Astronomical and Other Events this Week

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , , on July 4, 2017 by telescoper

This week sees the 2017 National Astronomy Meeting which is taking place in Hull (which, for those of you unfamiliar with British geography, is in the Midlands). I usually try to attend this annual event but this year haven’t been able to make it owing to other commitments. I’m particularly sad about this because I’ll miss seeing two old friends (Nick Kaiser and Marek Kukula) being presented with their RAS medals. Moreover, one of the pieces of astronomical research announced at this meeting that has been making headlines features my office mate and fellow resident of Pontcanna, Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder.

Anyway, to keep up with what’s going on at NAM2017 you can follow announcements on twitter:

This week also sees a meeting in Cambridge on Gravity and Black Holes to celebrate the 75th birthday of Stephen Hawking, which goes on until tomorrow (Wednesday 5th). This conference also looks like a very good one, covering a much wider range of topics than its title perhaps suggests. Stephen’s birthday was actually in January, but I hope it’s not too late to wish him many happy returns!

Finally, though not a conference as such, there’s annual Royal Society Summer Science exhibition going on in London this week too. This is a showcase for a wealth of scientific research including, this year, an exhibit about gravitational waves called Listening to Einstein’s Universe. There’s even a promotional video featuring some of my colleagues at Cardiff University (along with many others):

Anyway, if you’re in London and at a loose end and interested in science and that, do pop into the Royal Society and have a look. The Summer Science Exhibition is always well worth a visit!

 

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Cosmology Caption Competition

Posted in Biographical, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on July 3, 2017 by telescoper

I’ve been a bit busy today so in lieu of a proper post I thought I’d try for a bit of audience participation. In one of the discussion sessions at last week’s workshop on Isotropic Random Fields in Astrophysics I was called upon to deliver a very short impromptu talk on cosmological applications of Burger’s Burgers Equation, during the course of which the following photograph was taken. Appropriate (or inappropriate) suggestions for captions, please, through the comments box!

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Maskulinum-Femininum

Posted in LGBTQ+, Music with tags , on July 3, 2017 by telescoper

I heard this, by the wonderful Ute Lemper, yesterday on Words and Music and thought it was a blast, so couldn’t resist sharing it here!

P.S. The song was written by Mischa Spoliansky.

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A Tale of Two Fields 

Posted in Bute Park, Cardiff with tags , , on July 2, 2017 by telescoper

My neighbourhood has been a tad busy this weekend, as Llandaff Fields (which lie just 100 yards or so from my house) are the venue for Tafwyl, a free festival of Welsh language music. It’s normally quite a quiet area at the weekends, but this event has attracted large crowds.

I took a stroll in the park yesterday. There seemed to be a few thousand or so enjoying the music and the sunshine behind the temporary barrier.

Although admission to Tafwyl is free, I didn’t go in as I was en route elsewhere and didn’t have time.

This event is usually held in the grounds of Cardiff Castle but that wasn’t possible this year because of the UEFA Champions League Final last month. The temporary buildings erected for that event have damaged the part of Bute Park near the Castle so badly that it will be out of bounds until September at the earliest. 

On my way back home I passed the area adjacent to Llandaff Fields, Pontcanna Fields, where I saw a much more familiar sight:

The River Taff flows roughly where the trees are in this picture. There are several cricket pitches and they are quite heavily used in the summer. 

Tafwyl will move back to its usual venue next year but hopefully the cricket will continue just as it is!

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Biographical Note

Posted in Biographical, Cardiff, Crosswords with tags , , on July 1, 2017 by telescoper

It’s 1st July 2017, which means that it is ten years to the day since I officially started work at Cardiff University (for the first time). Can it really be so long ago? 

Quite a lot has happened in the intervening decade, including spending three and a half years at the University of Sussex before returning to Cardiff last summer.

The first of July was actually a Sunday in 2007, so my last day at work in my previous position at the University of Nottingham was Friday 29th June. I remember they threw a nice leaving party that afternoon and also persuaded me to sign up to Facebook to keep in touch. Facebook reminded me of this on Thursday.

I was a bit slow in putting my house in Beeston on the market in 2007, and rented a flat in Cardiff while I sorted that out. Unfortunately the Credit Crunch and I didn’t actually manage to move permanently to a little house in Pontcanna for almost a year. In the meantime I had to travel regularly to and fro between Cardiff and Nottingham by train.

The main thing I remember about the summer of 2007 was the extensive flooding, much of which was located in South Wales and up the Severn towards Gloucester and beyond. That is precisely the route that the train takes from Cardiff to Nottingham so I had quite a few travel problems!

