Putting auto industry R&D into neutron gear

At the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, home of the U.K.'s Space Innovation Center and ISIS Neutron Source, “downsizing” is taking automotive research into a whole new league thanks to research scientists such as Dr. Martyn Bull.

In its enduring pursuit of vehicle efficiency, the automotive industry is fond of bandying about the word “downsizing” when it lops a cylinder or two from its latest engine. But at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, home of the U.K.'s Space Innovation Center and of the ISIS Neutron Source, downsizing is in an altogether different league.

ISIS is a world-leading materials science research center that is using neutron science in pursuit of enhanced automotive efficiency-and as a neutron is a sub-atomic particle, things in this world don't come much more downsized than that.