Scottish Scientists Slow down Light Particles - Photons

The speed of light is a limit, not a constant, that's what researchers in Glasgow, Scotland, say. A group of them just proved that light can be slowed down, permanently.

Scientists already knew light could be slowed temporarily. Photons change speeds as they pass through glass or water, but when they exit the other side and return to a vacuum (like outer space) they speed back up.

In a new experiment at the University of Glasgow, however, scientists were able to permanently manipulate light's speed by passing photons through a device that alters their structure. The device, created in collaboration with researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, is a filter of sorts that the scientists refer to as a mask.

"That mask looks a little bit like a bull's-eye target," researcher Miles Padgett told reporters. "And that mask patterns the light beam, and we show that it's the patterning of the light beam that slows it down.

"But once that pattern has been imposed, even now the light is no longer in the mask, it's just propagating in free space, the speed is still slow," Padgett added.

In other words, the beam of light is reorganized in a way that slows down each individual photon. When tested in a vacuum next to a regular light beam.

Photons that had been filtered through mask were milliseconds behind in a sprint to the end of the vacuum racetrack.

Researchers, whose latest work was published this week in the journal Science Express, say the findings prove the speed of light is not an absolute, more like a ceiling.

Miles Padgett

The work was carried out by a team from the University of Glasgow’s Optics Group, led by Professor Miles Padgett, working with theoretical physicists led by Stephen Barnett, in partnership with Professor Daniele Faccio from Heriot-Watt’s Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences.

Daniele Faccio

Professor Faccio said, “The speed of light is a universal constant and plays a central role in our understanding of the Universe and Einstein's theory of relativity."

"The exciting discovery here is that this speed is the true speed of light only for plane waves, that is waves that are perfectly flat."

"In everyday situations however, we interact with light that is not a plane wave but has some kind of structure on it."

"The presence of this structure (think of the light beam emitted from a laser pointer) forces the light to actually move slower."

"There are lots of technicalities involved in the actual experiments used to measure this slow-down, but the result is widely applicable. A very appropriate discovery for the 2015 international year of light".

Professor Padgett added, “It might seem surprising that light can be made to travel more slowly like this, but the effect has a solid theoretical foundation and we’re confident that our observations are correct.

“The results give us a new way to think about the properties of light and we’re keen to continue exploring the potential of this discovery in future applications."

"We expect that the effect will be applicable to any wave theory, so a similar slowing could well be created in sound waves, for example.”

More Information
Spatially structured photons that travel in free space slower than the speed of light - Science Magazine January 22 2015 - Science DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa3035

Uranus's Moon Miranda: Bizarre Shape Explained

Uranus' icy moon Miranda is seen in this image from NASA's Voyager 2 probe on Jan. 24, 1986.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The strange appearance of Uranus' moon Miranda may finally have an explanation.

Miranda resembles Frankenstein's monster, a bizarre jumble of parts that didn't quite merge properly.

Now, researchers suggest they may know why Miranda looks so odd: Constant squeezing and stretching from Uranus caused the moon's insides to heat up and churn.

Miranda is the innermost of Uranus' five major moons.

Though Miranda is only 293 miles (471 kilometers) wide, about one-seventh as large as Earth's moon, this ball of ice and rock possesses one of the oddest and most varied landscapes known among extraterrestrial bodies, including giant canyons up to 12 times deeper than the Grand Canyon.

"Miranda has a really bizarre, deformed surface," said study lead author Noah Hammond, a planetary scientist at Brown University in Rhode Island. "It's a really beautiful and exotic moon."

Miranda has three giant features known as coronae that are unique among known objects in the solar system.

They are shaped crudely, either like ovals or trapezoids, and each is least 120 miles (200 km) wide.

The coronae are separated from their more heavily cratered surroundings by belts of concentric ridges and troughs, making the coronae look like mismatched patches on a moth-eaten coat.

The three coronae, Arden, Elsinore and Inverness, are named after Scottish locations also mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.

This photo of Uranus' moon Miranda, taken by NASA's Voyager 2 probe in January 1986, shows an unusual "chevron" figure and regions of distinctly differing terrain on the mysterious satellite.

Credit: NASA/JPLView full size image

Researchers have long wondered how the coronae formed.

One possibility is that Miranda may have been disrupted by some catastrophic impact, after which its pieces chaotically reassembled.

The coronae formed as rocky material sank downward, triggering concentric wrinkles on Miranda's surface as it contracted, this idea goes.

Another possibility, one suggested by most scientists in the field, is that the coronae formed as buoyant domes of ice rose, causing Miranda's surface to crumple as matter was added to it.

