Extreme water structure

人们对水在极端温度、压力和环境条件下的性质非常感兴趣。这种兴趣的范围从显然从木卫二和恩西达勒斯表面发出的水蒸气喷流，助长了对木星和土星这些卫星冰冷外表下存在巨大液体海洋的猜测。在离地球更近的地方，在火星的极地地区发现了冰，越来越多的证据表明，火星夏季有咸水流动，盐使水在零度以下的温度下保持液态。同样，我们地球海洋底部的水，压力高达1000个大气压，大部分是冷的，在4摄氏度或以下，但在海底喷口附近也可能非常热，而且是咸的，因此对生命提出了严峻的挑战。然而，许多生物体已经适应了在这些条件下茁壮成长。尽管在压力和温度范围内使用中子散射技术对纯水和冰（包括结晶和非结晶）进行了广泛的探索，但对盐含量、约束、压力和温度的综合影响知之甚少，该项目将设在利兹，并将在ISIS设施利用中子全散射和小角散射技术，卢瑟福阿普尔顿实验室学生将利用被称为结构阐明器的计算建模技术，提供与实验数据兼容的微观构象的集合，并提供对感兴趣的系统中所有原子之间的成对原子相互作用的访问。学生还将接受生物分子溶液的制备和表征方面的培训，利用物理和天文学院内广泛的研究设施，并酌情利用利兹的跨学科阿斯特伯里结构和分子生物学中心。该项目具有高度的跨学科性和创新性

There is a huge interest in the properties of water under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure and environment. This interest ranges from the water vapour jets that apparently emanate from the surface of Europa and Encedalus, fuelling speculation for the existence of vast liquid oceans beneath the icy exterior of these moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Somewhat closer to Earth, ice is found in the polar regions of Mars, and there is growing evidence for flows of salty water during the Martian summer the salt allowing the water to stay liquid at the sub-zero temperatures that are found there. Equally, water at the bottom of our own Earth's oceans, is under pressures of up to ~1000 atmospheres, is mostly cold, being at or below 4oC, but can also be very hot near undersea vents, and is briny, so presenting severe challenges to life. Yet many living organisms have adapted to thrive under these conditions. Whereas pure water and ice, both crystalline and amorphous, under pressure and over a range of temperatures, have been explored extensively using neutron scattering techniques, much less is known about the combined effects of salt content, confinement, pressure and temperature.This project will be based in Leeds and will exploit neutron total and small angle scattering techniques at the ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratories The student will make use of a computational modelling techniques known as structure elucidators which provide an ensemble of microscopic conformations compatible with the experimental data and provides access to pair-wise atomic interactions between all atoms in the system of interest. The student will also be trained in the preparation and characterisation of biomolecular solutions, making use of the extensive research facilities within the School of Physics and Astronomy and as appropriate the interdisciplinary Astbury Centre for Structural and Molecular Biology at Leeds. The project is highly interdisciplinary and innovative in nature