Dear Kitty. Some blog

From the daily News Line in Britain:

Friday, 18 December 2009

RESEARCH FUNDING CHANGES AN ATTACK ON SCIENCE – says UCU

Two UCU members hold up a picture of Einstein outside the House of Commons on Wednesday. Einstein who said about research ‘If we knew what it was what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?’

THE government’s changes to research funding threaten the future of science in Britain, leading experts are warning.

According to Professor Donald Braben, Honorary Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, virtually every major scientific discovery ever made would not have survived the current REF regime with its emphasis on ‘economic impact’.

The University and College Union (UCU) delivered a petition with 17,000 signatures to parliament on Wednesday against research cuts.

The UCU cited several examples of prize-winning scientific research in the UK that may never have occurred if the new funding arrangements had been in place then.

These included:

• Crick and Watson: Nobel Laureates Medicine, 1962.

Serious objections were raised to their proposed use of X-ray crystallography.

Neither Crick nor Watson had previously used X-rays. But they went ahead anyway and discovered the double helix structure for DNA.

• Peter D Mitchell, Nobel Laureate, Chemistry, 1978.

Mitchell proposed the chemiosmotic process in 1961, arguably the most important biological-sciences discovery of the 20th century.

His radical proposal challenged the conventional wisdom of the time, and was received by almost total hostility.

• Max Perutz and John Kendrew, Nobel Laureates, Chemistry, 1962.

They worked on the problem of haemoglobin structure for 25 years.

Dr Robert Kirby-Harris, chief executive of the Institute of Physics, recently said: ‘History shows us that in many cases it is basic research, undertaken purely out of curiosity to understand more about our world, that has delivered revolutionary breakthroughs.

‘X-rays, lasers and semiconductors – technologies which are widely used in every aspect of our lives – all stem from discoveries made through fundamental research, undertaken without any immediate application in mind.’

‘The Institute of Physics has produced the following set of case studies, showcasing the vital contribution that curiosity-driven physics research has made to a number of major technological developments,’ said the UCU.

These in turn, the union added, ‘have led to significant contributions to the UK’s gross domestic product and/or improved the quality of life of its people.’

• Cancer diagnosis and treatment.

‘Physics research has played, and continues to play, an essential role in improving the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.’

• DNA and physics.

‘The discovery of the structure of DNA heralded the birth of the field of molecular biology, in which physicists, chemists and biologists work together to unravel the basic processes of life.’

• The global positioning system.

‘Satellite-based navigation and positioning technology, underpinned by physics research, is no longer the preserve of the military but is now an invaluable aid in all aspects of life.’

• Holography.

‘A technique creating three-dimensional images based on the physics of light waves, and invented in the UK, has a range of applications – from security to data storage.

• Lasers.

‘Lasers provide the archetypal example of how a discovery in basic physics led to an invention, several decades later, that was unpredictably world-changing.’

• Liquid-crystal displays.

‘Liquid-crystal displays have become the image-display technology of choice, following a long chain of physics-based R&D initiated by pioneering work in the UK.’

• Magnetic resonance imaging

‘Magnetic resonance imaging, based on ideas from nuclear physics and developed in the UK, is now a routine, safe, clinical technique for seeing inside the body and diagnosing disease.’

• Optical fibres.

‘Light-carrying glass fibres have transformed communications, thanks to pioneering work carried out by UK physicists.’

• The ozone layer.

‘Understanding and protecting the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere has been a major achievement in physics-based environmental research.’

• The World Wide Web.

‘The World Wide Web is an outstanding example of how research in particle physics changed the world in a totally unforeseeable way.’

In the field of chemistry, the UCU cites the work of Sir Harry Kroto.

He said: ‘I had been fascinated by carbon chains ever since my PhD work (1961-64) and David’s polyynes re-awakened this interest and in particular initiated ideas about how very long carbon chains might vibrate.

‘The image in my mind was of the way I had seen a wave blip travel along a long slackish wire or rope and a travelling wave in a canal or river such as the Severn Bore.

‘I wondered how quantum mechanics would handle these sorts of problems.

‘Could we study the highly excited vibrational levels of such chains and observe quantum properties gradually metamorphose into this sort of classical visually-imaged behaviour as implied by the Bohr Correspondence Principle?’

The discovery of C60 will have its 25th anniversary next year and it is only now that applications appear to be on the horizon.

