Eating Blackberries
Some people have made fun of a recent comment made by one of John McCain’s aides, that the grizzled senator helped to invent the RIM Blackberry. Ok, so in reality Douglas J Holtz-Eakin (why do all these guys have names that sound made-up?) was pointing to McCain’s time on the Senate Commerce Committee, but it seems to me like another example of taking credit for an idea after it’s been successful. The idea in question here being mobile telephony.
The latest Nokia
Some of the older ones around here remember the collective media and public laughter at London bankers who were some of the early adopters of mobile telephones. I recall the original phones in the mid-80s, which were huge and sometimes had to be physically connected to a car (hence the name Carphone Warehouse, of course). ‘Why would anyone want one of those?’, they said; ‘why not just use the phone you have at home?.’ Even the notion that a phone number referred to a person rather than a location was difficult to grasp. By the way, am I the only person who thought these phones looked a lot like the radios the police had in the French Connection (the film, not the clothes shop)?
But now of course, nearly all of us have these wonderful gadgets in our pockets, and therefore don’t refer to them as gadgets any more, even though they possess a huge array of functionality that most people rarely use, such as mobile internet, calendaring, document reading, and so on. Similarly the iPod, where I recall a similar cry of ‘why not just listen to your CDs individually?’. Of course, nowadays most of us use them not just for music, but for TV programmes and movies, and crucially for the growing phenomenon of podcasting, which few people thought of when these devices were introduced - especially people like John McCain, who by all accounts doesn’t know how to use a computer. I wonder what he would make of the iPhone 3G, which is a combination of the above two things, and is a Satnav too. I guess he would say that his fondness of military spending would support the satellite developments that gave us GPS. Actually, maybe he would be right there! Anyway, there are a lot of people like McCain who decry technological developments while early adopters are eagerly consuming them. I am reminded of a notable physicist at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory who is well-known locally for never touching a computer himself, and employs a secretary (of sorts) to perform his programming; this man will remain nameless.
And then there are those who think that more development is not worthwhile. Sir David King has achieved a rapid notoriety for his disparaging comments about the LHC, which of course did not destroy the Earth last week when it was switched on; why would it, when the collisions which will make those pesky black holes are scheduled to occur some weeks from now? Anyway, Sir David intimated that 4.4 billion quid on solving the mysteries of the universe is a waste of money, a notion that has unfortunately gained traction in some of the science press (for example Research Fortnight). Brian Cox (who I now live next door to at Manchester, girls) said exactly the right thing, and completely demolished Sir David. After all, we are presently chucking a lot more money than that at dodgy banks, and to put it into context we need to be building a great many power stations in this country over the next few years, each of which has a similar price tag to the LHC. Brian rightly pointed out that there are a lot of us (me included) who work on machines not just for particle physicists play with, but which also have a lot of practical uses, nuclear power, X-ray production and radiotherapy being just three insigificant ones.
Sir David’s comments smack a great deal of a mythical quote by US patent commissioner Charles Duell at the end of the 19th Century, who supposedly declared that ‘Everything that can be invented, has been invented’. It’s only a short step to fundamentalism and the rejection of novelty in all its forms. ‘What more do we need to know? Don’t we know enough already?’
I prefer Mark Twain, who said perceptively: ‘The man with a new idea is a crank, until the idea succeeds’. Cue Edison, of course…
Senator McCain having trouble texting
So, back to John McCain. Less well-reported is that a group of scientists have posed a set of key questions on science policy to both Obama and McCain. Their replies are interesting, being prepared comments from their likely policy. Much of the response of both candidates is the usual generic fluff, and Senator McCain in particular likes to make reference to his time in the army (and the navy, apparently), and also gets an oblique reference to his invention of the Blackberry whilst on ‘that committee’. Amongst all that, there are a couple of things worth pointing out. Firstly, Obama is clearly less keen on space and NASA than McCain is (no surprise there).
‘…work toward a 21st century vision of space that constantly pushes the envelope on new technologies as it pursues a balanced national portfolio that expands our reach into the heavens and improves life here on Earth.’ (Obama)
‘…Ensure that space exploration is top priority and that the U.S. remains a leader (against China).’ (McCain)
Second, McCain comes out with very clear targets for new-build nuclear power, whilst Obama is more circumspect:
‘As President, I will put the country on track to building 45 new reactors by 2030 so that we can meet our growing energy demand and reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is a proven, domestic, zero-emission source of energy and it is time to recommit to advancing our use of nuclear energy.’ (McCain)
‘A new generation of nuclear electric technologies that address cost, safety, waste disposal, and proliferation risks.’ (Obama)
Finally, the issue of stem cells expose the typical Republican/Democratic split in the US:
‘I oppose the intentional creation of human embryos for research purposes and I voted to ban the practice of “fetal farming,” making it a federal crime for researchers to use cells or fetal tissue from an embryo created for research purposes.’ (McCain)
‘As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight’ (Obama)
It will be an interesting autumn for science, and for physics in particular.