I didn’t actually start blogging until 2008 when I was firmly established in the house I bought here in Cardiff, and which I’m sitting now as I write this rambling post. 

They say that ‘all good things come to an end’, which implies that this blog should carry on forever. Maybe I’ll keep it going until its tenth anniversary, after which…well, we’ll see. Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longam.

Anyway, although pipped at the post for this year’s Beard of Summer award I did receive a bit of good news in today’s paper by way of compensation!

In fact the two books arrived in the post yesterday. I’ll be disposing of them at work in due course..

 

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Workshop End

Posted in Uncategorized on June 30, 2017 by telescoper

Well, our little workshop has come to an end. I would like to thank all the participants for making it such a success and wish you all a safe journey home!

We will be posting the slides for all the talks in due course, but in the meantime here are some random shots..

And, er…


here’s the obligatory workshop photo!

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Beard of Summer 2017 poll concluding in close shave

Posted in Beards on June 30, 2017 by telescoper

The excitement is mounting as we go into the last day of voting for `Beard of Summer’…

And to anyone who accuses me of a blatant attempt to influence the outcome of this very serious poll, I say: “VOTE FOR ME!”

kmflett's avatarKmflett's Blog

Beard Liberation Front
Media release
30th June
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

BEARD OF SUMMER 2017 POLL CONCLUDING IN CLOSE SHAVE

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said the poll for the coveted Beard of Summer Award looks like concluding with a close shave at midnight on Friday June 30th.

On the final day of voting the poll had a Welsh flavour with the lead alternating between Cardiff based academic Peter Coles and Caerphilly Assembly Member Hefin David.

The result is revealed after votes have been checked as the conclusion to National Beard Week on Saturday July 1st

The poll is the third of four seasonal Awards that culminates in the Beard of the Year Award at the end of December.

The campaigners say that as ever it is not just the style of the beard but the impact it makes in public

BLF Organiser…

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Isotropic Random Fields in Astrophysics

Posted in The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on June 29, 2017 by telescoper

So the little workshop  on `Isotropic Random Fields in Astrophysics’ I announced some time ago, sponsored via a “seedcorn” grant by the Data Innovation Research Institute, has finally arrived, and having spent most of the day at it I’m now catching up with some other stuff in the office before adjourning for the conference dinner.

 

This meeting is part of a series of activities aimed at bringing together world-leading experts in the analysis of big astrophysical data sets, specifically those arising from the (previous) Planck (shown above) and (future) Euclid space missions, with mathematical experts in the spectral theory of scalar vector or tensor valued isotropic random fields. Our aim is to promote collaboration between mathematicians interested in probability theory and statistical analysis and theoretical and observational astrophysicists both within Cardiff university and further afield.

 

It’s been a very interesting day of interleaving talks by cosmologists and mathematicians followed by an open-ended discussion session where we talked about unsolved problems and lines for future research. It’s clear that there are some language difficulties between the two communities but I hope this meeting helps to break down a few barriers and stimulate some new joint research projects.

 

 

 

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Please look after this bear…

Posted in Literature, Television with tags , on June 28, 2017 by telescoper

R.I.P. Michael Bond (13 January 1926 to 27 June 2017)

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The ‘Danish Paper’ and How Science Works

Posted in The Universe and Stuff with tags , on June 27, 2017 by telescoper

I’m off work today but couldn’t resist posting a very quick update on the controversial claims of inconsistencies in the recent detection of gravitational waves by LIGO.

If you’re following the story you will know that it started with a paper on the arXiv by Cresswell et al.,  a group mainly based in Denmark, which is why the paper is now frequently referred to as ‘The Danish Paper’ although its authors actually come from all round the world.

Well the same group have now  written a rejoinder to the LIGO critique of their analysis. They’re clearly sticking to their guns, at least on their claim that the residuals left after removing the gravitational wave events from the two time series are correlated, which they should not be if they are simply noise.

Hopefully the public airing this controversy had received will lead to other independent groups downloading and analysing the data, which is all in the public domain, and we’ll eventually arrive at the truth.

Contrary to the opinion of one of my Cardiff colleagues I think this is how science works and, importantly, how it should be seen to work. Science  is a process of investigation, and it doesn’t come to an end when  results have been published in refereed journals. 

 The more the public see how science really works – warts and all – the better they will understand its strengths as well as its limitations.

Whatever the eventual outcome of this discussion I think we will find that the ‘Danish Paper’ has helped advance our understanding, and for that the authors deserve a great deal of credit.

 

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