One of the most important properties of C60 is that it is an outstanding electron trap and the commercialisation of organic solar cells doped with fullerenes (which improve the efficiency of electricity production) and printed on inexpensive thin plastic is now imminent.

On the medical front the fullerene cages are able to trap biologically toxic atoms inside the cage physically, rather than chemically, and their application as non-toxic MRI imaging and radioactive anti-cancer agents appears also to be imminent.

The UCU commented: ‘History has shown time-and-again that the basics of the above story are very often the way that important breakthroughs occur.

‘Indeed it is blindingly obvious that the really unexpected and unpredictable discoveries are invariably more important than those that are the result of targeted initiatives.

‘The discovery of C60 was the result of an experiment to understand stellar and interstellar chemistry. . . Time-and-again it is only when discoveries are made that possible applications become obvious, and then almost invariably made by scientists in a totally different field from that of the original discoverer.’

Excellent examples of this, said the UCU, are the applications of lasers to eye surgery and bar-code scanners at supermarket cash desks.

Professor Donald Braben said: ‘Lasers are used today in everything from surgical procedures to light displays, but it was not until 20 years after the technology was invented by the Nobel prizewinning scientist Charles Townes that industry began to see its potential (Professor Townes certainly did not).

‘What would happen today if a scientist sought funding from UK research councils to pursue inquiry on similar lines?

‘The laser was described, for a very long time, as “a solution looking for a problem’’.’

The same is true in the field of mathematics, said the UCU.

Professor Ari Laptev, President of the European Mathematical Society, said: ‘It is true that many new results in mathematics do not have immediate applications but, eventually, most of them do become applicable.

‘Let me mention a few recent examples where the use of mathematics has proved crucial:

• ‘Integral geometry, dealing with so-called inverse problems, has provided a methodology used in:
medical imaging for identifying tumours, weather radars, the search for oil fields, astronomy, etc.

• ‘The creation of modern fibre optic cables would not be possible without the discovery of special solutions of non-linear equations called solitons.

• ‘The arrival of the Internet made people fear that the world would be drowned in vast amounts of information.

‘This problem has been successfully resolved by Google, which invariably delivers, instantly, the information sought.

‘It seems like magic but the searching algorithm of Google was in fact provided by mathematicians.

• ‘The theory of wavelets has been enormously important in telecommunications.

‘It allows us to transmit information in a most compact way and ultimately gives us the possibility of all sorts of wireless connections.

• ‘Credit card security is only possible thanks to cryptology, which uses a branch of number theory.

• ‘Mathematicians are involved in improving the understanding of fundamental problems in genomics research, cell signalling, systems physiology, infection and immunity, developmental biology, the spreading of disease and ecology.’

The mathematical theories used in these examples were not originally developed with any particular application in mind but purely as a result of the curiosity of scientists.

Capitalism and science: here.

This video says about itself:

The Royal Society wrote a cease and desist letter to Exxon Mobil asking them to stop funding organisations that misrepresent the scientific consensus on climate change.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Royal Society celebrates its 350th

Science: Landmark moments in the history of science are being celebrated online on Monday to mark the 350th birthday of the Royal Society.

For the first time, original manuscripts of papers published by the world’s oldest scientific institution have been made available to the public via the internet.

Among the highlights from the interactive Trailblazing site are a gruesome account of a 17th century blood transfusion, Sir Isaac Newton’s landmark research on light and colour, and Benjamin Franklin’s famous kite-flying experiment to identify the electrical nature of lightning in 1752.

This video says about itself:

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory is spearheading the completely new field of gravitational wave astronomy and opening a whole new window on the universe.

LIGO’s exquisitely sensitive instruments may ultimately take us farther back in time than we’ve ever been, catching, perhaps, the first murmurs of the universe in formation.

From New Scientist in the USA:

Astronomers clash with US air force over laser rules

* 22:29 13 October 2009 by David Shiga

Could astronomers accidentally blind Earth-observing satellites? That seems to be the worry of the US air force, which restricts the use of lasers pointed at the sky to help focus telescopes. But some astronomers warn they will miss key observations under the rules, which have tightened in recent years.

Many of the world’s largest observatories, including Lick, Gemini North, Palomar and Keck in the US, shine lasers into the sky to measure atmospheric turbulence, which distorts images.

