Historic England laboratories given ‘state-of-the-art' refurbishment
The laboratories used by Historic England's scientists to carry out research from some of the country's most significant heritage sites are reopening after a state-of-the-art refit.
The Fort Cumberland Laboratories in Portsmouth, Hampshire, have been equipped with tools to help understand how historic artefacts are made and how best to preserve them.
The site has been central in projects ranging from the re-excavation of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, conserving artefacts from the 18th century Dutch warship the Rooswijk off the Kent coast and the analysis of human remains at Birdoswald Roman Fort Cemetery at Hadrian's Wall in Cumbria.
An Historic England spokeswoman said: 'The specialist work of Historic England's science facility at Fort Cumberland plays a vital role in telling the stories of England's past.
'Over the last 75 years, its archaeologists and heritage scientists have made a significant contribution to understanding our past.
' Housing nationally important reference collections and advanced analytical instrumentation, Fort Cumberland is managed by a team of heritage scientists who provide bespoke advice and services to the heritage sector, as well as producing globally-recognised best practice guidance.'
The renovations, funded by Historic England, have involved reconfiguring the lab spaces with new flooring, heating and cooling systems while new posts have been created with funding awarded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The new equipment includes a scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometry system (SEM-EDS) for analysing historic materials to which will provide an insight into how they are made as well as assess their condition and how to preserve them for longer.
The spokeswoman said: 'The upgraded SEM-EDS allows imaging of very small features (e.g. nanocrystals) as well as mapping the chemical composition of a wide range of materials.
'Expected uses include identifying dental wear in archaeological remains; causes of bone discolouration or butchering marks; wood and fibre species; insect remains; plant remains; and historic building materials.'
Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: 'The amazing work of our archaeologists and heritage scientists is helping to uncover the hidden stories that connect us to our distant past.
'This new investment in Fort Cumberland's laboratories will enhance our research and conservation work, and improve access to our expertise, equipment and collections, helping more people to enjoy and care for their heritage.'
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Daily Mail
6 hours ago
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Dr Louise Hamaide, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Naples, told MailOnline: 'A good analogy for a field in a false vacuum is a marble in a bowl on top of a stool. 'The marble cannot leave the bowl unless it is given some energy in the form of a push, and if it does it will fall all the way to the ground.' Being on the ground is what we would call the vacuum state, whereas the bowl is merely a false vacuum which prevents the marble from falling to the ground. What makes this idea worrying is the possibility that a fundamental part of the universe's structure could be stuck in one of these false vacuums. All it needs is a little push, and the structure of reality itself will come crashing down to the ground. The universe's self-destruct button The idea of a false vacuum gets really scary when we apply it to our current model of reality. The universe and everything in it is made of subatomic particles such as electrons, photons, and quarks. 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The Guardian
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'You can do what you like in your private life – I don't have a problem with that – but you can't watch porn in the House of Commons, and you shouldn't be watching porn at your desk. There's a place for these things and it's not in the office.' Her review, published in February, made 32 recommendations. Last week the first of these became government policy, when officials announced that pornography depicting strangulation would be made illegal. Her new taskforce of 17 people, bringing together representatives from the police, the advertising industry, anti-trafficking organisations and violence against women charities, will focus on how to ensure harmful online content is better regulated, trying to bring parity between the scrutiny of offline and online content. She pays tribute to the 'hugely innovative side' of the porn industry, which has long driven technological advances in webcams and internet speeds, fuelled by the sector's enormous capacity to turn profit, but she has not invited any representatives on to the taskforce, wary of anything that might let the industry 'mark their own homework'. This week Ofcom announced that major online providers, including the UK's most popular pornography site, Pornhub, had agreed to implement stronger age-verification measures in compliance with the Online Safety Act, to prevent under-18s from accessing adult material. Those platforms that do not comply with the measures face being fined 10% of global turnover or being blocked in the UK. Ofcom is also responsible for monitoring whether sites