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The State of the Universe Video

Posted in Biographical, Talks and Reviews, The Universe and Stuff, YouTube on June 29, 2021 by telescoper

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Here is a recording of the Invited Colloquium at the International School Daniel Chalonge – Hector de Vega I gave via Zoom on 23rd June 2021, introduced by Prof. Norma Sanchez.

In the talk I give a general review of the current state of cosmology, discussing the standard model of cosmology and some of the possible ways in which it might be revised or extended. It’s not a very technical talk but does assume some knowledge of cosmology. I hope a general audience will get something out of it.

I’m sorry if the recording is a bit choppy but that’s an occupational hazard with Zoom recordings and rather limited broadband!

This is an edited version of the session which in total lasted well over three hours including lengthy discussions and a trip down memory lane at the end. I cut out the introduction but kept a few of the questions and answers at the end, so it’s still rather long despite the rather brutal edits.

A video of the full event can be found here (1.6GB) and a PDF file of the slides can be found here. The slides are also available to be viewed here.

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An Article about Pride

Posted in Biographical, Film, LGBTQ+ with tags , , on June 28, 2021 by telescoper

Today is 28th June which means that it’s the anniversary – the 52nd anniversary to be precise – of the Stonewall Riots.

I was only 6 in 1969 so wasn’t aware of this event at the time but it (and Pride Month generally) always reminds me of how far we’ve come, though many LGBT+ people still face hostility and discrimination. Nowadays though my own celebration of Pride is very subdued as it tends to makes me feel old and irrelevant as well as worried that we might be headed back right to the bigotry and intolerance of the past. The rights we have won could so easily be taken away. Although I am no longer young, I find I have become very protective towards younger LGBT+ people. I don’t want anyone to have to put up with the crap that I did when I was their age.

Despite these reservations I do find some of the manifestations of Pride quite pleasing. An Post have issued special stamps this year, as you can see above.

I haven’t bought any because I haven’t got any letters to send but I think it’s nice. 18 year old me in the middle of his A-level exams in 1981 could not have imagined such a gesture from a public body. Bród is the Irish word for Pride.

I watched the 2014 film Pride on TV the other day. I’d seen it before but enjoyed the second viewing a lot, although it did make me feel a bit ashamed that I didn’t get involved in the events of 1984 at all. I was too much of a coward.

Anyway just to change tack I thought I’d mention that the “An” in “An Post” is a definite article, which is a bit confusing to English speakers for whom “an” is a form of the indefinite article. There are no indefinite articles in Irish.

Other European languages (including Latin) don’t have any articles at all. Russian doesn’t either. It’s always fun writing a paper with Russian collaborators because articles are so alien to them. It’s not so easy to explain when to use the definite or indefinite article or no article at all to someone used to a language in which articles don’t exist.

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Thank-You Notes

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth on June 26, 2021 by telescoper

I’ve just finished my presentation about Theoretical Physics at today’s Open Day in Maynooth and now have a short break before the online Question-and-Answer session so I thought I’d use the time to do a quick post.

Yesterday our students got their marks and as a consequence I had quite a few emails from students about their results. Happily the vast majority were absolutely lovely. Here are two excerpts of emails from graduating students (I’ve removed bits to ensure anonymity):

Thanks a million for all your support throughout the 3 years. I enjoyed every minute of this course, largely due to yourself and the other lecturers..

Thank you and everyone in the TP department for everything, I am indebted to you all and am incredibly gratefully for all your support, help and advice.

And another:

I want to express my gratitude to yourself and the rest of the department. I had a great experience in Maynooth and having personable and helpful professors helped a lot.

Such nice comments mean a very great deal, especially since these students – and others too numerous to mention – have been taught remotely for the last three semesters. They’re not just about me, of course; they refer to all the staff in the Department. I’m sure the gratitude expressed goes both ways too. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our students for putting up with everything that’s been thrown at them over the last year and a half and for being so determined and cooperative.

I really do hope it will be possible to offer congratulations in person to our graduating class at a formal Conferring Ceremony due to take place in September, but that I suppose is dependent on the progress of the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination, and so on. It’s out of my hands.

I’ve said before on this blog that I always feel a curious sense of loss at the end of an academic year. After three or four years in the Department you’re only just starting to get to know students and then suddenly they’re finished. This year in particular it would be very sad if they just disappeared without a proper goodbye. As one of my correspondents said:

I am really looking forward to attending the conferring ceremony. As you said, it’s been far too long since we’ve talked to anyone in the department in person.

