The ultimate questions

Peter shannon

The search

‘My experiment is trying to understand more about anti-matter,’ says Dr Tara Shears, ‘and why there doesn’t seem to be any in the universe any more.’ Dr Shears is a Royal Society University Research fellow at the University of Liverpool, and is also working on an experiment at CERN on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). There are big questions being addressed. Two of the four experiments, ‘are concentrating on making the big discoveries, they are looking for things like the Higgs Bosun particle, which we have never discovered but our theory predicts must exist and it’s very important because if we can’t find it this means that our understanding of the universe is wrong.’

Anti-matter

A better understanding of anti-matter, Shears argues, will enable us to explore the universe at a deeper level, to understand how the universe has evolved from the Big Bang to where we are today. As she says, anti-matter sounds like something out of Star Trek but it is real; you get it in radioactive decay. ‘We think half the universe was made from it in the Big Bang, and we might expect half the universe were made of it now. But there is no evidence of a large amount of it anywhere.’ Its signature, she says, would be massive annihilation.

Unexpected benefits

The power of the LHC enables scientists to generate more data than has ever been possible, and what that means, says Dr Shears, ‘is that we are able to look at smaller and smaller stuff in the universe, other types of fundamental particles that have existed at earlier and earlier times in the universe.’ But it’s not only the big, fundamental questions that the LHC research will be addressing.  Dr Shears argues that boundary-pushing research like this has many unintended practical applications. The most famous application to come out of particle physics research is the World Wide Web. ‘It was developed at CERN in the 1990s to let particle physicists share their information with each other. It’s in CERN’s constitution that any results we come up with, including computing results, we have to give it away for free.’ It’s ‘open’ science. So while we can expect excitement around the experiments, the wider applications are likely to be unexpected and equally dramatic.

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Energy for all seasons

DIANA LEEDS

Energy harvesting

The wet and windy northwest of England inspired Professor Elias Siores, at the Institute for Materials Research and Innovation at the University of Bolton, to find a way to generate electricity in any weather conditions. Bad weather and the region’s international reputation for fibre innovation made the hybrid piezoelectric and photovoltaic fibre possible. The fibre can be knitted or weaved into any fabric and then harvest electricity from wind, rain, tides and other mechanical renewable sources. He sees its application in portable electrical device chargers, garments, sails, tents and even artificial trees capable of charging laptops, mobile phones and other small electrical equipment.

Wearable energy

Siores describes how the hybrid fibre is made up of two parts. The core is made out of piezoelectric material, which comes from the Greek word, meaning applying pressure. When pressure is applied, or the material is vibrated, the vibrations are converted into voltage that can be stored as energy in a rechargeable battery or used immediately. The outer coatings are an organic photovoltaic material. The core is made from of polymer material, avoiding the more efficient but lead-containing ceramic material, and the production costs are low. Also, as they are in a fibre format they can be made in different diameters, and can be weaved, knitted and processed like any other fibre into textile structures.

Siores is excited about the possibilities, ‘the fibre can be used for wearable applications, for charging mobiles while on the move. For more power hungry applications, these fibres can be chopped into a needle size. For example, a pine tree structure, made with these hybrid fibres. The tree structure does not have to track the sun, the sun goes around the tree and harnesses enough energy for the home from sun wind and rain.’

Power generating trees

For now, Siores and his team are busy picking up awards for energy innovation and in discussions with industry to see their device commercialised. ‘It will be good to see this fibre in an application very soon. We want to enhance the properties of the piezoelectrical and organic photovoltaic material. We want it to remain low cost. If it’s possible to implement it in a tree-like structure, you could have your own power generating tree next to your home!

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