Category Archives: General

General, General Mathematics, Physics

Art meets duality and M-theory

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As some of you will know, the Newton Institute at Cambridge is ran the programme “The Mathematics and Applications of Branes in String and M-Theory” this year.

Professor Grenville Davey is the artist-in-residence for the duration of this programme.

Grenville Davey’s sculptural work has long been concerned with relationships, familial resemblances and pairs. Through his previous residency at Queen Mary, University of London and in collaboration with Dr. David Berman (a string theorist in Queen Mary’s School of Physics), his current work continues along these lines but is now inspired by notions in T-duality and mirror symmetry in string theory where there are surprising pairings of objects.

http://www.newton.ac.uk/art/gdavey/

On Tuesday 10th July 2012 18:00-19:00, there is an open free public event in which Dr. David Berman and Prof. Grenville Davey will discuss their collaboration.

What is certainly good is that string theory and M-theory has started to permeate culture. Mathematics and physics is part of human culture. Mankind has a drive to understand the workings of the Universe, thus we have science. It is nice to see that string theory has influenced artists. This is rightly so as art should at least in part reflect the society which created it. There has been a lot of effort in understanding strings and branes, rightly or wrongly, and thus it makes sense that artists should take some inspiration here.

One thing is certain, science fiction writers have taken a lot from modern physics, and to some extent the converse is also true. I do not see why we cannot have a similar situation with more traditional art forms like paintings and sculptures.

On a personal note, I would like to try a similar collaboration with an artist myself. Being paid as a mathematical consultant for the role would be great. That said, my wife is a bit of an artist and as such I should make an effort and work on something together. If anything comes of it I will make it known via this blog.

Links

The Newton Institute

The Mathematics and Applications of Branes in String and M-Theory

Q+A session at the Newton Institute

David S Berman’s homepage

General, General Mathematics

Alan Turing Inquest

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The evidence that was presented at the 1954 inquest into Alan Turing’s death, which concluded a suicide verdict, would not stand up today according to Prof Jack Copeland. The story is tragic and romantic, but is it true?

The accepted version of events is that due to the persecution he was suffering as a result of his homosexuality, he took his own life by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

We have… been recreating the narrative of Turing’s life, and we have recreated him as an unhappy young man who committed suicide. But the evidence is not there

Prof Jack Copeland, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

By today’s standards the investigation was poor. For example, the apple was not tested for the presence of cyanide. Turing’s behaviour before his death appears not to be out of the ordinary. He was in the habit of taking an apple to bed and even left a note on his office desk, as was his practice on Fridays, to remind himself what needs to be done upon his return to work.

A motive for suicide is clear, but the pre-meditated intenion is missing.

Link

BBC News

General

The Olymipcs at the molecular scale!

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Scientists at Warwick University teamed up with reserachers at IBM to image a newly synthesised molecule called olympicene- C19H12

The molecule was synthesised by Anish Mistry and David Fox from the University of Warwick. The molecule was then passed on to a team at IBM Research in Zurich who imaged it using a carbon-monoxide tipped atomic force microscopy technique that can show up the structure and bonding in the molecule.

© IBM Research/University of Warwick

Links

BBC news

RSC article

General

One week into my new job

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I have now been a sessional tutor at the University of Brighton’s  International College for one week. I have enjoyed the lecturing and workshops with the students.  So far everything is going okay and I am sure with a bit more experience I will become an effective teacher.

At this point, any suggestions on how to be a great lecturer would be welcomed!

 

 

General

Start my new job on Monday

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I start my job as a sessional tutor at the University of Brighton’s  International College on Monday 21st May.  The job is lecturing foundation mathematics to overseas students. The level of mathematics is about that of UK A-levels.

Overseas students for whom English is not their first language do present some challenges.  In my experience, the biggest issue is the use of words or phrases that just don’t arise in conversational English.  Simple words and phrases that we take for granted can really throw international students, which in turn can diminish their confidence.

Many of the other issues are really no different to home students, though the intensity may be different. For example, all students get home sick, but this is amplified when in an alien culture.

I am looking forward to gaining more experience of lecturing and this will in fact be the first time I have actually delivered a course.  Most of my previous experience has been in a more supportive role as a teaching assistant and a personal tutor.

