The picture shows the assembled Fusion multitude outside the University of Keele Observatory with our host, Mike Brough, during Fusion Weekend in January.

Left to right: Maria Griffiths; Fred Muirhead; Margaret Muirhead-Webb; Janette Harris; Steve Downes; Mike Brough; Leo Goatley; Sandra Lara Castillo; Bill Willows; Digby Tarvin; Jim Grozier; Dwyn Padfield; Chris Foyle; Steve Kelly; Graham Foyle; Sandy Keen; Jason Hill. Photo by Anne-Marie Gallen.

There may be someone hiding behind Jim, unless he has sprouted an extra leg. Is it Mike Nugent?

But there is someone else missing - who is it? Who joined the wrong convoy, and ended up at a football match? To spare her blushes, we will not reveal her identity!

By Maria Griffiths

On Saturday November 10th the OU at Milton Keynes was host to the first of what we hope will be a regular Astronomy Evening. The skies were patchy with cloud, but as we had a couple of talks to begin with we were hoping for a favourable change later on. Having a cup of tea to get everyone settled we were welcomed by our very own Jim Grozier who gave us an idea of what the agenda would be and then introduced the first speaker.

Bob Lambourne of the OU (many of you may recognise the name from the spine of your text books) presented the fascinating topic of “The expanding Universe: faster than light galaxies”. Being only a level 2 physics student myself, I thought ‘Hang on a minute – surely not!’. Following through the complex but beautifully explained ideas (which I couldn’t begin to try to tell you about), I now realise that they are in fact a perfectly common phenomenon, if not simply the logical conclusion of our observational capabilities. Of course.

We were then treated to a beginner’s guide to the planisphere by Jonti and Jonty, (what are the chances?). (No; that was rhetorical!) As a completely uninitiated newcomer, I for one was grateful for it. It turns out that they are really easy to use and tell you all you could want to know when looking up into dark skies. Alternatively you could develop an interest at the age of five and just memorise the entire night sky. For both hemispheres. I’m referring to our next speaker, Jonti Horner who led us through a slide show of some of the stunningly beautiful things we might be able to see on a perfect night through a good telescope, or even just a pair of binoculars. We were also given an insight into the work that he is currently engaged in.

Anne-Marie Gallen, (instrumental in the organising of the event) was kind enough to do a pizza run, and when we were all happily fed we checked the skies again. It didn’t look too promising but we had other options: we could choose a film (anything from “Spaceballs” to “Sunshine”), or Jonti could bring us up to speed on the Galaxy’s dirty snowballs, including the big show of the moment – Comet Holmes. We made Jonti share more of his enthusiasm for all things overhead and were taken through asteroid belts to the Oort cloud and beyond.

At last the sky looked to have a few gaps in the cloud and we all went across to the George Abell 16” reflector that is the housed at Walton Hall. Although the timing of the gaps in the cloud proved a challenge to aligning the telescope, we did get to see Mars, Andromeda, some constellations, and Comet Holmes.

We ran over by about half an hour because the sky was just giving up enough to keep us trying! In the end everyone seemed to be really happy with the evening and what we had managed to see.

Our thanks to Bob Lambourne, Jonti Horner, Jonty Marshall, Anne-Marie Gallen and everyone at Fusion that made the evening happen. I for one look forward to the next Astro Evening.

Maria Griffiths.

By Cathy White (Birkbeck College)

The persistent rain did not spoil our scientific excursion to Herstmonceux, which delighted us with a huge and mysterious castle, many scientific treasures, and a chance to meet a team of active scientists.

