Yorkshire
Below you can find details of recent meetings and events organised by the Yorkshire branch.
Resignation statement of the honorary secretary
Secretary's report
17th September 2007 - AGM Minutes of the Yorkshire Branch
York Programme Past Events
Bungee Jumping
Bungee Jumping at The British Association for the Advancement of Science Festival of Science in York
Monday 10 December 2007
CHRISTMAS LECTURE
Mulled wine and mince pies from 7.00 pm
7.30 p.m. P/L001, Department of Physics, University of York
"Science Cartoons"
Professor Jim Matthew, Department of Physics, University of York
Science is a serious business, and so it is all the more important that you laugh at it from time to time. Join us for a light-hearted look at some serious science through the medium of cartoons.
Monday 21 January 2008
6.30 pm P/L001, Department of Physics, University of York
Coffee and biscuits in the Physics concourse from 6.00 pm
Physics and Theology: Competing Cognitive Projects?
Dr David Efird, Department of Philosophy, University of York
Can a physicist be a theist? It seems not, since the physicist bases her theories on evidence whereas the theist does not; indeed, from the physicist's perspective, theism looks entirely irrational. This talk seeks to rebut this popular view. I will examine both physics and theology as cognitive projects such that if physics is a rational cognitive project, then so is theology. Moreover, these projects are complementary ones which together can enrich our understanding of the world.
Tuesday 5 February 2008
7.30 pm, Tempest Anderson Hall, MuseumGardens, York
In conjunction with York Philosophical Society
Lord of the Rings: Cassini-Huygens and its mission to Saturn
Dr David Jenkins, Department of Physics, University of York
We celebrate 10 years of the space probe, Cassini-Huygens mission to the planet Saturn. We will look at how such space missions are designed and at the equipment which makes them up. This will be illustrated with reference to an 8-foot long, 1/3 scale model of the Cassini-Huygens space probe. We will also look at the landing of the Huygens on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons and some of the beautiful data and pictures sent back from the moon’s surface.
Monday 3 March 2008
6.30 pm P/L001, Department of Physics, University of York
Coffee and biscuits in the Physics concourse from 6.00 pm
Space Activities at Fyingdales
Leo Westhead, Serco
This talk will look at the space-related activities at the phased-array radar RAF Fylingdales. This includes tracking of satellite and space missions.
Monday 12 May 2008
The world as structure: Exploring the implications of modern physics
Professor Steven French
University of Leeds
Hull events
Monday 4 February 2008
The University of Hull Eigth Annual Venn Lecture
Lecture organised by the University of Hull Centre for Mathematics
7.00 p.m. University of Hull, Middleton Hall
“The Biggest Extinction Ever - Mathematical Modelling of Ancient Atmospheres: an Ozone Crisis During the Permian Mass Extinction"
Professor David Beerling (University of Sheffield)
Abstract
In this lecture David Beerling will discuss his modelling of the upheavals to the earth's atmospheric chemistry during the greatest mass extinction event of all time at the end of the Pemiam era, 250 million years ago. This extinction wiped out up to 95% of all known species and coincided with a massive bout of volcanism in Siberia.
The lecture will show how the results of mathematical models are being combined with evidence from palaeobotany and plant genomics to reveal that the modern ozone 'hole' over Antarctica may just have had an ancient precedent.
David Beerling's latest book, 'The Emerald Planet', provides a new perspective on the role plants have played in driving and recording climate change throughout Earth history.
Tuesday 19 February 2008
7.30 p.m. University of Hull. Leslie Downs Lecture Theatre. FerensBuilding.
“Cauldrons in the Universe - Are we the Stuff of Stardust?"
Dr David Jenkins (Department of Physics, University of York)
Abstract
It is remarkable that every atom in your body has been produced at some time in a cosmic cauldron - a star. In this cosmic alchemy nuclei are fused together in conditions of unimaginable temperature and pressure. The heaviest elements such as lead are believed to be produced in the most dramatic cosmic events - supernovae. We will look at how nuclear physicists are trying to reproduce these alchemical reactions on Earth and the present status of our understanding of these processes.
Tuesday 4 March. 2008
7.30 p.m. University of Hull. Leslie Downs Lecture Theatre. Ferens Building.
“From Morse to the Internet - A Brief history of Electronic Communications"
Dr Des McClernon. (School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. University of Leeds)
Abstract
In 1844, an American portrait painter, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inaugurated a public (electrical) telegraphy service between Washington D.C. and Baltimore with his famous message “What hath God wrought?” Ironically, this first example of electrical communication was also digital, not analogue.
