IOP Newton Lecture, 'From Mars to the Multiverse', 28 February

From Mars to the Multiverse

Prof Martin Rees, Lord Rees of Ludlow

Institute of Astronomy

Date: Thursday 28 February 2013

Venue: Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, London, W1B 1NT

Time: 17.30 (registration from 17.00)

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Prof Martin Rees

‘Astronomers have made astonishing progress in probing our cosmic environment. We can trace cosmic history from some mysterious “beginning” nearly 14 billion years ago, and understand in outline the emergence of atoms, galaxies, stars and planets.

But the key parameters of our expanding universe — the expansion rate, the geometry and the content — were established far earlier still, when the physics is still conjectural but can be pinned down by future observations. These advances pose new questions: What does the long-range future hold? Should we be surprised that the physical laws permitted the emergence of complexity? And is physical reality even more extensive than the domain that our telescopes can probe? This illustrated lecture will attempt to address such issues.’

Follow the link below to register.

Link
The Newton Lecture

Note
The original message is from Claire Copeland, Science Support Officer at the Institute of Physics.

No recovery in the number of university applications

The worrying trend of falling university applications continues, according to the most recent statistics published by UCAS. We urge the Government to step in with a national campaign to promote the value of university for potential students currently considering their options, whether they are about to leave school or considering a university course later in life.

Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of the university think tank, million+

University applications for fulltime courses for the academic year 2013/14 submitted by 17 December were published by UCAS on 3 January.

Highlights

  1. The published figures highlight that there is an overall fall in applications compared to 2012/13 of -5.6%, and a fall of -6.5% in England.
  2. Excluding early applications which were submitted by 15 October for Oxbridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses, applications are down by 7.2%, and 7.6% in England.
  3. Admissions in 2012/13 were already down on previous years, with 54,000 fewer people starting university courses compared to 2011/12.

You can find out more here.

Links

Million +

University applications ‘not recovering’ ahead of deadline, BBC News