Shining light on the environment

蚯蚓如何在被金属污染的土壤中生存？在地球的生命周期中，海洋化学是如何变化的？我们能提高食物的营养价值吗？我们如何降低饮用水中砷的风险？放射性污染物在环境中表现如何？科学家们正在使用英国最大和最昂贵的科学机器来帮助回答这些以及许多其他至关重要的环境相关问题。这台机器被称为钻石，是英国国家同步加速器设施。它是由惠康信托基金和英国政府通过科学技术设施委员会资助的。同步加速器由粒子加速器组成（就像瑞士强子对撞机的迷你版），它围绕一个接近光速的圆圈发射电子。每隔一段时间，电子就会在它们的路径上被“调整”，发出强光，科学家们利用强光来观察土壤、岩石、水和生物材料的样本，这些样本的细节水平高得令人难以置信。利用这种强光，我们可以看到分子和原子是如何排列的，利用这些信息，我们可以帮助回答上面提出的一些问题。雷丁大学的马克·霍德森教授在1992年的博士研究中首次使用了同步加速器，当时他正在研究火山下的岩浆室是如何凝固的。从那以后，他开始研究与受污染土地和蚯蚓生物学有关的问题，但仍然使用同步加速器。世界上没有多少同步加速器，因为它们的建造和运行都很昂贵，所以一天24小时使用它们是很重要的。此外，尽管同步加速器涉及的技术水平很高，但仍有许多“低保真度”的修复是必要的，例如用胶带或蓝色tac将样品放在强x射线束前。因此，和大多数同步加速器用户一样，马克对已经发生的科学突破有着同样多的记忆和经历，比如在凌晨3点起床48小时后，试图找到一个仍然有巧克力的自动售货机！在这个奖学金的过程中，马克将参与各种各样的活动。你可能会在你附近的科学节或科学讨论会上遇到他。或者，你可能会遇到他在学校和你的班级说话，或者，如果你幸运的话，你的学校可能会去戴蒙德拜访他，亲眼看到他正在谈论的机器。除了解释同步加速器如何工作外，他还将讨论科学家如何使用同步加速器来回答与气候变化、人类健康和地球有关的大量问题。在他的会谈,也在他的博客上你还可以听到是什么样的用户同步加速器,从科学研究的起点——进行观察或问一个问题——进行实验,应用在同步加速器beamtime然后熬夜三天24 7运行样本,得到一些重要的答案来提高你的理解你的系统调查。在网站上，你也会发现大量的资源链接到同步加速器在环境科学中的应用。你可能已经在报纸上读到过马克的研究（试试谷歌搜索“啃金属蚯蚓！”），在广播4上听过他的演讲，或者在关于蚯蚓进化和麦田怪圈的纪录片中看到过他（不，土壤中没有任何迹象表明麦田怪圈是外星人制造的！），但在研究期间，你应该能听到更多关于他和其他人的研究，因为他花了更多的时间在媒体上。让他们了解戴蒙德正在进行的令人惊叹的环境科学。

How can earthworms survive in metal-contaminated soil? How has ocean chemistry changed over the lifetime of the planet? Can we boost the nutritional value of food? How can we reduce the risks of arsenic in drinking water? How do radioactive pollutants behave in the environment? Scientists are using the biggest and most expensive scientific machine in the UK to help answer these and many other vitally important environmentally relevant questions.The machine is called Diamond and is the UKs national synchrotron facility. It is funded by the Wellcome trust and the UK government through the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Synchrotrons consist of particle accelerators (like a mini version of the Hadron collider in Switzerland) which fire electrons around a circle close to the speed of light. Every now and then the electrons are "tweaked" on their path and intense light is given off which is used by scientists to look at samples of soils, rocks, water and biological material at incredibly high levels of detail. Using this intense light we can look at how molecules and atoms are arranged and using this information we can help answer some of the questions posed above.Professor Mark Hodson from the University of Reading first used synchrotrons during his PhD research in 1992 when he was working out how magma chambers solidify under volcanoes. Since then he has moved down temperature to work on problems relating to contaminated land and earthworm biology but still uses synchrotrons. There aren't many synchrotrons around in the world and because they are so expensive to build and run it is important to use them 24 hours a day. Also, despite the high level of technology involved in synchrotrons there are many "low-fi" fixes that become necessary such as holding samples in front of a beam of intense X-rays with sticky tape or blue tac. For this reason Mark, like most synchrotron users, has as many memories and experiences of trying to find a vending machine that still has chocolate in it at 3 a.m. in the morning after being up for 48 hours as he has about the scientific breakthroughs that have occurred!Over the course of this fellowship Mark will be involved in a variety of activities. You might come across him talking at a science festival or science discussion meeting near you. Alternatively you might come across him talking to your class at school or, if you are lucky, your school might visit him at Diamond to actually see the machine he is talking about. As well as explaining how synchrotrons work he will be discussing how scientists are using synchrotrons to answer a wealth of questions relevant to climate change and the health of people and the planet. Both in his talks and also on his blog you'll also be able to hear about what it is like to be a user of synchrotrons, from the starting point of any scientific enquiry - making an observation or asking a question - to carrying out experiments, applying for beamtime at a synchrotron and then staying up for 3 days 24 7 to run samples and get some crucial answers to boost your understanding of the system that you're investigating. On the web site you'll also find a host of resources linking in to the use of synchrotrons in environmental science.You may already have read about Mark's research in the newspapers (try googling "Metal munching earthworms!), have heard him on Radio 4 or seen him in documentaries about earthworm evolution and crop circles (and no, there's nothing in the soil that suggests crop circles are made by extra-terrestrials!) but over the course of the fellowship you should be able to hear more about his, and others, research, as he spends more time with the media, letting them know about the amazing environmental science being done at Diamond.