Science is Vital

It’s not a threat, it’s not whining. We’re scientists and we are reporting the facts

The last time I went on a demo was more than twenty years ago. It was either poll tax or student grants (remember those?). Probably there should have been others. Oh well.

Continued on The Guardian. See also Chapter 4.1 of Smashing Physics.

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Intellectual poverty

Scientific research is not a luxury, without it we wouldn’t have anything, not even hope. Those who think the world is moving too fast for them, it’s not going to slow down if UK science is blown out of the water, it’s going to keep on going while we sit there and descend.

Continued on The Guardian.

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Swinging cats and levitating frogs

Congratulations to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov on winning the Nobel prize in physics – not for their frog-levitating work, but for groundbreaking studies of graphene

On The Guardian.

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Keep calm, carry on, but don’t keep quiet

See also Chapter 4.1 of Smashing Physics.

I have been dealing with cuts in science since 2007. It can be draining and depressing, but I have learned at least two important lessons.

The HERA collider started up for the first time just as I was finishing my doctoral research. I was on “safety shift” on the ZEUS detector on one of the very early nights of data-taking. ZEUS was a massive particle detector, about 20 metres high and hidden behind concrete shielding. Safety shift was a good one for inexperienced grad students. Just plod around every hour reading dials and ticking a list, and report anything strange to the shift leader.

Continued on The Guardian.

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