Herstmonceux was the focus of astronomy in the UK from the years 1957 to 1990*, when the Royal Observatory was moved here from Greenwich to take advantage of the dark skies of the East Sussex countryside. The telescopes housed in the domes of the Herstmonceux observatory science centre are extremely impressive, although these days they are used only to provide viewings to the public on open evenings. Dave, our friendly science centre guide, gave us a guided tour and answered questions in detail. There are six telescopes, each with a unique design and history; including the interesting optical assembly of the coude spectrograph; which directs the optical beam to a fixed spectrograph in the room beneath the dome, and the 1896 Thompson 26" refractor telescope; which is one of the largest refractor telescopes in the UK. Most impressive was the refractor telescope that was used in the famous 1919 Solar Eclipse experiment made by Eddington which provided the first verification of the theory of General Relativity. It was this experiment which led to acceptance of the theory.

The science centre also provides a hands on museum, which is not aimed at science students at University level, but seemed very popular with families.

The NERC Space Geodesy Facility (NSGF) is an active scientific station based at Herstmonceux involved in continuous laser ranging measurements of passive reflector satellites such as Lageos (this is a small 60cm sphere covered in reflectors much like cat eyes but far more directional.) We were given a detailed tour of the station; with an explanation of some of the technical problems the team is dealing with. Liz, the laser engineer, talked us through the function of each part of the laser system; showing us the flashtubes which pump the laser active system thousands of times a day, the Pockels cell which acts as the shutter, the optical amplifier and the frequency doubler. She also explained the problems and limitations caused by temperature instabilities, divergent beam width and lack of power. Timing is a major challenge for this type of work; the time for the laser beam to be reflected back to the detector must be measured to a high precision; and also referenced to an external source since measurements from different stations must be combined in geodetic analysis. An accurate time base source derived from GPS is used as a reference to synchronise their internal high frequency source (which provides sub picosecond resolution.) The existing YAG laser has a time response jitter of microseconds which creates an uncertainty in measurement time of the laser activation. The team are in the process of installing a new laser which will provide much faster response times.

The small team of scientists at NERC are involved in both the building and running of the equipment, and the management and processing of the data. If an aircraft enters the field of view the laser should shut down automatically, but just in case an operator mans the dome whenever measurements are being made. We were all especially grateful for the tour because they had a busy schedule as working scientists.

Herstmonceux castle** is an impressive and romantic 15th century castellated manor with large moat, originally occupied by the de Fiennes family (of Ranulph Fiennes fame). It is one of the earliest important brick built structures in the UK, older even than Hampton Court. It decayed into ruins in the early 18th century, but was reconstructed in the early 20th century with great care and skill. It contains many architectural treasures (most salvaged from other historical buildings at the time of the reconstruction) including a carved staircase from the workshop of the famous woodcarver Grinley Gibbons. A mysterious staircase hidden beneath a flagstone leads to a tunnel which runs under the moat. The tunnel has now collapsed so the other entrance of the tunnel is not known. One theory is that this may originally have been built as a priest hole as the family were Catholics; however historically the castle was less than half a mile from the coast; (coastlines in this area have shifted significantly over the last few hundred years due to silting and land reclaim) and there is much evidence which suggests this tunnel could also have been used by in the 18th and 19th centuries by smugglers. Apparently, the smugglers spread rumours of a headless drummer boy ghost which haunted the ruined castle, and would occasionally send a man up onto the roof to drum on stormy nights, thereby frightening the superstitious coastguards away from the area.

* The Royal Greenwich Observatory was moved to Cambridge in 1990, and shut down completely in 2002. The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh now hosts the UK Astronomy Technology Centre which has taken over some of the functions of the RGO.

** The castle will not be included in the Fusion visit; it belongs to a Canadian college and is only open during college vacations.

Registration and Clubbing

The IoP's Young Physicist's Conference (YPC) for 2003 took place on the weekend 21-23 November in Bristol. The University was the main conference site, and most of the participants were accommodated at the nearby Bristol Youth Hostel. The hostel is a comfortable converted waterfront warehouse conveniently located at the heart of Bristol's vibrant quayside area.

The view from the roof of the Bristol University Physics Building

The meeting place for participants arriving on Friday evening was the youth hostel, and locating it proved to be the first challenge of the weekend. I gather from others that I spoke to that I was not the only one that found this more challenging than expected. The facilities were clean and comfortable, the only hiccup being a room with an unusable bathroom due to a blocked and nearly overflowing toilet. A room to which naturally I had been allocated.

