Monthly focus

A researcher’s best friend?

05 January 2016

Researchers are finding new uses for diamonds in the lab. Image credit: Shutterstock/ Baloncici

Detecting diseases, removing CO2 from chemicals and uncovering the composition of the earth’s core: diamonds have many more uses than just decorating our hands. This January, Horizon talks to the researchers who are unearthing new ways of using one of nature’s most treasured materials.

Researchers could use diamonds that are one three-thousandth of the size of a human hair to detect cancer faster. Image credit: Fedor Jelezko

health | frontier research

28 January 2016

Nanodiamonds sparkle as science delves into the human body

The world’s hardest natural material also has the most enthralling sparkle – these two properties mean that tiny diamonds are giving us dramatic new ways of interacting with the human body.

Researchers are using lasers to manufacture more efficient industrial tools. Image courtesy of DIPLAT

industry

11 January 2016

Ultra-short pulse lasers increase precision of diamond sculpting

Engineers are using laser pulses that last 10 trillionths of a second and self-learning cooling systems to craft new diamond tools that are more durable and efficient than ever before.

Scientists are using diamonds to uncover what makes up the earth’s core. Image credit: Flickr / gnuckx

environment

05 January 2016

What’s at the centre of the earth?

New experiments that crush material between two diamonds to simulate the extraordinarily high temperatures and pressures found in the earth's interior are providing answers to the age-old questions of what our planet is made of, and where its ingredients came from.

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New ways of recycling and reusing products will reduce the amount of waste going into landfill. Image credit - Flickr/ Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Turning trash into treasure

Dumped waste, from used nappies to industrial by-products, have long wound up in landfills and can take hundreds of years to decay. In October we speak to the scientists figuring out how to keep such items in use to reduce rubbish and create a so-called circular economy. We learn about new efforts to mine industrial waste for the rare metals that go into making aircraft parts, pacemakers and bicycle gears, and find out about the culture shift needed to develop a zero-waste society. We also speak to the researchers building a biorefinery to turn soiled nappies into fertilisers and raw materials, and look at whether seaweed could become the next plastic.

Are these 10 000+ galaxies captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope moving faster everyday? Image credit - NASA/ ESA/ STScI (S. Beckwith)/ HUDF Team

The expanding universe

The model of our universe as expanding at an accelerated rate has given rise to theoretical constructs such as dark energy and dark matter, which scientists believe could make up 95% of the universe. In September, Horizon takes a deeper look at what we really know about the expanding universe. We speak to Prof. Subir Sarkar, who believes that the Nobel-winning discovery that universe expansion acceleration could be a fluke, and the scientists who are trying to answer the question by allowing us to better measure the expansion rate. We also look at the significance of accurately measuring gravity in deep space, and what dark matter haloes can tell us about the existence of dark energy.

Bill Gates and Commissoner Carlos Moedas committed to establish a fund to get radical new clean energy technologies to market. Image credit - European Commission

Bill Gates and European Commission launch €100 million clean energy fund

Bill Gates and the European Commission have launched a €100 million investment fund designed to bring radical clean energy technologies more quickly to market in order to promote energy efficiency and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Trucks on Orkney carry hydrogen produced by wind- and tide-powered electrolysis in special lightweight high pressure cylinders, designed to adhere to the low weight limit of the island roads. Image credit: Colin Keldie for BIG HIT

Hydrogen use doesn’t emit carbon but its production often does. That could soon change

Hydrogen can be used to power cars, supply electricity and heat homes, all with zero carbon emissions. The snag is that the vast majority of hydrogen itself is derived from fossil fuels – a fact that scientists are now hoping to change. They plan to clean up production to kickstart a dedicated economy – something that has already found small-scale success in Scotland’s Orkney Islands.

A researcher’s best friend?

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Nanodiamonds sparkle as science delves into the human body