In the Dark

This image, courtesy of the Cardiff University Library, is of a pocket watch that belonged to the poet Edward Thomas.

It stopped at 24 minutes to eight on the morning of 9th April 1917, the precise moment when an artillery shell exploded, killing its owner. This happened in the first few hours of the Battle of Arras in the Pas-de-Calais area of Northern France.

In detective stories the stopped watch is a clumsy cliché often used to indicate the victim’s time of death, but in this case I find the image intensely powerful.

Despite heavy casualties the battle in which Edward Thomas fell went well at first for the British and Commonwealth Armies who made substantial territorial gains in the opening stages. Soon, however, the defending Germans regrouped and another bloody stalemate ensued that dragged on for another month, leaving about 300,000 casualties on both sides.

I was saddened today to hear from friends and colleagues of the death of Professor Gary Steigman (above).

Gary was a leading figure in the theory of cosmological nucleosynthesis, ie the formation of light elements by nuclear fusion reactions in the Big Bang. As well as being an eminent scientist he was also a warm, generous and extremely likeable human being. Our paths crossed only a few times, the last time being some years ago, but I remember him very well for his kindly and courteous manner. He’ll be greatly missed by a great many people.

Rest in peace, Gary Steigman.

This photograph has gone viral today, and I couldn’t resist sharing it here.

It was taken during a march by the fascist English Defence League in Birmingham yesterday. The young lady on the left is Saffiyah Khan, who was not part of the organised counter-demonstration but stepped forward when a group of EDL thugs surrounded another woman who was. The man on the right  threatened her with his fists and a policeman intervened in an attempt to defuse the situation.

 Ms Khan kept her hands in her pockets all the time, her smile conveying a sense of amused contempt that is truly an image for our times.

The man at the right in the picture is Ian Crossland, a leading figure in the EDL. He later wrote on Facebook that Ms Khan was “lucky she got any teeth left”.

By the way, here’s an excerpt from Mr Crossland’s Facebook page:

Saffiyah Khan is half Pakistani and half Bosnian, but I’d far rather live in a Britain made in her image than in his.

Well, I’m now officially on holiday for two weeks and probably won’t be blogging much during this break, especially about work-related things, but I couldn’t resist a quick announcement of something very exciting.

We received confirmation last week that the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC for short) to set up a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT for short) involving the Universities of Cardiff, Bristol and Swansea. This will be coordinated by the Data Innovation Institute at Cardiff University and it covers  a wide range of data-intensive research in astrophysics and cosmology carried on at the three member institutions. ‘Data-intensive’ here means involving very big data sets, very sophisticated analysis methods or high-performance computing,  or any combination of these.

The Centre for Doctoral Training will be coordinated by the Data Innovation Institute at Cardiff University. It will commence in September 2017 so we will be open for applications immediately, ie. next week.

For further information, please see the Data Innovation Institute webpage which will be updated as more details are available.

By the way, for  this special programme, STFC have relaxed the  rules relating to  nationality, so full funding is potentially available for  non-UK citizens under this scheme.

If you’re looking to do a PhD in data-intensive physics or astrophysics, get writing your application now and keep an eye on this page for further announcements.

To secure a PhD place at this STFC CDT administered by the DII you’d better apply PDQ! 

No time for a post today, I’m afraid, so here’s a photograph of a Spectacled Monkey..