Life on board ESS

Sweden on two + two wheels

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:20:28 +0100

Tina Nilsson, our former directors assistant who took a year off from her studies to get some work experience at the ESS in Lund, have spent the summer on two wheels biking about 2610 kilometres together with her parter Johan as a warm-up before going back to university (or perhaps cooling down after some intense work at ESS, administering in the preparations of constructing the worlds most advanced super microscope using neutrons to reveal the mysteries of matter).

The tour went from Treriksröset (the point at which the borders of Sweden, Norway, and Finland meet) in the very north, all the way down to Smygehuk - a harbour and fishing village known for being the southernmost point of Sweden and the Scandinavian Peninsula.

After a while biking on the road called "Sverigeleden" (The Sweden Bicycle Route) Tina and Johan were phoned up from the Swedish Radio (P3) featuring them in their morning show: The Biking Soap

On arrival in Smygehuk, 2610 kilometres and one month older, Tina (now called "Bicycle Tina" after the radio show) and Johan were met by a crowd of people celebrating their effort.

You can view all the pictures and read their travelogue here (in Swedish): Sweden on two + two wheels

For those abroad interested in taking the trip through Sweden information about the route can be downloaded in English at the following site: The Sweden Bicycle Route

ESS in Almedalen 2010

marianne.ekdahl@esss.se — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:35:07 +0100

During the first week of July, Swedish politicians, journalists, interest groups and lobbyists have gathered in Visby at the island of Gotland for the annual Almedalen Political week.

ESS AB took part by arranging a seminar on Wednesday 7 July, focussing on what the future ESS, as a European facility set in Scandinavia, will mean to science, education, business and advanced technical R&D.

In the seminar, Allan Larsson gave an overall presentation of ESS, and Lars Börjesson explained the need for international research infrastructure like ESS, CERN, the Hubble telescope, the international space station ISS, data bases within climate and demographics, et cetera. As one of the initiators of the ESS Scandinavia project, Lars Börjesson also told the story of ESS Scandinavia from the first small steps in Lund in 2000.

Lars Leijonborg, the former Minister of Research, made a spontaneous visit, telling the audience how he convinced the Swedish King about ESS. State Secretary Peter Honeth also took part, placing ESS in a European perspective.

Denmark's Chief Negotiator Lars Kolte gave the Danish perspective on co-hosting the ESS, and pulling down laughs by a humorous approach. Other participants in the panel discussion were Lena Ek, Member of the European Parliament, Annika Lundius, Deputy CEO at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Pierre Schellekens, Head of the EU Commission representation in Sweden, and Christian Stråhlman, former President of Lund Student Union and former ESS Board Member. From ESS AB, Thomas Parker and Marianne Ekdahl took part.

The seminar attracted a large number of participants, including many leading figures within politics and civil service.

All in all, it was a success, and an important step in spreading information about ESS, and strengthening or establishing links to different policymakers.

McStas 1.12b released

pkwi@risoe.dtu.dk — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0100

The McStas developer team is happy to report that the 1.12b release of our software is finally out.

You can get the installer packages from our download page

McStas 1.12b is mostly a bugfix release, but some new components and example instruments have been included. McStas 1.12b will be the VERY last release in the 1.x series.

Part of the reason for McStas 1.12b and its late arrival is our delay in releasing the next major version, McStas 2.0.

McStas 2.0 will be released late 2010 / early 2011 and will introduce new features that could break ceartain backward compatibility, hence we move from the 1.x series. We are also considering a replacement of the GUI and plotting tools for McStas 2.0.

For a complete list of changes in McStas 1.12b, see our CHANGES document.

The new relase was tested on these platforms:

Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard (but should work on 10.4 and 10.3 also). Both 32 and 64 bit, Intel and PPC systems are supported.
Ubuntu Linux 9.10 Karmic Koala and 10.04 Lucid Lynx, 32 and 64 bit .deb's are provided. Note: Do not expect these debs to work on earlier releases or other distributions, e.g. Debian
Windows XP, Vista and 7, 32 and 64 bit. We only provide 32bit executables, but they are tested to run OK on 64 bit
On other systems, feel free to try our source distributions

Virtually fun?

pkwi@risoe.dtu.dk — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:00:00 +0100

As you may know, the 2010 McStas/VITESS user training workshop has been taking place at Backafallsbyn, Ven this week.