The laser causes a layer of sodium atoms at an altitude of about 90 kilometres to glow, producing an artificial star whose twinkles reveal the turbulence. Shape-shifting mirrors on the telescopes, called adaptive optics, then correct for the blurring by adjusting their shape many times per second.

If such a laser were to hit the optics of an Earth-observing satellite, it could cause damage. So the air force’s Space Command has for years restricted when and where US observatories can fire them, and the observatories have voluntarily complied, with little impact on astronomy.

Then about two years ago, just as kinks in the laser technology were being ironed out and interest in the lasers was growing, the rules were tightened. Now astronomers say the restrictions are beginning to chafe, according to a story first reported by the American Physical Society.

“Significant negative impacts of these new restrictions on scientific productivity are being felt,” says a 2008 report (pdf) by the US Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, which is based in Washington, DC.

From New Scientist:

Moon is coldest known place in the solar system

* 17:02 18 September 2009 by MacGregor Campbell

Poor Pluto. First it gets kicked out of the planet club, now it’s not even the coldest place in the solar system. Dark craters near the moon’s south pole have snatched that title – which is good news for the prospects of finding water ice on Earth’s companion.

The craters’ towering rims block the sun from reaching their centres, like the long shadows cast by tall buildings at dusk. In this permanent darkness, they stay at a constant -240 °Celsius – more than 30 °C above absolute zero and 10 °C cooler than Pluto, which was measured at -230 °C in 2006.

“The lunar south pole is among the coldest parts of the solar system and may be in fact colder than what we expect from places like Pluto,” NASA scientist Richard Vondrak said at a press conference on Thursday.

The cold temperature bodes well for the prospect of finding water ice deposits in the moon’s shadowy pockets. Previous calculations had shown that water and other volatile gases would dissipate into space at temperatures above about -220 °C.

See also here.

Oct. 19, 2009 — NASA’s much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said: here.

The deliberate crashing of a US rocket into the surface of the Moon has produced evidence of “a significant amount” of water ice, a discovery that could revolutionize the exploration of the Earth’s satellite and even open the way to long-term settlement. The impact experiment, conducted on October 9, produced such an immense trove of data that it took more than a month for the first preliminary results to be compiled: here.

From LiveScience:

How ‘Jeweled’ Beetles Get Their Shine

By Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer

posted: 23 July 2009 02:06 pm ET

The metallic green sheen of the jeweled beetle glitters only when certain types of light hit tiny structures on the shell of the insect. Otherwise, the green hue disappears, a new study finds.

While pigments account for the colors of flowers, leaves and other structures in nature, some organisms get their bright hues from the way light interacts with the microscopic structure of their skin, feathers or shells — for example, iridescent butterflies and certain sea creatures. …

The exoskeleton of the brilliant green beetle (Chrysina gloriosa, or Plusiotis gloriosa) selectively reflects left circularly polarized light, or light whose electric field, from the perspective of the observer, has a left-hand corkscrew structure along the direction it is moving.

See also here.

From British daily The Independent:

Inspection for Newton’s apple tree

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Isaac Newton’s apple tree, the Magna Carta tree and the Tolpuddle Martyrs‘ tree will all feature in a mass survey of ancient organisms to be carried out by the National Trust.

As many as 40,000 ancient oaks and other species are to be inspected and appraised by the Trust, the most important organisation for ancient trees in the UK, in a three-year assessment of their condition.

There are so many because the Trust’s land holdings are enormous – they include more than 25,000 hectares of woodland, 200,000 hectares of farmland and 135 landscape and deer parks.

Isaac Newton’s apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire has been regarded as a national treasure for more than 300 years. It is believed to have inspired Newton with the “notion of gravitation” in 1665, after he watched an apple fall to the ground.

Bearing a rare variety of apple, Flower of Kent, the tree fell over in 1820 but is still growing well.

The Magna Carta yew tree, at Runnymede in Berkshire, has been famous for even longer. It is 2,000 years old and now measures 9.4 metres (31ft) wide. Growing in the grounds of the ruined Priory of Ankerwycke, it is said to have witnessed the swearing and sealing of the Magna Carta, Britain’s first charter of freedom, by King John in June 1215. It is also said to be where Henry VIII met Anne Boleyn in the 1530s.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ tree at the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset is the site of the landmark trade union meeting in 1834 which became a historic symbol of the struggles of the emerging labour movement. The leafy sycamore is likely to have started its life in the 1680s.

