Paul Frampton, a physicist from the University of North Carolina, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after being found guilty of drug-smuggling on November the 21st.

Paul Frampton

Frampton (68) got into trouble, rather naively, after flying from North Carolina to Bolivia, where he was planning to meet a 32-year-old Czech-born lingerie model Denise Milani. He believed he had been chatting with her on the internet.

Denise Milani, image courtesy of FHM

She did not show up, instead he was met by a man. This man then asked him to take “Milani’s” suitcase to Buenos Aires, where she would then meet up with him. There is no evidence that Milani knew her persona was being used in this way.

Frampton then tried to board a plane back to the US at which point he arrested after airport-security officials discovered the cocaine inside a false lining of the suitcase.

Frampton has always claimed that he was innocent of the drug-smuggling charges. He insists that the cocaine was placed into the luggage without his knowledge.

Despite health issues while locked up, Frampton continued to supervise his two current PhD students by phone and managed to place preprints on arXi.

Link

IOP News

Help Paul Frampton

FHM Magazine

Professor Paul Hardaker, Institute of Physics  Chief Executive, has commented on a speech made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, at the Royal Society, London.

George Osborne,Chancellor of the Exchequer

It is really encouraging to know that the Chancellor of the Exchequer recognises the central role that science can play in creating robust economic growth for the UK. The proposed framework for capital investment includes some key features that will be vital to keep this country at the forefront of innovation and research.

Paul Hardaker

Link

Institute of Physics comments on George Osborne’s speech at the Royal Society (IOP News)

New research suggests that the rate of failure in Indian summer monsoon will increase over the next two centuries, due to global warming [1].

The Indian farmers rely on the monsoons to disperse freshwater on agricultural land. Failure of the summer monsoons could be very detrimental to India’s economy.

Walker Circulation

The Walker circulation is a vast loop of winds that influences climate across much of the globe, including the Indian summer monsoons.

Image courtesy of NOAA

Walker circulation describes the air flow in the tropics in the lower atmosphere. The Walker circulation is generated by the pressure gradient that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific ocean, and a low pressure system over Indonesia.

El Niño

The Southern Oscillation is the natural variation in the temperature of the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and the surface air pressure. This occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years. The extremes of this climate pattern’s oscillations, El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cool), cause extreme weather events across many regions of the world.

The Walker circulation brings areas of high pressure to the western Indian Ocean, bringing the monsoons. However, in years when El Niño occurs, the winds get shifted eastward, bringing high pressure over India and the effect is to suppress the monsoons.

The predictions

Jacob Schewe and Anders Levermann simulations suggest that as temperatures increase in the future, the Walker circulation, will on average bring more high pressure over India; even though the occurrence of El Niño doesn’t increase.

The effect of this will be an increase in the occurrence of monsoons failing to form and an increase in drought across India.

Reference

Jacob Schewe and Anders Levermann (2012), A statistically predictive model for future monsoon failure in India, Environ. Res. Lett. 7 044023

Link

Indian monsoon failure more frequent with warming, IOP News

Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, about 100 km north-east of Rome.

The 6.3 magnitude quake, that struck on 6 April 2009, heavily damaged the city of L’Aquila and killed 309 people.

The prosecution argued that the scientists gave false reassurances before the earthquake. The defense argued that earthquake prediction is difficult and that it is impossible to make an accurate prediction of major quakes.

The convicted

• Franco Barberi, head of Serious Risks Commission
• Enzo Boschi, former president of the National Institute of Geophysics
• Giulio Selvaggi, director of National Earthquake Centre
• Gian Michele Calvi, director of European Centre for Earthquake Engineering
• Claudio Eva, physicist
• Mauro Dolce, director of the the Civil Protection Agency’s earthquake risk office
• Bernardo De Bernardinis, former vice-president of Civil Protection Agency’s technical department

All seven have been sentenced to six years in prison for issuing false reassurances.

Before the convictions, more than 5,000 scientists, organised by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, signed an open letter to the Italian President Napolitano in support of the accused. The letter can be found here (pdf).

The aftermath

The worry is that science itself has been put on trial. Scientists should not have to make statements or not, in worry of being subject to lawsuits. This could discourage scientists becoming involved in public engagement.

Links

IOP News