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Physical Differences

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Education with tags , , on September 26, 2023 by telescoper

Today was my first day in the ICCUB…

I spent quite a lot of this morning trying to get my internet connections to work and trying to sort out an office key, not with 100% success. I am currently in the office of a member of staff who happens to be away today instead of the office I was allocated, and my email address here is not yet activated – probably because I did something wrong in the registration process. I’m hopeful that these minor issues will be resolved tomorrow. Even Eduroam acted up for a while before finally letting me connect. Such is life.

Anyway, my first impression on arriving in the building was of a huge difference in scale in Physics activity here at the University of Barcelona (UB) as compared to Maynooth (and indeed the UK Physics departments I have worked in). That’s not just the size of the building, which the Faculty of Physics shares with the Faculty of Chemistry. Physics and Chemistry also share a building in Maynooth, in fact, so the sharing was not in itself a surprise. The Science Building in Maynooth is very small, however, and it was a bit of a shock seeing how much space there is here compared with Maynooth, and also finding out how easy it is to get lost among the 7 floors. The sense of space is very refreshing, actually, as cramped accommodation is a constant reminder of financial and other constraints.

That’s not the only difference, though. There is enough activity in Physics in the University of Barcelona for it to be an entire Faculty. The UB Faculty of Physics contains Departments, covering the following areas: Electronic & Biomedical Engineering; Quantum Physics & Astrophysics; Condensed Matter Physics, and Applied Physics. It is also home to ICCUB, an interdisciplinary research institute that sits outside the Department structure and some of whose staff are paid from external agencies rather than the University itself.

In Maynooth there is a Faculty of Science and Engineering that covers all disciplines represented in the list above, and more besides. It would amuse my colleagues back in Ireland to see that Electronic Engineering is considered a small subset of Physics in Barcelona, whereas in Maynooth it is a free-standing department which is larger than Physics.

P.S. I just thought I’d mention another difference: that it is very warm here (26° C) so I may need to stop for a beer on the way home…

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La Mercè

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical with tags , on September 25, 2023 by telescoper

So here I am. Today is a public holiday in Barcelona as part of a cultural festival called La Mercè. I knew it was a local rather than a national holiday but I didn’t realize how local it was until yesterday. It’s strictly limited to the City of Barcelona, and not to the surrounding areas. Anyway, the University being shut, I went for a stroll this morning. Most of the shops were closed but other attractions open.

University Building
Now there’s an idea…
Having a Ramble on La Rambla
Evidence of La Mercè
View from my hotel room

Public transport, especially the Metro, is excellent although I spent most of my time walking. It’s quite warm, but I survived.

What’s Spanish for Mornington Crescent?

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Barcelona Bound!

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Maynooth, Rugby with tags , , on September 24, 2023 by telescoper

At long last I’m ready to go. In fact I’m in the lounge at Dublin Airport Terminal 2 with plenty of time before my flight to Barcelona to sample the freebies in the Aer Lingus Business Class lounge. I spent most of the morning packing and sorting things last-minute things out. As always on such occasions I’m certain that I’ve forgotten something but I’m sure I’ll survive.

On the way through the airport I had a chat with a very friendly chap at the Fast Track security channel, about last night’s epic rugby match between South Africa and Ireland. I was fairly confident beforehand that South Africa would prove too strong for Ireland, and that’s the way it looked for the first 15 minutes, but that turned out not to be the case at the end. It’s true that the Springboks had chances to win, missing four kicks, but if you don’t take your chances at this level you can’t complain that you don’t win as a result.

The second half wasn’t pretty to watch but was in its own way very compelling. Ireland looked to have nicked it at 13-8 with a few minutes to go, but they conceded a penalty that led to a line-out close to their own try line. The resulting South African maul gathered ominously and threatened to roll forward, but stern Irish defence somehow held it up and, with the clock past 80 minutes the move faltered. With the Springboks having failed to “use it” it was inevitable that they would “lose it”. The resulting scrum was awarded to Ireland but there was no time to take it and the game was over.

It was a tense affair between two excellent teams and, although it was a low-scoring game, a marvellous piece of sporting theatre (if not for faint hearts). Watching that match was quite a way to spend my last night in Ireland for a while…

Back to the present, it’s a grey afternoon in Dublin with squally showers blowing in. With lectures starting in Maynooth tomorrow, the nights drawing in, and rainy weather on the way, I can’t say I’m sorry to be departing!

Update: my light was on time and I got safely to the hotel in which I’ll be staying until I get a longer-term arrangement sorted out. It’s a nice place and my room is spacious and comfortable. I took a couple of pictures on the flight, the first showing an interesting sunset over the clouds south of Ireland and the second a clear view down over Barcelona as we made our approach.