The workshop was generously sponsored by ESS Scandinavia, NMI3 and Risø DTU

The participants have been very busy working with and learning to use McStas and VITESS

Enjoying local nature

And also visitied remains of Scandinavia's first ever large scale research facility, Thyco Brahe's observatory.

Even the weather was decent most of the days

- And it seemed that everyone not only virtually, but really learned something and had a lot of fun! :)

YES 2 ESS !

artist@karlmcfaul.com — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:39:47 +0100

Tomorrow is the friendly race around Lund called Lundaloppet. For the non-Swedes, this word has the same root as "Loppa" or "Loppis" meaning a flea market (fleas also jump around the place). A number of healthy superfit athletes from the ESS Secretariat at Stora Algatan will be wearing the ESS colours at Lundaloppet. I myself have decided, this year, not to compete. If you wish to cheer for these worthy people tomorrow we will gather at the LU tent on the sports field behind Bollhuset (Trollebergsvägen 26) at about 14:00. Then we will warm up together and start our run at 15:00! Please show solidarity with our team by bringing umbrellas (and bananas). Come in your hundreds to cheer!

A surrealistic world of ASH, ESS and a stranded scientist near volcano land

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:00:00 +0100

This week ESS had to cancel the third Steering Committee Meeting in Bilbao, Spain, due to the ash cloud over Europe. I think it was a wise decision by the ESS management.

Staff at ESS were of course a bit disappointed seeing all their work and preparations for this meeting litterally going up in smoke. But luckily we stand quite prepared with a load of black humour for situations like this. Something which have actually helped us to cope every now and then in critical situations that sometimes occur in a complex project like the ESS.

There are of course many people who have got into serious trouble due to the ash cloud. Not the least people in Iceland who are already suffering from the financial collapse. I think about you and wish you all the best in your struggle to fix the Icelandic economy. A positive effect in all this could be though that Iceland have probably never got as much international publicity and PR before. So in the long run, an exotic volcano might help tourism and make it easier to open new doors to do business in the future.

For those who like to cheer things up a bit in all this mess, there is a lot of humour on the volcanic subject flourishing around the web:

United Kingdom: "Dear Iceland, we asked for cash, not ash!".

Iceland: "Sorry for the flight delays, Europe. We were aiming for London, but it's hard to be accurate when firing a volcano".

Or this one:

"The last wish of the Icelandic economy was to have its ashes scattered over Europe...".

Locally, here in my mailbox, the news just reached me that our friend, ProfESSor John Larese who gave a speech at the ESS / Lund University seminar series last week, is still in Sweden unable to get home because of the ash cloud. Live and direct from Uppsala (apparently there's a second university town in Sweden after Lund?) John sent me a short reflection on his current situation. He seems to be contemplating over geology stuff, perhaps trying to find some secret code to send as a morse signal to his science colleagues back home across the Atlantic:

"Im sitting in my hotel room in Uppsala, Sweden reflecting on the past few days and how premonitory my lecture at Lund University was. I opened my lecture about Spallation Neutron Souces and Nanomaterials with the Great Smokey Mountains as a backdrop on my title page but little did I think that this Chemistry profESSor from TennESSee, the VOLunteer University was going to fall victim to the Nano silica ash originating from the Smokey Icelandic VOLcano eruption. While some confusion still exists it appears that I still have a few days to ponder if the VOLcano will stop SPALLing out any more Nanosilica ash and this citizen of the VOLunteer state can return home. In the future I'll stick to VOLunteering to scatter neutrons closer to TennESSee and not dodging VOLcanic ash!"

Dear John, I hope you make it back to the US and Tennessee soon and don't suffer too much from “jet lash”. Otherwise you could always settle down in Lund and build a spectrometer or two. We will need them to analyse the huge (but so remarkably invisible) particle clouds that keeps the Europeans from levitating nowadays.

By the way, Johnny cASH was born in Kingsland, ArkanSAS - But he actually died in nASHville TennESSee.. ashESS to ashESS.. I think I need to cough..

End of story.

Oh, one more: "Waiter, there's volcanic ash in my soup. I know, it's a no-fly zone".

