Beamlines | I18 - Case Studies

  • Investigating toxic sludge
    20 Mar 2012
    In October 2010, a dam failure at an aluminium producing plant in western Hungary released around one million cubic metres of toxic red sludge into nearby towns and villages and across agricultural land. More...
  • Spherulites of Aß42 in-vitro and in Alzheimer’s disease, and their association with copper
    01 Jun 2011
    Spherulites are roughly spherical structures, and their name derives from the Greek for ‘ball’ and ‘stone’.  Spherulites occur in various forms in nature. Those that form More...
  • Earthworms surviving toxic environments
    17 Mar 2011
    Scientists from Diamond Light Source, the Universities of Reading, Glasgow and the Natural History Museum in London have used the Diamond synchrotron to help determine whether worms can play a part in More...
  • Post mortem of a Comet: analysing Comet Wild 2
    24 Sep 2010
    Dr John Bridges, University of Leicester In 2006 the Stardust mission returned to Earth with the first bona fide samples of a short period comet 81P/Wild2. Micron – sized dust samples were collected More...
  • Structural origins of the room temperature ferromagnetism in Mn-implanted Si – a novel dilute magnetic semiconductor
    23 Sep 2010
    The vast majority of the electronic devices today are based on silicon technology and their performance and operation depend on the movement and mobility of electronic charge. This mode of operation sets More...
  • The mighty microbe behind coastal erosion? Synchrotron studies at the boundaries of our island nation.
    01 Sep 2010
    Great Britain is an island nation, with over 11,000 miles of coastline*. But the coastline is continually changing, due to the process of coastal erosion. A group of scientists have been using Diamond More...
  • Investigating the Failure of Metal on Metal Hips
    28 Jul 2010
    Metal-on-metal hip replacement is a treatment for “wear and tear” arthritis (osteoarthritis) – one of the commonest diseases in the world. These hip replacements use cobalt chrome alloy More...
  • Determining the fate of depleted uranium
    16 Mar 2010
    Battlefield use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons has generated considerable controversy because of the potential long-term effects on the environment and on the health of people exposed to it. DU projectiles More...
  • Tackling Pit Corrosion
    01 Apr 2008
    In Brief Professor Trevor Rayment and Dr Alison Davenport from the University of Birmingham have used the Microfocus Spectroscopy beamline I18 to carry out X-ray studies of corrosion that may help corrosion More...
  • Examining the Santa Catharina meteorite
    18 Sep 2007
    Dr Paul Schofield is a researcher in mineral sciences in the Department of Mineralogy at the Natural History Museum (NHM). Paul used I18 to study a range of earth and life science specimens from More...