Eagle Eye Magazine Issue 1 2023

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EAGLE EYE | ISSUE 1 | 2023 Looking out across the gardens towards the Radcliffe Camera on a clear day, sitting by the fireplaces, enjoying a dinner in the hall, and most of all talking to people who have deep knowledge and great passion for their areas of expertise. Can you tell us a bit about the questions you ask in your research and the ideas you explore? My primary research focus is at the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. In particular, I enjoy working on topics in which new or upcoming experiments are focused, which gives the opportunity for new discoveries or mysteries. Our current understanding of the universe is very deep, we can describe the constituents of matter at the smallest scales and give the history of the universe back to the first few minutes with remarkable success. However, many puzzles still remain, such as the why the elementary particles have different mass ratios and what comprises the so-called “dark matter” — being matter that can be inferred from gravitational interactions but has not been identified directly through experiment. Prof James Unwin, Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Illinois, Chicago: academic Distinguished Visitor, 2022-2023. Professor Unwin undertakes research related to new physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics at the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. He has worked on a range of topics in theoretical particle physics, including Supersymmetry, LHC searches for New Physics, and Grand Unified Theories. In theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, he is interested in exploring novel dark matter models with distinct implications for experiments and observations. What attracted you about coming to Queen’s as a Distinguished Visitor? Aside from the world-class researchers, the quality that makes Oxford one of my favourite universities to visit is the college system. Being part of a college provides an opportunity to socialise with like-minded individuals and learn about recent advances in fields beyond your own. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been invited as a Distinguished Visitor and hope I will have the opportunity to return in the future. How have you found your time in College so far? My enjoyment in college life has most distinctly come from things that one can take for granted after spending several years at Oxford, but when returning as a visitor they are fresh once more. What’s the value of an interdisciplinary approach? Some of the greatest advances in science have come through interdisciplinary approaches. Indeed, communication between mathematics, particle physics, and condensed matter physics have led to some of the deepest insights in my own field. More generally, I am interested in applying mathematical frameworks to other types of problems and I have written papers in areas such as politics, economics, and geography. I find that thinking about research questions in other fields can be a refreshing change and can lead you to find new applications of the tools with which you are already familiar. Tell us about the children’s book Reaching for the Stars that you wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic and what inspired you to do this? We all needed some diversion during the pandemic, in particular we had a newborn in 2020, so we were being especially careful and rarely venturing outside. My wife and I had read hundreds of books to our firstborn during this time and so we decided to try our hand at writing our own books. My wife, Laura Schaposnik, had a friend who was an aspiring illustrator and so we teamed up to write this book Reaching for the Stars, while my wife wrote her own series: Ene and the Magic…. I’m very proud of how the book turned “Queen’s, of course, is one of the most beautiful colleges in the city, and I was glad to learn it was also extremely welcoming. out and we even got 200 copies printed as board books to donate to Northwestern’s Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. You were a graduate student at Oxford so no stranger to the city; do you have a favourite place? Oxford is one of my favourite cities in the world and still feels like home. I especially love Jericho, which is always where I try to stay when visiting. Places that I love to spend time include Port Meadow (especially when it’s filled with horses), the rooftop cafe of the Ashmolean, and punting along the quieter parts of the Cherwell. 20
“The ocean makes up 70% of the Earth’s surface area, yet the majority of species inhabiting the ocean remain undescribed. OCEANS Racing against time to complete the largest ocean census in history COUNT Photo: iStock.com/Nuture Dr Denise Swanborn (Environmental Research, 2018) tells us about her work with Ocean Census, the largest ever ocean survey. You are part of a project called Ocean Census which aims to accelerate the discovery of ocean life. Can you share a bit more about the programme? Ocean Census launched on 27 April 2023. It has been set up by two founding partners, Nekton and the Nippon Foundation, and has set the ambitious target of finding at least 100,000 new marine species in the first decade. Oxford is the headquarters of Ocean Census. The programme is a global open alliance of partners, and we are actively seeking research institutes, universities, and, in particular, taxonomists to partner with us. Why is it important to do this now? The ocean makes up 70% of the Earth’s surface area, and ocean life is fundamental to all life on Earth. It produces the oxygen we breathe, isolates carbon dioxide, creates food for billions of people and is constantly providing vital scientific advances to fight disease. Yet the majority of species inhabiting the ocean remain undescribed, especially in the deep sea. Today, scientists believe they have described little over 10% of the species that exist. Ocean Census aims to significantly change this, as we cannot protect and sustain what we do not know. To conserve and sustain the life that you uncover in the ocean, what measures are being taken as part of the project? We set up a series of global expeditions to the ocean’s biodiversity hotspots to find new life from the surface to full ocean depth (10,925 metres). These expeditions will be run on vessels from the philanthropic, government, academic, and commercial fleets. We are deploying a combination of advanced subsea technologies with divers, human submersibles, and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). As Expedition Manager, I work on the implementation of these expeditions. Specimens collected on expeditions will be sent to Biodiversity Centres, where they will be analysed and described. All resulting data will be uploaded into a database so that networks of taxonomists will connect virtually to draw on the aggregated data set created. This aggregated, open-sourced data is added to a network of data centres globally and made freely accessible to scientists, marine policymakers and the public. How will you use machine learning and other new technologies to analyse the data? Recent technological advances in high resolution imaging, DNA sequencing, and machine learning mean scientists can now massively accelerate the process of species discovery and description. Ocean Census will deploy high-precision sampling tools to collect corals and other large organisms during expeditions. This means that a small number of individual samples will be collected and then preserved for further analysis in museums or other laboratories. Sub-samples will be taken for DNA analysis. Smaller organisms that live in sand or mud will be collected as small samples of sediment, preserved and then later extracted. We work with scientific and business partners for the latest and most efficient technology to accelerate the process of DNA analysis and species description. 21
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Eagle Eye Magazine Issue 1 2023

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