New Materials = New Tools = New Networks = New Innovations

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:00:00 +0100

A very passionate talk on "Neutrons, Nanomaterials and Molecular Adsorption" was given this Thursday by Mr. John Z. Larese from University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The audience attending the ESS & Lund University seminar series on "New Science with Max IV and ESS" was introduced to the meaning and mysteries of "surface science".

In a more profound framing of his presentation John started by touching upon some factors which attracts researchers and scientists to settle down, work and live at certain places. It became obvious that beautiful nature combined with dynamic city and campus environments, offering opportunities to do top class research with state-of-the-art technology, were central things. But for a large scale research facility (like the ESS) to become successful, it is important not only to be able to provide instruments with higher resolution and faster speed of data management - the area surrounding the facility must have laboratories and gear for synthesising, characterising and preparation of samples nearby. There must be labs on spot where the researcher can error detect their samples quickly in case something goes wrong with the sample. With valuable and expensive beam time running, it can be devastating to your project if one have to travel long distances in order to optimise research samples and assemble data. Considering these requirements, there is no doubt that the location of the European Spallation Source on the site just north of Lund, will make ESS an integrated part of the Øresund region [map] thus making it possible to benefit from an urban environment which is currently building up one of the worlds most excellent infrastructures for science and research.

On the more hardcore level of John's presentation we became acquaintanced with MgO (Magnesium Oxide), ZnO (Zinc Oxide) and how to carry out basic science experiments producing nanoparticles by burning the substance and then analysing with neutron spectrometry.

Neutron scattering techniques like diffraction, inelastic neutron scattering and spectroscopy, are ideally suited to investigate the structure and dynamics of molecules at the interface of nanoscale materials. John has actually been doing experiments with our own ESS director Colin Carlile during the nineties at the ISIS neutron source using the IRIS spectrometer which Colin spent his life on building (before he spent his life building the ESS AB).

Through synthetic production and characterization of nanometer scale materials like Mgo and ZnO we can create tiny elements of materials which exhibit physical and chemical properties that are dramatically different from ordinary matter.

ZnO can form nanosized tetrapods which can be used for optoelectronics - Sensors combining both light and electricity for fine measurments in technological devices.

High power neutron tools with novel instrumentation will spawn a new generation of science that will dramatically impact the world’s energy and technological future. Investing in this technology and research is of high relevance to the energy challenges we see today. John tells us that it has already made us re-discover solar energy and fuel cells paving the way for a sustainable society.

By combining material synthesis, neutron scattering and modeling theory we can develop accurate potential energy surfaces and predict new routes for developing new materials; understand what factors are important in surface mediation of chemical reactions; synthesise novel materials to address fundamental questions in gas separation, sequestration and storage, catalysis, sensors, energy storage and energy conversion.

Innovation and technological improvements in society is of course the crucial outcome for public investments in big science facilities. In order for a researcher to make new discoveries and innovate, John Larese pointed out the importance of being at the right place at the right time and having the ability to be receptive to the world around you. He also displayed a map of a research program that the SNS and HFIR facilities in the USA runs together with ILL in France and ISIS in the UK.

I think of the ten years I've been working at universities myself: We now live in a digitalised knowledge society with a globalised [...]

SAXS:y bones

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:00:00 +0100

I'm attending a seminar co-arranged by the ESS and Lund University where Henrik Birkedal is giving a talk on Biological and Bioinspired Materials - or, "From Biology to Materials". The presentation deals specifically with the study of bone materials in the body.

What Henrik as a researcher wants to investigate is the link between structure and dynamics, how structure works in action. Complex materials, like bone structure in the human body, is a hierarchical structure. By studying how bone development takes place, how the bone fibres grows, we can find solutions to medical problems. For example osteoporosis. About 40% of all women above 50 gets osteoporosis, and all women above 80 suffer from osteoporosis. Men are also developing osteoporosis.

Henrik and his team of researchers are using an experimental method called SAXS for studying bone material. SAXS gives high precision with very small x-ray beams making it possible to map very small structures in the bone tissue sample (down to ~62 um beam size).

The resolution of the intrument is important for the amount of detailed data being generated. But still it's good to combine synchrotron x-ray beams (which gives higher resolution) and regular nano sourcing techniques since they produce different precicion at different length scales of what needs to be studied in the material - and it provides the researcher with more data to do a more precise analysis.

