UKRI Stories | Helping scientists find dark matter in an underground lab - 101 Jobs That Change the World (Ep 21) @UKResearchandInnovation | Uploaded October 2021 | Updated October 2024, 8 hours ago.
Emma Meehan's commute to work is a little unusual. It involves a seven minute descent into the ground a lift, followed by a walk through a working mine.
Emma is a Senior Science Support Technician at Boulby Underground Laboratory, located 1.1km underground in a working potash, polyhalite and salt mine in North Yorkshire.
Why so deep? The surface of the earth is constantly bombarded with cosmic rays, but very little of this radiation penetrates as far down as Boulby. This allows scientists to use incredibly sensitive equipment and detect things that would be drowned out by the background radiation "noise" on the surface.
For example, physicists who are trying to unravel the mystery of dark matter visit Boulby to run their experiments. These experiments are so sensitive that any background radiation can throw them off - even from their own equipment. Emma runs a lab within Boulby that helps scientists minimise background radiation when building their detectors to give them the best chance of success.
Emma didn't start off in science, but has never looked back since starting work at Boulby.
"There's times when it's tiring. It's hot, it's physically quite demanding working underground. And it can be very mentally demanding. But there's not many jobs where you get to work with such an amazing range of people."
More content you may like:
Read more about Emma in this feature about three women that shows there isn't one career path into science: medium.com/big-science-at-stfc/meet-the-women-charting-unusual-paths-to-discovery-e474f5b4d46d
See more world-changing jobs like these on our playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkjB0VcEl5P9yPj9tljiU1PMhadR7iU1C
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Welcome to 101 Jobs That Change The World - our campaign to highlight some of the many roles that contribute to success of the research and innovation system.
In these videos you’ll meet the people who work – often behind the scenes – in a wide variety of fulfilling and interesting roles beyond the traditional image of a researcher or innovator. Our 101 Jobs profiles offer a glimpse into the lives of the varied people who are working across the research and innovation system, some in remote or unusual locations. Their jobs are essential to the creative, dynamic research and innovation system we need to tackle huge challenges like Covid-19, climate change, how we’ll live and work in the future – and they really do change the world.
We are UK Research and Innovation, the body that allocates government funds for research. If you're a UK tax payer, your contributions help fund the work we showcase on our channel. And if you liked this video, follow us on these channels:
Medium: medium.com/@UKRI
Instagram: instagram.com/weareukri
Facebook: facebook.com/weareUKRI
YouTube: youtube.com/c/UKResearchandInnovation
Or sign up for our weekly newsletter public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKRI/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKRI_newsletter
#101Jobs #CoolJobs #CareersInPhysics #CareersInScience #ChangeTheWorld #DarkMatter
Emma Meehan's commute to work is a little unusual. It involves a seven minute descent into the ground a lift, followed by a walk through a working mine.
Emma is a Senior Science Support Technician at Boulby Underground Laboratory, located 1.1km underground in a working potash, polyhalite and salt mine in North Yorkshire.
Why so deep? The surface of the earth is constantly bombarded with cosmic rays, but very little of this radiation penetrates as far down as Boulby. This allows scientists to use incredibly sensitive equipment and detect things that would be drowned out by the background radiation "noise" on the surface.
For example, physicists who are trying to unravel the mystery of dark matter visit Boulby to run their experiments. These experiments are so sensitive that any background radiation can throw them off - even from their own equipment. Emma runs a lab within Boulby that helps scientists minimise background radiation when building their detectors to give them the best chance of success.
Emma didn't start off in science, but has never looked back since starting work at Boulby.
"There's times when it's tiring. It's hot, it's physically quite demanding working underground. And it can be very mentally demanding. But there's not many jobs where you get to work with such an amazing range of people."
More content you may like:
Read more about Emma in this feature about three women that shows there isn't one career path into science: medium.com/big-science-at-stfc/meet-the-women-charting-unusual-paths-to-discovery-e474f5b4d46d
See more world-changing jobs like these on our playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkjB0VcEl5P9yPj9tljiU1PMhadR7iU1C
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to 101 Jobs That Change The World - our campaign to highlight some of the many roles that contribute to success of the research and innovation system.
In these videos you’ll meet the people who work – often behind the scenes – in a wide variety of fulfilling and interesting roles beyond the traditional image of a researcher or innovator. Our 101 Jobs profiles offer a glimpse into the lives of the varied people who are working across the research and innovation system, some in remote or unusual locations. Their jobs are essential to the creative, dynamic research and innovation system we need to tackle huge challenges like Covid-19, climate change, how we’ll live and work in the future – and they really do change the world.
We are UK Research and Innovation, the body that allocates government funds for research. If you're a UK tax payer, your contributions help fund the work we showcase on our channel. And if you liked this video, follow us on these channels:
Medium: medium.com/@UKRI
Instagram: instagram.com/weareukri
Facebook: facebook.com/weareUKRI
YouTube: youtube.com/c/UKResearchandInnovation
Or sign up for our weekly newsletter public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKRI/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKRI_newsletter
#101Jobs #CoolJobs #CareersInPhysics #CareersInScience #ChangeTheWorld #DarkMatter
