Facts & Figures
The campus has been home to the Daresbury
Laboratory, a world-class centre for accelerator science, for
over four decades. In 2005, the
Cockcroft Institute and the
Daresbury Innovation Centre
were built alongside it, as part of a government drive to encourage
more commercially viable scientific research and knowledge
exchange.
As part of this initiative, Daresbury, and its sister site at
Harwell in Oxfordshire, gained the title of Science &
Innovation Campus. This major step forward was enabled by the
laboratory's existing critical mass of scientific expertise and
unique technological competencies.
Some Interesting Facts about Daresbury Science &
Innovation Campus:
Staff at Daresbury SIC designed and built the word's
fastest 2D x-ray detector - the Rapid System. It is used on the
synchrotron radiation system (SRS) and other synchrotrons
worldwide.
- Daresbury staff designed and built the world's first
dedicated high energy synchrotron light source, the
SRS.
Synchrotron light has become a key tool for modern research and is
used in many areas of scientific and engineering investigations.
There are over 60 synchrotrons around the world. They have all
followed the lead of Daresbury Laboratory, where the first such
machine opened in 1980.
- The world's highest energy ion beam accelerator was
designed and built at Daresbury Laboratory.The Nuclear
Structure Facility was a tandem Van der Graaff accelerator which
used intense ion beams to help reveal the properties of the atomic
nucleus under extreme conditions.
- The next generation of accelerator technology is being
designed at Daresbury Laboratory.
Current research at Daresbury will revolutionise the way
accelerator light sources are designed and open up new ways to
study atoms and molecules on the vanishingly small timescales at
which they change and react.
- The structure of the foot and mouth disease virus was
solved using the SRS by a team from Oxford University in
1990.
The atomic level information they obtained was crucial in
developing effective vaccines against foot and mouth disease and is
paving the way for new treatments.
- The structure of the F1ATPase enzyme was solved using
the SRS by Sir John Walker, work which earned him a share of the
1997 Nobel prize in chemistry.
The F1ATPase enzyme makes the fuel that powers biochemistry in
every living thing. Its structure The membrane-bound enzyme is
curious, having a rotating central shaft that changes the
conformation of the active sites of the enzyme. Understanding how
it works is bringing new insight into metabolic disease.
- Studies of giant magnetoresistance on the SRS have
played a key role in the development of new electronic memory
devices that use spintronics, a new form of electronics that uses
the spin of particles to record information.This is used
in devices such as the iPod, helping you fit more music into
them.
- Zeolite molecules, one of the key ingredients in modern
washing powders were developed by a company using the power of the
SRS to resolve molecular structures.
Zeolite molecules are like molecular sponges and the ones in
detergent. The holes in the molecular sponge are filled with
detergent which is released when the zeolite added to the water in
a washing machine. The holes then suck calcium ions from the water
to soften it in a way. This gives compact effective detergents with
minimum environmental impact.
- Daresbury Laboratory was the first place in the world
to operate a service for companies to access the power of its
unique synchrotron and computational facilities.
The DARTS service allowed everyone from SMEs to blue chip
multinationals to use the Laboratory's facilities and the expertise
of its staff to develop better processes and products.
- Each year, over 3,000 members of the public come to the
Laboratory to hear about the latest developments in science and
technology and see the Laboratory's world-leading
facilities.The Laboratory leads the public outreach
programme for Daresbury SICA similar number of school pupils are
also inspired to follow their interest in science by taking part in
programmes and activities either at the Laboratory or led by the
Laboratory in their school.
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