After posting yesterday about the sizeable differences between Maynooth and Barcelona in terms of Physics, I stumbled across an Irish connection in the foyer of the Physics Department.
Grubb TelescopeCaption
I’ve posted before about the famous optical instrument manufacturer, the Grubb Telescope Company, founded in Dublin by Thomas Grubb and later renamed Grubb Parsons after its relocation to Newcastle upon Tyne. I’ve posted about other connections too. The presence of this telescope in Barcelona is further evidence – as if it were needed – that, in its time, the Grubb Telescope Company really was the world leader in optical instrumentation.
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…
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 BuildingNow there’s an idea…Having a Ramble on La Rambla Evidence of La MercèView 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.
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!
It’s almost that time of year again. The Autumnal Equinox (in the Northern hemisphere) took takes place this morning (Saturday 23nd September 2023) at 7.50am Irish Summer Time (06.50 UT).
Although the term `equinox’ refers to a situation in which day and night are of equal length, which implies that it’s a day rather than a specific time, the astronomical equinox is more accurately defined by a specific event, i.e. when the plane defined by Earth’s equator passes through the centre of the Sun’s disk (or, if you prefer, when the centre of the Sun passes through the plane defined by Earth’s equator). Day and night are not necessarily exactly equal on the equinox, but they’re the closest they get. From now on days in the Northern hemisphere will be shorter than nights and they’ll get shorter still until the Winter Solstice on 22nd December 2023 at 03.27 Irish Time. I don’t think I’ll be up for that event.
Many people take the autumnal equinox to be the end of summer. There is a saying around these parts, however, that `Summer is Summer to Michaelmas Day’ (September 29th), which is not until next week. I must say, though, though it doesn’t feel particularly summery this morning. Temperatures fell dramatically overnight and were at one point barely above freezing…
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.
Regular readers of this blog – both of them – may remember that last year there was an event at Maynooth University entitled Exploring the Cosmos which was very well attended, with over 400 people showing up. That event was held during Space Week 2022 and it was such a success that it’s being repeated during this year’s Space Week.
I gave a talk at last year’s event but won’t be there this year as I’ll be away on sabbatical. Some of the other speakers are different too. The fact that the line-up has changes is good because it means that people who came last year will get a different set of presentations.
On the 5th of October, at 6.30pm, in the TSI Building Maynooth University will host an all-ages event to explore the vastness of space. Using stunning visualisations Maynooth University Astrophysicists will examine star and planet formation, peer back in time with our physicists trying to image the very edges of our visible universe, and take a journey into the unknown as we trace the origin and evolution of black holes.
Programme:
18.30 Welcome
18.35: John Regan: “Black Holes in Our Universe”
Black Holes are among the most exotic objects in our Universe. In this talk John will discuss the basics of black hole formation, how we can detect them today and the future of black hole hunting using gravitational wave observatories that Maynooth University is a part of. John will also discuss some of the strange effects you might encounter near a black hole – like time slowing down!
18.55: Aoibhinn Gallagher: “The Dark Universe”
There is so much in our universe which is unknown to us, most of it in fact. What is dark matter, what is dark energy? We will go on a journey during this talk through the history of our universe and the history of cosmology (the study of the universe) itself to try and arrive at answers to these questions. Also I will talk about the real life science happening at Maynooth university on these very topics.
19.15: Tea & Coffee Break
19.45: Neil Trappe: “Seeing the Invisible Universe – Terahertz Astronomy”
When you look outside at the clear night sky you will see many thousands of stars overheard. The Moon, stars, planets, comets and galaxies can all be observed if you know where to look just using your eyes, binoculars or a telescope.
Astronomers spend many hours looking at the night sky with large automated telescopes from many exotic places around the world to add to our knowledge of the Universe and understand difficult questions like how did the Sun and our Solar System form, how are stars born and how do they die, is there life elsewhere in the Universe, and indeed how did the Universe come into existence at all?
In Maynooth University a team of researchers develop telescopes to see the Universe with different kinds of light, specifically far infrared or “terahertz” light. Why do we do this – we see the Universe differently and can learn lots more information ‘seeing’ with terahertz radiation that is invisible to our eyes.
20.05: Patrick Kavanagh: “The First Year of the James Webb Space Telescope”
The James Webb Space Telescope has made unexpected and groundbreaking discoveries almost routine in its first year. It has produced captivating images of our own Solar System, measured the content of atmospheres around other stars, viewed the stellar birth and death in amazing detail, revealed the skeletal structure of galaxies, and peered deep in to the cosmic past in search of the first stars and galaxies. In this talk Dr. Kavanagh will give an overview of Webb and present some of the highlights of the first year of this revolutionary telescope.
20.30: Finish
It should be a fun evening. If you’re around please come along. This event is free to attend but you need to register, which you can do here. Please feel free to share this with friends and colleagues.
I note with interest that you have announced significant changes to the methodology deployed in the construction of this years forthcoming league tables. I would like to ask what steps you will take to make it clear to that any changes in institutional “performance” (whatever that is supposed to mean) could well be explained simply by changes in the metrics and how they are combined?,
I assume, as intelligent and responsible people, that you did the obvious test for this effect, i.e. to construct and publish a parallel set of league tables, with this year’s input data but last year’s methodology, which would make it easy to isolate changes in methodology from changes in the performance indicators. This is a simple test that anyone with any scientific training would perform.
You have not done this on any of the previous occasions on which you have introduced changes in methodology. Perhaps this lamentable failure of process was the result of multiple oversights. Had you deliberately withheld evidence of the unreliability of your conclusions you would have left yourselves open to an accusation of gross dishonesty, which I am sure would be unfair.
Happily, however, there is a very easy way to allay the fears of the global university community that the world rankings are being manipulated. All you need to do is publish a set of league tables using the 2022 methodology and the 2023 data. Any difference between this table and the one you published would then simply be an artefact and the new ranking can be ignored.
I’m sure you are as anxious as anyone else to prove that the changes this year are not simply artificially-induced “churn”, and I look forward to seeing the results of this straightforward calculation published in the Times Higher as soon as possible, preferably next week when you announce this years league tables.
I look forward to seeing your response to the above through the comments box, or elsewhere. As long as you fail to provide a calibration of the sort I have described, this year’s league tables will be even more meaningless than usual. Still, at least the Times Higher provides you with a platform from which you can apologize to the global academic community for wasting their time and that of others.
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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In the Dark 