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Week (and Academic Year) Ending

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , on August 14, 2026 by telescoper

I know many people think that University staff are on holiday all the way through the summer, particularly August, but this week has been very busy indeed, not only because of the Eclipse Event. It is somewhat cooler today, but the heat this week has also contributed to my general sense of exhaustion.

For a start I had repeat examinations to correct. I collected my first scripts Monday 10th and managed to correct them all the same day as I wanted to get everything done before the Eclipse on Wednesday afternoon. The other modules I had to grade involved fewer students so I achieved that goal satisfactorily.

Monday 10th also saw the for the dissertations for our MSc course in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics. I’m glad to say all the students handed in their project reports by the deadline and all our now being graded. The presentations were held this morning (Friday 14th) and all went well.

With the repeat examinations and the MSc dissertations now in hand, next week we have two separate sets of Examination Boards, one for the undergraduate repeats and one for the (postgraduate) Masters. I have to attend the Engineering Board as well as Physics, as there were students repeating my Engineering Mathematics module. The MSc students will subsequently be given their final grades and will have completed, as will the final-year undergraduates who needed to pass a repeat in order to graduate. Other undergraduates will find out whether they can pass into the next year of their course. Only after all this will the academic year 2025/26 really come to close.

Conferrring (graduation) ceremonies will be held from 7th to 10th September for those who have already completed – the Masters students and students who need to repeat paper(s) in order to graduate will have to wait until November for their ceremony.

On Friday next (21st August), school students in Ireland will get their Leaving Certificate results, which signals the onset of student enrolment for the 2026/27 academic year. I noticed that in the UK A-level students got their results this week. In Ireland we will find out over the following weeks, we will find out exactly how many new students we have coming in, and how many continuing. Then it will be orientation week, followed by the start of lecturing for the new term, by which point we will know how many people we will have in our classes.

And so it continues. But, for me, not for much longer…

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That was the (Partial) Eclipse that was…

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , on August 12, 2026 by telescoper

Today been a very busy but hugely enjoyable day. We had a big turnout for the Eclipse Event at Maynooth University – I don’t have attendance figures right now, but will update when I do – and good weather in the build-up to the eclipse. Unforunately just as maximum coverage approached, clouds intervened. That was a little disappointing but there were some lovely colour effects that made up for it and it did also get eerily dark…

I heard only nice things about the event from people who attended. Here are some random snaps taken throughout the day:

The combination of heat and exertion meant that I couldn’t resist going for a pint or three afterwards so I think I’ll leave it there, except to congratulate Emma Whelan, whose brainwave today was, plus all the lecturers, technicians and students who made it possible, as well as all the members of the public who participated. It was great to see so many people of all ages release their inner nerd.

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Chin and Brain

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on August 10, 2026 by telescoper

I’ve been a bit busy today marking repeat examinations, so I’ve only got time for a short post. Yesterday, while working on something else, I got to wondering why it is that people often touch or stroke or scratch or hold their chin while thinking deeply?

It’s such a common visual trope that the stock image collection on wordpress has dozens of photographs of people doing it. Here’s one:

Photo by Hu1ea3i Nguyu1ec5n on Pexels.com

And of course, there’s Le Penseur by Auguste Rodin:

Photo by Charl Durand on Pexels.com

The apparent connection between chin and brain seems to be a cross-cultural phenomenon which is common to all ages and genders. Whatever the reason for it is, it’s presumably related to scratching your head, which is a common idiomatic expression for feeling confused, puzzled, or thinking very hard about a difficult problem. It may also be related to the endearing habit many people (especially children) of poking their tongue out of the corner of their mouth while concentrating on writing or drawing…

None of the explanations I’ve heard for such behaviour makes much sense, so I wonder if any of my readers can suggest a reason?

(Bonus marks for implausibility.)

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Maynooth Eclipse Weather Watch

Posted in Biographical, Irish Language, Maynooth with tags , , , , , on August 9, 2026 by telescoper

As I mentioned last week, the Department of Physics at Maynooth University will be hosting an Eclipse Event, this week on Wednesday August 12th. This sold out very quickly so we expect a good turnout. In the last few days we have been featured prominently in articles in the Irish Times and The Journal and on the RTÉ website. Although it is officially full, there may be a few returns, so it is worth checking on the day to see if we can fit you in.

