Find out more about our ambitious upgrade project, delivering more brightness, more coherence, and greater speed of analysis to UK science. More about Diamond-II
Find out more about Diamond's response to virus research.
While visits to Diamond are postponed, get behind the scenes with these virtual tour resources.
Diamond has developed a set of interactive science tools for teachers or home learners, available here.
Featuring information on the latest research being undertaken at Diamond on the virus here.
New resources have been developed to find out everything you always wanted to know about Diamond Light Source, the UK’s synchrotron. Available online, these new resources - a series of live and recorded webinars, virtual tours, a printable board game, podcasts and science resources for schools - reveal how Diamond works and looks at some of the world changing research it is undertaking – including its current leading-edge work being undertaken at break-neck speed to help address the global challenge into the virus causing COVID-19. The resources are aimed at a family audience and all ages.
Prof. Andrew Harrison, CEO of Diamond Light Source states:
“Public interest in science and the work of our scientists is at an all-time high, especially in relation to COVID-19. So as part of our public engagement work and commitment to transparency we wanted to try and answer any questions the public and students might have. This includes a special focus on the various initiatives we are working on with international partners around the world, in the race to find solutions to the virus. To this end, we have introduced a series of public webinars with some of our top scientists working in the field. People can participate in questions and answer sessions about their work and the progress to date. In addition to webinars on COVID-19, other key topics covered range from how our synchrotron machine works to amazing experiments undertaken and technologies used
In a normal year Diamond welcomes over 6000 visitors to the facilities and runs very popular and always oversubscribed Open Days four times year. As all events have had to be postponed for the foreseeable future Dr David Price, Diamond Public Engagement Manager and his team, in conjunction with the Careers Service at The Open University, have created a series of virtual tours to give people a real flavour of what goes on at Diamond. He explains;
Our new dedicated web page giving people a virtual tour of the synchrotron machine is attracting a lot of visitors. We are also consistently attracting audiences in the hundreds for our weekly webinars on a range of topics including COVID-19, and we have just launched a downloadable copy of Diamond:The Game so people can have fun while also learning about the challenges scientists in a facility like Diamond face every day. The boardgame is available in hard copy to schools on application but this means everyone can now print and play it at home. And last but not least a series of engaging podcasts called "Shining a Diamond Light" where we talk to some of our leading scientists about their work
People can also submit questions online and if they would like to know more specifically about the work Diamond is doing to help fight Coronaviruses, they can visit the dedicated website the Diamond Comms team have built. The team is also now running webinars on a range of topics and refreshed and recreated simulations with worksheets for use by schools.
Join a Diamond webinar
The next live family webinar is this Wednesday 20 May at 1.30 pm called: ‘Cells up close!’, with special guest Maria Harkiolaki, Principal Beamline Scientist to answer questions on our microscopy beamline - B24. The session will explore how Diamond uses microscopy to peer inside cells, and how the beamline uses light to track viruses in cells. On 27 May ‘Diamonds at Diamond!’ will explore how beamline I15 uses Diamonds (the sparkly jewel kind) at Diamond (the synchrotron) to create high pressures, and how this is used to simulate pressures found deep in the Earth. And on 3 June the topic will be ‘Saving the Mary Rose’ exploring the work Diamond is doing to help to preserve the Mary Rose, a warship from King Henry VIII’s navy that after 437 years on the seabed was returned to the surface in 1982.
You can explore previous webinars and events here. Recent webinars that can be accessed include: Viruses; How the Diamond Particle Accelerators work; How Diamond sees inside things; Diamond’s amazing science – examples of experiments undertaken; Science Sucks! Why are vacuums so important to modern science.
Play a family board game
Diamond: The Game is a new board game designed to explore the nature of being a scientist, and the broad scope of research performed at Diamond. The game provides an inexpensive, reusable and entertaining way to directly engage the public and young people. It underpins the importance of scientific experiments and the cutting- edge science carried out at Diamond as well as giving an insight into what being a scientist means on a day to day basis. Click here for information on how to get the free download.
Listen in to a podcast
Our new podcast series highlights the range of world-changing science Diamond enables. The latest episodes of the podcast "Shining a Diamond Light", looks at engineering at Diamond, including levitating samples! Previous topics and guests have included an inside look at GDA (Generic Data Acquisition) with Chris Kelley, Moon Rocks with Matt Pankhurst and Alzheimer’s Disease with Karen Marshall; check out previous audio highlights here.
Anyone who would like to know more about Diamond public open days, events, resources and other activities can subscribe to the Diamond mailing list here.
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 0DE
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