industrial activities.
• Sulphur dioxide as released by volcanoes and the burning of coal in electricity generation plants.
• Formaldehyde as released by biomass burning and biogenic activity (forests).

GOME can produce a global map every three days, so it is possible to chart changes and developments in atmospheric chemistry as they happen. The GOME scan can also be combined with other satellite data to help build up a clearer picture of particular events. For example, if the ATSR infra-red detector on ERS-2 detects a “hot-spot” that might indicate a forest fire, and at the same time, GOME is seeing the tell-tale signature of increased nitrogen dioxide, then the chances are high that there is a major forest fire raging.

It is hoped that GOME can play an important role in monitoring industrial emissions. The instrument has already detected pollution hot-spots on the Szechuan plateau (a heavily industrialised area of China which sits in a natural bowl formed by the surrounding mountains), around the Po valley in Italy and over Bucharest, Romania.

Such work will be enhanced when new satellites are launched by ESA. Envisat, an 8 tonne environmental satellite, is due to launch in July 2001. www.esa.int.

Spectroscopy in zero gravity

Professor J.P. Issi, Dr J.C. Charlier and Dr J.M. Beuken from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, have been taking part in the ESA’s Parabolic Flights campaign. Their experiment, “Study of synthesis of carbon species in microgravity” investigates the synthesis of new forms of carbon, such as fullerenes, nanotubes and diamonds by applying a strong electric discharge between two graphite electrodes.

Getting a new angle on their experiment, J.M. Beuken and V. Pletser aboard the parabolic flight. Photo: ©ESA.

Similar experiments were conducted previously during parabolic flights and have shown that these various carbon phases can be obtained in a somehow improved manner. In addition, artificial diamonds were produced by this technique during recent experiments on ground with improved parameters with respect to classical industrial processes.

During this campaign, the effect of microgravity on the stability of the carbon plasma obtained between the two electrodes will be studied quantitatively using a Mechelle 7500 spectrograph from Multichannel Instruments operating in the UV–NIR. The aim is to obtain information on various physical parameters of the plasma, such as temperature distribution, chemical composition, density etc., in order to refine the understanding of the process, which could lead to new applications.