Of course this little tinge of sadness is more than made up by the success of these students which is hard won and thoroughly well deserved. I’m very pleased for them all. They now have the opportunity to follow a career of their choice. It must be very exciting for them, as a degree in Theoretical Physics opens a great many doors!

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End of Term Hiatus

Posted in Biographical, Education, Football, Maynooth on June 24, 2021 by telescoper

Yesterday was quite a busy day because, as well as my talk in the afternoon, we had the main University Examination Board in the morning. Because many students in Maynooth are taking courses that spread across more than one Department, this is an opportunity to raise any issues arising when marks are combined. The full results for each student are presented on “Broadsheets” which I suspect in days gone by would have been broad sheets of paper, but which nowadays are hefty PDF files, one for each faculty. Science & Engineering was the first session, kicking off at 9.15 via Teams but because we all had access to the Broadsheets since last Friday we had time to identify any relevant matters and the meeting itself went quite smoothly.

Now there’s a short hiatus because the formal results will not be communicated to students until tomorrow (Friday 25th). Next Tuesday (29th June) is Consultation Day, on which students can discuss their results and any matters arising with staff. Obviously we can’t do this in person this year because of Covid-19 restrictions but, because the examination scripts were scanned and uploaded electronically this year the students will actually have the originals, discussing any issues of marking shouldn’t be too difficult.

Some students will need to take repeat examinations before they can progress. These are in the period 4th-14th August in Maynooth so I’ll have to be around for those. I was hoping to try to get some summer holiday this year – which I didn’t last summer – starting on 5th July, but that has already been pushed back because something important has arisen that means I have to be working on 7th July. I hope nothing else eats into my leave entitlement. It says in my contract how many weeks holiday I should have per year so I will not accept another year of not being able to take it.

Although we have a short break in the examination process that doesn’t mean everything stops. I have to work this Saturday (26th June) at the Summer Open Day here at Maynooth, recruiting the September intake…

The sense of hiatus is amplified by the fact that there are no matches today or tomorrow in the European Championship, the final group games being last night and the first in the Round of 16 being on Saturday. I’ve got quite used to watching the 8pm matches over the last couple of weeks!

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40 years since A-level

Posted in Biographical, Education on June 22, 2021 by telescoper

It was with quite a shock that I realized the other day that it is no less than forty years since I took my GCE A-levels. Here is the evidence:

I don’t know why kept this “Statement of Entry” all this time but you’ll see that my first exam was the Physics Multiple Choice paper exactly 40 years ago today on 22nd June 1981. The following day was a toughie with Mathematics 1 in the morning and a Chemistry Paper in the afternoon, but I remember 26th June (which was a Friday) being the hardest with the with Further Maths examination in the morning followed by the Chemistry Special Paper in the afternoon, both of them of 3 hours duration. I’ve actually posted the first of these on this blog, here, along with quite a few of the papers I took way back then.

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The State of the Universe Talk – Reminder

Posted in Biographical, Books, Talks and Reviews, Sport, Talks and Reviews, The Universe and Stuff with tags on June 21, 2021 by telescoper

Just time for a quick reminder that I’m giving a talk on Wednesday (23rd June 2021). It’s at 4pm Paris Time which is 3pm Irish Time. See my original post here.

I had a sudden sense of dread that this Colloquium might clash with the Portugal-France game in the European Championship which takes place the same day but it turns out that won’t kick off until 9pm Paris Time which means that I should just about be finished before the football starts. I don’t think even I could overrun by 4 hours! Indeed I should finish before the earlier games that day, which kick off at 5pm Paris Time…

If you want to attend the Colloquium (via Zoom) you can register for it here.

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Remembering John Barrow

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on June 17, 2021 by telescoper

This is a special post about John D. Barrow who passed away from colon cancer last year. As you probably know John Barrow was my thesis advisor.

John’s son Roger is running the London Marathon in October this year to raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support. It’s a very special cause for John’s family and friends and I hope you will consider helping Roger money for this charity as an excellent way of remembering John.

You can donate here.

Please feel free to share this as widely as possible. Let’s raise that total as high as we can!