However, it was not known where the heat to drive this ice upward might have come from. Since Miranda is relatively small, it would have cooled quickly after its creation, and it does not have the radioactive material that Earth possesses to help keep its innards hot.

Now, researchers show the gravitational pull of Uranus may have distorted Miranda enough to heat it up, leading its innards to churn much as Earth's does, thus explaining the coronae.

The gravity of Uranus pulls on Miranda, generating tidal forces, much as Earth's moondoes to Earth.

Tidal forces elsewhere in the solar system can be far greater than tidal effects on Earth, for instance, Jupiter's gravitational pull causes the solid rock surface of its third-largest moon Io to bulge up and down by as much as 300 feet (90 meters), generating enough heat to drive volcanic eruptions.

Miranda's orbit around Uranus was once eccentric, or oval-shaped, moving it closer to and farther from Uranus over time.

Three-dimensional computer simulations of Miranda's interior performed for the new study revealed the resulting tidal forces would repeatedly stretch and squeeze Miranda enough to generate substantial amounts of heat, about 5 gigawatts, or 2.5 times the peak power output of the huge Hoover Dam on the southwestern United States' Colorado River.

This heat would cause Miranda's icy mantle to churn with convection much like Earth's mantle of hot rock does. During convection, warm buoyant ice would have risen to Miranda's surface to contort it and create the coronae.

The research team's computer models accurately explained the locations of the coronae and the deformation patterns within the coronae, Hammond said.

"The features on Miranda may look really strange, but they formed in a way that is really similar to what happens on Earth, where convection in the interior drives surface deformation," Hammond told Space.com.

However, the scientists noted that for convection to drive Miranda's surface deformation, the moon's surface must be much weaker than predicted by laboratory experiments.

"The Earth has the same problem: For convection to deform Earth's surface, rocks have to behave weaker than expected," Hammond said.

"It'd be interesting to see what might explain the weakness seen in the surfaces of Miranda, Earth and elsewhere."

So far, scientists only know what Miranda's southern hemisphere looks like. NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft photographed this part of the moon during its 1986 Uranus flyby but did not image Miranda's northern hemisphere.

"It'd be really interesting to think about what could be on the other side of Miranda," Hammond said. "Our study predicts there'd be one additional corona on Miranda's other side, and I would love to live long enough for a mission to go back to Uranus and test that hypothesis."

Hammond and his colleague Amy Barr detailed their findings online Sept. 15 in the journal Geology.

ESO VLT: Hosting unique intergalactic GPS instrument to map the stars

Artist's impression of the MOONS instrument. Credit: STFC

A €9M contract is announced today for Scottish engineers and designers to build a unique and powerful instrument that aims to tackle some of the most compelling astronomical puzzles, such as how stars and galaxies form and evolve, and probing the structure of our own Milky Way.

A project team from the Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) in Edinburgh will lead this international project to develop and build MOONS for the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in northern Chile, already the world's most productive ground-based astronomical facility.

MOONS (Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph) will allow astronomers to see obscured areas in the Milky Way at a distance of around 40,000 light years away, and enable them to create a 3D map of our galaxy.

This is difficult to do as the Earth is in the middle of the Milky Way's disc, so the process is like trying to map a forest of densely-packed trees from the inside.

Director of the ATC, Professor Gillian Wright, said "The team at ATC in Scotland have an opportunity with this project to enable all of us to understand why the Milky Way looks the way it does."

"This instrument will act as an intergalactic GPS to help us to navigate through the billions of stars in our galaxy and create a comprehensive map of its structure."

Conceived at the ATC, part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), MOONS is scheduled to become operational by 2019.

Building such an ambitious and powerful new device, which will be about the size of a transit van, will take around 200 staff-years of effort, with the hardware alone costing €9M.

The full project will cost around €23M. The ATC will lead the Project Office managing the multinational consortium that will construct MOONS, and will also play a vital design role for key components and ensure the project's benefits extend throughout UK industry.

ESO's VLT platform. (Credit: ESO)

Like any spectrograph, MOONS will use the colour of light emitted by objects to reveal their chemical composition, mass, speed and other properties.

Breaking new ground by simultaneously observing 1000 objects using fibre-optic cables to feed their visible and infrared light into the instrument, it will survey large samples of objects far faster than any existing instrument and conduct surveys that would be virtually impossible using today's technologies.

Not surprisingly, the design will pose extraordinary technical demands. For example, each of the 1000-plus fibres will have to move into position very quickly, with great accuracy and without colliding with each other.

