TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Experts: Exoplanet could be smallest ever found By RAPHAEL G. SATTER and FRANK JORDANS 2010-08-25T00:47:49ZGENEVA (AP) -- Scientists say they've identified a sun-like star with as many as seven different planets - including one that might be the smallest ever found outside the solar system.... hosted.ap.org |
Spending review: Is poor advice betraying UK science and engineering? The UK is reputedly poor at capitalising on its scientific excellence. Is this due to a lack of vision in the advice given to politicians?Crises provide opportunities, as every good manager knows.From my point of view as a particle physicist there is a very dangerous kind of opportunist lurking in and around Whitehall. You don't have to be a genius to realise that if swingeing cuts are made in the science budget, huge damage will be inflicted on the scientific standing and economic future of the UK. But some influential people in the science policy arena see this as an opportunity to remove an annoying anomaly - the UK's leadership in particle physics. In particular they seem to loathe CERN, the world-leading laboratory of which the UK is a founder member. I'm sorry if this sounds paranoid, but the evidence is they are out to get me.I don't think this threat comes from politicians and I don't detect a massive change here between Labour and the coalition. David Willetts is on record praising CERN (and Margaret Thatcher's decision to stay in it), and in his speech on Wednesday Dr Vince Cable also highlighted CERN's contribution.But there is something badly wrong when Sir David King, president of the British Science Association and a former government chief scientific advisor, chooses the day the Large Hadron Collider puts exciting science in the news with a positive story to accuse us of "navel gazing". Or when Lord Browne, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, is asked about priorities and immediately tells the government to cut science, especially maths and physics, and most especially particle physics and CERN. (Even if the authority with which he speaks may be dubious.) And then, seizing the "opportunity" of Cable's speech, the Chemical Engineers wade in. With even a (very old) picture of the science they want to stop.If this is what they will say in public, I dread to think what they say in their private chats with ministers or civil servants.In my darker moments I worry that the actual council of STFC (which funds particle physics) is part of the problem. I desperately hope I am wrong, but I would feel a lot better if Philip Greenish, CEO of the RAEng and a member of STFC council, had distanced himself from the ill-informed attack the RAEng made on STFC science. Or failing that, if Professor Michael Sterling, the chair, hadn't backed him up. Do they agree that particle physics, which is in their custody, should be for the chop?When Professor Bill Wakeham was commissioned to produce a review of UK physics in light of the dire state of STFC finances many feared he was another who saw the CERN budget as something which would be better spent fighting climate change or subsidising industry (to take the apparent preferred destinations of Sir David and Lord Browne respectively). However, his report triumphantly vindicated STFC science, concluding that particle physics and astronomy were two areas in physics where the UK was genuinely world leading.The tragedy is that there is such a lost opportunity here. CERN is a target simply because it is large and visible. This high profile should be a huge strength for the whole breadth of science and engineering.Why could Sir David King not appear on Newsnight and say "Yes, this is brilliant! Look how exciting science is! And we must harness the excitement and the new knowledge it brings to solve some of the problems facing us!"Why could the RAEng not say "Particle physics is an adventure where exciting engineering is essential, from software and the invention of the world-wide web, through electronics and the invention of touchscreens, to the challenges of large-scale cryogenics. Be an engineer, be at the scientific and technological cutting edge, and be part of the economic recovery."Do engineers in general agree with what is being said in their name? Lyn Evans and Steve Myers, past and current leaders of the LHC, are UK engineers, for goodness sake! This is a real, classic example of lack of vision in the UK failing to capitalise on real UK excellence. The science and engineering budget, as far as anyone can tell, makes a big net return to the economy. The whole thing, from medical research to maths, is comparable to the amount lost in unpaid taxes and wrongly paid benefit. These grandees should be out there arguing the relative priority of (for example) climate research in the context of all government spending, not against CERN.This has been something of a partisan rant, everyone is nervous about the coming cuts. But I don't think it is special pleading, it is an objection to being specially pleaded against. Particle physicists are not generally more expensive than other scientists, we just have fewer, bigger and more visible projects which seem to make irresistible targets for some.Yesterday I was depressed to hear Dr Vince Cable accepting that big cuts would happen, and repeating tired lines about economic focus. However, he did also talk about backing excellence, and there is clearly still room for some discussion. Given the unquestioned excellence