The Spiegelei Incident

Posted on 30/05/2010 by Jon Butterworth

Ah! the Eurovision cheers from Hamburg… And a  song with physics in the lyric wins. Having had my brain melted by the whole thing (see twitter stream…) I think I am now infatuated with a 19-year old German with a mockney accent. Oh well, it’ll pass.

Regular readers will know I worked in Hamburg. The most common reaction when this comes up in conversation with strangers (taxi-drivers, policemen, old ladies on buses…) is to assume I was a soldier (presumably in a role not involving haircuts or heavy lifting). The second thing people say is “Reeperbahn, eh? Phwoarr”.

spiegelei

I did like the Reeperbahn. Sort of a more explicit version of Blackpool, really. Actually I haven’t been to Blackpool for ages, maybe it is explicit too now. When I had visitors, an evening on the Reeperbahn was pretty much obligatory. These kind of blur into one, except for a particularly bizarre all-nighter which culminated in the most surreal experience of my life so far.

Continue reading →

Posted in Physics Stories, Silly | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Wellcome to Physics

Posted on 23/05/2010 by Jon Butterworth

See also Chapter 2.3 of Smashing Physics.

A couple of days ago I took part in a “packed lunch” discussion at the Wellcome Exhibition, about CERN, the LHC, and my work at UCL. A lot of fun. I turned up with a piece of the LHC we built at UCL (ok, it was basically a big printed circuit board) and enjoyed a chat with the excellent Dan Glaser followed by some discussion with the audience. The podcast of this is available here.

bike

Some protons going about 8 metres per second

The Wellcome centre is a brilliant place and it was good to talk about CERN and fundamental physics in a place more used to cutting-edge life-sciences. The packed lunch was really packed too, standing room only, with people who had dropped in during lunch and some who had travelled specially.

One theme was how being a professor at UCL fits with working at CERN (in Geneva). How do we contribute, and how do we benefit?

Continue reading →

Posted in Particle Physics, Physics, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Off Topic

Posted on 09/05/2010 by Jon Butterworth

This post is life, not physics. I claim no special expertise in this field.

I have always been anti-Tory. Some of this comes from growing up in Manchester in the 1980’s and seeing the human consequences of Tory economic policy. However, I respect the honestly held opinion of some that the overall effect of some of Thatcher’s policies was good, in the ruthlessly Benthamite “greatest happiness to the greatest number” sense. Economics is complex and I really don’t have much expertise. Certainly Manchester was already a much improved place in 1997, and is even better now, as far as I can see (my family still live there).

didn't this time either

The visceral loathing I have of Conservatism doesn’t really come from their economic policies (though I disagree with most of these). It comes from the mood music of social intolerance which still surrounds them. Various signs in the election campaign and before showed that the crowing, homophobic, xenophobic, borderline racist wing of the party is still around and Cameron did not convincingly repudiate them. Decent Tories I know hold their noses on this stuff and vote Tory for economic reasons. But I think if Cameron wanted to take advantage of the widespread discontent with the Brown government, and offer a real, acceptable alternative to more than the core Tory vote, he had to do more to show that the Tories had changed, that he was different, and that he was in control and not just a smooth gloss on the same old Tories. I guess Blair had to do the same to win over those with a visceral hatred of Old Labour. But where was Cameron’s Clause 4 moment?

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

Labour and STFC

Posted on 29/04/2010 by Jon Butterworth

So shortly after I wrote about the parties’ science policies and what their attitude to STFC might mean (here and here), Gordon Brown did reply to the CaSE letter, and also produced a science manifesto. He even specifically referred to STFC as a particular problem:

We recognise the concerns over the Science and Technology Facilities Council. We will learn the lessons from the structural difficulties faced by the STFC.

Grants will remain with the STFC to deliver investment continuity. We will remove the risk of foreign exchange impacts and put the STFC on a sound footing.

This confirms that not only Lord Drayson and BIS (which we knew!), but also Gordon Brown, have noticed the problem and give it some priority. Also, the straight commitment to remove the risk of foreign exchange looks stronger and blunter than previous statements and is very important and welcome.

However, referring to my previous article: what does “put the STFC on a sound footing” mean?

Specifically does it means that STFC no longer has to plan for further £26M annual cut in particle physics, nuclear physics and astronomy in 12/13?

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Science, Science Policy | Tagged | 3 Comments