The ATC will develop the most innovative component, the individual motorised systems allowing each fibre to move rapidly into position; it will also develop the cryostat system (used to cool MOONS down to -170°C) vital to enabling the infrared observations needed to penetrate galactic and intergalactic dust clouds.

The University of Cambridge will take the credit for developing complex cameras capable of meeting the instrument's demanding performance requirements.

Partnerships with a range of UK equipment suppliers will also contribute across the project, helping the UK to further strengthen its cutting-edge scientific capabilities in the relevant fields.

Scottish Scientists examine the science of lightning in extrasolar planets

A thunderstorm above Unna, in Germany. 

Credit: S Mial /Wikipedia.

Scientists in Scotland are hoping to make a major 'leap' in working out whether a bolt of lightning could trigger life on planets outside the solar system.

The team, at the University of St Andrews, has been studying lightning in extrasolar planets to better understand how atmospheres on earth become electrically charged.

In turn, the researchers, from the University's LEAP (Life Electricity Atmosphere Planets) group at the School of Physics & Astronomy hope to learn more about the role lightning played in generating the 'building blocks' for life.

Christiane Helling

Lead researcher Dr Christiane Helling will reveal one of her group's findings today at a major meeting involving 11,000 scientists working in the Earth, planetary and space sciences.

The researcher will talk about her work in a special session on lightning at the EGU (European Geosciences Union) General Assembly in Vienna.

Dr Helling said, "Atmospheric electrical discharges, or lightning, have been observed on planets other than Earth such as Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, but it is very likely that lightning also occurs outside the Solar System too.

"We studied both exoplanets and brown dwarfs, which host clouds made of minerals or gemstones, to see how much energy is deposited into the atmosphere if a lightning strike hits.

A lightning discharge is started by a small-scale 'streamer discharge' which can evolve into a large-scale lightning bolt.

By building a discharge model related to lab works from the University of Eindhoven TU, Dr Helling and her team were able to study the large-scale properties of lightning in extrasolar, cloud-forming atmospheres, and how much energy would be injected by such a lightning strike.

They found that lightning strikes are more energetic in brown dwarfs than in giant gas planets.

"Our work combines plasma physics experiments performed in laboratories on Earth with our research into cloud formation in extrasolar atmospheres," Dr Helling explained.

"Our work tests the physical processes on Earth in non-terrestrial environments such as hydrogen-dominated atmospheres and gemstone clouds outside the solar system, in contrast to the nitrogen-dominated atmosphere and water clouds on Earth."

The St Andrews research could help in extreme situations of lightning on Earth.

More information: Dr Helling will deliver the scientific talk on the topic 'Large-scale properties of lightning in extrasolar objects' on Friday 2 May 2014, 16.45 in room G1 at the EGU conference cite in Vienna. Online: adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014ApJ...784...43B

Scottish scientists create single-pixel camera for 3D images

A projector displays patterned light on the face on a mannequin. These patterns are used to produce a 2D image. A 3D image is then formed using a technique called "shape from shade"

Scientists in Glasgow have discovered a low-cost way to create 3D images.

Their system uses detectors which have a single pixel to sense light instead of the millions of pixels used in the imaging sensors of digital cameras.

The detectors can "see" frequencies beyond visible light, which researchers say could open up new uses for 3D imaging in medicine and geography.

They said the single-pixel detectors cost "a few pounds" compared to current systems, which cost "thousands".

It is hoped that the system's ability to senses wavelengths far beyond the capability of digital cameras and its low cost, could make it a valuable tool for a wide range of industries.

Researchers said possible uses could range from locating oil to helping doctors find tumours.

Miles Padgett

Crossword patterns
Prof Miles Padgett led the team at University of Glasgow's School of Physics and Astronomy, which developed the technique.

He said: "Single-pixel detectors in four different locations are used to detect light from a data projector, which illuminates objects with a rapidly-shifting sequence of black-and-white patterns similar to crossword puzzles.

"When more of the white squares of these patterns overlap with the object, the intensity of the light reflected back to the detectors is higher.

"A series of projected patterns and the reflected intensities are used in a computer algorithm to produce a 2D image."

"A 3D image was then created by combining images from the four detectors using a well-known technique called "shape from shade"."

This 3D computational imaging, or ghost imaging produces detailed images of objects in just a few seconds.

Conventional 3D imaging systems uses multiple digital camera sensors to produce a 3D image from 2D information. Careful calibration is required to ensure the multi-megapixel images align correctly.

Beyond the visible
Prof Padgett continued: "Our single-pixel system creates images with a similar degree of accuracy without the need for such detailed calibration."

