We have brought together a consortium of UK investigators and international partners with the key objective of providing a new process based understanding of volatile element (e.g. H2O, C, S, noble gases and halogens) fluxes into the deep mantle at subduction zones and out of the mantle at mid ocean ridges and ocean island settings. The mantle is by many orders of magnitude the largest silicate reservoir for carbon, nitrogen and sulphur on Earth and the input and output of volatiles (e.g., H2O, C, N, S, P, and halogens) at plate boundaries provides long-term controls on the climate and the biosphere. Nevertheless, our understanding of the deep-Earth volatile cycle is crude. In part because we have a very poor understanding of the relative contribution of recycled to primordial volatiles in the mantle system and how this might vary in different mantle reservoirs. In part this is because volatile elements are extensively lost during the eruptive process from many sample types making it hard to identify the controlling processes necessary to develop coherent models. To address our objective the consortium combines several advances in new sample resources and analytical tools: i) The recognition that rapidly quenched melt inclusions (MIs) within erupted material often preserve mantle-source volatile compositions; ii) The ability to determine sulphur and boron isotopes in addition to major volatiles in the MIs; iii) The discovery that boron isotopes can track the extent of volatile loss to the surface from subducting slabs and preserve this signal in the deeper mantle; iv) The innovations in noble gas isotope determination that allow us to resolve recycled volatiles from those trapped during accretion and provide links to halogens, H2O and C; v) The development of non-traditional stable isotopes such as Fe, Cu and Se to identify system oxidation state (a key variable in understanding sulphur) and chalcophile trace element determinations; vi) The advances in computing power and techniques that allow better representation of mantle-like systems. By coordinating the combined consortium expertise and analytical resources on the same sample suites in two thermally contrasting subduction regimes (Kamchatka (cool) and Southern Chile (hot)) we plan to investigate how both the processes and thermal setting control the efficiency and geochemical character (isotopic composition and relative abundance to other volatiles) of volatile subduction into the deep mantle. This allows us to take into consideration changes in subduction temperature as the Earth cools in the development of flux models that run for the age of the Earth. At mid ocean ridges and ocean island settings with different geochemical provenance (e.g. HIMU, EMI, EMII, FOZO) we will determine the proportion and character of volatile elements that have been recycled compared to those that were incorporated into the mantle during its formation (primitive volatiles). This is an essential component in building our understanding of the volatile flux into the mantle required to support the signals in the mantle today. New experimental partitioning developed within the consortium and our ability to track oxidation state will allow us to make a step change in understanding the sulphur cycle - barely understood to date but critical in understanding climate and commercial mineral deposit formation. Numerical simulations of mantle transport for suites of geochemical elements, iterating the geophysical parameters to approach matches for the geochemical observables, will allow us to identify the key geophysical processes in subduction zones and during whole mantle convection that control the geochemical distribution of subducted vs. primordial volatiles in the mantle. Together, these will lead to a significant advance in reconstructing the deep Earth volatile fluxes over Earth history - a grand science challenge.

Flocking, the collective motion displayed by large groups of birds in the absence of an obvious leader, is one of the most spectacular examples of emergent collective behavior in nature and has fascinated inquiring minds for a long time. Flocking, is not only restricted to birds, but can be observed in an extremely wide range of active matter systems - systems composed by "active particles" able to extract and dissipate energy from their surroundings to produce systematic and coherent motion -- as diverse as fish schools, vertebrate herds, bacteria colonies, insect swarms, active macromolecules in living cells and even driven granular matter. While our knowledge of collective motion has greatly advanced in recent years thanks to the study of minimal models of self propelled particles (SPP) and hydrodynamic continuum theories, as well as the development of the first quantitative experiments, little is known concerning the response of moving groups to perturbations, a question of both theoretical interest (fluctuation-response in out-of-equilibrium physics) and of great ethological importance (biological significance of group response, spatio-temporal mechanisms of information propagation in cases of alert). Protection from external threats is thought to be one of the most important factors in the evolution towards collective behavior, and there is indeed evidence that certain collective properties observed in animal groups cannot be understood in the context of unperturbed theories. Experimental observations in starlings, for instance, have revealed that flocks are much more internally correlated, and thus have a more efficient collective response mechanism than expected from standard unperturbed flocking theories. Our working hypothesis, supported by preliminary results in simple spin systems, is that certain properties of collectively moving animal groups can only be understood in terms of the system response to localized, dynamical perturbations. We will