Does Claire Max Do the Art for Because Science

Irish gaelic scientist Dr Claire Murray at Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire. Image: Sean Dillow

Crystallographer Dr Claire Murray tells Elaine Burke how she institute her love for art through science, and unearthed untold stories on the way.

"I ever loved maths in schoolhouse. I was never whatsoever good at art," Dr Claire Murray tells me of her early school days. Such was her disconnect with art, she actually rued the moment the teacher switched to that field of study in class.

Progressing to 2nd-level instruction, a love of maths and scientific discipline evolved into a passion for chemical science. Exterior of Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths), Murray also loved learning Castilian and was adamant to fuse the two in farther study. Perfect for her, then, was the conclusion to exercise a master's in chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, with a year in Spain.

It was in Kingdom of spain that Murray constitute her true scientific discipline beloved: crystallography. She started to fiddle in this discipline of examining the atomic and molecular structure of crystals and quickly came to adore it.

"I think it is an unbelievably beautiful science," said Murray, quickly calculation: "I would say it'southward the most beautiful scientific discipline only there would probably exist fights!"

Restoring Rembrandt

And so, the immature student who hated art now finds herself delving deep into one of the most aesthetically pleasing sciences in that location is at Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire. In fact, one of Murray'southward electric current projects involves the work of one of the art world'south great masters.

Murray is function of a team at Diamond that has been given a tiny segment of a Rembrandt painting for assay. "What nosotros want to try and sympathize is what happened to the painting," Murray explained.

'Before you start thinking well-nigh treating a main painting similar this, yous need to understand the construction'
^{– DR CLAIRE MURRAY}

Rembrandt'southward Homer is believed to accept survived an earthquake and fire in Messina in 1738, and this embattled artwork is in need of retouching. Only so much is known about the materials in the painting – not just its finished, painted surface, but the layers accumulated over time, too equally what may be hidden beneath the masterpiece.

"Obviously, when Rembrandt painted the painting, he daubed downwards lots of different layers. And so, if you use x-rays, yous can actually piece down through all of those layers and look at how they've changed. So you tin can see that, for instance, lots of sulphur has started to work its mode downward into the layers – and that could have come up from the bonfire, some of the noxious gases that might have been around. It could also have come up from treatments," said Murray.

Treating the painting – either for restoration or preservation – necessitates knowing everything that is embedded on the canvas. And so, the team of fine art conservationists in the netherlands responsible for the piece enlisted the assistance of the scientists at Diamond.

"Before yous offset thinking about treating a master painting like this … you demand to sympathize the structure, you demand to understand where all of the elements are, what material, what course they're in," Murray explained. "Otherwise, you lot could actually just crusade a chemical reaction that would melt the whole painting off."

Murray became office of this project due to her expertise in interpreting crystallography, which she is at present using to inform the fine art world of the secrets within Rembrandt's work.

Project M

Murray's proudest projection to date at Diamond, nevertheless, has been Project Grand. Devised equally a reason to put a giant robotic instrument through its paces, Murray and her colleague, Julia Parker, solicited samples from schools across the Britain and analysed them in a 24-hour marathon that was live-streamed and live-tweeted. "Nosotros actually broke Twitter," she said. "Twitter thought that nosotros were a bot – which nosotros were, technically!"

Projection 1000 used samples of calcium carbonate, a substance that appears in nature as one of 3 polymorphs: calcite, aragonite or vaterite. (Polymorphs are variants of the aforementioned substance with different crystal structures.)

As it turns out, synthesising calcium carbonate is part of the science curriculum in Uk secondary schools, and that's how Murray striking upon the idea of collecting 1,000 samples from 100 schools nationwide (and why the One thousand in Projection M stands for the Roman numeral).

In the end, the number wasn't exactly 1,000, only there are withal many contributors to the projection and Murray wants to ensure every one of them gets their credit on the resulting newspaper.

Revisiting history

Like whatever good crystallographer, Murray is not i to simply skim the surface of an interest, and she has delved deep into the history and origins of her called field of study. "The science is actually only 100 years old," she told me, before launching into the cornerstone work of High german physicist Max von Laue and the father-son duo of William Henry and William Lawrence Bragg.

Something that delighted Murray in her exploration of crystallography'southward history was discovering that William Henry Bragg started out with a team of seven men and 11 women – a gender ratio the history of science is not largely known for. Some other factor of annotation is the crucial role of iii Irish scientists in furthering crystallography. Firstly, in that location's John Desmond Bernal, from whom the University of Limerick'due south Bernal Found gets its proper name. And so there'due south Kathleen Lonsdale, an idol of Murray'southward and a pioneering woman in science. And, finally, there's Helen Megaw, a picayune-known but mightily influential scientist in this field.

A student of Bernal's, Megaw was one of the beginning crystallographers to determine the structure of key perovskites, offering vital noesis for the development of solar energy and modernistic electronics. Megaw was also instrumental in showcasing both the art and science of crystallography at the Festival of Britain, a post-war exhibition visited past millions in 1951.

What disturbs Murray is how poorly these stories of influential women of science history are disseminated. There was no secondary-school textbook in Republic of ireland begetting Lonsdale'due south or Megaw's proper name when she was in school. Discovering this rich history for herself was inspiring, but disheartening, too, to know that the side by side generation of potential scientists may not be aware of the part models that reflect them.

Information technology's #YearOfTheWoman ??, then I thought I'd share these boot ass posters @drclairemurray, @choiceIrregular, @BeckyDouglas and me made. #2017Faves #WomeninSTEM ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/tuaxVLb0lR

— Dr Jess Wade ??‍? (@jesswade) January three, 2018

It was this information gap that Murray and friends Jess Wade, Laurie Tobin and Becky Douglas planned to bridge with a poster campaign. They started with Irish gaelic women scientists, ensuring to likewise provide an Irish-language version. Then came the wonder-women of Wales, followed by the Scottish scientific discipline sisters. Posters for Spain and Poland were also in progress when we chatted last September.

Striking a balance in science

In Irish academia, a recent commitment to gender diverseness came with the introduction of the Athena SWAN Charter and a Higher Education Authority requirement for institutions to have at least 40pc women representation beyond the board or run a risk losing their Land funding. Murray said Ireland has been "really, really brave" in this opinion, but she also expressed concern. "What I don't know is, is the organisation and structure in that location to support that [requirement]?"

Murray knows from her ain feel as a judge for Athena SWAN applications that the criteria are rigorous. This is no mere box-ticking practise. To authorize, an institute must demonstrate much more than a headcount of senior women but a complete and comprehensive system for sustainable progress towards gender parity.

"What Athena SWAN is trying to practice is make sure that the whole system is every bit level as tin be, that at that place are no barriers that stop people, and in that location are some really interesting ideas coming out of information technology," she said. For example, Murray explained, seeing how institutes have amend managed motherhood get out by excusing women returning to piece of work from education duties (on top of their research workload) could also lead to reform for returners from paternity leave or sick go out.

In all, these changes could improve work-life rest beyond academia for all. "I recollect things like this are really of import to call back virtually, because we're dealing with people here, we're not dealing with robots, and that'south something that people forget," said Murray.

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Source: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/claire-murray-diamond-project-m

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