Archive for the Uncategorized Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Statement on the Litvinenko Case

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on January 22, 2016 by telescoper

Yesterday while I was at the Winter Graduation ceremony, one of the esteemed  Emeritus Professors in the Department of Physics of Astronomy, Norman Dombey, recorded two TV interviews about the Alexander Litvinenko case. Professor Dombey was an expert witness who contributed evidence to an inquiry that concluded that Mr Litvinenko was deliberately poisoned with radioactive Polonium, and that his murder was probably explicitly authorised by Vladimir Putin.

One of the interviews took place outside the Department:

Dombey

The other was filmed in my office while I was on graduation duty.

In case any KGB agents are in the habit of reading this blog, I wish to point out that the use of my office by Professor Dombey should not be taken as evidence that I endorse the conclusion that Vladimir Putin ordered the assassination of Mr Litvinenko. Even if that is probably the case.

 

 

1 Comment »

Winter Graduation

Posted in Uncategorized on January 21, 2016 by telescoper

image

A very busy week found me on graduation duty today at the Brighton Dome for the Winter Graduation for the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex. In fact students from all the Science schools at Sussex graduated this morning, so it was quite a long ceremony but it was, as usual, made very enjoyable by the presence of the Chancellor, Sanjeev Bhaskar, who was at one point lifted clean off his feet by a strapping graduand. I’ve seen hugs, handshakes and selfish galore on the stage at The Dome. but I don’t think Ive ever seen the Chancellor get picked up before!

In the photograph above Sanjeev is presenting an honorary degree to a distinguished expert in the field of art conservation, Dr David Bomford. You can just see me on the far left.

Many congratulations to all those who graduated today!

1 Comment »

How bad is Stormtrooper aim exactly?

Posted in Uncategorized on January 15, 2016 by telescoper

Here’s a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the inaccuracy of stormtroopers’ use of firearms in the Star Wars movies.

This is just one manifestation of a general phenomenon – bad guys are always terrible shots! At least in movies…

davehullo's avatarDelight Through Logical Misery

Stormtrooper_Gun A Stormtrooper gun. It’s possible they don’t know what these are for. Photo by Roy Kabanlit.

For some unknown reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about Star Wars recently. Going forward, I’ll assume you’ll be familiar with the events and characters of at least the first six films. If not, what have you been doing? Living in a recent, recent time in a galaxy that’s very close to here? Broadly speaking, this post inevitably contains minor spoilers for Episodes II−VI of the Star Wars films. If you haven’t seen them, inexplicably want to find out about Stormtrooper aim and don’t mind knowing some plot details, then feel free to read on.

There are some characteristics of characters or groups of characters within the Star Wars register that are widely held to be fact. This may be despite them not being explicitly stated within the films. Red lightsabers are for the…

View original post 1,641 more words

Leave a comment »

Should the ‘Roast beef of Old England’ be restored as the English anthem?

Posted in Uncategorized on January 15, 2016 by telescoper

Here’s an important (?) poll about what an English National Anthem should be, reblogged from Keith Flett’s blog..

I voted for Other (The Blaydon Races) …

kmflett's avatarKmflett's Blog

Should the ‘Roast Beef of Old England’ be restored as English anthem

beef

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins may have a point in bringing  a bill to the Commons to replace God Save the Queen at sporting events where the England team plays with a specifically English anthem.

The national anthem, God Save the Queen or King, first became common in the 1790s when ‘Church and King’ mobs backed by sailors were keen to oppose radicals who supported the French Revolution.

The traditional English anthem had been the Roast Beef of Old England, and the playing of the new national anthem did not always go down well. A riot took place in Sheffield in 1812 when naval officers insisted it was played at a theatrical performance.

Mr Perkins, not to be confused with Harry Perkins in Chris Mullins a Very British Coup novel, is a supporter of hard right group Progress in…

View original post 73 more words

1 Comment »

On the Theory of Gravitational Wave Rumour Sources

Posted in Astrohype, The Universe and Stuff, Uncategorized with tags , , on January 12, 2016 by telescoper

There has been a great deal of excitement almost nowhere in the astrophysics community since it was announced recently that rumours of the detection of gravitational waves had yet again begun to circulate, so I thought I would add here a brief discussion of the theoretical background to these phenomena.