Baoqing Sun

Lead author on the paper Baoqing Sun said: "It might seem a bit counter-intuitive to think that more information can be captured from a detector which uses just a single pixel rather than the multi-megapixel detectors found in conventional digital cameras.

"However, digital camera sensors have a very limited sensitivity beyond the spectrum of visible light, whereas a single-pixel detector can easily be made to capture information far beyond the visible, reaching wavelengths from X-ray to TeraHertz."

More Information:
The team's paper, 3D Computational Imaging with Single-Pixel Detectors, is published in the Science 17 May 2013: Vol. 340 no. 6134 pp. 844-847 DOI:10.1126/science.1234454.

Clyde Space CubeSat: Scotland's 1st Spacecraft Is Tiny Satellite

An artist's illustration of UKube-1, Scotland's first satellite, in orbit. It launches in 2013. 

CREDIT: Clyde Space

cotland's first satellite will soon find a home in orbit around the Earth — a forerunner of things to come under a collaborative, national nanosatellite program in the UK.

Dubbed UKube-1, the small, novel CubeSat spacecraft has been constructed by Clyde Space in Glasgow and is completing final testing for launch later this year onboard a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The advanced UKube-1 nanosatellite has been designed and manufactured by Clyde Space at their high-tech facility at the West of Scotland Science Park.

The petite but powerful spacecraft is chock full of payloads that include the first GPS device aimed at measuring space weather in Earth's plasmasphere — the inner-most layer of the planet's magnetosphere.

The satellite also comes equipped with a camera that will take pictures of the Earth from space and test the effect of radiation on space hardware using a new generation of imaging sensor and an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems.

The UKube-1 satellite also totes a payload made up of five experiments that UK students and the public can interact with — a true "outreach" program into space.


A recent visitor to take a look at UKube-1 was Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland.

"It's one small satellite for Clyde and a giant leap for their extraterrestrial export business and a new hope for space science in Scotland," Salmond said.

UKube-1 is a UK Space Agency mission. The mission has been funded jointly by Clyde Space and a number of funding partners including the UK Space Agency, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Technology Strategy Board and Scottish Enterprise.

As well as the platform and payload elements of the mission, UKube-1 is being supported by three UK ground stations.

"We started designing our nanosatellite platform in 2008 as a means to stimulate some funding from the UK government as part of a national CubeSat program," Craig Clark, chief executive officer of Clyde Space said. Nanosatellites are the fasting growing space sub-sector, with the UK able to tap into both heritage and expertise that primes the pump in building future small satellites, Clark added.

Clark said that there are a number of new developments from Clyde Space on the mission including deployable solar panels — there are three on UKube-1 — as well as advanced attitude and control technology, a sophisticated miniature sun sensor and specialized software that other CubeSats can use.

Large communities of bacteria in the Mariana Trench

Deep sea trenches act as hot spots for microbial activity because they receive an unusually high flux of organic matter, made up of dead animals, algae and other microbes, sourced from the surrounding much shallower sea-bottom.

An international research team announces the first scientific results from one of the most inaccessible places on Earth: the bottom of the Mariana Trench located nearly 11 kilometers below sea level in the western Pacific, which makes it the deepest site on Earth.

Their analyses document that a highly active bacteria community exists in the sediment of the trench - even though the environment is under extreme pressure almost 1,100 times higher than at sea level.

In fact, the trench sediments house almost 10 times more bacteria than in the sediments of the surrounding abyssal plain at much shallower water depth of 5-6 km water.

Deep sea trenches are hot spots
Deep sea trenches act as hot spots for microbial activity because they receive an unusually high flux of organic matter, made up of dead animals, algae and other microbes, sourced from the surrounding much shallower sea-bottom.

It is likely that some of this material becomes dislodged from the shallower depths during earthquakes, which are common in the area.

So, even though deep sea trenches like the Mariana Trench only amount to about two percent of the World Ocean area, they have a relatively larger impact on marine carbon balance - and thus on the global carbon cycle, says Professor Ronnie Glud from Nordic Center for Earth Evolution at the University of Southern Denmark.

Ronnie Glud and researchers from Germany (HGF-MPG Research Group on Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology of the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, Scotland's (Scottish Association for Marine Science), Japan's (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology),  and Denmark (University of Copenhagen), explore the deepest parts of the oceans, and the team's first results from these extreme environments were published in the widely recognized international journal Nature Geoscience.

Bonnie but Rugged: Canadian Astronaut Hadfield snaps Scotland from ISS

"Bonnie but Rugged!" Loch Lomond and the Clyde estuary in view here.

Cmdr Hadfield: "The ruggedness of Scotland evident in the snowy hills and lochs north of the Firth of Clyde." 