I was in Row 1 so got out quickly when we landed and the airport wasn’t busy so the only delay was waiting for my checked luggage to arrive. I usually travel only with cabin baggage, but I’m staying a bit too long for that this time!

P.S. Miraculously, I don’t think I have forgotten anything important!

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Week Ending

Posted in Biographical on September 22, 2023 by telescoper

It’s Friday, and the end of my last week in Maynooth for a while. I’m about to go out for farewell drinks, which I hope won’t be too heavy a session as I’m rather tired.

The list of things I had to do before leaving – both domestic and professional – is now down to manageable proportions. I spent today doing some bits and bobs around the house, including hacking down some ivy off the front of the house, and unblocking a gutter and a drain. These were necessary interventions, as the may have caused trouble while I am away.

I also got myself a haircut. At some point I’ll have to get my hair cut in Spain but I’m not sufficiently fluent to be confident of asking what I want doing, so I’ve had a trim here in to delay the need. Something I’ve remarked upon before is that, for a small town, Maynooth has quite a lot of barbers. I have no idea how many there are in Barcelona. Maybe I’ll just take my clippers and do a DIY job, or let it grow like I did during lockdown…

I’m glad I’ll have a house-sitter while I am away, just to keep an eye on things. She dropped off some belongings at my house already. There’s rather a lot and the spare bedroom is small, but she’ll have the run of the rest of the place so it should be OK. I hope she’ll be comfortable.

There’s been a significant amount of Euclid activity to deal with, as well as some OJAp business, but I think most of that will have to wait a few days until I am settled in Barcelona. I leave on Sunday afternoon, 24th September, and only just found out that Monday 25th September is a local public holiday in Barcelona, so it looks like I’ll have a day of enforced relaxation…

Anyway, I’m reliably informed that the weather in Barcelona is set fair at about 25°C while here in Maynooth it’s showery and more like 14°C. Experts say there’s no correlation between cold damp weather and arthritis pain, but it has certainly felt like there is recently. Hopefully the warmer climate will help.

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Welcome (and Goodbye) Week

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth on September 18, 2023 by telescoper

So Welcome Week has started in Maynooth, although I’m keeping a low profile ahead of my departure to foreign climes and haven’t seen any of the new students, who I’m assured definitely exist. I will be on campus tomorrow though as I have various things to do in my office before handing over the keys until next year. I think pint or two may well be drunk at some point this week to celebrate my departure too.

Although I’m not involved in Welcome Week activities, this week is nevertheless going to be extremely busy, and not just because of preparations for my trip to Barcelona. After a short hiatus in December, Euclid developments are well and truly back and I’ve got a stack of telecons to deal with. I had three today, and that’s just the start. I won’t get away from those while on sabbatical, of course, but at least I don’t have to organize them around teaching and other departmental activities.

I was chatting with my PhD student online this afternoon and it struck me that this will be the first time since 2020 that the Autumn Semester will start properly at Maynooth and students will get a full twelve weeks of in-person teaching with a study week. For the three previous years, teaching started late for new students because of a knock-on effect of the Leaving Certificate results being delayed by Covid-19 reasons. That meant that there was a truncated orientation process and term was a week shorter, i.e. 11 weeks instead of 12. I have been teaching first year physics students during that period, and it was quite a headache figuring out how to tweak things to make everything fit without rushing too much. Now all that is behind us, and a more relaxed start of term is possible, but it’s my successor in the role of first-year lecturer who will reap the benefit.

Teaching term starts later in Maynooth than in many other Irish universities. This year lectures commence on 25th September, a week today, by which time I’ll be in Barcelona. This has its advantages, but the disadvantage is that teaching is supposed to carry on until Friday December 22nd, just three days before Christmas…

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Memories of Barcelona

Posted in Architecture, Art, Biographical with tags , , , on September 17, 2023 by telescoper

I’ve had this poster for 30 years. It’s survived several relocations and is now on my bedroom wall in Maynooth. I bought it on a holiday in Barcelona in 1993 which, coincidentally, was the centenary of the birth of Joan Miró, and the reason for a special exhibition.

Since it’s a rainy Sunday afternoon and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic with just a week to go before I go to Barcelona once more, I thought I’d rummage through some boxes of old photographs to share some pictures taken on that trip in 1993. The first one is me being a bit scared on the funicular railway. The last picture shows my holiday mate David in blue (to the centre left) looking rather fetching from the rear as he ponders the Sagrada Familia:

Back in 1993 the Sagrada Familia was basically a building site. Thirty years on, it still isn’t finished but will be completed in 2026. Possibly. So I’m told.

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15 Years In The Dark

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff on September 15, 2023 by telescoper

When I logged onto WordPress yesterday I received a message that it was the 15th anniversary of my registration with them, which is when I took my first step into the blogosphere. That was way back on 15th September 2008.