The viewing of the eclipse will of course depend on the weather, but we have talks lined up indoors and a pop-up planetarium so I hope people will turn up even if the weather isn’t great. I’ve been checking the forecast on the Met Éireann app quite regularly. As of last week it wasn’t very good, with cloud and rain likely but since then it has improved. In the light of my recent post that one can’t really trust Irish weather forecasts more than three days in advance, I thought it would be fun to track the forecast until the big event to see how stable it is.

Here are the summaries for yesterday (Saturday, when it only gave a prediction every three hours for Wednesday), and today (Sunday, where there is an hourly forecast). The peak of the (partial) eclipse is around 7pm (19.00 hours) in Maynooth.

Saturday Forecast
Sunday Forecast
Monday Forecast
Tuesday Morning Forecast (7am)
Tuesday Evening Forecast (5pm)
Wednesday Morning Forecast (7am)
Wednesday Afternoon Forecast (3pm)

As you can see, the Sunday forecast predicts the temperature on Wednesday to be rather high, with little chance of rain, though with more cloud than the Saturday forecast. I’ll update on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to see how it progresses…

Update: Wednesday 12th, 7.30am. As you can see from the above the forecast for the eclipse is quite good. There is quite a lot of rain out to the west, but it is tracking noreth-eastwards and most of it is forecast to miss Maynooth.

The rainfall situation at 7.30am, Wednesday 12th August

P.S. In the Irish language, “eclipse” can be either urú or éiclips. The former is interesting as it is also the name for a form of initial mutation that occurs certain grammatical situations in Irish, the change at the beginning of a word, where a new letter is placed in front of the original consonant, so that the new letter’s sound replaces (or “eclipses”) the old one.

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Learning is the thing for you.

Posted in Biographical, Literature with tags , , , , on August 8, 2026 by telescoper

I was tidying up today and came across my copy (right) of The Once and Future King by T.H. White. This comprises four novels and is a sort of re-telling of the Arthurian legends. I remember buying it when I was at school, at which time I was reading a lot of fantasy novels of the swords-and-sorcery type, but although it is a fantasy, this book was not at all what I anticipated. It’s very funny in places and also full of anachronisms. White uses the legend of King Arthur as a kind of metaphor or political allegory and his novels are only loosely based on the familar stories of Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur. The first novel was first published as a standalone book in 1938…

Anyway, I kept this book intending to read it again but never got around to doing that. The edition I bought is in quite small type so I might find it a struggle now! I’ve kept it to one side, though, as I know a certain person whom I think will enjoy it and is young enough to still have good eyesight. I will give it to him when we next meet.

The other day somebody shared the following (wonderful) extract from the first novel, The Sword in the Stone, which is largely about the education of the young Arthur (known by his nickname “Wart”) by the wizard Merlyn. The quote remains extremely relevant today as an expression of the joy – which I wish more people shared – of learning for learning’s sake.

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn—pure science, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a milliard lifetimes in biology and medicine and theo-criticism and geography and history and economics—why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics, until it is time to learn to plough.”

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Passports, Old and New

Posted in Biographical with tags , on August 5, 2026 by telescoper

So, three weeks to the day since I completed the online formalities, I received delivery today, by courier, of my new UK passport. Fair play to the Passport Office for their extremely efficient service. The only thing I don’t have is my previous (expired) passport which I am assured will arrive under separate cover. It being less valuable than a new one, presumably it will be sent by a cheaper and slower method.

I thought I would compare the new one (right) with my oldest old one (left; the first passport I ever had, issued in 1986, with the corner now cut off to show it is defunct):

The new one is black (or perhaps a very dark blue) but the old one is more of a navy blue. The new one is a bit smaller. The size of the old one was not consistent with international ID standards and was changed in 1992, at which point the colour was changed to burgundy red. The 1986 vintage is not a biometric passport either. The biggest difference however is that the old one is a bit battered from extensive use but this is unlikely to happen to the new one. I’ve already put it away for safe keeping. I don’t think I’ll be using it much so it will probably remain in a pristine state until it expires (or I do).

UPDATE: 07/08/2026. Just two days after the new one arrived, I got the old one (minus corner).

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Lá Saoire i mí Lúnasa

Posted in Biographical, Education, mathematics, Maynooth with tags , , , , on August 3, 2026 by telescoper

Today, Monday 3rd August 2026, being the first Monday in August, is a Bank Holiday in Ireland. This holiday was created by the Bank Holiday Act of 1871 when Ireland was under British rule. While the August Bank Holiday was subsequently moved to the end of August in England and Wales, it has remained at the start of August in Ireland. It has been a nice morning weather-wise, but in true Bank Holiday fashion we’re promised heavy rain later on, with a chance of thunderstorms.