First Minister Alex Salmond tweeted the astronaut saying he was impressed with his photography. 

Cmdr Hadfield responded by saying he hoped to visit Scotland when he was "back on earth". 

The "Whiskey Islands" - The Isle of Skye photographed by Cmdr Hadfield - he described them as "a stirring landscape". 

The islands of Canna, Rum, Eigg, and Muck are visible to the south of Skye, as well as the mainland from Loch Torridon down to Loch Nevis. Cmdr Hadfield said: 

"Edinburgh to Dundee, with the big Tay and Forth bridges visible. 

Scottish Cybraphon Sings - Video

Cybraphon Demo Song (The Balkan Bazaar) from Cybraphon on Vimeo.


Cybraphon is the latest project from Edinburgh-based artist collective FOUND (Ziggy Campbell, Simon Kirby and Tommy Perman).

Inspired by early 19th century mechanical bands such as the nickelodeon, Cybraphon is an interactive version of a mechanical band in a box. Consisting of a series of robotic instruments housed in a large display case, Cybraphon behaves like a real band.

Image conscious and emotional, the band’s performance is affected by online community opinion as it searches the web for reviews and comments about itself 24 hours a day.

This website documents the progress of the project as Cybraphon is comes to life at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW).

Cybraphon is funded by the Alt-w Production Award administered by New Media Scotland and will be unveiled at the Edinburgh Arts Festival on 5 August 2009 in InSpace Gallery.

Scotland's Clyde Space: CubeSat-1 readied for launch

Clyde-built nanosatellite set for Russian take-off as company reveals plan for US base.

Alex Salmond took a close-up view of Scotland's first satellite as the Glasgow-based team behind the mission announced plans to open a base in the United States.

Clyde Space, which designed and built the UKube-1 nanosatellite, is running final tests at the company's headquarters in the West of Scotland Science Park ahead of its deployment next month to Kazakhstan, where it will be launched in a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket later this year.

Employing more than 20 highly-skilled full-time staff, Clyde Space is a leading producer of small satellite, nanosatellite and 'CubeSat' systems - fully-functional satellites that 'piggy-back' on other launches to minimise costs and boost the commercial availability of space research.

The company develops and delivers products to commercial aerospace, defence companies and academic teams around the world and now plans to open a base next year in the United States - which already accounts for almost a third of its current orders.

Mr Salmond said: "From James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory that paved the way for deep-space telescopes, to Professor Higgs work at the University of Edinburgh into the building blocks of all matter, Scottish science has helped humankind better understand our universe.

By pioneering a cost-effective way of supporting more space research, the Clyde Space team is building on a strong heritage of engineering, ingenuity and innovation. I'm delighted that, through Scottish Enterprise, we've been able to support this exciting company as it has built the business globally, to a point, now, where it is planning a new base in the US.

"It is great to see up close Scotland's first space satellite - representing another successful Scottish export drive, but not as we know it. After years of hard work Craig and his stellar team have shown they have the right stuff to achieve a space mission and they're ready to make it so.

I'm delighted that the mission not only supports several research projects but will engage young people online and can help inspire the next generation of space scientists and engineers. We cannot change the laws of physics but it's important that we continue to study and understand them better. It's one small satellite for Clyde and a giant leap for their extraterrestrial export business and a new hope for space science in Scotland!"

Scotland's Clyde Space: Preparing for Soyuz-2 Launch, Baikonur

Scotland's first satellite will be launched from a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket in March 2013. UKube-1, built by Clyde Space in Glasgow, is now completing final testing at the company's headquarters before making the journey to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch.

Confirming that agreement had been reached for the Russian rocket to carry UKube- 1, Clyde Space CEO Craig Clark, said: "UKube-1 aims to be the first of many nanosatellites produced at Clyde Space, and is a fantastic mission for us to demonstrate our capabilities as a spacecraft mission lead.

"I'm proud of the team here at Clyde Space in achieving such a critical milestone in the mission."

The UKube-1 nanosatellite has been designed and manufactured by Clyde Space at their high-tech facility on the West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow.

The nanosatellite is one of the most advanced of its kind, the complexity of the spacecraft highlighted by the nature of the 6 independent, advanced payloads being flown by the mission.

NB: The UK Space agency has renamed the Clyde Space CubeSat product to make it sound politically more nationalistic and collaborative.

The satellite is one of the most advanced of its kind and the mission is the pilot for a collaborative, national CubeSat programme bringing together UK industry and academia to fly educational packages, test new technologies and carry out new space research quickly and efficiently.