Happy Pi-day everyone!

webmaster@esss.se — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:57:40 +0100

Today is π day (2010.03.14) of course and this was also the birthday of Albert Einstein, 131 years ago. And, as if that was not enough reason to celebrate this day, sixteen years ago, this day marked the release of the Linux Kernel version 1.0.0.! Have a very happy pi-day everyone!

Oh, and remember; 3.14% of all sailors are pi-rates…

McStas / VITESS user training workshop 2010

pkwi@risoe.dtu.dk — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:00:00 +0100

The McStas and VITESS teams are happy to announce the joint

*** McStas / VITESS user training workshop 2010 ***

To take place at Backafallsbyn in the Swedish island of Ven, May 17th-21st.

The workshop is a school in order to train technical staff and instrument scientists in using Monte-Carlo code to design better neutron devices and instruments. The programme is split into sessions dedicated to different parts (optics, sample environment, detectors, ...). If you work in one of these areas, and feel like simulating it, then this school is for you, especially if you've never done so before.

Sponsorship / Participation / Cost

Generous support from our sponsors
ESS Scandinavia
NMI3 / FP7
Risø DTU
has made it possible to offer sponsored lodging and participation for up to 25 people. It should be noted that particpants from the EU will have preference, since EU sponsors part of the workshop. The 5 supplementary seats with full registration fee required are fully open. If more than 25 people show an interest, a fee will be announced for further participation, that is the first 25 registrations will be free, the up-to-5 following will require accommodation charge (about 600 euros for the entire school).

We would like all participants to attend, as far as possible, the entire school.

All participants must arrange and pay their own transport to Copenhagen Airport. We will arrange joint transportation from CPH to the Island of Ven.

Further information

Please refer to http://www.essworkshop.org for further information and registration.

Best regards,

Emmanuel Farhi (ILL)
Peter Willendrup (Risø DTU)
Erik Knudsen (Risø DTU)
Klaus Lieutentant (IFE/Kjeller)
Uwe Filges (PSI)
Linda Udby (University of Copenhagen)

Pictures from ESS Industry Day

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:00:00 +0100

The ESS Industry Day took place at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark on the 19th of February 2010. More than 400 representatives from European business and industry took part and gained information about how to get involved in the construction of the ESS (Photos by Wojciech Zajac and Johan Långberg).

A visit down the Malmö City Tunnel

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0100

I gave a presentation to NCC about ESS the other day. NCC is one of the leading construction and property development companies in the Nordic region.

After lunch I had the pleasure of joining the NCC crew on a guided tour down the Malmö City Tunnel.

The City Tunnel project is a project where almost everything happens in large numbers. This includes the amount of concrete used – in total about 400,000 m3 along the 17 kilometres of railway path with a 6 kilometre long tunnel running under the city of Malmö.

We went some 25 meters below ground to visit a 250 meters long and 14.5 meters wide railway platform beneath the really centre of Malmö called Triangeln. This train station will become the second largest in Sweden when it comes to the amount of daily passing travellers.

One of Citytunneln’s objectives is for the finished connection, improving the infrastructure between Copenhagen, Malmö and Lund, is to contribute to an environmentally-harmonised transport system and a long-term sustainable society. This will be achieved primarily by giving a greater number of people the opportunity to use public transport instead of using cars.

Personally, I got an arty vibe while walking around the industrial environment of the underground chambers. I took a couple of pictures that you can watch here below.

The Malmö City Tunnel is actually a big art project since it will become decorated with huge installations by several contemporary artists. One example is in the underground station area, Malmö C Nedre: Travellers will be met by moving images from around the world. Tania Ruiz Gutiérrez’s video artwork ‘Itineracy’ projects pictures on the station walls giving the impression of train windows. Video sequences have been filmed at a large number of sites throughout the world. ‘Itineracy’ is formulated so that it is unlikely that travellers will encounter the same images more than once.

Day 3 - ESS supporting Lund Climate Gathering, Klimatting ETT, bringing the voice of youth to COP15

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0100

The weekend of November 13-15th brought together young people from around the world to meet in Lund and discuss climate change ahead of the climate summit in Copenhagen, COP15. The 300 participants at Klimatting ETT increased their knowledge by listening to lectures on, among other things, climate policy and the carbon footprint of food. The new skills were used in the three tracks that would develop proposals to be submitted to COP15, to start climate related projects and to create recommendations to improve each individual's ability to reduce their climate impact. On Sunday, a vote was held in order to bring forward the three best ideas from the weekend.

