Ian Huston - Part 3

Welcome to my blog which mainly focuses on topics of interest to me as a postdoctoral researcher and cosmologist. More Info and my CV

Science is Vital

By Ian | Published: September 30, 2010

As a practising scientist you might expect me to believe that Science is Vital. “He would say that wouldn’t he,” you might say. Objectively speaking though, science research has a large impact on the wealth and success of a country.

Even during these times of austerity, most developed countries are investing in science research, anticipating the benefits that a research led economy has historically provided.

In contrast to this approach the UK coalition government is poised to announce the largest cuts in science funding in a generation. The Royal Society has said that cuts of 25% would represent “Game Over” for science in this country. The government will announce the broad cuts on the 20th October so any action against the impending funding crisis must be swift. The possible outcomes if a full range of cuts go ahead are quite dire.

The Science Is Vital campaign is a grassroots movement which has been guided from its infancy by Dr Jenny Rohn, a cell biologist at UCL. A petition, a rally in Westminster and a lobby of MPs have been organised which it is hoped will be able to alleviate the impending cuts by showing the government how essential scientific research is to the economic welfare of the country.

As a cosmologist, I know that my research has little intrinsic advantage for the UK economy in the short term. The advantage gained is in the number of students who are inspired to study science after wondering about the origins of the universe and the Big Bang. The contribution these students go on to make to the UK economy through science, industry or commerce benefits the country overall.

It is imperative that the tradition of scientific discovery in the UK is protected. I implore you to do what you can to show the government that Science is Vital. Sign the petition, email your MP and if you can be there, join the rally in Westminster on the 9th of October!

Posted in Campaign, Research | Tagged campaign, Campaigns, crisis, funding, government, petition, rally, Research, Royal Society, scicuts, scienceisvital, scipolicy | 1 Comment

Durham UK Cosmo meeting

By Ian | Published: September 8, 2010

Durham University, and in particular the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology hosted the annual two-day UK Cosmology meeting this year. There were lots of very interesting talks, and I hope to give a flavour of some of the issues that were mentioned over the course of the meeting.

Durham Cathedral, taken by Ian Huston

The list of participants and the programme outline are on the Durham website, however I do not expect the slides of the talks to be uploaded except perhaps by individual speakers.

Due to it being organised at the last minute and the fact that it took place quite close to the start of the academic term the meeting wasn’t as well attended as others have been, but this allowed for more discussions and for everyone to get to know each other quite well. It also meant that the speakers were allocated 30 minutes each including time for questions, a time scale which is a lot more manageable than the ten minute slots that have previously been used.

The talks and discussions were of a very high quality over the two days, helped by the generous lunch and tea breaks which encouraged the research conversations to continue. The setting was also superb, the Ogden Centre being a very impressive place with a friendly open atmosphere. On Monday evening we were shown what must be one of Durham’s most spectacular outreach efforts, the 3-D film Cosmic Origins, which shows a journey from our solar system, through the Hubble Deep Field, out to the Last Scattering Surface. A 2-D version of the film is embedded below, but for the full experience the 3-D version, glasses and all, needs to be seen. The film was shown at the 2010 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.

The two days of talks were really enjoyable and the unrushed pace of the meeting should be replicated next time if possible. With a one day meeting time constraints are very severe, but I think longer time slots and extra discussion time could still be beneficial. I tweeted a few times during the meeting but penetration of Twitter in to the cosmological field has not reached the levels seen in the Science Online London conference last week.

I would like to thank everyone who helped to organise the meeting and make us feel welcome in Durham. I hope to put together a few overview posts about the work that was presented so they should appear here sometime in the future.

Posted in Conferences and Meetings | Tagged 3-D film, Cosmic Origins, Cosmology, Durham, meeting, Research, Science, talks, twitter, UK Cosmo | Leave a comment

ArXiv app for Android

By Ian | Published: August 19, 2010

I don’t regularly look up new papers on my phone, preferring the ease of checking them on my desktop at work. However when travelling or attending a conference it can be very handy to be able to quickly pull up some paper you half remember in the middle of a conversation.

As an Android user for a while now, the options were previously limited to navigating to the arxiv website which doesn’t really scale well onto a phone screen, and manually searching for the right paper, or scanning the new list.
For a while there has been an iPhone app called arXivew which listed the latest papers and allowed you to easily download and view the one you wanted.

Now, there is an Android app to compete. Read More »

Posted in arXiv, Tools | Tagged android, android market, app, arXiv, e-reader, iphone, phone, tablet | Leave a comment

Thesis now online

By Ian | Published: July 6, 2010

I passed my viva examination a few months ago, and after very helpful suggestions from my two examiners I submitted the final version of my PhD thesis to the QMUL authorities a month ago. The paperwork all went through so I have now completely finished my doctoral training. All that remains to be done is the celebratory donning of a floppy cloth cap and scarlet robes at the graduation ceremony in a few weeks.

I think PhD students go through a range of feelings towards their theses, beginning with excitement and some trepidation when they start a blank text file, progressing through despair in the mandatory mid-cycle slough, to eventually being completely fed up and just wanting it out the door. Now that I’ve gone through all that and seen the finished product in lovely blue serge cloth, the only thing left to do was to put it online.

So the final, corrected version of my thesis is now available at the arXiv. I’m not expecting anyone to actually go read the thing but when I have lost or mislaid my copy at least I’ll be able to download it.

Posted in arXiv, Cosmology, Research | Tagged arXiv, Cosmology, Inflation, phd, QMUL, thesis | Leave a comment

Simon Singh wins appeal

By Ian | Published: April 1, 2010

Congratulations and well done to Simon Singh who today won his appeal for the right to use a “fair comment” defence in his case against the British Chiropractic Association.

Jack of Kent is going to give his analysis of the ruling over the weekend, starting here.

This is only one case however and the need for reform of the libel laws is still as pressing as ever. Jack Straw has outlined Labour’s plans for reform if they win the election. With the general election due in a few weeks, now is the time to put pressure on all politicians by signing the petition at libelreform.org.