Payloads in UKube-1 include the first GPS device aimed at measuring plasmaspheric space weather, a camera that will take images of the Earth and test the effect of radiation on space hardware using a new generation of imaging sensor and an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems.

In line with the Scottish philosophy of education, enlightenment and their historical technical heritage, the company has engaged with students, colleges and universities to involve them in the design of future payloads.

Therefore, the Clyde Space CubeSat (UKube-1) will also carry a payload made up of five experiments that UK students and the public can interact with and an outreach programme that also allows school children to interact with the spacecraft.

Brian Binnie - First Scottish person in Space

Binnie was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, where his Scottish father was a professor of physics at Purdue University.

The family returned to Scotland when Binnie was five, and lived in Aberdeen (his father taught at Aberdeen University) and later in Stirling.

When Binnie was a teenager the family moved to Boston.

Binnie, an alumnus of Brown and Princeton Universities, served for 21 years in the United States Navy as a naval aviator flying the A-7 Corsair II, A-6 Intruder, F/A-18 Hornet, and AV-8B Harrier II.

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1988.

Binnie also co-piloted the Atmospheric Test Vehicle of the Rotary Rocket.

In 2006, he received an Honorary degree from University of Aberdeen.


On December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered flight, Binnie piloted the first powered test flight of SpaceShipOne, flight 11P, which reached a top speed of Mach 1.2 and a height of 20.7 kilometers.

On October 4, 2004, he piloted SpaceShipOne's second Ansari X Prize flight, flight 17P, winning the X Prize and becoming the 435th person, and the first citizen of Scotland, to go into space.

His flight, which peaked at 367,442 feet (69.6 mi; 112.0 km), set a winged aircraft altitude record, breaking the old record set by the North American X-15 in 1963.

It also earned him the second set of Astronaut Wings to be given by the FAA for a flight aboard a privately-operated commercial spacecraft.

Scottish Screen Archive - Neil Armstrong in LANGHOLM' Scotland

Neil Armstrong swears the oath of allegiance and is granted the freedom of the burgh of Langholm.

Video shows sections of original news footage from Scottish Border Television.

Shots of pipe band in the streets of Langholm. Neil Armstrong and his wife, accompanied by the Provost and civic officials, stand to attention for the American national anthem.

Shots of the party as they are driven through the burgh streets in an open landau carriage.

They arrive at parish church. Shots inside the church as Armstrong swears oath of allegiance and is granted the freedom of the burgh. He signs the Burgess Roll.

Shots of Neil Armstrong as he addresses the congregation. Shots of the party outside the church.

Armstrong signs autographs and walks through the crowds.

Observing Sunrise: Solar scientists review Hinode findings

Japan has a long tradition in solar physics and in 2006 launched one of the major space observatories – Hinode, which means 'sunrise' in Japanese.

For almost six years this satellite has been constantly monitoring our local star with a suite of three telescopes: the Solar Optical Telescope, X-ray Telescope and Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS).

Solar Optical Telecope

Together, they enable the study of how magnetic energy is generated and released in the atmosphere of our Sun.

This week in St. Andrews over 150 scientists from around the world gathered for the "Hinode 6" conference to celebrate what has been learnt using the Hinode satellite.

Although launched and led by Japan, the satellite has major contributions from the UK, the USA and Norway.

Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS)

Unexpectedly, St. Andrews has a connection to Hinode’s modern observing methods that dates back to the late 1600s.

The Scottish mathematician James Gregory upon walking along the beach in St. Andrews, Scotland, picked up a feather and wondered what would happen if a beam of light were shone through it.

Isaac Newton was conducting similar experiments with glass prisms in Cambridge.

Back in his lab, Gregory saw that the feather split the light into its component colours in a process now known as diffraction – a simple technique that is used today in many solar telescopes as it allows us to measure the properties of sunlight and in turn learn about the star that emitted it.

The Solar Science department at UCL led the development of the EIS telescope - a modern equivalent to the bird’s feather - which splits the ultraviolet light emitted from atmospheric gases into the component colours.

A major topic for discussion at the conference has been how magnetic fields that emanate up from the Sun’s surface into the atmosphere, create structures that glow in ultraviolet and X-rays and produce activity such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME).

A large X-class flare captured by the X-ray telescope on Hinode. Image credit: JAXA/Hinode

High-speed gas flows associated to solar flares have been observed, helping scientists understand the processes that convert energy stored in the magnetic fields into energy of gas motions.

Computer models have been combined with observations to understand how currents surge along the magnetic structures, supported by the charged particles of the atmospheric gases, heating the atmospheric gases to very high temperatures.