And today digital communications are having a similarly dramatic effect on the way we live. After just over 150 years, we can now receive pictures and data from billions of miles in space and can communicate easily from our homes over a global network of computers - the Internet. We have video, e-mails, speech, navigation information, etc., all available from a single hand-held mobile phone linked to an array of communication satellites. Engineers have put over 1000 million transistors on single chip smaller that a thumbnail, and the possible applications may be limited only by imagination! How did this amazing technical development occur? And (bizarrely) what is the connection between modern wireless communications and a bottle of Irish whiskey?
This lecture (starting with the ancient Greeks and including contributions from a 9th century Tashkent Imam, Mussolini and Che Guevara!), will chart the history of the people, the technology, and the ideas that have made the recent Mars Exploration Rover mission, cellular video-phones, and the Internet all possible.
Sheffield events
Wednesday 16 January 2008
“Harnessing light – the future’s bright, the future’s photonics”
6pm to 9pm, Firth Hall, University of Sheffield
The Institute of Physics in Yorkshire and the North East, working in association with the Yorkshire Science & Technology Network, the Photonics Knowledge Transfer Network and the UK Consortium for Photonics & Optics would like to invite you to a “Photonics Science Showcase” event.
The Science Showcases form part of the Yorkshire Science & Technology Network initiative, funded by Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency. The aim is to offer an insight into the emerging research activities within our region’s Universities in order to help regional businesses determine what commercial potential could be available for exploitation.
Professor Animesh Jha, University of Leeds, Institute for Materials Research and Dr Richard Hogg, University of Sheffield, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering will highlight some of the world-leading research being undertaken at Yorkshire and Humber Universities, the possibilities for commercial engagement and outline how photonics may impact upon our lives and businesses in the future.
The Photonics showcase is free to attend – however, booking is essential and early booking is advised. Please register your intent to attend by sending an email stating “16th Jan 08 YSTN showcase” in the header along with your contact details to events@yorkshire-forward.com or telephone 0113 3949712.
Tuesday 12 February. 2008
“Should Physics get in Bed with Biology? : Stories of Life and Death”
5.00 p.m. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield
Professor Tom McLeish
(Polymer IRC, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Leeds)
Abstract
Why might a theoretical physicist work with the life sciences? What do electrons, quarks, black holes and lasers to do with cell walls, nano-membranes and the genome? Tom McLeish is convinced that physics has a central rôle to play in this multidisciplinary project.
The last 30 years have seen the resurgence of physicists’ interest in a general field now called “soft condensed matter”. This nano-scale domain of giant molecules, membranes, de-mixing and self-structuring fluids, is dominated by the continuous random “Brownian Motion” that is the molecular manifestation of heat. Brownian motion has counterintuitive properties: it endows elasticity to labile structures and arbitrates between alternative ways of assembling molecular components. Working with it, rather than against it, is a fundamental rule of nanotechnology. The search problem of “protein folding” is one example of problem-solving in a stochastic world.
We examine one example of a recent theme in which theoretical physics has shed light and help direct a programme investigating the self-assembly of “nanofibrils” from peptide molecules, small versions of proteins. The aggregation of these molecules forms a hierarchy of structures that closely resembles “amyloid” fibrils in the brain tissue of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Surprisingly, the nature of the structures is clarified by a physical theory that relates them to a very small set of energies. We speculate that when physics meets biology it may have more to say when things go wrong than when they behave accordingly to highly evolved biological norms!
Tuesday 4 March 2008
"Cosmology for Physicists - Why Inflation is a Good Thing"
5.00 p.m. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield.
Professor Malcolm Longair CBE FRS
(Cavendish Laboratory, Univ. of Cambridge)
Abstract
There have been remarkable advances in Astrophysical and Geometrical Cosmology over recent years which have led to a standard model for cosmological studies - we are now in the era of "precision cosmology". At the same time, the standard model has a number of major problems. Solutions to these will be discussed. Most attention has been devoted to the inflationary model of the early Universe. The lecture will discuss why this model has to be taken seriously for very good physical reasons, despite the fact that the inflationary expansion must have taken place at energies which are not accessible in the Laboratory. The lecture will be profusely illustrated with images, simulations and interactive displays and will be delivered at the non-technical level.
Tuesday 15 April 2008
5.00 p.m. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield.
“The High-Speed Universe”
Dr Vik Dhillon (Dept of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Sheffield)
Abstract
The Ancient Greeks believed the Universe to be perfect and unchanging, whereas we now know that astronomical objects vary in brightness on timescales ranging from milliseconds to billions of years. Although astronomy has made great strides in recent years, the study of the most rapidly varying phenomena (on timescales of milliseconds to seconds) has largely been ignored. In this talk I shall describe recent efforts in this area, focusing on the design and exploitation of ULTRACAM, a high-speed camera designed to study astrophysics on fast timescales, i.e. any object which eclipses, transits, occults, flickers, flares, pulsates, oscillates, erupts, outbursts or explodes.
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