Friday night festivities - One of the many bars visited after our dinner at the hostel that evening. I think this one was the ideosyncratically named Bar Room Bar. On the left are Paul Ruffle and Jim Grozier

On arrival, participants were greeted by the conference organizer, the IoP's Graduate Liaison Officer Joseph Hines, who was waiting in the hostel's Granary bar just inside the main entrance. Here he distributed room keys, programmes and (most importantly for some) drinks discount vouchers. On completion of the registration formalities, we retired upstairs to the dining room for a hearty dinner, and then headed out for a night on the town sampling several of the local nightclubs and bars.

Rolls Royce Visit

Saturday commenced with a fascinating visit to the Rolls-Royce Marine Systems site in nearby Filton, organized by Cat Gardner of Aberystwyth University. Places on the visit were strictly limited and names had to be submitted in advance, so having registered late I was not expecting to be able to go. However Cat had promised to try so I rose early just in case, and was rewarded by a message at breakfast indicating that my addition to the list had been approved, and that I had about thirty seconds before the coach was to leave.

The weather was a little inclement on the ride out to the site, but did not succeed in dampening the groups enthusiasm, even while huddling in the rain outside the main gate while Cat attempted to contact our guide on her mobile phone. After a wait which was no doubt much shorter than it seemed, we were met by our guide John Clark, Chief Development Engineer. Once through the gate he led the way down a long road past numerous large and impressive looking facilities supporting systems such as the engines for the Harrier Jump Jets.

John Clark with the MT30 marine gas turbine engine

At the end of the road was the main object of the visit, a large brick building about three stories tall (it is hard to tell without windows) bristling with formidable looking exhaust systems on the roof and strange panels in the walls. This building was (and presumably still is) the site where the new, soon to be released MT30 marine gas turbine engine was developed. This engine is an adaptation for marine use of the tried and tested kerosene based engine technology powering aircraft on which many of us will have traveled.

On entering the building, the ultra-modern facilities made it immediately apparent that Rolls-Royce labs were a lot better funded that your average academic institution. The facilities looked something like a cross between the foyer of a luxury hotel and the bridge of the Enterprise. Our guide explained that the building doubled as a showroom for clients with large budgets, which went some way toward explaining was so much money had been spent on the comfort of engineers.

Leaving the MT30 building

After a brief AV presentation on the history and theory of operation of the MT30, we were led off to the test rig, past the huge air intake ducts, to clamber over the engine itself. From here we were shown the control room from which the MT30 was operated, although John declined to start it up for us. He explained that the soundproofing and vibration damping were so effective that we wouldn't be able to tell that it was running even if he did. Before we knew it, it was time for us to leave, so we were led back down the road to the main gate, and on to our waiting coach.

During the ride back to Bristol University, the coach was filled with the sounds of radio commentary on some manner of sporting event in Australia which England was apparently winning. Judging from the cheers emanating from others on the bus, not everyone in our group was as ignorant of sporting affairs as I.

Afternoon Activity

At Bristol University we joined the conference participants who had not taken part in the Rolls-Royce visit due to the limitation on numbers, for a buffet lunch and a chance to browse the company exhibits, including representatives from Institute of Physics Publishing (from whom discount books could be purchased), QinetiQ, BNFL and NPL.

The afternoon program included a guided tour of the University Physics department, a lecture on Particle Acceleration in Space by Dr Martin Hardcastle of Bristol University, and a talk entitled How to get your paper published by Nina Couzin of Institute of Physics Publishing.

Quentin Cooper hosting the afternoon debate

The culmination of the afternoon was a highly entertaining debate led by Radio 4's resident science expert, Quentin Cooper, covering topics which ranged from ID cards to Oswald the lucky rabbit.

