Did Sussex’s quantum navigation work at sea?
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This email is being sent to all University of Sussex staff.
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Wednesday 22 October 2025
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Sussex quantum sensors trialled by Royal Navy in first sea tests |
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The University of Sussex has worked with the Royal Navy to successfully test pioneering new navigation sensors that could revolutionise how UK military ships navigate the world’s oceans.
The new quantum navigation sensors were developed at Sussex to create a next-generation navigation system to reduce the reliance on GPS navigation, due to its high vulnerability for disruption or to fail entirely in underwater environments. |
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Dr Thomas Coussens, Research Fellow in Quantum Science and Technology at the University of Sussex, said: “To address this problem, our Quantum Systems and Devices research group are developing a next-generation navigation system based on ultra-sensitive quantum magnetic field sensors, known as Optically Pumped Magnetometers (OPMs). These sensors enable navigation by mapping and detecting subtle variations in the local magnetic field, a signal that cannot be jammed or spoofed and that is available everywhere, including underground and underwater.”
In a move that could save the UK economy over £1 billion per day during a GPS outage, the ultra-sensitive quantum sensors measure tiny variations in the earth’s magnetic field, offering a new way to pinpoint location when satellite signals are jammed or unavailable. |
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Sir Harry Kroto and the C60 Nobel Prize at Sussex |
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This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century: the identification of C60, or Buckminsterfullerene, by Sussex Professor the late Sir Harry Kroto FRS and collaborators Robert Curl and Richard Smalley, at Rice University in Texas.
The breakthrough won the trio the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and has transformed the world’s understanding of carbon. |
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C60 opened new frontiers across nanotechnology, medicine and energy. Sir Harry’s legacy lives on across the world and right here at Sussex, in how chemistry is taught, understood and practiced on our campus.
Watch this video: Sir Harry Kroto and the C60 Nobel Prize to learn the full story, as told by friends, students and colleagues who knew Harry well. |
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Sussex neuroscientist honoured by Humanists UK |
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What is consciousness? And could AI have it?
These are the burning questions that Sussex neuroscientist Professor Anil Seth is addressing for Humanists UK’s Voltaire Lecture 2025 on 31 October.
Professor Seth, Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, has pioneered research into the brain basis of consciousness for more than 20 years, achieving international acclaim both as a scientist and as a science communicator. |
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His lecture, held in London and online, sets out his revolutionary approach to understanding consciousness as 'controlled hallucinations'. He will also consider whether consciousness depends on the biological imperative to stay alive, and asks if artificial intelligence will ever be conscious.
In addition, he will be awarded the 2025 Rationalist Press medal by Humanists UK.
Professor Seth, whose 2021 book Being You: A New Science of Consciousness was an instant Sunday Times bestseller, says: “I am deeply honoured to be invited to give this prestigious lecture and to receive this award. I’ve long respected the Humanist values of reason, compassion, tolerance, and respect for others – without need for supernatural input.”
The annual Voltaire Lecture, named after the French philosopher, explores ‘any aspect of scientific or philosophical thought or human activity as affected by or with particular reference to humanism’.
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Why we need to save the sounds of the rainforest |
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By Ben Kelly
As an autistic individual with challenges in verbal communication, I have long relied on non-verbal expression through art and music. Sound, in particular, is my prism for experiencing the world – both heard and felt. Anthropologist Steven Feld describes this as acoustemology: a sonic mode of knowing and being. |
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These reflections have guided my collaboration with the Wampís Nation in the north-west Peruvian Amazon since 2017. The Wampís, a 10,000-year-old, sound-centric Indigenous people, use song to preserve cultural heritage and communicate with animals, plants and spirits, achieving Tarimat Pujut (ecological harmony) across their 1.2-million-hectare rainforest.
For millennia, they have been its guardians, yet illegal gold mining now poisons rivers and food systems with methylmercury – a by-product of gold amalgamation. This constitutes ecocide: deliberate or negligent acts severely harming ecosystems and threatening the Wampís’ cultural heritage, livelihoods, and biodiversity, which are inherently linked to ecological stability.
Following a month living with the Wampís, capturing field recordings, instruments, and Wampís Nampets – songs from animals’ perspectives – we co-created the album Los Bosquesinos (2025). Its ecologically rich soundscapes serve as a spectacular representation of the Iña Wampisti Nunke’s human and non-human ecology, parts now silenced by mining and deforestation. In pieces like 'Wancha', guitar and violin mimic the Nampet tale of two fish dancing, forming an ecomusical interstice that invites audiences to reflect on their contribution to Amazonian destruction, consumer power, and perceptions of humanity’s stewardship of nature.
The Wampís say: “Time is water” – all beings need water to survive, not gold. Yet for centuries, colonialists, mafias, and governments have sought gold at the expense of water and human/non-human lives.
Ben is currently undertaking a new PhD co-research project with the Wampís, funded by the South-East Doctoral Arc (SEDarc) Training Partnership, and supervised by Dr Evan Killick from the University’s School of Global Studies, and Professor Alice Eldridge from the School of Media, Arts & Humanities.
Listen to Los Bosquesinos, Ben’s recent collaborative album with the Wampís. |
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Professor Gillian Forrester’s ‘Nasal Dip’ experiment received further widespread national and international coverage after BBC correspondent Victoria Gill joined a live thermal-camera demo showing how nose temperature drops under acute stress. The piece ran across various BBC platforms including the Today Programme, BBC News, numerous regional BBC outlets including BBC Radio Sussex, and in various other publications, such as The Independent.
Dr Philip McAdams was cited in a Financial Times feature on who decides architectural “beauty,” with Sussex research showing infants prefer more visually complex facades.
Professor Dave Goulson commented in The Scientist, warning that reliance on artificial bee diets could undermine floral diversity and harm wild pollinators.
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