NEWS

Geoptic Infrastructure Investigations Limited, a UK based muography company, recently received the “2025 King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation”. Managing Director of Geoptic, Chris Steer, discusses some of the most exciting projects that he and his team have been honored for and shares his vision for future muography developments in industry.

MUOGRAPHIX hosted the “G-EXPO 2025 Muometric Complementary Positioning, Navigation and Timing” event at Tokyo Big Sight in cooperation with the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan. The Embassy of Hungary, Tokyo and the International Virtual Muography Institute co-hosted this event which consisted of an exposition, lectures, panel discussion, and a musical concert.

Featuring the muography inspired art and design of Boedi Widjaja, “Cosmic Strangers” is a unique exhibit within a busy Singapore subway station, Orchard MRT Station (TEL) Exit 10, which includes: a sculpture that senses the presence of muons, a 19 meter photographic collage within a tunnel of the station, photography, an AI-hacked Tang dynasty poem, as well as augmented reality and a soundtrack corresponding with sonified electromagnetic waves from outer space.

Director of the newly released biopic/sci fi film “Event Coincidence”, Erik Boccio, discusses how he and his team brought the story of the discovery of the muon to the screen.

Muochrony, a new subfield of muography, has been developed with the INRIM (Italian National Metrology Institute)-VMI (International Virtual Muography Institute) team in collaboration with MUOGRAPHIX. In this interview, Giancarlo Cerretto introduces and discusses the principles, experimental results and expectations for future developments of this new subfield.

Since 2021, multidisciplinary Boedi Widjaja has been producing several works inspired by cosmic ray muons and muography. He discusses the philosophy, creation process and research that has gone into these works and his future plans in this interview.

In this interview, Dr. László Oláh discusses being chosen as one of seven researchers in the newly formed Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN), his experience working in Japan at the University of Tokyo, and his future muography research plans as group leader at the High-energy Geophysics Research Group of the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics.

With its inclusion in the TIME Best Inventions of 2023 list, the muometric positioning system (muPS) has been gaining attention as an alternative/backup of GPS.

The “Miikshi: Cosmic Rays” series continues with the release of a second mini movie! Writer/puppeteer Lindsay Lee and VFX artist/puppeteer Justin T. Lee, creators of the Miikshi series and project leads of ITV’s “Thunderbirds: The Anniversary Episodes”, talk about the process and creation of this volcano muography themed action/adventure.

COSMOCATS is a new muography method for a sophisticated data storage strategy which is impregnable from off-site interference or attack. This method uses CTS as an alternative to GPS and consequently has improved the key strength (by 4 orders of magnitude) and efficiency of the key authenticating rate (by 5 orders of magnitude) compared to the first iteration called COSMOCAT.

A new experiment for time synchronization, CTS or Cosmic Time Synchronization, has achieved successful wireless time synchronization at a precision of ~30 ns and 50-60 meters away. CTS has immunity to jamming/spoofing interference, can operate in environments where GPS cannot reach, and generally has cheaper maintenance. It is ideally suited for relatively cheap and reliable intra-city time synchronization including, for example, areas inside buildings, underwater tunnels, and subways.

A newly developed muographic technique called Cosmic Time Calibrator (CTC) has the potential to contribute to improving the applicability and versatility of an essential “Internet of Things” technology.

Jean-Pierre Houdin discusses a collaboration, first starting in 2012, which led to the involvement of muography in the ScanPyramids project and the recent discovery of the North Face Corridor inside Khufu’s pyramid. He will also introduce how muography imaging has inspired and contributed to his mission to understand how Khufu’s pyramid was built.

From December 13-15, Muographers from over 20 countries gathered for the Muographers 2022 General Assembly.

Muographers 2022 General Assembly takes place online from December 13-15.
Official Website (link: http://muographers2022.muographers.org/) (available soon)

Located in the Tokyo Bay Aqualine Submarine Tunnel near Tokyo, Japan, HKMSDD (Hyper KiloMetric Submarine Deep Detector), is the world’s first undersea muographic array and it has recently achieved the highest accuracy ever recorded for muography based on the comparison between the astronomical tides and the data acquired from its long stable operation for 79 days from June 1, 2021 to August 18, 2021: with a 99.7 percent accuracy per 2 hours and 99.85 percent accuracy per lunar day (24 hours 50 minutes).

From academia, industry and science outreach fields, muographers from several countries (including Finland, Italy, Hungary, Chile, Japan, and the UK) met in the rescheduled Muographers 2020 online conference “Muography and the Possibilities at Callio Lab, Finland” to discuss future plans.

In this interview, the future of muography and how it might be applied to missions in outer space is discussed by Volcanologist and Planetary Geologist, Giovanni Leone.

Dr. László Oláh (UTokyo) describes one of the latest volcano muography experiments from the Hungarian-Japanese Sakurajima Muography Observatory (SMO).

A muography detector has been installed with a collaboration including Kansai University faculty and students, Wigner RCP, historical experts, and Muographix to image the structure of the Imashirozuka Kofun.

Prof. Sumiya presents the muography art exhibit to the mayor of Takatsuki City, Osaka.