Read the full article here at SEN: Solar scientists review Hinode findings

Red Arrows Display over Scottish Museum of Flight

The Red Arrows display over the Scottish National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, Scotland.

Aberdeen Scientists Find Link Between Light Deficiency and Multiple Sclerosis

Aberdeen scientists have found that artificial sunlight can have a “striking effect” in helping treat sufferers of diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

Researchers from Aberdeen University studied patients in the north of Scotland – which has the highest rate of MS in the UK - who were being treated during winter with artificial UV (ultraviolet)-B light therapy for skin diseases caused by their immune systems acting inappropriately.

The research - published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology – shows how UV-B light boosts vitamin D, as well as cells in our body that are responsible for regulating or balancing the immune system. Vitamin D is made in our bodies by UV-B light from the sun.

Some studies have suggested a link between vitamin D deficiency and autoimmune diseases such as MS.

This possible link might also explain the increasing prevalence of autoimmune disease among those living far from the equator, where there are lower levels of winter sun.

Autoimmune diseases - like MS and type 1 diabetes - are diseases where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues or harmless substances that enter the body.

Dr Anthony Ormerod, clinical reader in dermatology at the university, said: “Our study shows that UV-B light, which mimics sunshine, can have a striking effect on the immune system of patients.

“We found that UV-B light boosted the production of vitamin D, and of regulatory T cells, which play an important role keeping our immune systems in check.

“Our findings have important implications for future interventions including the recommendations for healthy lifestyle and a possible role for phototherapy and/or vitamin D supplementation in the prevention or treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

“While too much exposure to sunlight is harmful and increases skin cancer risk, these results suggest that subjects in our study would have some benefits from small amounts equivalent to summer exposure in the winter but more work needs to determine the role of sunlight and the role of supplementing the diet with vitamin D.”

Dr Helen Macdonald, senior lecturer in nutrition and translational musculoskeletal research at the university and chair of the National Osteoporosis Society Nutrition and Lifestyle forum, said: “There are risks associated with high levels of both therapies, so it is important that we get the balance right.

“We would also want to stress that we are not advocating sun bed use since this is not the same type of radiation produced by sun beds which already have well-documented health risks.

“The average dose of UV light that the volunteers received was the equivalent to sunlight exposure in Aberdeen over spring and summer and further work is required to determine if lower doses are effective.”

Professor Mark Vickers, chair in applied medicine at the university, added: “Ours is the first study to demonstrate in patients a cause and effect between UV light, vitamin D and systemic immune function in people.”

Scottish Whisky distiller of Ardbeg, sends malt into space

A Scottish island distillery, who's whisky has reached 'cult' status with Scottish whisky experts, is carrying out experiments in space to find out how its product matures without gravity.

The Ardbeg Distillery on Islay blasted compounds of unmatured malt - known as new make spirit - to the International Space Station (ISS) in an unmanned cargo spacecraft on October 30 last year.

Ardbeg Whisky Flavour Notes

It also sent up particles of charred oak and, once the spacecraft docked at the ISS, the two sets of molecules were mixed.

Scientists want to understand how the two sets of compounds interact at close-to-zero gravity.

The molecules are tiny parts of the two substances known as terpenes - a set of chemicals which are often aromatic and flavour-active.

It is believed the experiment is the first time anyone has ever studied terpenes and other molecules in near-zero gravity.

The team are also measuring the molecules' interaction at normal gravity on Earth so they can compare the way the particles mature.

The molecules will stay on the ISS for at least two years so scientists can understand how they change in a near-zero gravity environment.

The experiment, unveiled at the Edinburgh International Science Festival today, is led by US-based space research company NanoRacks LLC.

The results could be used for different industries, including future generations of Ardbeg whisky.

Michael Johnson, chief technical officer of NanoRacks LLC, said: "By doing this microgravity experiment on the interaction of terpenes and other molecules with the wood samples provided by Ardbeg, we will learn much about flavours, even extending to applications like food and perfume.

"At the same time it should help Ardbeg find new chemical building blocks in their own flavour spectrum."

Dr Bill Lumsden, head of distilling and whisky creation at Ardbeg, who unveiled the experiment, said: "This experiment will throw new light on the effect of gravity on the maturation process. We are all tremendously excited by this experiment - who knows where it will lead?"

Below is a short video of Bill Lumsden describing his introduction to Ardbeg whilst hosting a tasting event.

Scotland & North England: 'Meteor' sight swamps switchboards

Police forces across the UK have received numerous calls after a large fireball, thought to be a meteor, was spotted in the sky.

Reports of a "bright light" and an "orange glow" were received by police across Scotland and the north of England around 9.40pm on Saturday. The Met Office tweeted: "Hi All, for anyone seeing something in the night sky, we believe it was a meteorite."