The outcome of The Climate Gathering in Lund was presented to a panel consisting of:

- Mats Helmfrid (Mayor and Chairman of the City Executive Board)
- Karin Loodberg (Head of Environmental Strategy Development)
- Håkan Samuelsson (Climate Municipalities, Coordinator)
- Thomas Björnsson (Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Klimatnätverket)
- Dimitra Papoudimitriou (Caretakers of the Environment International, CEI, Greece)

Here are some of the youths recommendations to COP15:

Global bank, 2GDP: Introduce a global bank for Climate Action, to which all countries must pay 2 percent of GDP.
Education, practical & emotional: The young people stressed most of all the importance of education in climate and sustainability issues. Most votes received a proposal that recommended a strategic investment in education for sustainable development, ranging from nursery, primary and secondary schools to politicians, adults and seniors in the community. Formal, informal and non formal education for sustainable development are all crucial pieces in order to establish this.
Campaign project against plastic bags: "Plastic bag kills", and with the intention to promote taxes on environmentally harmful products.

In addition to these proposals came several other ideas that might become a reality. For example, how about a system equivalent to Weight Watchers points, but on greenhouse gases?

Among the many reponses from the panel were Thomas Björnsson saying that the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation should take these ideas further the Climate Action Network, CAN.

Mats Helmfrid thought the global bank, 2 GDP, was a good idea and that we can influence to make that happen.

Thomas Björnsson commented that Sweden could start - "We don't need international negotiations and agreements before we start here locally and become a role model."
(huge applause from the audience..).

A young woman in the audience asked which of the questions being put forward by the Climate Gathering, that the panel considered being the most important.

Thomas Björnsson responded: "Setting up the global bank."

Mats Helmfrid thought it was important making it legally binding. That every country must contribute. Also the USA and China.

Karin Loodberg agreed on the importance of collaboration between western world and other parts like the developing countries.

The general concern in the panel seemed to be that the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen will have a really difficult job to achieve when it comes to commitment from all countries.

The young woman in the audience told that she, and many with her, will also participate at the COP15, perhaps not in the official meeting rooms, but out in the streets, in alternative gatherings.

From Lund, negotiations are under way right now for the proposals from KLIMATTING ETT to get a space at the EU pavilion during COP15, but many of the youngsters are already determined to go to Copenhagen and attend whatever the outcome!

Day 2 - ESS supporting Lund Climate Gathering, Klimatting ETT, bringing the voice of youth to COP15

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:33:39 +0100

November 14th, during the second day of the Lund Climate Gathering, ESS attended a tree planting ceremony led by the Bishop of Lund, Antje Jackelén. There were some 150 people gathered in front of the Cathedral in Lund to enjoy this event.

"If this tree lives to be 100 years it will consume about 1 ton, 1000 kilogram, of CO2", said Antje Jackelén.

Every tree absorbs about 12 kilogram CO2 per year and produce oxygen for four humans.

The City of Lund, where the ESS will be built, have yearly tree planting programmes for people who want to become tree donors to help climate compensation.

ESS in Lund have already managed to make a first contribution in this by planting a tree on the ESS site:

ESS Scandinavia plants a tree as part of European Green Week - manifesting the first climate neutral research center

Against the tide

artist@karlmcfaul.com — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:38:59 +0100

Being born and brought up in the north of England, Scandinavian words were part of the local dialect which I was familiar with, and town names such as Derby and Grimsby reflected that our Scandinavian neighbours had left their mark, not least on the gene pool. The slowly changing seasons and the quickly changing weather patterns were familiar to me and the language is lovely to hear spoken. I have to admit however that the significantly different variants of Swedish spoken in the Skåne and in the Stockholm are a barrier - it´s never clear how much you should be blowing out when you talk of Sjöbo or Växjö. But these are mysteries to be conquered.

As for Lund it is so human in scale, the height of the buildings, the distance from one side of the town to the other, the winding streets have evolved to allow people to move around rather than internal combustion engines. I am losing the ability to drive a car! And then there´s the AF Student building, the hearty lunches, the students working together but above all the Spex musicals which are a total delight. I´ve been to them all inthe past three years. People ask me which I like best - well I have to admit if you randomly chopped scenes and mixed them up from one Spex to another then I wouldn´t notice! It´s just sheer enjoyment for the cast and the audience alike.