I actually wrote my first post on the day I registered but unfortunately I didn’t really know what I was doing on my first day at blogging – no change there, then – and I didn’t actually manage to figure out how to publish this earth-shattering piece. It was only after I’d written my second post that I realized that the first one wasn’t actually visible to the general public because I hadn’t pressed the right buttons, so the two appear in the wrong order in my archive.

Such was the inauspicious beginning of this “shitty WordPress blog”!

Since then I have published 6507 blog posts posts which have received well over 5M page views. The largest number of hits I have received in a single day is still 8,864 (in 2014, at the peak of the BICEP2 controversy). Scientifically we’ve seen the discovery of the Higgs Boson and gravitational waves, both of which resulted in Nobel Prizes, as did the studies of high-redshift supernovae. The Planck mission mission was launched, did its stuff, and came to a conclusion in this time too. Most recently we have had the launch of JWST and have started to see the first science results. Euclid was launched earlier this year. Science at least has moved forward, even many other things have not.

This year saw my 60th birthday, so I’ve been blogging for about 25% of my life so far. I’ll have to keep going until I’m 90 to reach 50%…

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Physics as Fun

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth on September 13, 2023 by telescoper

To add to all the excitement I’ve just had a visit from a representative of ESB Networks who installed a new “smart” meter at my house in Maynooth. That process involved cutting off the electricity for about 15 minutes, which was long enough to set off my burglar alarm. Now that’s sorted, I have to go round resetting the clocks. All of that after I wasted half an hour this morning watching my laptop do compulsory Windows updates which involved two restarts.

Anyway, despite the distractions I’ve been working busily at home and getting ready for my departure abroad. This is the first year for a while that I haven’t been involved in Welcome Week or the Student Orientation process, which are ongoing. I have, however, looked at the online registrations so far and confirmed that there will indeed be some students in Theoretical Physics for the forthcoming academic year.

Yesterday I saw this cartoon by Gary Larson so thought I’d share it here.

It reminded me of this picture I have in the past shown at Open Days

I think there are many people out there who think physics, especially theoretical physics, isn’t something to be enjoyed. I think it is, or at least that it can be. I also think the best way to succeed at physics is by enjoying it, and I hope the new and returning students at Maynooth enjoy their theoretical physics over the next year while I am slaving away on sabbatical in Barcelona…

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From Einstein to Euclid: the Gallery

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on September 11, 2023 by telescoper

Last week I posted a photograph taken during my public lecture at Maynooth University. I thought I’d compound your collective misery by putting up more. I’m not sharing any pics of the audience because we didn’t ask them for permission, so you’re basically stuck with pictures of me (and one of Joost Slingerland, our Head of Department, in the first one).

Thanks to Dale for taking the pictures!

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Brahms, Byrne & Berlioz at the NCH

Posted in Biographical, Music with tags , , , , on September 9, 2023 by telescoper

Last night I went to the Opening Concert of the new season by the National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. I’ll be away for most of the year, so I thought I’d make the most of the time I’ve got before I depart to get a fix of culture.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the National Symphony Orchestra, and the very first piece they performed at their very first concert back in 1948 was Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms. I found it an especially fitting piece because this week we have been having graduation (conferring) ceremonies all week in Maynooth. It’s a familiar work, but provided an enjoyably upbeat start to the show.

The next piece was a a world premiere of a special commission for the National Symphony Orchestra. I was looking forward to this because it was to be the first time I’ve ever heard the uilleann pipes on the concert stage. The piece is a lot of fun, full of great tunes and robust humour. The uilleann pipes are a rather quiet instrument, however, and I have to say I hardly heard a note from them over the rest of the orchestra. At the end a Scottish piper walked on stage to play the bagpipes during the finale. These pipes are a much louder instrument, and even they were hard to hear with the rest of the band on full throttle.

Anyway, after the wine break, we had the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. I was put off this piece at school by a teacher who was obsessed with it and spent nearly a whole term banging on about how wonderful it is. While it is undoubtedly very imaginative – and very innovative for a piece written as early as 1830 – I remain unconvinced by all the hype. It’s basically a fever dream resulting from the composer’s experiments on opium and I find it rather gimmicky. Nevertheless, there is much to enjoy in a live performance of the work. Conductor Jaime Martín began the performance with a genial introduction to some of the “crazy” elements which he got the relevant musicians to play snippets representing, for example, the bubbling cauldron in the last movement which represents witches doing their stuff.

After the full performance the National Symphony Orchestra got a standing ovation. I joined in only briefly because the conductor’s introduction to the Berlioz meant that the concert was longer than I expected and I had to leave to catch my train back to Maynooth. I needn’t have worried. The train was 20 minutes late.

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