Boulby Underground Laboratory

Following on from an afternoon of discussions around the current state of #bioscience and the future of underground #biology #research, our team is now heading back to Boulby for the final component of #DULIABio – the visit underground tomorrow 👷🥼    We’ve spent today talking with researchers and other underground labs about the current underground bioscience climate and how we can facilitate its development over the coming years. Our plan to expand is a great opportunity to ensure that the UK has a world-class facility for this fascinating, developing field – and international collaboration is more valuable than ever before 🔬🦠    #DULIABio24 

How does life survive deep beneath the Earth’s surface? How does an absence of cosmic radiation impact cellular life? What technology should we use to look for life in outer space? 🔬🦠    We’re excited to be hosting #DULIABio24 this week – a series of workshops on #Biology and #BioScience, bringing together scientists from #underground labs around the world. This year, the conference is hosted by STFC and Boulby Underground Laboratory and held in #York 🌍    Underground bioscience is a fascinating field of research – in terms of both currently active studies and future projects and plans. The talks and discussions in the earlier half of this week range from studying how ultra-low radiation environments affect life, to studies of life in low radiation environments, to developing technologies for searching for life beyond Earth – and more... 

What’s going on here?    Given that today is #WorldPhotographyDay, we thought it would be a good opportunity to share some of our favourite photos from the past 12 months! 📸📆    ... but we’re not going to give you any context 😉    Tell us in the comments – which picture is your favourite and can you guess what’s going on in it? 🤔    #Photography #WorldPhotoDay24 

Check out this article from the UKRI! How can being 1.1km deep in a mine in the north of England help us answer questions about Mars? 🧪⛏️ This article gives a little insight into the work we are doing with space technology and off world exploration and why institutions like NASA and ESA are so interested in our incredible lab! 👨🚀🚀 👩🚀 

#Throwback Thursday to all the visits we have hosted recently! 😀🤗🙂 We have hosted many scientists, engineers, technicians and VIP’s over the last month. From Australia to South Dakota, it is a privilege to host fellow researchers who are interested in what we do. 🌍🌏 Building relationships is critical to the long-term future of underground science. Showing the #STEM community what we do ensures researchers around the world know how to access underground science space and helps them develop their projects. 🔬 Next week, we host a major tour as a part of the DULIA-Bio workshop. If you have signed up to the tour, we look forward to hosting you and showing you our incredible facility. 

Next week, we are pleased to be hosting the #DULIA-Bio #workshop. This workshop focuses on deep underground #Biology. We will be hearing lots of fascinating talks from some incredible researchers from Stem cell research and microbiology to brines and effects of radiation. Co-operation between researchers is key to the advancement of #science and #workshops like DULIA-Bio allow the spreading of ideas and research. We have #researchers flying in from around the world and joining remotely. This creates a truly exciting opportunity for #networking and discussion. Over 3 days, we will be learning new ideas and #science conducted around the world, and we’ll be keeping you updated on DULIA-Bio throughout the week.

Today is #InternationalYouthDay, and we’re celebrating the scientists, engineers and technicians of the future 🎉✨    We engage a lot with the #YoungPeople in our local area, whether that be storytelling with local primary schools or talking about #STEM careers at the sixth forms and colleges around #Teesside 📚    Not only that, but we also value the talents of the young people within our team as well ⬇️⬇️     We currently host 2 lab technician #apprentices, 2 #IndustrialPlacement students, and one summer student – and on top of that we have two new apprentices starting in September, a masters student we hosted earlier in 2024, and a number of younger people who are already members of the core team!     With the world changing as fast as it is, allowing these new perspectives to shape and influence us ensures that we remain great at what we do 😊 

We are thrilled to have attended the #BIGEvent24 last week – an inspiring conference dedicated to all things #ScienceCommunications! 🌟    The BIG Event provided us with invaluable insights that will help us amplify our impact. Our team spent 3 days immersed in seminars and discussions on topics from all corners of #outreach – from working with science festivals to make effective demonstrations, to approaching sensitive subjects when engaging with the public. Needless to say, it has provoked us to reflect on how we communicate our science currently and what we can do to develop our outreach programme further.    We’re taking home a wealth of knowledge and a renewed passion for our work. Thank you to the organisers and the speakers for imparting your knowledge and experience upon all of us from Boulby Underground Lab.    We hope to be back next year! 

Last week we gave a tour of our underground lab to Professor Linda O'Brien - CEO of the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory based in Victoria, #Australia! 🌏🌌 This new and exciting deep underground laboratory will be undertaking research into #DarkMatter with SABRE (Sodium iodide with Active Background Rejection Experiment) as well as other exciting areas. We were very pleased to welcome Professor O’Brien to our lab and show her how we operate as a world class facility.   Cooperation between underground laboratories is key to the long-term future of #ScientificResearch - not only in the realm of particle physics, but also many other areas of #Science that make use of unique underground environments. We hope to hear more from Professor O’Brien and the rest of the team in the coming years, wishing them the best of luck with their endeavours and look forward to collaborating with this amazing facility. #WiStem 

#ThrowbackThursday to a couple of weeks ago at ESG Week! 🕒🔙    ESG Week is a summer fete –style event in which contractors and collaborators affiliated with the mine, and the mine themselves showcase the fascinating work they do. Just like last year, we were there every day - telling people about the incredible science projects that we host in our underground lab, giving virtual reality tours using our new VR headsets, and even watching background radiation in real-time with our cloud chamber! ☁️🔎    It was a pleasure speaking to everyone who stopped by our tent. Thank you for being persistently interested in not just the science projects that we host, but for the future of UK science as a whole 📡🔭    #UKScience #Research #Innovation #STEM #Science