Brighton at home, and at home in Brighton

Posted in Biographical, Education, Football with tags , , , on February 9, 2013 by telescoper

So here I am again, in the office on a Saturday. This morning was the first UCAS Admissions Days during my tenure as Head of School so I came up to campus in order to make a short speech to welcome the prospective students and their parents to the University. Although I’ve only been in post for a week and hadn’t had time to prepare a proper presentation I think it went reasonably well. It’s bound to sound like a cliché when someone like me stands up and says it’s a very exciting time to be coming to the University of Sussex, but it just happens to be true in this case. We’re currently in the middle of quite a large expansion in the faculty across the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, or MPS for short, which means that there’s a lot of new blood coming with lots of new ideas in both teaching and research. The buzz around the place is unmistakable.

As far as MPS  is concerned,  today’s event was exclusively for students applying to do Mathematics so I had to pretend to know about  draw on my past experience of working in a Mathematics department in speaking to students and their parents. Of course the various activities inside the School were more detailed, so I tagged along a bit in order to find out what goes on in such events. Among the things that have changed since I was a postgraduate student here 25 years ago, is that there’s a thing called the Creativity Zone, which is a flexible interactive working space for the students to use in a variety of ways. I’m not saying we didn’t have any creativity when I was a student but teaching was rather one-dimensional in those days. I think the wider the range of teaching methods we can deploy the better, because different students respond differently to any given style; what’s best for one may not be best for everyone.

Anyway, in case anyone is interested I managed to find myself a flat in Brighton and took possession of the keys on Thursday morning. I then had to dash around buying bits and bob – bedlinen etc – before coming into work for some meetings in the afternoon. OnThursday evening I made a quick trip back to the old homestead in Cardiff to check everything was OK and  pick up some stuff for the flat (and my P45 which hadn’t arrived by the time I left last week). Passing through London on the way to Brighton last night I managed to make it to the Athenaeum for dinner with the RAS Club before returning late and very tired to my new Brighton residence.

If I hadn’t had to do the honours on campus this morning I would happily have slept until noon. It’s been such a busy week, that I’m definitely a bit knackered.  But then I knew it was going to be hectic and it’s all gone fairly well so far really. Now I’m going to head back home, put my feet up and do today’s crosswords.

The one complication is that Brighton and Hove Albion are playing at home today (against Hull) and their stadium,as you can see from the map, is right next to the campus, just on the other side of the A27…

campus

However, the match is not until this evening (17.20) so I should be able to get home without too many problems.

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Combined Cake and Crossword!

Posted in Biographical, Crosswords on February 8, 2013 by telescoper

On Wednesday there was a little gathering in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences to welcome me as the new Head. I had been told there would be tea and cakes, but had no idea that the cake would be in the form of a personalised crossword! It was a lovely touch, so thank you to everyone in MPS (especially Dorothy) for planning such a wonderful surprise.

The cake went down well – it vanished in no time!

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Infinities in Cosmology

Posted in The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , on February 7, 2013 by telescoper

Only time to post a quick advertisement I received in an email from the one of the organizers of a 4-day series of talks on Infinities in Cosmology, at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, from 18-21 March 2013.

This is one in a series of thematic programmes on Cosmology and Philosophy organised by a collaboration of cosmologists and philosophers of science at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Speakers include A. Aguirre, M. Dafermos, M.R. Douglas, G.F.R. Ellis, M. Hogarth, and S. Saunders.

This is taken from the conference website:

Cosmology involves infinities, or at least the prospect of infinities, in various ways: the most obvious being the potentially infinite age and size of the universe, and the possible occurrence of actual infinities at local spacetime singularities or at the beginning of the Universe. But there are also other kinds of infinity to consider; for example, the possibility of enhanced spatiotemporal scope for computation, or the unlimited proliferation inherent in the concept of the multiverse and the problems encountered in defining probabilities in this context. These topics will be explored in this three-day series and the following full-day workshop.

Looks quite interesting to me, although I don’t think I’ll be able to make time to go!

