Visit to CSEC's facilities at Rutherford Laboratory by Nicola Blackwood MP (11th February 2011). CSEC members Dr Craig Bull, Dr Graham Stinton and Dr Hayrullo Hamidov based at the Research Complex at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, were visited by Nicola Blackwood. Nicola was on a visit to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory as part of a Parliamentary Royal Society pairing programme, and was accompanied by Prof David Wark of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and Mark Henderson, science editor of The Times. The CSEC members described to Nicola the ability of high pressure to make new materials and showed examples of materials found in planetary interiors, they also showed how they grow single crystals of ice and how high pressure techniques are being used to study biological systems. The role of both the Diamond Synchrotron and the ISIS Neutron Source was also discussed and the importance of the Research Complex facilities.