of UK particle physics, (and many other areas of curiousity-led science) perhaps the opportunists should take care.Everyone in receipt of taxpayers money should have to justify themselves, especially now. We can and do. Particle physics is an essential part of the scientific culture of the UK, and that culture is critical to our future as a nation, and globally as a species. I hope at least some of the people who have the ear of the government also have the eyes to see.CernHigher educationResearchResearch fundingScience policyUniversity fundingVince CableEducation policyJon Butterworthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Globe Theatrics Herbi Dreiner and his students have taken their award-winning particle physics show to Cern, where it went down a stormI'm sitting in the back of the Globe at CERN, Geneva, while the last of our three performances is on: of course it's in French, oh la la.These have been harrowing but also very rewarding days. The long drive, and rehearsal all day on Tuesday. Since we bring so much equipment on and off stage during the show every stage and locality are a new challenge. Through all this the students have put on three fantastic performances and all in a foreign language. It is something we will all remember for a while and hopefully the audience took something home as well. The CERN organisers received us kindly and were very helpful with all the technical issues of getting the show going. They have also filmed the last two shows and hopefully we'll get some good clips out of that.The show is split into four parts: Atoms & Nuclei, Elementary Particles, Forces & Symmetries, and Cosmology. In each section we explain the basic underlying concepts with many live experiments. Two MCs present the show (Rebecca and Jessica: absolutely great job. Thanks for accepting the French challenge) and the other students perform the experiments (experience, in French), run the cameras, as well as the sound and lighting. It is intended to be fun, but hopefully the audience learned something as well. (I have mainly learned French here!)The heart of the show are the experiments; some examples: we demonstrate radioactivity with weak alpha, beta and gamma emitters, detected by a Geiger counter connected to a loudspeaker. One can show their difference by their absorptive properties. The alpha rays are effectively stopped by a 10 Swiss Franc bill (indeed, a hard currency). The beta rays are stopped by a thin piece of aluminium, whereas the gamma rays are not even stopped by several plates of lead.We also show some more exotic particles, such as the muon. It was first discovered in 1937 but is produced in abundance everyday in today's LHC experiments. The muon has similar interactions to an electron, but is about 200 times heavier. However, it also only lives about two millionths of a second, decaying to an electron and two neutrinos. Muons are for example produced when energetic protons from outer space strike our atmosphere. Despite their short lifetime they reach the Earth's surface in great numbers since they fly close to the speed of light. Their apparent lifetime is also extended exactly because they fly so close to the speed of light. This is the theory of special relativity in action.We have constructed a muon detector using a standard thermos, based on an idea from Mainz University. The thermos is filled with water. On the top opening of the thermos we have screwed a photomultiplier tube. This is a sensitive detector which converts weak light pulses into an electronic signal. When the very fast muons from the cosmic rays traverse the water in the thermos (they easily go through the thermos wall) they produce a distinctive bluish light, called Cerenkov radiation. The light reflects off the internal walls of the thermos to the photomultiplier tube. The resulting electronic signal is connected to a strobe light which records each muon with a flash, visible in the dark auditorium. This is accompanied by some cool electronic music.We also demonstrate antimatter on stage. But my favorite is our home made accelerator which shoots a wooden projectile at a quark target. Quark is a German type of fresh cheese, it comes in six flavours, some of which taste pretty strange. This is a truly bang and splash type of experiment, which the kids always love. The collision is recorded by a detector and we have a culinary read-out of the data. The two morning shows were attended by French and Swiss school kids. Yesterday's evening show was open for the general public and was packed. We were very honoured that Rolf Heuer, the director of CERN, and his wife showed up and both seemed to enjoy it a lot. If you think you might like it, you should invite us to Britain. We would love to come!Jon Butterworthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Russian spacecraft damaged during transportation By 2010-10-07T10:54:26ZBAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) -- Russia's space agency chief says that a spacecraft that is used to ferry crew to the international space station in December has been damaged during transportation by rail.... hosted.ap.org |
New evidence found for flour in stone-age diet By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID 2010-10-18T20:13:51ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- The popular image may be of Stone Age people gnawing on a chunk of woolly mammoth, but new research indicates their diet may have been more balanced after all.... hosted.ap.org |