Further details and online registration for the conference are now available at

http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/events/infinities2013/

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TV Star and Physicist Look-alike?

Posted in Astronomy Lookalikes with tags , on February 6, 2013 by telescoper

My attention was drawn yesterday to this remarkable photograph of a very young Professor Brian Cox, the famous particle physicist turned astronomer biologist and media star. I believe it was taken while he was a member of a popular beat combo of some sort. Before seeing this picture I hadn’t realized what people meant when they referred to him as a TV celebrity ….

cox

…geddit? Anyway, I have to say I think the look rather suits him!

I haven’t got time today to trawl the interwebs looking for a lookey-likey, so it’s time for a bit of crowd-sourcing. Anyone care to suggest a celebrity likeness?

P.S. I have done a look-alike for Prof. Cox already.

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Changing Times

Posted in History, Politics with tags , , on February 5, 2013 by telescoper

I couldn’t resist a quick comment about the news that today the House of Commons began a debate on the second reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. The timing of this when I’ve just moved back to Brighton after an absence of 23 years or so made me think back to what things were like when I was previously here as a DPhil student.

In those days the dominant concern facing LBGT staff and students was the notorious Section 28, part of the Local Government Act of 1988, which, among other things, attacked promotion of “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. I remember very well the numerous demonstrations and other protests I went on as part of the campaign against that repugnant and obviously discriminatory piece of legislation, but it passed into law anyway. I know 25 years is a long time, 1988 was before today’s generation of undergraduates was even born, but it’s still amazing to me that attitudes have changed so much that there’s even a remote possibility that same sex marriage might be legalized. And from what I hear, the possibility isn’t remote at all…

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A Lab of Honour

Posted in Education, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on February 5, 2013 by telescoper

Last Friday, my first day in post here at the University of Sussex, there was a small ceremony to mark the formal opening of a new undergraduate teaching laboratory. Appropriately, it was named after Professor Ken Smith who died last year. Professor Smith was an outstanding experimental physicist who joined the University of Sussex way back in 1960 before the campus had even been built. Over the next three decades, as well as developing a new research activity in which the Department is now world-leading, he made substantial contributions to laboratory teaching in particular. He also played his part in the administration of the Department, serving as the first Chairman of Physics, and then as Dean of the School of Mathematical and Physics Sciences (MAPS) and later as Laboratory Director. Prof. Smith retired in 1988, which was the year I finished my DPhil from the (then) School of Mathematics and Physical Sciences.

IMG-20130201-00049

Anyway, it was a pleasant occasion at which Prof. Philip Harris (to the left of the picture), Head of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, spoke of Professor Ken Smith’s many achievements, Ken’s widow Verena unveiled the commemorative plaque, and we all gathered for tea and cakes in the foyer so as not to disturb further the students still hard at work at their experiments…

IMG-20130201-00050

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Should Open Access Include Open Software?

Posted in Open Access, Science Politics, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , on February 4, 2013 by telescoper

Very busy today, so just time for a quick post (and associated poll) about Open Science.

As you all know I’ve been using this blog for a while to bang on about Open Access to scientific publications. I’m not going to repeat my position in detail here except to say that I’m in favour of Open Access but not at the immense cost envisaged by the Finch Report.

I thought however that it might be useful to float some opinions about wider issues related to open science. In particular, the question that often troubles me is that is open access to scientific results actually enough, or do we have to go a lot further?

I think an important aspect of the way science works is that when a given individual or group publishes a result, it should be possible for others to reproduce it (or not as the case may be). Traditional journal publications don’t always allow this. In my own field of astrophysics/cosmology, for example, results in scientific papers are often based on very complicated analyses of large data sets. This is increasingly the case in other fields too. A basic problem obviously arises when data are not made public. Fortunately in astrophysics these days researchers are pretty good at sharing their data, although this hasn’t always been the case.