As I mentioned on Saturday, the first day of August marks the old pagan festival of Lughnasadh, named after the God Lugh, on which is celebrated the beginning of the harvest season. This coincides with the English Lammas Day, one of many Christian festivals with pagan origins. Traditionally this is the start of the harvest season and is celebrated accordingly, with rites involving the first fruit and bread baked from flour obtained from the first corn. It is also one of the cross-quarter days, lying roughly half-way between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere).

Two years ago at this time I was still on sabbatical. That seems like ages ago! When I resumed teaching, in September 2024, I had to teach two modules I’d never taught before: a fourth-year Mathematical physics course on Differential Equations and Complex Analysis and a second-year Engineering Mathematics course. I am doing both of these again so resumption of teaching in September won’t be as challenging, although I will be changing a few things in the light of last year’s experience. Lectures start on Monday 22nd September.

After I return to work tomorrow the next big item on the agenda is the repeat examination period, which starts on Wednesday August 5th. The first paper for which I have responsibility is on Friday 7th, but I won’t be able to get the scripts until Monday 10th so I have a bit of time to do other stuff before I start marking. I am not expecting many scripts, actually, so it shouldn’t be too onerous a task to get them done promptly.

Next week also sees the deadline for the dissertations for our MSc course. I have been supervising a student this year and will probably be asked to give comments on the final draft of his report. Then the MSc students have their presentations on Friday 14th August. They have all completed the taught component of the course so the only thing left to assess are these projects. Students will get their final results later this month, along with the resitting undergraduate students.

In between all this we have our Eclipse Event on August 12th. This sold out very quickly so we expect a good turnout. The event was advertised quite a bit in the local media, e.g. here and here:

The viewing of the eclipse will of course depend on the weather, but we have talks lined up indoors and a pop-up planetarium so I hope people will turn up even if the weather isn’t great. Although it is officially full, there may be a few returns, so it is worth checking on the day to see if we can fit you in.

Anyway, after the repeat examinations and project assessments are done, the marks uploaded, and the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Examination Boards have done their work, the next job will be to prepare for the new intake of students. This year’s Leaving Certificate results will be announced on Friday 21st August, at which point we’ll see how many students (if any) we have studying Physics next academic year (which, if all goes to plan, will be my penultimate…)

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Lughnasadh – The Start of Autumn

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , , , on August 1, 2026 by telescoper

Today is 1st August, which is marked by the old Celtic festival of Lughnasadh, named after the God Lugh. This coincides with the English Lammas Day, one of many Christian festivals with pagan origins. The word for August in modern Irish is Lúnasa, a name derived from the old Celtic word.

Traditionally 1st August marks the start of the harvest season and is celebrated accordingly, with rites involving the first fruit and bread baked from flour obtained from the first corn. It is also one of the cross-quarter days, lying roughly half-way between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere).

In the Northern hemisphere, from an astronomical point of view, the solar year is defined by the two solstices (summer, around June 21st and winter, around December 21st) and the equinoxes (Spring, around March 21st, and Autumn, around September 21st). These four events divide the year into four roughly equal parts of about 13 weeks each. If you divide each of these intervals in two you divide the year into eight pieces of six and a bit weeks each. The dates midway between the astronomical events mentioned above are (roughly) :

  • 1st February: Imbolc (Candlemas)
  • 1st May: Beltane (Mayday)
  • 1st August: Lughnasadh (Lammas)
  • 1st November: Samhain (All Saints Day)

The names I’ve added are taken from the Celtic/neo-Pagan (and Christian terms) for these cross-quarter days. These timings are rough because the dates of the equinoxes and solstices vary from year to year. Imbolc is often taken to be the 2nd of February (Groundhog Day) and Samhain is sometimes taken to be October 31st, Halloween. But hopefully you get the point. All four of thes days have a Bank Holiday associated with them (on the first Monday after the respective date); this Monday (3rd August) is a Bank Holiday in Ireland.

Some folk in Ireland regard August 1st as the first day of Autumn, just as 1st February is regarded as the first day of Spring and 1st May is the start of Summer. Indeed, our annual cycle of repeat examinations at Maynooth always happens in early to mid-August and these examinations are officially called the Autumn repeats. I rest my case. In my time here I have also noticed that May, June and July do tend to have significantly better weather than August, although I’m pleased to say that the weather isn’t particularly autumnal today.