characterize the response of flocks to such perturbations, devoting particular attention to the role of information transmission from the boundaries to the bulk of a finite system. We will also address the origin of such perturbations. They may be exogenous, due to environmental stimuli such as attacking predators or the perception of non-homogeneous landscapes. But perturbations may also be endogenous: even in the absence of external stimuli, individuals may suddenly switch their behavioral patterns so that the group sets itself constantly into a state of dynamical excitation, possibly because this behavior enhances collective response when true perturbations strike. We will consider finite perturbations, which induce a nonlinear response in flocks, but also the limit of infinitesimal perturbations, which may allow for a deeper theoretical analysis of linear response by extension of the fluctuation-dissipation relation (FDR) to flocking systems (out-of-equilibrium generalization of the FDR are already known, but flocking systems remain largely unexplored). This is an issue of great interest for the study of animal group behavior, since it could provide relevant information (at least at the linear level) concerning the response to perturbations starting only from the knowledge of unperturbed fluctuations. It is our goal to extend and test a generalized FDR to flocking systems. This project aims at a well-defined advance in the scientific knowledge and will have direct impact on the academic communities of out-of-equilibrium statistical mechanics and group animal behavior. On a longer time scale, however, a better understanding of emergent collective phenomena in living matter could beneficially impact a number of important fields ranging from biotechnologies (subcellular dynamics of protein filaments, swarming nanorobots) to environmental resources conservation and management (animal group behavior, animal populations response to environmental changes).

Information technology (IT) has penetrated all aspects of life in modern society. At the heart of IT are miniature devices that can process and store information in one or another form. Currently, the information is processed mainly within semiconductor based data architectures based on tiny "transistors". In contrast, long-term data storage is dominated by magnetic hard disk drives, within which the information is stored as direction of tiny "magnetic needles" the two opposite orientations of which represent "0" and "1" values in binary logics. However, the semiconductor industry is predicted to reach the limit of miniaturisation within the coming decade, while the energy consumption becomes increasingly important both for environmental concerns and to align with use in portable battery fed devices. In this project, we aim to demonstrate a key component of a novel device for information technology, which has the potential to lead to combined data processing and storage on the same chip. This device will be based upon 'magnonics', in which wave-like perturbations of magnetisation ('spin waves') travel through and interact in patterned magnetic tracks ('waveguides') to perform operations. We propose to construct a spin wave source such that the wave properties of many such sources are linked; technically, this is known as 'coherence'. Our proposed spin wave source consists of a magnetic nanowire antenna placed across the waveguides. Microwave radiation will create magnetic oscillations in the antennae, which in turn will induce the spin waves in the nearby waveguides. Spin waves are proposed as logic signal carriers, thereby assisting their seamless integration with existing and future magnetic data storage technologies. This integration of signal processing and storage within a single architecture promises reduced energy consumption and fast device operation. In addition, we will exploit how the spin waves interact with the magnetic configuration of the various components. The materials and geometry of the antennae and waveguides causes the magnetisation to prefer to lie along their length. However, opposite magnetisations can be engineered to meet within, say, the waveguide to create a transition region called a 'magnetic domain wall'. By selectively configuring the orientation of the magnetic waveguide and antennae, including incorporation of magnetic domain walls, we will be able to program the magnonic device functionalities. The magnetic materials we propose to use don't require power to retain their magnetisation (non-volatility), meaning our devices will store the configuration when powered off and, therefore, will be instantaneously bootable upon switch on. The multiple stable configurations of the magnetic components and associated multiple functionalities will also provide an opportunity for creating more complex devices that could replace several semiconductor transistors in conventional electronics. Apart from consumer electronics, the devices will be advantageous for use in aerospace, space and sub-marine technologies in which their non-volatility and resistance to radiation will allow vital weight and cost savings to be made. The collaborative research programme will be conducted jointly by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield and the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences at the University of Exeter. The Sheffield team will contribute to the project their internationally leading expertise in nanotechnology and manipulation of magnetic domain walls, while the Exeter team will contribute their world leading expertise in dynamical characterization and theoretical modelling of magnonic devices. By joining their forces together, the two teams will ensure that UK will remain at the forefront at the magnetic logic technology, in particular opening the new interdisciplinary field of domain wall magnonics.