However, even allowing open access to data doesn’t always solve the reproducibility problem. Often extensive numerical codes are needed to process the measurements and extract meaningful output. Without access to these pipeline codes it is impossible for a third party to check the path from input to output without writing their own version assuming that there is sufficient information to do that in the first place. That researchers should publish their software as well as their results is quite a controversial suggestion, but I think it’s the best practice for science. There isn’t a uniform policy in astrophysics and cosmology, but I sense that quite a few people out there agree with me. Cosmological numerical simulations, for example, can be performed by anyone with a sufficiently big computer using GADGET the source codes of which are freely available. Likewise, for CMB analysis, there is the excellent CAMB code, which can be downloaded at will; this is in a long tradition of openly available numerical codes, including CMBFAST and HealPix.

I suspect some researchers might be reluctant to share the codes they have written because they feel they won’t get sufficient credit for work done using them. I don’t think this is true, as researchers are generally very appreciative of such openness and publications describing the corresponding codes are generously cited. In any case I don’t think it’s appropriate to withhold such programs from the wider community, which prevents them being either scrutinized or extended as well as being used to further scientific research. In other words excessively proprietorial attitudes to data analysis software are detrimental to the spirit of open science.

Anyway, my views aren’t guaranteed to be representative of the community, so I’d like to ask for a quick show of hands via a poll…

…and you are of course welcome to comment via the usual box.

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Switching Allegiances

Posted in Biographical, Education, Football, Rugby with tags , , , , , on February 3, 2013 by telescoper

So here I am, then, in the office on a Sunday afternoon,which I suspect is going to be a pretty regular occurrence for the foreseeable future. I mainly came in to sort out papers for tomorrow’s Senior Management Group meeting, which will be the first such meeting I’ll be attending in my new capacity. I have managed to prepare for it in fine style by losing my diary, which isn’t a very good start to my career as any kind of manager.

Yesterday was taken up with flat-hunting which, if all turns out well this time, was successful. I also had time to watch a bit of the opening match of the Six Nations Rugby between Wales and Ireland. For the last five years or so I’ve always been in Cardiff for Wales’ first home game of the competition, although I’ve never actually managed to get a ticket for the match. It felt a bit strange not being there anyway. It has to be said that Wales were pretty chronic in the first half, going into the break at 30-3 down, but they recovered in the second half and it was quite an absorbing match all considered. Ireland’s excellent defence held off a spirited Welsh comeback and Ireland won 30-22.

Although I’ve lived in Wales for a while, and have enjoyed the match-day atmosphere in Cardiff, I’ve never switched allegiance from England as far as rugby is concerned. Later on yesterday England beat Scotland in their opening match of the Six Nations, showing quite a bit of flair in doing so but also making quite a lot of mistakes. The 38-18 scoreline flattered England, I felt, and they’ll have to up their game a lot if they’re going to match Wales’ Grand Slam last season.

Football is another matter in which allegiances are difficult to change. Many’s the time I’ve thought of giving up being a Newcastle United supporter but I’ve never managed it. I disapprove of people who think they have an option concerning which team to support, actually. I was born in Newcastle therefore I support Newcastle United. That’s the end of it. We all have our cross to bear. Anyway, yesterday brought an unexpected ray of sunshine into a gloomy season for the Toon with a 3-2 victory over Chelsea. Following a first away win of the season against Aston Villa last week it may even be possible that they’ll avoid relegation. Perhaps.

Switching allegiances between universities is almost as difficult. In today’s academic world we’re supposed to think of higher education as a marketplace in which different institutions compete for funding for both teaching and research. I’ve never felt comfortable with the idea that opening up higher education to “market forces” is in anyone’s interests. Certainly on the research side, there are so many collaborations between groups in different universities that cooperation is more the rule than competition although, as with any rule, there are exceptions. Friendly rivalry is as good a thing in higher education as it is in football, but anything more serious than that can only be justified in the case of Sunderland.

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The Rolling English Road

Posted in Poetry with tags , , on February 2, 2013 by telescoper

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

by G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936).

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If Audrey Hepburn were alive today..

Posted in Uncategorized on February 2, 2013 by telescoper

…she’d be turning in her grave!

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