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Astronomy Envy

Posted in Biographical, Education, Science Politics with tags , , , on July 30, 2026 by telescoper

In 1998 the Department of Physics at the University of Nottingham was struggling in both research and undergraduate recruitment. To remedy the situation it decided to add a new group in Astronomy. The main idea was that having astronomy in its portfolio would attract more students and boost its standing in the Research Assessment Exercise (as it was then called). I was one of the people appointed to turn that decision into reality, and I’m glad to say the result was a success. Undergraduate numbers increased and in the next RAE Nottingham Physics scored a ‘5’, compared to the previous ‘4’. The Astronomy group quickly gained recognition across the UK and abroad, and another group was added, in Astroparticle Physics.

When the new Astronomy group was set up in 1999, the Department of Physics changed its name to the School of Physics & Astronomy. Despite the positive effect of this new activity, it was immediately clear that some members of staff resented it. A new letterhead was created, referring to the School of Physics & Astronomy, and one (very distinguished) senior member of the former Department always crossed off the “and Astronomy” whenever he used it. Others were surprised that the astronomers wanted to do research, when they felt that astronomy was just a bit of window-dressing for undergraduate recruitment. The astronomers were just there to do teaching, so that the “proper physicists” – mostly in semiconductor physics, nanoscience and other areas of condensed matter physics – could spend more time in their laboratories. I’m not saying that every physicist thought this – most were genuinely appreciative and supportive – but there were more than a few grumblers.

The undertone of all this is the envy that some physicists feel towards astronomy. Astronomers get invited to talk about their work to the general public and to amateur astronomy clubs, while there are no such calls for semiconductor physicists. Nobel prizes go to cosmology and astrophysics much more frequently than some would like. Above all there is the view that astronomy is all very well for bringing students in, but once at university the students must be converted to “proper physics”. Astronomers (including astrophysicists and cosmologists) should not get “notions” (as the Irish say). The short-sighted view that scientific research in universities should be aimed at short-term commercial gain amplifies this attitude, but does not entirely account for it.

These thoughts have been at the back of my mind for some time, but they came to the front again with the recent news about cuts to STFC funding. The callous attitude shown to the UK astronomy research community, implying that it should be grateful that it is not being cut by more than the disastrous level announced, indicates (to me) that there’s much more to what is going on than a mere budgetary issue. There is a deliberate plan to slap down a community that has grown too big for its boots.

The consequences for UK astronomy, and UK physics in general, are dire. Astronomy has kept many physics departments afloat for the last several decades. Without it, physics will fail in all but a handful of universities. That’s where envy takes you.

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Irish Weather – The Three-Day Rule

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , on July 26, 2026 by telescoper

We got some rain at last. On Friday evening I checked the trusty Met Éireann app and saw this:

With a west/northwesterly wind I thought there was a good chance we would get a bit of rain, and so it turned out although to be honest there wasn’t that much. I think the greeny-yellowy blobs missed us. There was enough rain to give the garden a little light refreshment but not to make up for the ongoing hosepipe ban. We’ve had several weeks with next to no rain, which is highly unusual.

I look at the weather outlook quite regularly and have learned one thing in my time in Ireland. The forecast is usually fairly accurate up to about three days in the future but you shouldn’t rely on it beyond that. This week provided a good illustration. Last weekend the forecast predicted rain on Saturday (i.e. yesterday). As the week progressed the forecast changed and rain wasn’t forecast until next Wednesday. Then it rained on Friday evening. Saturday, by the way, was extremely humid: well over 90%.

Here’s the outlook from today:

You can see that rain is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, but the rainfall radar map shows why it is so difficult to predict whether rain will fall at a specific location. The rain clouds are rather small and moving rather quickly; the winds are around 25km/h (westerly). At the time of taking that screen grab there had been some light rain, but will the other blobs hit us? The Met Éireann model says “no” but others may well say “yes”. It’s a tough problem to predict this level of detail.

One thing that I think could be improved is a more reasonable representation of the uncertainty. The outlook for today confidently asserts that the Chance of Preciptation for the rest of today is “0%”. To me that means that it is absolutely impossible that it will rain, and that seems unreasonable to me. Surely there is some chance of rain later today? It doesn’t do much for the credibility of a forecast to claim such certainty. A week or two ago there were no clouds anywhere and “0%” was reasonable, but not today. If it were up to me I’d probably put “<1%” or “<5%” to hedge my bets.

And then there is the question of what amount of rain we’re talking about. I was on campus on Thursday and a few spots of rain fell then. I only noticed because I was outside, coming back from lunch. That was too little to count as real rainfall, but I wonder what the threshold is?

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