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Marking Bloomsday 2021 with beard power

Posted in Beards, Biographical, Literature on June 16, 2021 by telescoper

Although my primary research interest is in the area of astrophysics and cosmology I think it is important to get involved whenever possible in interdisciplinary scholarship. My latest such contribution was to use the “find” facility on the online version of Ulysses by James Joyce to establish that the word “beard” appears 59 times in that work. A thorough analysis of the role of beards in Ulysses would make an interesting PhD topic, in my opinion.

kmflett's avatarKmflett's Blog

As former Beard of Ireland Peter Coles noted on twitter there are 59 references to beards in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

On Bloomsday 2021 the Beard Liberation Front salutes the hirsute canon of Joyce.

A typical Ulysses reference is below:

Mastiansky and Citron approach in gaberdines wearing long earlocks. They wag their beards at Bloom

(page 438)

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Opening Up Again

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff on June 15, 2021 by telescoper

The Irish Government has just produced its plan for A Safe Return to on-site further and higher education and research that outlines what is basically a full return to on-campus activity from September 2021.
I quote from the preamble to the document linked to above:

It is expected that the majority of the people over 18 in Ireland will have been vaccinated by September 2021, and so planning is proceeding on the basis that full resumption of on-site activity is possible, while ensuring that overall numbers attending on-site are monitored and controlled.

In the absence of regular updates about the progress of Ireland’s vaccination programme it is difficult to know whether the first sentence is accurate or not, especially since it appears that two vaccine doses are needed to protect against the Delta-variant. I think most teaching staff will have been immunized by September, but am not so sure about the student population.

I’m also mindful that we were optimistic in advance of the start of last academic year and things didn’t exactly go to plan then. Nevertheless there do seem to be reasonable grounds for believing that we can return to on-campus teaching in September and we will be planning on that basis until there is evidence to the contrary. I just hope we don’t have to do a rapid about-turn like we did last year.

The first step in this process for us here in Maynooth is that from 5th July staff and research students can return to their offices on campus – following the existing protocols on social distancing, sanitation and ventilation – without having to make a special case. Only a few people have been working inside the Department since the start of the year and I’d expect most to begin making their way back.

In fact some members of the Department of Theoretical Physics joined us only this academic year and have never actually been the building (or on campus) at all. I suppose I’ll now have to find office space for them, something that hasn’t been necessary while we have all been working from home!

As a matter of fact, since it’s a nice day and I’ve been on Teams all morning, I might take a walk onto campus myself this afternoon and visit my office in the Department for the first time in a month…

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Boards of Examination

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , , on June 11, 2021 by telescoper

We’ve at last staggered to the end of a week dominated by Examination matters. For myself that consisted of preliminary Examination Boards for Theoretical Physics and Engineering (for which we teach modules in Engineering Mathematics) followed by Final Examination Boards in both subjects with External Examiners present. Those final meetings both took place today so it’s been a particularly busy end of the week.

That’s not quite the end of the examinations business for the academic year, however, as we have the Final Final Examination Board in about ten days’ time. That is when marks from all Departments come together to determine the final results for students who are taking degrees in combinations of subjects. We have quite a number doing Joint Honours with Mathematics, for example. It does add an extra level to the process, but I think that’s a price worth paying for the flexibility we offer to students.

This final Examination Board takes place on 23rd June and students will get their marks a couple of days later on 25th June. Even that won’t be the end, because some students will be taking repeat examinations in August, but at least it signals a gap in the assessment cycle during which we can hopefully think of other things for a while.

Obviously I’m not going to comment on the marks for individual students but nobody will be surprised to hear that the Covid-19 pandemic has obviously had a big impact on some. It also had an impact on our External Examiner for Theoretical Physics who actually caught Covid-19 recently and became quite ill. Thankfully she is now feeling better and well enough to join us remotely today.

The Repeat Examination period takes place in August and will again be conducted remotely but hopefully the 1st Semester examinations next year will be under more normal circumstances. It’s not so much that I’m worried that our online examinations are somehow inappropriate, it’s just that it does take far longer to mark them than paper examinations and this year it has been extremely tight getting everything ready for the deadline by which marks must be committed to our central system (which is Monday 14th June).

Anyway, we’ve now done the job so I have an opportunity to thank all the staff in Theoretical Physics for their hard work and diligence!

Now it’s definitely wine o’clock.

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