“Trees play such an important part in shaping our landscapes and reflecting our history that we need to make sure that the ancient trees in our care and the next generation to follow them can be enjoyed by everyone,” said Ray Hawes, the Trust’s head of forestry.

Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, 2009: here.

Photo story: Madagascar’s baobab trees.

From Nature journal:

Traces of paint confirmed on Parthenon sculptures

Pristine white marbles were once a riot of colour.

Alison Abbott

Researchers have confirmed that the sculptures on the triangular gables of the Parthenon temple in Athens were originally brightly painted.

Conservation scientists at the British Museum in London used a non-invasive technique to reveal invisible traces of an ancient pigment known as Egyptian blue. The team says that this is the first definitive evidence that the two-metre-high sculptures were not pristine white, as they appear today, but were precisely painted — as most sculptures from antiquity once were.

The belt of the winged messenger goddess Iris was painted blue, as shown by a luminescence technique (right). British Museum

The pigment, which was widely used until 800 AD, was identified on sculptures that formed parts of the decorated east and west ends of the Parthenon temple. Together with other parts of the temple, such as the frieze from within the building, they are sometimes collectively referred to as the Elgin marbles — removed by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799–1803, and then transferred to the British Museum in 1816.

The scientists announced their findings just as the long-running feud over the ownership of the marbles has once again boiled over. The Acropolis Museum in Athens is due to be inaugurated on 20 June and was, in part, designed to house the marbles. Top delegates from the United Kingdom — including the Queen, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum — have declined to attend the opening.

The British Museum has also reiterated its standpoint on Greece’s request to repatriate the marbles, saying that it will not return any of them except on a short-term loan — and then only if Greece acknowledges the British Museum’s rightful ownership.

Antique paint

It has been known for more than two centuries that the Ancient Greeks and Romans painted their statues. That paint has almost completely disappeared over time, although tiny flecks can be found on most statues on close inspection. Unusually, no trace of paint has ever been found on the Parthenon sculptures, despite thorough analysis — including a full investigation by the renowned British physicist Michael Faraday in the 1830s.

There are more aspects of this issue. As can be read in this blog, in an earlier item on this:

Experts believe the Elgin Marbles may have been stripped of some of their remaining colour when they first arrived in London in the early 19th century, due to months of scraping with abrasive tools by museum officials convinced that the marbles had originally been pure white.

And:

The Parthenon Marbles (a name prefered by Greeks to a name honouring 19th century Lord Elgin whom they consider a robber) were also scraped with copper and caustic chemicals in order to become “pure white” in the 1930s, at the orders of Lord Duveen.

In fact, in ancient Greece, people, including priests and priestesses, wore colourful clothes.

Their sculptures and buildings were colourful.

Similarly so in Etruscan and Roman cultures.

However, textiles rarely survived thousands of years.

While Greek buildings and statues sometimes did, but often with their colours hardly surviving.

So, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries an image arose in Western Europe and North America of ancient Greece as a land of people in ‘pure’ white clothes, with ’spotless’ white sculpture and buildings.

In that time, also racist ideologies evolved, intertwining ‘white race supremacy’ viewpoints with this misunderstanding of history.

At its sharpest in this was nazi Germany.

As seen in the aesthetics of the movie Olympia on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, made by Hitler’s favourite film director Leni Riefenstahl.

The Nature article continues:

Giovanni Verri, a physicist in the museum’s department of conservation and scientific research, developed a technique to exploit the fact that Egyptian blue emits near-infrared radiation when excited by visible light. His portable detector comprises a light-emitting diode that beams red light onto the surface being examined, and a camera that can detect the infrared light emitted by the pigment particles1.

The distribution of the pigment is also a key issue in proving that the sculptures were painted, says Verri. For example, the pigment found on the winged messenger goddess Iris traces just the belt restraining her billowing tunic (see picture, above), and nowhere else on the figure.

Greek conservators have recently observed greenish flecks on remnants of the Parthenon frieze that are in Athens, but have not reported analyses of them. “We informed our Greek colleagues of what we found,” says Verri, “and they responded warmly, saying they are interested to examine these flecks themselves.”

“I always believed the frieze must have been painted,” adds Ian Jenkins, senior curator in the British Museum’s Department of Greece and Rome. “This new method leaves no room for doubt.”

Verri thinks these frieze flecks could also be Egyptian blue, and is keen to examine them with his portable detector. But he adds that as diplomatic tensions have flared up again, now might be an insensitive time to offer.

