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Surrey team becomes first to run an experiment with world’s most advanced gamma-ray detector

University of Surrey nuclear physicists have led the first scientific experiment using the $58m GRETA detector at a US rare-isotope facility.

By The TEA Editorial Desk · 28 August 2026

GRETA gamma-ray detector at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Image: Shumpei Noji / FRIB via University of SurreyOriginal source

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University of Surrey physicists have become the first team to carry out a scientific experiment using GRETA, described as the world’s most advanced gamma-ray spectrometer.

The $58 million detector is installed at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams in Michigan and is designed to reveal the structure of atomic nuclei in detail.

The Surrey-led team used it to investigate a radioactive germanium isotope and a sudden change in nuclear shape that could challenge existing theories.

This is fundamental science, so the immediate output is not a gadget arriving in shops next Tuesday. Its value lies deeper down the pipeline: improving our understanding of how matter itself is put together.