Saturday Night

In the evening we gathered for our conference dinner at The Shoots floating restaurant, and then retired to the Greenhouse pub where the upstairs function room had been reserved for our exclusive use for the evening.

Saturday night at the Greenhouse

Sunday

For most of us Sunday started with an early (for students) morning breakfast at the hostel, followed by packing our bags and vacating our rooms prior to the trip back up the hill to the university. The day began with the Undergraduate and Postgraduate lecture competitions. The postgraduate section of this was won by Jim Grozier of Sussex University with his talk on pear-shaped neutrons. Andy Higginbotham of Oxford University won the undergraduate section with a lecture on Physics of Bungee Jumping. There was also a poster competition, which was won by Dayle Edwards of Aberystwyth University.

This was followed by a twin track session, with young professionals and postgraduates catered for with a presentation from Keith Milmer of Ashridge on Managing your Manager, providing insights into business relationships by putting ourselves in our bosses or supervisors shoes. For undergraduate students there was a session on Job Hunting Skills by Rosemary Lowe of Bristol University's Careers Advisory Service, which covered both employment and postgraduate study options. The conference was rounded off with a lecture entitled Advances in AFM for Nanotechnology by Professor Mervyn Miles, IRC in Nanotechnology.

This article was first published in Nexus News, a publication from the Institute of Physics for physics students (see the Fusion home page for more information.

During our visit, we saw the refuelling machines and the enclosure housing the turbines (which, because the SGHWR used a direct steam cycle, has become radioactive). We also descended 40 feet to the bottom of the fuel pond, which, fortunately, has now been emptied and cleaned! However, it was quite an eerie feeling, and I couldn't help wondering how many people have actually stood on the floor of a fuel pond!

The other facility we visited was the sludge handling project. The effect of constantly circulating hot water and steam around a reactor core means that inevitably you will get small radioactive particles in the water, however inert the material it is made out of. This collects as sludge in a special tank, and Winfrith has accumulated enough of the stuff over the years to fill 1200 five hundred litre drums. The sludge will be mixed with cement and allowed to go hard, then the drums will be stored in a special building until NIREX has worked out what to do with them. (They are just slightly too radioactive to qualify as low-level waste). Sounds simple - but it requires an ingeniously-designed, purpose-built plant to do this safely, efficiently and with a minimum of human intervention. The appropriately-named contractors RWE-NUKEM have designed such a plant, and it is currently being built. Although this plant will be solely for Winfrith's sludge, other decommissioned reactors will have similar requirements, and the technology developed here is transferable to other sites.

Thanks to our host, John Price, who looked after us extremely well (including a free lunch!) we had a very enjoyable day out. Some of us went on to sample other delights of this beautiful stretch of Dorset countryside, with all its wildlife and Thomas Hardy connections; in fact some of us will be going back for more, as I have persuaded the local IoP branch to visit Winfrith in April 2004. So if you missed out on the trip and would like to be included in the next one, please get in touch.

We didn't have time in three hours to see everything, so we concentrated on the renewable energy displays, particularly the photo-voltaic cells and the direct solar water heating. These energy sources could meet all our needs with zero CO2 emissions, give or take the huge financial outlay (which, however, might turn out to be quite cheap compared with the cost of global warming) and the small matter of installing solar panels on everyone's roof ...

Later, in Machynlleth town centre, whilst looking for a place to eat before getting the train to Borth for a swim in Cardigan Bay, I was approached by an elderly gentleman who enquired what units I was using. This was not such a strange question as it might seem, since I was wearing my Fusion T-shirt with Maxwell's equations on, and it was those equations to which he was referring. When I replied "SI" he said "That's OK then; I used to put a 4π in that one (Ampere's Law) - but that was in 1949". It turned out that he was a retired maths lecturer from Aston University who was planning to visit CAT the next day, and we had a nice chat. So there you are: Fusion T-shirts really do help to bring people together!

Do visit CAT - it will make you think, and could even change your life!

Jim generating wave power while Ian looks on.