The Institute of Astrophysics, Italy (INAF) and Muographix (UTokyo) give talks on developments in muography during the 31st General Assembly of the Italy Japan Business Group (IJBG) at the Italian Institute of Culture, Tokyo

The Muographers 2019 General Assembly took place for 2 days in Tokyo at the residence of the Ambassador of Chile to Japan and Chizanso Hotel.

The University of Atacama (Chile), Wigner RCP (Hungary), the University of Catania (Italy) and the University of Tokyo (Japan) sign an academic agreement to develop joint muography project for future outer space geological targets.

The “Towards SDGs” workshop was an opportunity for key members of the newly formed Hungary-Italy-Japan partnership between Wigner RCP, University of Catania, and UTokyo to meet along with professionals from industry, diplomacy and public outreach to discuss specific future plans and applications of muography to SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). 

In order to further facilitate the endeavors of global muographers, the International Muography Research Organization of the University of Tokyo cooperated with the Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability of the United Nations University to host Muographers 2019: “Towards SDGs” Symposium, and the signing ceremony of the Hungary-Italy-Japan (HIJ) agreement “Development of the Next Generation Muography Monitoring System with an HIJ Partnership Towards SDGs” followed to commemorate the 150th anniversary commemoration of the diplomatic relationship between Hungary and Japan.

Ceramic artist Agnes Husz discusses her experience exhibiting sculpture in cooperation with the Muography Art Project at Tama Art University Museum (Tokyo), Kansai University Museum (Osaka) and the East Asian Art Museum (Okayama) and her process of depicting the subjects of nature, science, and muography in particular.

A team including researchers and technicians from INFN, INGV and ERI were responsible for an experimental muography project at the highly active volcano island, Stromboli: constructing the detector, performing the installation, developing the emulsions, analyzing the data and writing the article. Dr. Valeri Tioukov (INFN), pictured at the far right, took part in and coordinated this activity. In this interview, he discusses this process as well as the proceeding analysis of the data with the Emulsion Scanning System that was done concurrently in Napoli, Salerno and Tokyo labs.

How can muography contribute to the global need to address Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly for 2030? This was the topic of discussion for the keynote speaker and panelists, experts from the academic and industrial sectors at the Muographers Liaison Program Symposium.

In this interview, Dr. David Joffe (Associate Professor of Physics at Kennesaw State University, Georgia) discusses an exciting new program he is directing as faculty advisor for his university’s Society of Physics Students to encourage undergraduate physics students to take an active role in the future of muography by building muography detectors.

A meeting of researchers and business people concerned with the future of industrial applications of muography convened at the University of Tokyo Hongo Campus Sanjo Conference Hall.  

Dr. Andrea Giammanco  (UCLouvain) and Sophie Wuyckens (PhD student at UCLouvain) discuss a newly developed gas muography prototype detector recently tested during Mars simulation 2018 mission for “UCL to Mars”, a student nonprofit program.

Dr. David Mahon (University of Glasgow) is interviewed about his work utilizing the technique of muography to help monitor and store nuclear waste.

Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima is interviewed about his muography paintings and work with the Muography Art Project.

Highlights of the General Assembly presentations at the Italian Institute of Culture, Tokyo

The official opening ceremony of a new lab featuring the world’s longest, vertically rotatable, directional spectrometer for muon energy spectrum measurement.

Muographers Workshops took place at the Delegation of the European Union to Japan.

The Hungary-Japan joint Muography Observatory of Sakurajima volcano (MMOS) has been upgraded with three new MWPC-based trackers by the Wigner Research Centre for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Science and the University of Tokyo in October. 

Muography projects made possible with European partnership collaborations, particularly Hungary and Italy, were highlighted in the Europa Open Science House booth (for the Delegation of the European Union to Japan).

Federico Iacobucci’s discusses the upcoming “Muography Symphony”.

This free public lecture will be held from 6pm to 8pm on November 30, 2018 (two 45 minute lectures with 2 question and answer sessions) at the Italian Institute of Culture, Tokyo

Yuji Ichikawa discusses his artwork “Celestial Globe” and how muography inspires him.

Muographers continue to collaborate with the ORIGIN network

A seminar on recent developments in oil and gas exploration was held.

Hungarian and Japanese artists along with European and American artists created artworks inspired by muography at the Tama Art University Museum.

Hungary-Japan Joint Muography Observatory at Sakurajima volcano was extended to accommodate more MWPC-based muography observation systems

Muographers participated in an exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre with CMS, ATLAS, and LIGO

Federico Iacobucci conducted IPGP musicians to play Muography Symphony at the French Ambassador’s Residence in Tokyo.

Muographers General Assembly took place at the Embassy of France, Tokyo

Hungarian Ambassador presides over Osaka Science Museum’s 3rd Generation Muography Exhibit.

Muographers Innovation Making Muography Network Symposium took place at the Embassy of Hungary, Tokyo

The delegation of the European Union to Japan conducted Muography: an unprecedented imaging technique to visualize volcanoes in Science Agora.

International Virtual Muography Institute was launched at the Embassy of Italy, Tokyo. People shared their excitement for VMI and unveiled the logo of the institute to the public.

A muography symposium coordinated by the Nature Publishing Group took place in Tokyo.