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Stargazing

January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Now that I work in astronomy professionally, it’s all about telescopes, politics, publishing, proposals. I easily forget what got me into this game: looking up at the stars and wondering what the heck is out there, or reading about relativity and going: “huh?”.

This past week the UK collectively discovered its love for stargazing with the help of the BBC and a whole lot of keen astronomers. Professionals and amateurs took part in Stargazing events all over the country, and even more watched along on TV. 3.8 million of them, apparently, which is amazing.

Lots of my on- and offline friends and colleagues were on the air, and I was really disappointed I couldn’t watch, as I’m abroad and no TV. Some years ago I spent a summer at the BBC working on a similar programme (yes, I even met Brian Cox) and I have a lot of fun memories from that time. But anyway, I hope lots of you enjoyed watching or taking part, whether you’re an old hand in the business or an astro-newbie.

Planethunters, Milky Way Project‘s cousin in the Zooniverse family, got some special attention, as new volunteers signed up in droves to carry out almost 1.1 million new classifications in 48 hours. As a result, the Planethunters team were able to announce the discovery of a potential new exoplanet by a Stargazing viewer.

This great little video’s been doing the rounds on the interwebs, created on the back of BBC Stargazing, showing how and why we simulate galaxies. It was created by Oxford astronomer Andrew Pontzen, who featured on the programme.

 

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A Nobel prize for creative physics

October 6, 2010 By

The 2010 Nobel prize for Physics has been awarded to two Russian-born scientists, Andre Geim, of the University of Manchester and Radboud University Nijmegen, and Konstantin Novoselov, also in Manchester, for their work on the monolayer carbon material graphene. Graphene is basically a flat sheet of carbon atoms connected in a honeycomb lattice, that displays some interesting properties: it’s flexible, strong and is an excellent conductor for heat and electricity.

Geim and Novoselov’s work to separate the material from bulk graphite has opened up a whole new area of research, into potential applications of graphene or simply to test our understanding of the basic physics of materials on this exciting new material.

[Read more...]

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No More Dr Nice Guy

September 18, 2010 By

Britain is in the throes of massive cuts in public spending. Science isn’t escaping the axe, and with budgets already squeezed in recent years this is likely to lead to excellent scientific research losing its funding.

At a time when many other countries are upping their investment in scientific research to stimulate economic growth, the UK’s move could well be an own goal that will stifle the country’s potential for innovation in years to come. A rather basic error in a speech by business secretary Vince Cable about the country’s research spending did little to instill confidence in the government amongst the scientific community.

A number of concerned and angry scientists have set up the Science is Vital campaign and are organising a rally in London on 9  October under the motto “No more Dr Nice Guy” – a fab slogan. So if you are a working British scientist or you just care about science in Britain, sign up for the campaign. The Facebook group is here with over 1600 members already, the twitter hashtag is #scienceisvital, some more useful links are here, and if you want to be more actively involved, this tweet may be of interest.

I won’t be in the UK at the time so will have to miss the event, but I’ll be cheering from across the Channel.

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Dark days ahead?

December 16, 2009 By

The British astronomy community is bracing itself for bad news due to arrive tomorrow from its funding council, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, or STFC. Since its creation in 2007, STFC appears to have stumbled from one crisis to the next. An announcement will be made by the council tomorrow about deep cuts in the astronomy budget to fill a 70 million pound hole that has resulted from increased contributions to ESA on the one hand, and a debt that needs to be repayed to the government dating back to the merger that created STFC in 2007.

[Read more...]

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Decision time for UK ground-based astronomy

June 3, 2009 By

By the end of this year, UK astronomers are likely to know what ground-based observational facilities they will have access to in the next decade. Today, the Science and Technology Facilities Council or STFC, the body that administrates funds for UK astronomy and particle physics, has published a (long-rumoured) consultation document inviting the community to discuss priorities in ground-based astronomy in the next 10 years. The document was prepared by STFC’s recently formed Ground-based Facilities Review Panel, made up of 6 UK-based senior astronomers (incidentally all men). An electronic questionnaire will be available in the near future for astronomers to express their views, and “facility directors and interested groups” are invited to submit paper contributions. [Read more...]

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