distributing user-generated pornography are protecting UK viewers from encountering illegal material involving child sexual abuse and extreme content (showing rape, bestiality and necrophilia, for example). However, other forms of harmful pornography that are regulated in physical formats are not subject to similar restrictions online. It is this grey, unscrutinised area that Bertin's panel will focus on, as well as calling for better processes to respond to stolen content, working out how people depicted in pornographic videos can request that the clips be removed from sites, and how to build safety mechanisms into AI tools that create sexually explicit content. Officials at the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) guided her through short clips of extreme material to help her understand the nature of easily available harmful content. She remains disturbed by the material she saw – content designed to appear to be child sexual abuse, set in children's bedrooms – roles played by young girls, who may be over 18 but are acting as children. 'The titles are very problematic, things like: 'Daddy's going to come home and give his daughter a good seeing to' or 'Oops I've gone too far and now she's dead' or 'Kidnap and kill a hooker.'' This content would be prohibited by the BBFC in the offline world, but is unregulated online. During research for her review, she met representatives from global tech companies, and told them how when Volvo invented the three-point safety belt they gifted the patent to the rest of the industry because staff realised the innovation was so vital to raising safety standards. 'My pitch was that they have a duty and responsibility to double down on trying to get technology that can clean up these situations, and they should share that technology,' she says. 'Taylor Swift can whip a song off a website as soon as anyone tries to pirate it. There's no reason why the firms can't come up with technology to sort this out.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Posing for photographs, she edges away from a watercolour of Margaret Thatcher hung on the wall by one of her colleagues. 'Let's do it without Thatcher in the background. That's not my doing by the way – I share the office,' she says semi-apologetically, before rapidly adding: 'I mean I love Thatcher, obviously.' But she may be making an important distinction. In a 1970 Woman's Hour interview, Thatcher said the rise of pornography was a 'frightening' manifestation of a newly permissive society that she believed was undermining family life. Bertin describes herself as a liberal conservative and wants to be clear she is neither anti-porn nor running a moral crusade. 'Consenting adults should be able to do what they want; I have no desire to stop any kind of sexual freedom. But restricting people from seeing a woman being choked, called a whore, and having several men stamp on her – for example – is not ending someone's sexual freedom. This is the kind of content we want to end.'
BBC News
9 hours ago
- BBC News
Rare dragonflies spotted as RSPB Campfield Marsh awarded title
A nature reserve has been named as the UK's newest dragonfly hotspot as two rare species have been spotted at the white-faced darter, a rare dragonfly, was introduced to RSPB Campfield Marsh in Wigton in April and it is hoped there will be breeding pairs in British Dragonfly Society designated it to become the 12th hotspot in the UK, saying it had "amazing habitat management" with deep bog pools which "should provide the perfect conditions for the species to thrive".RSPB Cumbria Coast reserve warden, Dan Cropper, who recorded two male white-faced darter at the site recently, said the recognition was a "testament to the health of our peat bogs". The white-faced darter, named for its distinctive chalk-white profile, has seen its numbers severely decline in England where it only exists in a handful of Cropper said he had recently recorded seeing two males on site but no females yet. "It would be amazing to see female dragonflies dipping their tails into the water and releasing their eggs."This would mean that our site could be a provider to save the species."Dragonfly hotspots are chosen because they are "fantastic places" for the insects to thrive and are easily accessible, according to the society. Conservation officer for the British Dragonfly Society, Eleanor Colver, said the white-faced darter was "vulnerable to extinction"."Thanks to the amazing habitat management work of the RSPB, the peat wetland at Campfield Marsh, with its deep bog pools, should provide the perfect conditions for the species to thrive," she added. LISTEN: Meet the rare White-faced Darter dragonfly Mr Cropper said: "Cumbria is an English stronghold for the white-faced darter and we're really lucky to have the dragonfly here." He added Campfield Marsh was a "nice mosaic of different habitats - salt marsh, wet grassland and peat bogs - which provides different habitats for our 13 species of dragonfly". "The dragonfly hotspot title demonstrates the importance of the site and will hopefully engage people to come and take interest in the insects. "We are tucked away up here so it's important for the site to have recognition," he event to celebrate the title will be held at the site on 5 July which will include guided dragonfly walks and pond dipping. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