The Kielder Observatory also reported the sighting of a "huge fireball" travelling from north to south over Northumberland at 9.41pm. The Observatory posted on Twitter: "Of 30 years observing the sky #fireball best thing I have ever seen period."

Meteors are particles from space that burn up in a streak of light as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, whereas meteorites are larger objects that survive the trip and reach the surface of the Earth.

Dr David Whitehouse, an author and astronomer, said: "Judging by its brightness, it may have have been large enough to survive and hit the ground but until people work out its trajectory we won't have any idea where it might have come down."

Dr Whitehouse said the object was about the size of a fist and was probably the debris of a planet that never properly formed. He said: "It's a chunk of rock that's probably come from somewhere between Mars and Jupiter and has been in space for thousands of millions of years. There are tens of thousands of bits of rock and grains of sand orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Some of it comes out of that orbit and some of it hits the Earth."

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said the force had been "inundated" with calls about a bright object in the sky across the west of Scotland.

A Durham Police spokeswoman said a number of calls came in around 9.45pm from concerned members of public who had seen a "bright light or a fire in the sky" and believed it may have been incidents involving an aircraft.

"It has been confirmed with air traffic control that there are no incidents of aircraft in difficulty and nothing registered on radar," she said. "The sightings are believed to be either an asteroid burning out or similar which has been restricted to the upper atmosphere only."

Grampian Police said reports of people seeing a "flare or a bright object with a tail" were received from across the region. And Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said numerous calls were made about a "large ball of fire in the sky" across Annandale and Eskdale. One user wrote on the force's Facebook page: "It was awesome to see! Really big and bright!"

Scotland's Glasgow firm Clyde Space awarded small share of UK technology funding

Glasgow-based Clyde Space has been awarded funding for two joint space technology development projects.

The firm has secured nearly £70,000 under the UK Space Agency's National Space Technology Programme (NSTP).

The funding will help Clyde further work on miniaturised electric propulsion systems for very small spacecraft.

The other project involves developing attitude planning and control algorithms for low cost spacecraft.

Clyde has been working on tiny electric propulsion systems for very small spacecraft called "CubeSats" and nanosatellites with Southampton University's Mars Space Ltd.

Funding of £24,000 has been awarded for their joint work on a micro pulsed plasma thruster for CubeSats.

Clyde said the project would take the technology forward to a flight-ready prototype.

The UK Space Agency awarded a further £44,000 for a joint project with the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde.

That project involves optimising algorithms for control of CubeSat attitude, furthering work already completed at Clyde.

Craig Clark, from Clyde Space, said: "We are up against organisations from all over the world, high technology companies that are doing similar things to us, so this funding will really help towards us maintaining a competitive edge."

Scotland Space Scientific Research and Innovation is reaching for the stars

At last Scotland is being seen as playing a leading role in the space sector after decades of being the engineers, scientists and innovators that break down technological barriers in other countries' space programs.

The space sector contributes £5.6 billion to the UK economy, as well as supporting 68,000 high-value jobs. Not only that, it has soared above the recent economic headwinds, growing an average of 9 per cent each year since 1999.

Scotland-based companies are playing a key role in that success story. Clyde Space is leading the design and manufacture of the UKube-1 satellite – the UK’s first satellite commissioned by the UK Space Agency.

Other examples include Star-Dundee, which sells its data-handling test products to almost every international space agency, while Selex Galileo, in Edinburgh, is tapping into the market for European satellites.

Commercial success also goes hand in hand with globally recognised academic excellence, with the recent launch of the Space Glasgow research cluster by the UK Science Minister David Willetts.

Scotland is also involved with key instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will replace Hubble Space telescope (HST), currently jointly managed by NASA and ESA.

But don’t think that space research is something that can only be applied out in the great beyond. In fact, on 6 March, Glasgow will host the second Scottish Space Symposium, exploring the theme of “Bringing space down to earth”. Download a copy of the Program here

Scottish Enterprise is supporting the event in partnership with University of Strathclyde to showcase the benefits of using space-based information and technologies.

For example, use of space-based data will allow Network Rail to improve safety by monitoring landslides remotely via satellite rather than sending engineers to remote locations.

Edinburgh-based Ecometrica is also using satellite data to monitor CO2 levels, putting them at the vanguard of carbon trading and tariffs which the EU is investigating placing on businesses as a means of tackling climate change.

So the Scottish Space Symposium will explore how businesses can benefit from terrestrial applications in such key fields as communications and transport. Science fact, as opposed to science fiction.