Bouncy Castle
The SRS: now just so much junk
Today was a rather surreal experience.
Now that the SRS has finally shut, and before the men with spanners start to dismantle the accelerator - some parts of which are over 40 years old - the site has been opened to staff (and the many ex-staff) for a full Sunday. It was a strange experience to come as a tourist to my own place of work, and even stranger that for the event the lab has decided to include a funfair, classic car rally, and birds of prey exhibition. I’m not really sure what any of that has to do with synchrotron science, but maybe it brings in the punters. Unfortunately, the bouncy castle and ‘megaslide’ (whatever that is) were both stolen last night, so the funfair consisted solely of rides next to our decrepit site stores building. I’m not quite sure why it’s best to put playing children near to piles of scrap metal, but there you go.
The celebratory aspect of the day seemed a bit misplaced to me, since there is nothing really to replace the facility, and more than a few people are being made redundant. It was doubly poignant for me as I’m leaving the lab myself in a week’s time, and I worked closely on the SRS for some years.
Oh well…
Of course, the open day was timed to come just after the last SR user meeting to be held at Daresbury. Besides the expected eulogies to the varied research that was done on the SRS, there was an interesting presentation by Jon Marangos, project leader of the ‘New Light Source‘ (what a terrible committee name that is). The science case has been completed, and is available in draft form for comment before final submissiong for funding for the design stage. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it calls for a high-repetition rate X-ray FEL suite (i.e. above 1 kHz), albeit without much technical definition that ties the experimental needs to hard accelerator parameters - the lack of which may or may not come back to bite as it did on 4GLS. Maybe it will get sorted out during the design phase.
Those ‘in the know’ realise that high repetition rate basically means superconducting cavities, since normal-conducting ones can only operate in pulsed mode under 1 kHz. And there are plenty of accelerators being built around the world that will do that - so won’t get funded in the UK. A superconducting design would be kind of nice, since I published a design for one of those a few months ago. Ok, so my design is based on ideas from a number of other people (WiFEL, LBNL etc.), but I think it’s quite good. Maybe they’ll ask me to carry on working on it even though I’m leaving.
My new Windows Mobile phone.
Okay, so I was set on gettng an iPhone eventually, probably by persuading my friend Sam to part with hers and me switch to an O2 SIM card (I’m on a crap T-Mobile tariff right now). But then, only yesterday, I got a special offer email from Expansys for the Ubiquio 503G, reduced from 230 quid to just 99 - with no tie-in contract. Since it has a full, real QWERTY keyboard, and I need something that can hold 1000-plus contacts, I thought ‘why not?’ and clicked on ‘buy’. Good old Expansys had it delivered in under 24 hours (and on a Saturday morning) on the default cheapo delivery, and so here I am typing this post one-handed while carrying a sleeping baby. Try doing that with a laptop! Setup of this Windows Mobile 6 device is a doddle: I haven’t even looked in the manual yet. And the keyboard is pretty good for its size: certainly better than the Blackberry or iPhone when I tried them. Mobile blogging is pretty easy thanks to the moBlog software I downloaded using the phone’s 802.11 b/g capability, and is really helped by the extensive predictive text dictionary. I am pleased so far, and 99 pounds for SIM-free is definitely a bargain.
That’s all, folks…
So, it’s the time of year that always seems to herald change for me. Ever since I was a kid, mid-September was when those feelings of uneasiness drifted into consciousness, making one aware of the changes to come. At school, September was the start of a new year, usually bigger and more challenging than the last. When I left school I thought that this September feeling would stop, but it seems to have continued due to one event or another, always significant, always in September.
Last Friday, my friend Naomi left Daresbury Laboratory, where we’ve worked together for over eight years. It was potent to me because she was one of over 40 people who have left the lab in the last few months, and September is when a big chunk of that number are going out the door. There are lots of leaving dos happening right now, and I’ve never seen the Ring of Bells up in the village so frequently! This loss of staff is happening partly because the SRS has finally closed after 28 years, and the lab is oddly silent and devoid of users. The other part is the STFC funding crisis which has meant even more people have been encouraged to leave to help overcome the chronic funding shortfall. Without a replacement facility on the site, the mood is sombre.
This situation reminds me a little of when I stayed on at Manchester University to do a PhD some years ago. After the bustle of 200-odd undergraduates which built to a climax during final exams, the summer campus after they left was a ghost-town to me - warm and bright, but melancholy. It took a few years for me to really shake that feeling off.
So it’s a strange situation for me to be in now, as I’m also leaving Daresbury after having worked there for quite some time. Even stranger, I’m going to work back at Manchester University, this time in the Particle Physics Group. Whilst I’m sad about leaving the lab, especially after the professional investment I’ve made in the projects I’ve worked on, I’m pretty excited about moving, and the opportunities at the University. Four days at Daresbury left!