*
References
1. Verri, G. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 394, 1011-1021 (2009).

See also here.

Ancient Egyptian origins of dyes: here.

This video from Britain is called [BBC] Historic Jodrell Bank telescope fears closure.

From the BBC:

Future of physics ‘under threat’

Leading physicists have told the BBC that long-term research is suffering because of a shortage of funding.

They were responding to a government review which concluded that physics in Britain was “strong” and had an excellent international reputation.

They say a 25% cut in research grants is threatening the future of the field and has prompted many promising young physicists to leave.

They also say many university physics departments are shrinking.

Some have had to halve in size because of a lack of money, the scientists say.

Meanwhile, the British government spends lots of money on bailing out bankers … war in Iraq … war in Afghanistan … etc.

This video from the USA says about itself:

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and monthly columnist for Scientific American, tries his hand at firewalking barefoot across 1000-degree red hot coals and doesn’t get burned. Dr. Shermer provides a scientific explanation for the mysterious phenomenon.

From Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog in the USA:

September 24, 2008

How Positive Thinking Wrecked the Economy

(A shorter version of this appears as an op ed in the New York Times today)

Greed – and its crafty sibling, speculation – are the designated culprits for the ongoing financial crisis, but another, much admired, habit of mind should get its share of the blame: the delusional optimism of mainstream, all-American, positive thinking. As promoted by Oprah, scores of megachurch pastors, and an endless flow of self-help bestsellers, the idea is to firmly belief that you will get what you want, not only because it will make you feel better to do so, but because thinking things, “visualizing” them – ardently and with concentration – actually makes them happen. You will be able to pay that adjustable rate mortgage or, at the other end of the transaction, turn thousands of bad mortgages into giga-profits, the reasoning goes, if only you truly believe that you can.

Positive thinking is endemic to American culture – from weight loss programs to cancer support groups – and in the last two decades it put down deep roots in the corporate world as well. Everyone knows that you won’t get a job paying more than $15 an hour unless you’re a “positive person” — doubt-free, uncritical, and smiling—and no one becomes a CEO by issuing warnings of possible disaster. According to a rare skeptic, a Washington-based crisis management consultant I interviewed on the eve of the credit meltdown in 2007, even the magical idea that you can have whatever you truly want has been “viral” in the business culture. All the tomes in airport bookstores’ business sections scream out against “negativity” and advise the reader to be at all times upbeat, optimistic and brimming with confidence—a message companies relentlessly reinforced by treating their white collar employees to manic motivational speakers and revival-like motivational events. The top guys, meanwhile, would go off to get pumped up in exotic locales with the likes of success guru Tony Robbins. Those who still failed to get with the program could be subjected to personal “coaching” or of course, shown to the door.

The same frothy wave of mandatory optimism swept through the once-sober finance industry. On their websites, scores of motivational speakers proudly list companies like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch among their clients.

“The magical idea that you can have whatever you truly want” can take various New Age-ish forms, from the pseudo science of “neuro linguistic programming” to cultish organizations like Amway (see also here) or Scientology or Landmark Forum.

This music video is called Large Hadron Rap.

From World Science:

“Historic” collider operation begins

Sept. 10, 2008

Courtesy CERN and World Science staff

The first beam of subatomic particles in the world’s new­est and larg­est par­t­i­cle col­lider went around the full 27 kilo­me­tres (17 miles) of the ma­chine’s length this morn­ing, sci­en­tists an­nounced.

“This his­tor­ic event marks a key mo­ment in the tran­si­tion from over two dec­ades of prepara­t­ion to a new era of sci­en­tif­ic disco­very,” said an an­nounce­ment from CER­N, the Eu­ro­pe­an Or­gan­iz­a­tion for Nu­clear Re­search based in Ge­ne­va.

“We can now look for­ward to a new era of un­der­stand­ing about the ori­gins and ev­o­lu­tion of the uni­ver­se,” said Lyn Ev­ans, proj­ect lead­er for the par­t­i­cle smash­er, known as the Large Had­ron Col­lider.

Col­liders, al­so known as ac­cel­erators, are de­signed to crash sub­a­tom­ic par­t­i­cles to­geth­er to find out what lies with­in them.

See also here.

Update: Hadron Collider halted for months.

The biggest, most expensive physics machine in the world is riddled with thousands of bad electrical connections: here.

Update November 2009: here.