My favourite place? Well I can´t claim to have explored much, but the little art gallery in Mårtenstorget is a jewel, the craft shop Skånekraft in Östra Mårtensgatan is quality, the "alternative" restaurants Clemens and Govinda, the tiny stationery shop LEXIS and the Gleerup & Pocket! bookshops as well as the little gift shop Lilla Boden in S:t Petri Kyrkogata all provide a warm welcome. But pride of place is taken by the Långa Bryggan in Bjärred - the same length as the accelerator for ESS! And as the old guy said at the Spex " I swam all the way from Lomma to Bjärred ...against the tide!"

Day 1 - ESS supporting Lund Climate Gathering, Klimatting ETT, bringing the voice of youth to COP15

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:04:40 +0100

ESS have been a sponsor and participant at the three day Climate Gathering, Klimatting ETT, in Lund, Sweden. This is our way to contribute to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009, COP15, by supporting what we consider being the most important resource for solving the problems of the future - our young people!

On the friday I gave a presentation about the ESS for about 250 Swedish and international youths, ranging between the age of 12 - 25. I showed to them a little experiment on superconductivity, the ESS film, and informed them generally about materials science and how research at ESS will benefit us with improvments and constructions of new, more "sustainable", materials for a sustainable society. I also described our strategy to make the facility itself, ESS, become the first carbon dioxide neutral research facility in the world and presented various objectives we have for creating the most environmentally smart grand scale work place in Lund.

I ended my presentation by asking for ideas on how we could use the excess heat which will be produced by the ESS facility during summertime. Lots of young people turned up at the ESS mobile exhibition booth to contribute with ideas, pick our brochures and ask questions about ESS.

A really smart idea came from a young entrepreneur, Simon Svendler, who suggested that ESS should use the excess heat to produce energy for a couple of "quick charging stations" for electric cars that will pass by on the E22 highway next to the ESS site in the future.

Governments representing the whole world will meet in Copenhagen in December 2009 for the fifteenth – and probably the largest of its kind – conference on climate change: COP 15. The aim is for all countries to unite in their efforts in reducing global warming and to produce a successor of the Kyoto Protocol as it expires in 2012.

This is why the youth council of Lund and UFO (Youth Forum for Agenda 21), and the municipality of Lund arranges a three day long climate gathering the 13-15 November, 2009, with the aim to amplify the voice of the young, to work out a joint message to the COP 15 meeting and provide new knowledge and possibilities to act together. Some of the participants will be even be given the chance to go as delegates to COP 15.

The three days consisted of inspiring discussions, workshops, lectures, brainstorming, presentations, meetings, own creations, study visits and evenings filled with social and cultural activities. Key persons in climate politics, as well as participants in the upcoming COP 15 meeting, were also present.

The Climate Gathering aimed to – as far as possible – keep the climate gathering carbon neutral and to provide ecological and environmentally friendly solutions and products throughout the conference. One of the coolest features was this bicycle driven blender, the"smoothie bicycle" manufactured by Mossagården, with which we could make delicious smoothies on ecologically produced fruit!

Only our imagination and creativity - or the lack of it - will set the limit!

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:25:30 +0100

ESS was the theme for Medicon Valley Alliance annual meeting 2009 in Copenhagen. A notable list of speakers were chosen for the event. From ESS we were represented by deputy director Partik Carlsson explaining more in detail how ESS works and how we will benefit from its research.

A prize was given, The Medicon Valley Cross-Border Award, to a scientist or business person who has established a collaboration across Øresund which has produced results within life science that would not have been possible without the collaboration.

The lucky receiver of the award this year was MD DMSc Professor Nils Brünner, who has has a background from both Denmark and Sweden. He opened his thank you speech by claiming that there has never been a border between Sweden and Denmark!

The Jury's verdict for giving the prize to Nils Brünner: "For his effort to set up collaborations with scientific groups from Lund and Uppsala University, which has produced joint results within identification and clinical validation of biomarkers for colorectal cancer prognosis and treatment prediction and prognostic and predictive markers for breast cancer as well as the development of a new treatment for breast and colon cancer patients"

Over all, speakers from both sides of the Øresund praised the success in getting the ESS project to where it is now with all the opportunities it opens for the future science within energy, health, new materials, chemistry, climate and environment.