The standard theoretical model of such rumours is that they are  produced from time to time during the lifetime of a supermassive science project after periods of relative quiescence. It is thought that they are associated with a perceived lack of publicity which might threaten funding and lead to financial collapse of the project. This stimulates a temporary emission of hype produced by vigorous gossip-mongering which acts to inflate the external profile of the project, resisting external pressures and restoring equilibrium. This general phenomenon is not restricted to gravitational wave detection, but also occurs across many other branches of Big Science, especially cosmology and particle physics.

However, observations of the latest outburst suggest support for a rival theory, in which rumours are produced not by the project itself but by some other body or bodies in orbit around it or even perhaps entirely independent of it. Although there is evidence in favour of this theory, it is relatively new and many questions remain to be answered. In particular it is not known what the effect of rumours produced in this way might be on the long-term evolution of the project or on the source itself.

Lawrence Krauss is 61.

 

 

1 Comment »

MPS Staff-Student Christmas Social

Posted in Uncategorized on January 7, 2016 by telescoper

Here’s a montage of photographs taken during the Christmas Staff-Student social event we held in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex in December 2015. It was a lot of fun, as the pictures make clear!

All Photo Credits: Summer Dean

2 Comments »

Protected: Secret Poll

Posted in Uncategorized on January 6, 2016 by telescoper

This content is password-protected. To view it, please enter the password below.

Enter your password to view comments.

The Great Curve II: Citation distributions and reverse engineering the JIF

Posted in Uncategorized on January 5, 2016 by telescoper

Here’s a lengthy study of Journal Impact Factors. It’s mainly about cell biology journals but I think this across all scientific disciplines. The JIF is so flawed as to be meaningless but this discussion suggests that the situation is even worse than that, with some advertised JIFs being wrong…

quantixed's avatarquantixed

There have been calls for journals to publish the distribution of citations to the papers they publish (123). The idea is to turn the focus away from just one number – the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) – and to look at all the data. Some journals have responded by publishing the data that underlie the JIF (EMBO J, Peer J, Royal Soc, Nature Chem). It would be great if more journals did this. Recently, Stuart Cantrill from Nature Chemistry actually went one step further and compared the distribution of cites at his journal with other chemistry journals. I really liked this post and it made me think that I should just go ahead and harvest the data for cell biology journals and post it.

This post is in two parts. First, I’ll show the data for 22 journals. They’re broadly cell biology, but there’s something…

View original post 1,883 more words

1 Comment »

Nature and the Open Journal of Astrophysics

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on January 4, 2016 by telescoper

As I prepare to return to Sussex for the new term, I find that Nature News & Comment has published a piece on a pet project I’ve blogged about on a number of occasions, The Open Journal of Astrophysics.

There are a couple of sceptical comments quoted in the piece, which is fair enough. Such views are not at all unexpected. This is a new venture and there are bound to be people who prefer to stick to the established publishing channels. I and the others involved in the Open Journal think traditional journals have long since had their day. We’ll just have to see how many others agree!

11 Comments »

A Wet New Year in Cardiff

Posted in Uncategorized on January 3, 2016 by telescoper

I haven’t been too well for the first few days of 2016, and haven’t been out much since New Year’s Eve. It’s been chucking it down most of the time anyway! I was feeling a bit better this morning and there was a gap in the rain so I went for a walk and did a few errands.

image

The River Taff is swollen because of the rain. Those are small trees partly submerged in the foreground, so the river is up about a couple of metres. There’s no imminent danger of flooding. I have seen it much higher than this. There seems to be more rain in store though.

I’m travelling back to Brighton on Tuesday barring any problems with the trains. I have a lot to do when I get back to the office. I have to lecture again next term, but there’s also an important grant application to put together, not to mention the official launch of the Open Journal..

1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »