Above is another iterated function system fractal my wife and I created. You can see the self-similarity of the “swirls” clearly. We are both pleased with this one.
This one has a rather organic shape. You can see that this one consists of overlapping spirals and almost a ghostly appearance.
The above is similar to the first IFS system fractal we created together. It has a spongy-organic look to it.
You can find other IFS fractals we have created here and here. We may post more in the future.
BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour announced its list of the 100 most powerful women in the UK on Tuesday 12 February. The list included a number of other high profile scientists and engineers including Professor Bell Burnell.
Prof S Jocelyn Bell Burnell
We’re delighted to see Jocelyn, joined by a range of extraordinary female scientists and engineers, in this inaugural power list. Jocelyn’s contribution to research and as an inspiring figurehead and role model in the fight to overcome gender disparities in science make her a very deserving choice.
Professor Sir Peter Knight, President of IOP
Pulsars
Prof. Bell Burnell is credited with the discovery of the first radio pulsar (PSR B1919+21), while a postgraduate student under the supervision of Antony Hewish. Interestingly, the regular radio signal detected in 1967 that lead to the discovery of the first pulsar was given the designation LGM-1. That stands for “little green men”. The signal was so regular it was initially thought it could not be natural!
We did not really believe that we had picked up signals from another civilization, but obviously the idea had crossed our minds and we had no proof that it was an entirely natural radio emission. It is an interesting problem – if one thinks one may have detected life elsewhere in the universe how does one announce the results responsibly? Who does one tell first?
S. Jocelyn Bell Burnell. “Little Green Men, White Dwarfs or Pulsars?”. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, vol. 302, pages 685-689, Dec., 1977
It took the powerful mind of Fred Hoyle to realise that these signals came from neutron stars with strong magnetic fields.
Controversially, she was not a co-recipient of the 1974 Nobel Prize for Physics along side Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle, which was awarded for pulsar research.
Academic activities
Prof. Bell Burnell was president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002-2004 and president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010. She was also interim president following the death of her successor, Marshall Stoneham, in early 2011.
Links
Past-president makes Woman’s Hour power list IOP News
The power list BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour
This is the second collaboration with my wife, she’s quite pleased with it and told me to put it up!
The first attempt can be found here.
Above is an iterated function system fractal generated from two affine transformation of the plane and Barnsley’s chaos game.
This image represents the first proper artistic collaboration between myself and my wife. Hopefully more will follow.
Prof. Jim Al-Khalili, an expert on nuclear physics, spoke at the Royal Institution about the role of quantum physics in biology. The video is embedded below.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgQVZju1ZM&feature=player_embedded]
I know that Prof. Al-Khalili is working on the interface of quantum mechanics and biology.
Recently I have become more interested in a new field called quantum biology, where we are gathering evidence for biological phenomena at the cellular level that seem to work according to the strange rules of quantum mechanics. My interest (and I have a great grad student working with me on this at the moment) is in modelling mathematically genetic mutations in DNA that seem to take place because of a quantum mechanism called quantum tunneling. In fact, this whole area is the subject of my next book that I am currently working on.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology, Hewlett Packard Laboratories and University of Washington have a “proof-of-concept” device that could pave the way for on-chip optical quantum networks [1]. The device is etched in a diamond membrane that was around 300 nanometres thick.
In an optical quantum network, information is carried by photons, as opposed to electrons in more standard devices. The potentials for quantum computing are huge, computers could be millions of times faster at performing certain calculations than they are today.
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Andrei Faraon. |
References
[1] Andrei Faraon et al, Quantum photonic devices in single-crystal diamond, 2013 New J. Phys. 15 025010 (link)
Link
Researchers create “building block” of quantum networks (IOP News 08 Feb 2013)
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I updated my preprint “Odd Jacobi manifolds and Loday-Poisson brackets”. In respect to the first version there has been some rearrangement of the sections and some clarifying comments added. I welcome any further comments. |
Andrew James Bruce, Odd Jacobi manifolds and Loday-Poisson brackets, arXiv:1301.4799v2 [math-ph]
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Dr Paul G. Abel is a British astronomer, mathematician and writer. He is now a regular face on the BBC’s The Sky at Night. Paul has written for many popular astronomy magazines promoting amateur astronomy and the science that amateurs can contribute to the field. |
He agreed to answer a few question I had.
Science and Popularisation
What first got you involved in science, and in particular astronomy?
It was a combination of things actually. In 1989 Voyager 2 got to Neptune and sent back some wonderful pictures of this blue planet. This was also the first time I encountered Patrick Moore. He was obviously different from the toher scientists who spoke- his words conveyed such a passion for astronomy, and even with the results of the great Voyager 2 spacecraft, he emphasized the good work amateurs could do. So, I started reading his books and watching The Sky at Night. I got a small telescope and I remember the first thing I saw was Saturn. The sight of this magnificent alien world, with its surreal looking ring system and family of moons hooked me. From that moment onwards, I knew I would never do anything else but astronomy.
What was your first telescope?
My first ‘proper’ telescope was a wonderful Russian thing- a Tal-1 Mizar 4.5 inch Newtonian reflector on equatorial mount. Looking back on it now, it was like being given the keys to your first low powered spaceship. I observed all of the planets I could, and sought out many of the objects on the Messier catalogue. I also made my own star charts and became reasonably familiar with the constellations which populate the UK night skies.
How did you get involved in the BBC’s Sky at Night?
Quite by chance- indeed I had no plans to do tv at all! It was all Patrick’s idea. He had asked if I had wanted to do one (I had been in correspondence with him since the age of 12). But I had declined. So he organized one without me I was going to be in it- until I arrived on the day!!! It was the event a few years ago now when four of Saturn’s moons passed in front of the planet. Both Patrick and our producer Jane fletcher thought I was OK and I joined the team as a co-presenter.
What is your favorite astronomical object, and why?
It’s what ever I’m looking at- yes I am that fickle! To be honest, it is only the Moon and planets which interest me as an amateur astronomer. I am a visual observer so I don’t image, I make coloured drawings of what I have observed. Indeed, it was the art of visual observing, and keeping good astronomical log books which Patrick taught me to do, and he himself was taught this by the wonderful astronomer W. S Franks. I do wonder how many hours I have spent at the eyepiece of a telescope, and I have quite a few log books now with drawings and observations of the Moon and planets.
Which medium do you think is the most effective at popularising science?
I don’t think it is the medium, I think it is the person doing the communicating. If you have a passion for astronomy and science, you can convey it anyway open to you!
What, in your opinion, should be the ultimate goal of science popularisation?
I think it should be two-fold. First it should re-familiarise people with why science is a wonderful thing, why objective rational thought and the scientific method has improved all of our lives. Not only do we have it to thank for giving us the technology of our civilization but it has allowed to tame the dark, we no longer burn witches for example! As Carl Sagan once rightly pointed out, science is the candle in the darkness. The second thing it can do is encourage people who want to make a contribution in their own way. Amateur astronomy is a thriving subject in this country, and I would hope that people feel compelled to do more than just point there telescope at some of the wonderful objects in the Universe, they might start to make their own systematic observations and contribute to the wonderful scientific work amateur organizations like the British Astronomical Association have been doing for over a 100 years. In short: get involved!!!!
Research
Can you say a few words about your research? (GR, Hawking radiation and semi-classical gravity?)
Indeed. My research is concerned with using a quantum Langevin approach to Hawking radiation. I am also interested in the Unruh effect. The Davies-Fulling-Unruh effect (to give it its fall name!) is the idea that constantly accelerating observers in Minkowski (flat) spacetime see a thermal spectrum of particle in an area of spacetime called the Rindler wedge. I think it is clear that recent work has showed that although energy from say a harmonic oscillator on such a trajectory would radiate, that energy would be absorbed by the field so overall there is no energy flux. This has applications to Hawking radiation.
Which one of your papers are you most proud of, and why?
I believe I have yet to write this paper! Who wants their greatest work to be behind them?!
In your opinion, what is the biggest stumbling block to finding a quantum theory of gravity?
Well perhaps the greatest stumbling block is ourselves. At present there are two approaches, one is the approach adopted by String theory which is, in essence to describe the basic particles of matter in terms of 1D energy filaments- strings. A big part of String theory is super-symmetry the evidence for which is in-direct. In order for a theory to have physical significance it must be testable. Alas many of the predictions for string theory require energies far greater than human being can produce here at this time.
The other candidate is Loop Quantum Gravity which seeks to use general relativity and quantum mechanics but again this approach has many problems and at the time of writing, LQG is not testable either.
For me personally, I don’t think either String Theory or Loop Quantum Gravity is radical enough. They doesn’t feel like they are presenting a radical shift in fundamental philosophy what we got when Newtonian gravity moved over for General Relativity. Of course it may be that the answer to the problem of a quantum description of gravity does not need such a profound rethink, but until either of these theories can provide experimental evidence to support their claims, I would regard them as nice excursions into mathematics. Physics, should be testable. It may be the case that it takes another ‘Einstein’ to shake up our views of space, time and matter and point us in a new direction
About Paul
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Paul is based in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Science in the department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Leicester where he teaches Mathematics. His research is focused on black hole thermodynamics with Prof. Derek Raine. You can find out more about Paul on his website and The Sky at Night website. |
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A report published on the 07 February 2013 by the Royal Academy of Engineering examines this question.
Image courtesy of NASA
UK must plan now to defend itself against extreme solar weather events
The UK should plan now to mitigate the effects of a rare but potentially serious solar superstorm, according to a report published today by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Although the UK is better prepared than many countries, there are areas where we need to improve our resilience.
http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=825
The report Extreme space weather: impacts on engineered systems and infrastructure, was drawn up with the help of a diverse range of experts. This is the first report of its kind.
Areas highlighted
The take home message
Our message is: Don’t panic, but do prepare – a solar superstorm will happen one day and we need to be ready for it. Many steps have already been taken to minimise the impact of solar superstorms on current technology and by following the recommendations in the report we anticipate that the UK can further minimise the impact.
Professor Paul Cannon FREng, Chair of the Academy’s working group on extreme solar weather
Links
UK must plan now to defend itself against extreme solar weather events
Extreme space weather: impacts on engineered systems and infrastructure (opens pdf)
According to the The Sutton Trust, the increase in number of postgraduate courses available in the UK, including masters degree, has meant that it is increasingly difficult for recent graduates with just a primary degree to enter the workplace.
A new Sutton Trust report, The Postgraduate Premium highlights this. You can find the report by following this link.
According to the report, 11% of 26-60 year-olds in the workforce now holds a postgraduate qualification, up from 4% in 1996.
The Sutton Trust is concerned that bright graduates from low and middle income backgrounds are increasingly priced out of postgraduate study, so these changes could widen income differentials and reduce opportunities for social mobility.
The Sutton Trust
The Sutton Trust is a foundation dedicated to improving social mobility through education. It has published over 120 research studies and funded and evaluated hundreds of programmes for young people of all ages, from early years through to Access to the Professions.
Link
Postgraduates earn £200,00 premium as basic degree no longer enough (The Sutton Trust)