GravityCam is a new concept of ground-based imaging instrument capable of delivering significantly sharper images from the ground than is normally possible without adaptive optics. Advances in optical and near-infrared imaging technologies allow images to be acquired at high speed without significant noise penalty. Aligning these images before they are combined can yield a 2.5–3-fold improvement in image resolution. By using arrays of such detectors, survey fields may be as wide as the telescope optics allows. Consequently, GravityCam enables both wide-field high-resolution imaging and high-speed photometry. We describe the instrument and detail its application to provide demographics of planets and satellites down to Lunar mass (or even below) across the Milky Way. GravityCam is also suited to improve the quality of weak shear studies of dark matter distribution in distant clusters of galaxies and multiwavelength follow-ups of background sources that are strongly lensed by galaxy clusters. The photometric data arising from an extensive microlensing survey will also be useful for asteroseismology studies, while GravityCam can be used to monitor fast multiwavelength flaring in accreting compact objects and promises to generate a unique data set on the population of the Kuiper belt and possibly the Oort cloud.

The impact of human activities on biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial environments is nowhere more apparent than in urban landscapes. Trace metals, collected on roadways and transported by storm water, may contaminate soils and sediments associated with storm water management systems. These systems will accumulate metals and associated sediments may reach toxic levels for terrestrial and aquatic organisms using the retention basins as habitat. The fate and bioavailability of these metals once deposited is poorly understood. Here we present results from a dose-response experiment that examines the application of synchrotron X-ray fluorescence methods (μ-SXRF) to test the hypothesis that earthworms will bio-accumulate Zn in a roadway-dust contaminated soil system providing a potential pathway for roadway contaminants into the terrestrial food web, and that the storage and distribution of Zn will change with the level of exposure reflecting the micronutrient status of Zn.

Lumbricus friendi was exposed to Zn-bearing roadway dust amended to a field soil at six target concentrations ranging from background levels (45 mg/kg Zn) to highly contaminated levels (460 mg/ kg Zn) designed to replicate the observed concentration range in storm-water retention basin soils. After a 30 day exposure, Zn storage in the intestine is positively correlated with dose and there is a change in the pattern of Zn storage within the intestine. This relationship is only clear when μ-SXRF Zn map data is coupled with a traditional toxicological approach, and suggests that the gut concentration in L. friendi is a better indicator of Zn bioaccumulation and storage than the total body burden.

Using a case study of a controversial mine in an indigenous area of Guatemala, this article explores the transnational dynamics of development and regulation of large-scale extractive industry projects in the developing world. It examines the roles played in the Marlin mine dispute by national law, international law, international financial institutions, and corporate social responsibility. It concludes that these legal regimes have a role in protecting human rights but have not addressed the fundamental questions of democratic governance raised by this case.

We summarize the status of a computer simulator for microlens planet surveys. The simulator generates synthetic light curves of microlensing events observed with specified networks of telescopes over specified periods of time. Particular attention is paid to models for sky brightness and seeing, calibrated by fitting to data from the OGLE survey and RoboNet observations in 2011. Time intervals during which events are observable are identified by accounting for positions of the Sun and the Moon, and other restrictions on telescope pointing. Simulated observations are then generated for an algorithm that adjusts target priorities in real time with the aim of maximizing planet detection zone area summed over all the available events. The exoplanet detection capability of observations was compared for several telescopes.

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) is currently building a new kind of general-purpose astronomical facility: a fully robotic network of telescopes of 2m, 1m and 0.4m apertures and homogeneous instrumentation. A pan-network approach to scheduling (rather than per individual telescope) offers redundancy in the event of poor weather or technical failure, as well as the ability to observe a target around the clock. Here we describe the network design and instrumentation under development, together with the main science programmes already being lead by LCOGT staff.

Microlensing searches for planets are sensitive to small, cold exoplanets from 1–6 AU from their host stars and therefore probe an important part of parameter space. Other techniques would require many years of observations, often from space, to detect similar systems. Microlensing events can be characterised from only ground-based observations over a relatively short (≤100d) timescales. LCOGT and SUPA/St Andrews are building a robotic global network of telescopes that will be well suited to follow these events. Here we present preliminary results of the Galactic Bulge observing season 2010 March–October.

As modern instrumentation improves the precision of the measurements of underwater light, particularly of monochromatic light, both biological and physical oceanographers are becoming increasingly interested in such measurements in deep water

The effect of fatigue loading on microelectronic thin film interfaces has until now been difficult to quantify. Most industrial fatigue testing uses HAST (Highly Accelerated Stress Testing) protocols, which inherently convolutes the effects of mechanical fatigue and the test environment. Our work focuses on isolating the deleterious effects of mechanical fatigue on interfaces, which we have found to be substantial. In this study, the integrity of a low-k polymer interface involving benzocyclobutene (BCB) and silica was examined under a variety of loading conditions. Critical (fast fracture) adhesion values were measured using standard interface fracture-mechanics geometries. Experiments were then conducted to measure the debond growth rate as a function of the applied strain energy release rate under both static and cyclic loading conditions. Our results show that even under room temperature conditions, debond growth rates measured under cyclic fatigue are considerably faster than those observed under static loading. Results are presented detailing the effects of interface chemistry (adhesion promoters), environmental moisture, and test temperature on the resistance of the interfaces to subcritical debonding. Strategies for increasing resistance of dielectric interfaces to fatigue debonding are outlined.

The adhesion of thin film polymers will be critical in the integration of low-κ materials into microelectronic processing. This study describes the adhesion of two promising low-κ polymers (polyimide and benzocyclobutene) to a silicon dioxide surface. Critical adhesion values were measured using interface fracture mechanics samples in a double cantilever beam geometry. The effect of subcritical (time-dependent) delamination was also evaluated for these systems. Subcritical debonding data are important in understanding the effect of environment and temperature on interface reliability. To that end, experiments were conducted over a range of humidities to elucidate the effect of moisture on interface delamination. The important effect of the acceleration of debond growth rates due to cyclic loading is also described. In addition, XPS studies are presented to characterize the debond path in these layered systems.

Techniques are discussed for evaluating both critical interface adhesion values as well as the sub-critical debond behavior of polymer/silicon and polymer/polymer interfaces. Sub-critical debonding behavior is expected to be most relevant in predicting the in-service lifetime of microelectronic packages. Our research characterizes the debonding of a benzocyclobutene overlayer, as well as a technologically relevant epoxy underfill/polyimide/silicon interface system. Adhesion values are measured in a double cantilevered beam (DCB) and four-point bend fracture mechanics geometries by driving a stable debond along the relevant interfaces. The effect of temperature on subcritical debonding in an underfill/polyimide interface is described. Issues of crack path selection involving the selection of microstructurally weak paths in the layered system are considered.

A CdZnTe strip detector large area array (∼ 60 cm2 with 36 detectors) with capabilities for high resolution imaging and spectroscopy has been built as a prototype for a space flight gamma ray burst instrument. The detector array also has applications in nuclear medical imaging. Two dimensional orthogonal strip detectors with 100 μm pitch have been fabricated and tested. Details for the array design, fabrication and evaluation of the detectors will be presented.

A CdZnTe strip detector large area array (∼ 60 cm2 with 36 detectors) with capabilities for high resolution imaging and spectroscopy has been built as a prototype for a space flight gamma ray burst instrument. The detector array also has applications in nuclear medical imaging. Two dimensional orthogonal strip detectors with 100 gm pitch have been fabricated and tested. Details for the array design, fabrication and evaluation of the detectors will be presented.