General, Physics

Dr Who's sonic screwdriver created in Scotland!

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When the scriptwriters for Doctor Who imagined a futuristic device, they came up with the Sonic Screwdriver. Now a team of physicists at the University of Dundee have taken equipment designed for MRI-guided focused ultrasound surgery and demonstrated a real Sonic Screwdriver – lifting and spinning a free-floating 10 cm diameter rubber disk with an ultrasound beam.

Universtity of Dundee

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeB69CcLEI8]

Links

University of Dundee Press Release

General, General Mathematics

GCHQ release Turing papers

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In order to mark the centenary of Alan Turing’s birth, two of his mathematical research papers, believed to have been written whilst he was at Bletchley Park during World War II, have been released by GCHQ to The National Archives.

Due to the sensative nature of the work done at GCHQ, the papers were not released earlier.

We are delighted to release these papers showing more of Alan Turing’s pioneering research during his time at Bletchley Park. It was this type of research that helped turn the tide of war and it is particularly pleasing that we are able to share these papers during this centenary year.

GCHQ spokesperson

The two papers are called “Paper on Statistics of Repetitions’ and ‘The Applications of Probability to Crypt’.

Paper on Statistics of Repetitions

In this paper Turing writes an informal report in which he works out the best statistical method of testing whether two cipher messages use the same key in parts of the message.

The Applications of Probability to Crypt

In this second paper, Turing applies rigorous probability analysis to coding problems of the day. One highlight is where Turing uses life expectancy to examine conditional probability. The associated example, “Hitler is now age 52”, adds piquancy and suggests that the paper was written between April 1941 and April 1942.

Links

GCHQ Press Release

General, Physics

Do medical students need physics?

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Well, Professor Sir Peter Knight, President of the Institute of Physics say they do…

Physics has transformed medicine and, as this transformation is surely set to continue and accelerate, medical schools should consider restoring the requirement for applicants to hold A level or equivalent qualifications in physics

Professor Sir Peter Knight

As I see it there are at least two areas that knowing a little physics can go a long way

  • Medical devices
  • Biomechanics

Not that we need all medical doctors to be experts in the above, but having some grasp of the physics behind the tools they use and the basic phsyics of the body would, in my opinion, be a good thing.

Slightly wider than just medical students, I am often suprised by just how little mathematics and physics typical biology students known.

On the 18th April five articles were publiched in the Lancet that discuss the historical links between physics and medicine. This I think is a shame. That said, I have no great knowledge of biology!

This reminds me of the idea of evidence based medicine. Which is basically using the ethos of the scientific method to make informed evidenced based treatments. My experience of medicine is a mix of dogma, experience and informed guesses. Anyway, I think a post on evidence based medicine is outside of my remit at the moment.

Link

IOP News

General

UK university drop-out rates

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UK University drop-out rates 2009-2010

  • Scotland: 9.4% – up from 9.3% in 2008-09
  • Wales: 9% – up from 7.4%
  • England: 8.4% – up from 7.8%
  • Northern Ireland: 8.3% – down from 9%
  • UK: 8.6% – up from 7.9%

Higher Education Statistics Agency

Overall the trend is a rise in the number of students that drop-out. The economy and tuition fee are most likely not helping.

A lot of students struggle financially and if their parents are in financial difficulties it can lead to them dropping out.

Drop-outs are always at the top of our agenda and something everyone looks at with a great deal of concern.

Prof John Hughes, Higher Education Wales chair and Bangor University vice-chancellor

Links

BBC News Wales

General

I like my whisky straight up, but this is going too far!

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Bill LumsdenBill Lumsden

Scientists from the Edinburgh International Science Centre have unveiled a two year experiment running on the ineternational space centre to find out what effects microgravity has on the production of whiskey.

NanoRacks LLC is the US company funding the research. They hope to understand the role of gravity in industrial processes, the maturation process of whisky being one of them.

We are all tremendously excited by this experiment – who knows where it will lead?

Bill Lumsden, Ardbeg Distillery

Drunken astronauts maybe?

Links

BBC Scotland News