Metamaterials (MMs) are man made materials with unusual electromagnetic properties that are not typically found in Nature. They are the key to achieving such extraordinary properties as invisibility cloaks and perfect lenses. At present, they are bulky and confined to laboratories. If they were flexible, they could become much more versatile and practical. Here, I propose a novel concept for flexible MMs that will turn current cloaking devices from suits of armour into true cloaks.The concept of index of refraction underpins the physics of MMs, which can be illustrated with an example. The direction that light takes when it crosses the interface between two media depends on its initial direction with respect to the surface and on the refractive indices of the media. This is the reason why a pencil appears to kink when immersed in water. In nature, all transparent materials have a positive refractive index, like water. As a result, the image of the pencil always kinks in the same direction. Conversely, MM are manufactured with a negative refractive index, thus in a MM the kink of the pencil would appear in the opposite direction. This effect, which may seem to be a mere curiosity, drives the extraordinary behavior of MMs.The technological requirements of currently fabricated optical MMs impose a flat rigid geometry. This impedes the realistic implementations of an optical cloak made of soft fabric, for example. I aim to overcome such limits.The aim of this project is to fabricate MMs in flexible, extremely thin membranes (METAFLEX).Metaflex will retain all the power of material design typical of MMs and their ability to control light, in a more flexible framework. I have already achieved the first milestone of the project and printed MMs on polymer flexible membranes with thickness down to few nanometers.The physics of Metaflex is a rich and unexplored field of research. This ambitious project is structured around their most striking properties:-Metaflex can be wrapped around objects and stacked, a vital step to realistic cloaking applications.-Metaflex stacks can be easily fine tuned after fabrication, e.g. via deformation, hence light can be controlled with additional degrees of freedom. The flexibility of Metaflex permits the design and fabrication of a camouflaging system, as the material response can sense and adapt to the surrounding environment. This offers a remarkable example of smart fabrics and intelligent textiles, currently a thriving area of research in academia and industry.-Metaflex provide a new framework to study the interaction between optical and mechanical forces, as in Optical Trapping or the new field of Optomechanics. Potential applications include very small optical microphones.-Metaflex are very light. They could take advantage of the attractive and repulsive forces triggered by optical beams in order to levitate and behave as nano-flying carpets. This would be a breakthrough in biomedical nano-applications such as drug-delivery and single molecules manipulation.My interest in Metaflex arises from diverse theoretical and experimental projects in photonic structures and nanofabrication and from the knowledge gained throughout these projects, including the physics and applications of MMs. This project contains many exciting scientific challenges, which offer the possibility of developing the extraordinary properties of MMs for every-day life applications that were unimaginable only a few years ago.

Most agricultural products are derived from fruits of flowering plants, such as wheat, rice and corn. Since fruits originate from flowers, crop improvement requires a detailed understanding of flower and fruit development. Research on reference species, such as Antirrhinum or Arabidopsis, has revealed genes that control key steps in the development of flowers and fruits. These genes encode transcription factors, which regulate other genes that contain specific DNA sequences within their regulatory regions. It is believed that variation in these regulatory sequences and in their interaction with key transcription factors have played a major role in creating the changes in flower and fruit development seen during evolution and in plant domestication. We aim to understand how networks of transcription factors and their target regulatory sequences control flower and fruit development, how these networks vary between species, and explore these variations for practical use. We will focus on a key set of regulatory genes, originally identified in Arabidopsis. One of them is WUSCHEL (WUS), which controls the stem cell population that sustains development of all new plant organs. During floral organogenesis, WUS is repressed through the action of AGAMOUS (AG) and SEEDSTICK (STK). AG goes on to play a key role in specifying stamen and carpel identity, while STK guides ovule development. Under the control of AG, a further set of genes controls cell differentiation within the carpels, including the development of structures that in some species eventually allow the fruits to open and release seeds. This network includes SHATTERPROOF (SHP), FRUITFUL (FUL), JAGGED (JAG) and REPLUMLESS (RPL). We will initially use Arabidopsis to fill gaps in our knowledge of how these genes regulate each other and additional target genes during development. Each of the European partners in this project will focus on a subset of the genes mentioned above. In all cases, we will first identify the regulatory sequences that are targeted in vivo by the transcription factors encoded by these genes. We will then verify whether these target sequences are conserved across species and test their importance for the expression of the genes that contain them. We will then check whether variations in regulatory sequences can explain some of the developmental differences seen across species. In our case, we will check whether changes in the regulation of SHP, FUL, JAG and RPL are involved in the differences in fruit development between Arabidopsis and rapeseed. Based on the results, we will then perform a targeted screen for changes in regulatory sequences that may alter rapeseed fruit development for practical use, specifically, to reduce seed loss due to premature opening of the fruit.