Uffe Toudal Pedersen, Permanent Secretary, The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation said that "If it hadn't been for the clever work and constant pressure from the Swedish administration of ESS, we wouldn't be here today."

Uffe Toudal Pedersen also emphasized the importance of building an attractive region and work on the international marketing of this region.

He concluded that from a perspective of beneficial investments that gives a lot back to the people, researchers and business life around Øresund, ESS can only be a winner!

The Swedish Government were represented by the Swedish State Secretary, Peter Honeth, who told about Sweden's commitment to stay ahead in the global competition and that Øresund is one of the large science regions in the world - "ESS represents possibilities in this region which is of utmost importance for the future."

Another great speaker who came across really well in explaining the benefit of the advanced research that will be done at the ESS was Liselotte Højgaard, Head of Department and director at Copenhagen University Hospital and Professor in Medical Technology at the University of Copenhagen.

Liselotte told us about the paradigm shift in the studies of medicine and the treatments of diseases. We have moved from the "resolution" of man, to cells, to the molecules and atoms we're made of. One atom can be the difference from sick to healthy. Neutron science is relevant for nano medicine to protein research.

Understanding disease at the cellular and molecular level, based on fundamental discoveries in chemistry, physics and biology is crucial for understanding the processes of life itself. Neutrons can help solving major challeges in health scieces and Liselotte enthusiastically promoted the booklet Neutrons and Health (downloadable here) produced by ESS deputy director for science, Dr Christian Vettier.

Giving some examples on what neutron science can do for us, Liselotte told us that in the future human bone [...]

Kids, spiders and Halloween Jack crowded around the experiments at ESS exhibition re-opening

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:29:08 +0100

This Wednesday and Thursday (28/10-29/10) between 12.00-18.00, ESS is re-opening the exhibition on first floor, Stora Algatan 4 in Lund. We have updated the information in the exhibition according to the on-going process and added new pedagogical material about the technical design of a neutron spallation source. We will arrange experiments in the exhibition these two opening days. We are right in the “fall holiday” for schools and a lot of people have been visiting. We will also arrange a smaller competition/quiz with a book on experiments possible to do at home as the prize, and having a stand with lemonade, coffee and cookies.

Welcome!

Musketeers of the year becoming Marketeers of the Year

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:47:59 +0100

This tuesday, ESS Scandinavia won the price "Marketeers of the Year" at the marketing association, MiM, Inspirational Day event held in Lund 2009. Supported by an applauding audience, and his staff at ESS in Lund, a proud ESS director Colin Carlile stepped on the stage to receive the "Oscar statue". He commented that when he first heard about the award (from somebody with a Swedish accent phoning him up), he thought it was the "Musketeers of the Year". Colin Carlile then concluded that through all the hard work with scientific preparations, negotiations, PR, communication and marketing to get the site decision of the ESS to Lund - the winning spirit of the team, the supporting institutions and authorities around the ESS Scandinavia has been characterised by "all for one, one for all". So the "Musketeers of the Year" might not sound wrong after all!

ESS Scandinavia would like to thank all of you who believe in the ESS, and the jury of MiM for awarding us this prize.

Here is the motivation from the jury:

With a great, personal commitment and a strong conviction for the objectives and purpouse of the activity, a small group of real enthusiasts have succeeded in convincing a very broad group of European researchers and politicians that the small city of Lund is the best place to build one of Europes largest research enterprises ever.

"A golden opportunity with a very slim chance of success" managed to be turned into a real opportunity for Lund, the county of Skåne and Sweden to become Europe's undisputed centre for research around the future solutions within areas like energy, environmental technology, medicine, transports and new smart materials.

Proudly and impressed, we raise our hats for everybody within the ESS Scandinavia, and for the Swedish researchers, politicians and business representatives who have, with great enthusiasm, contributed to the success of this project. Congratulations!

Neutronica blog

webmaster@karlmcfaul.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:52:15 +0100

For those of you who are interested in the interplay between arts & science, we have now started a blog at www.neutronica.org where everybody is invited to contribute and develop the concept of Neutronica.