The Biggest Fusion Event Ever!

Yes, the Fusion Weekend 23-25 January 2004 in Manchester, which includes the Fusion AGM on Saturday 24 January, is set to be the biggest event we have yet organised. Don't be put off if you are a Southern Jessie (I used to be one! - ed), journeying North of Watford will be well worth the effort. You can come for the whole weekend or any individual section of the programme of activities (but do tell us what you plan to attend, so that we can coordinate numbers - email events@oufusion.org.uk). If you plan to attend the whole weekend and stay at one of the nearby hotels, you should budget for around £140 for accommodation and meals for two days (alcoholic drinks not allowed for). The planned itinerary is detailed on the FUSION Web site.

Fusion Needs New Blood!

No, we haven't signed up some vampire members, we just need new faces on the Fusion Committee. Rob Wilby, who looks after membership enrolments and renewals, is moving to a new job in Belgium (tough luck Rob! - ed), and we also need a Science Revision Weekend coordinator (see above oposite). So if you are good with a spreadsheet or like running around, and can spare an hour or two a week, we would like to hear from you. We would also like a volunteer from among our many members at the OU Department of Physics and Astronomy, to sit on the Fusion Committee and act as a liaison person between the two. In fact, ALL the Fusion Committee positions are up for grabs at the forthcoming AGM in Manchester on 24th January. You can nominate yourself or someone else who you feel is suited to the job (ask them first though). Send your nominations to Fusion.

QUANTA AND CONTINUUM

New courses from the Physics and Astronomy Department

I had half a dozen responses from Fusion readers, all expressing orthogonal views (not surprising), and a couple volunteering to help with writing courses. The debate about where we are heading is still continuing in the Department and in the Faculty, but no decisions have been made. I'll let you know when there's anything more definite to tell Fusion readers.

Stuart Freake

Wrods as a Wlohe

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey leettr by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Are Dilithium Crystals the Power Source of Quasars?

An example proposal on how to apply for observing time from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Web site in Hawaii.

Black Holes are an amusing theatrical device, but nobody really takes them seriously. With the recent measurement of the sub-mm spectrum of dilithium in the laboratory, we now have a real chance of answering the musical question, "What is the real power source of Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei?"

Justification

Space. The final frontier. With the recent measurement of the sub-mm spectrum of dilithium in the lab (Kirk & Scott 1997) we finally have an opportunity to answer the musical question, "Just where do quasars get their energy from?" We would like to search for the strongest emission line at 449 GHz using the new RxW receiver at the JCMT.

Technical Justification

The detection of the 449 GHz lines of dilithium will be very difficult, due to their likely weakness and to the very strong atmospheric line at about 447 GHz. Thus we propose to temporarily beam the entire JCMT aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise currently in orbit around early 21st century earth, where it should be no tribble at all. We will need 64 hours for the entire operation.

Dr. R. U. Lupi, Dr. J. T. Kirk, Mr. Nowit.

Quantum Socks

I have some rather smart socks that display a small but elegant embroidered motif on the outside of each leg if I wear them 'correctly'. However, if I pick one of the two socks randomly and without looking, and again randomly put the sock on one or other of my feet, there is a 50% chance of me having the motif showing correctly, i.e. on the outside. What is then 100% sure, is that when put on, the other sock will mirror the first socks orientation. So, looking to the principles of Quantum Mechanics, can we say that when my pair of socks are in a pile of the floor, they are in a superposition of states? And that when I pick one and put it on, the socks' wave function collapses into a particular state and through the process of Quantum Entanglement, the state of the other sock is then determined. Or have I just got my socks entangled?

Paul Ruffle

ASK-A-BOFFIN

J.C. Ash asks: We recently saw an OU program on the physics of the rainbow which asserted the fringes of reversed colour inside the rainbow have no complete explanation. Is this still true in view of the program being many years old?

Accelerating Inertia

(see Summer 2003 Newsletter):

Reply from Dr Ralph Shiell:

I think the best way to explain this paragraph is to take an example. Consider a light bulb hanging by its cord from the ceiling of a lift. Now take this lift into outer space and accelerate it "upwards". From the point of view of an observer who is not accelerating with the lift, the light bulb has a net force, F, on it, which is equal to the bulb's mass times its acceleration. The force on the light bulb is provided by the tension in the cord - i.e. "we (the lift) have to pull (in this case) on the light bulb to accelerate it". However from the point of view of an observer in the lift the light bulb is not accelerating, so the tension in the cord, F, is apparently balanced by another "force". This "force" is called a pseudoforce or inertial force (as it is present here only when we examine the system from a non-inertial frame). As both observers see the cord with the same tension, this pseudoforce is equal to F (which is equal to the mass of the light bulb times the lift's acceleration). The observer in the lift, though, cannot tell whether the light bulb is being attracted towards the Earth through gravitational attraction, or whether the lift is accelerating upwards. This is a statement of the Equivalence Principle and is the basis of the General Theory of Relativity.

Dr Shiell teaches physics at the University of Sussex and researches into the spectroscopy and dynamics of highly-excited molecules, formed by the absorption of UV or VUV light.

High Redshift Galaxies

J.C. Ash asks: As scientists see further into space, and back in time with ever larger telescopes, are those galaxies on the observable fringes significantly different or 'younger' as we would expect, and if not why not?

Paul Ruffle replies: Basically the answer is yes. High redshift observations of quasars show evidence of low nitrogen abundances compared to CO (carbon monoxide), which is indicative of massive star formation, which is believed to be a characteristic of the early Universe. Observations of 'young' galaxies reveal that they have undergone just the first cycle of stellar processing where heavier elements (metals) are synthesised. This is unlike our Galaxy which has undergone several cycles of stellar processing resulting in much higher abundances of heavy elements (high metallicity).

Win a Schrödinger T-shirt in the FUSION QUIZ

All the answers can be found in either OU (physics-related) course documents or past Fusion Newsletters.

1. In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger called it "not one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought". What was it?

2. Eötvös Loránd University is the largest and oldest in Hungary. What was Baron Loránd Eötvös's contribution to the General Theory of Relativity?

3. What is Moore's Law?

4. During the Second World War, the Dutch astronomer Hendrik van de Hulst predicted the existence of a spectral line that would revolutionise astronomy. What was the wavelength of this line, and why was it important?

5. What is a hydraulic jump?

6. Why is the sky blue?

7. What does CMS stand for, where is it, how much will it eventually weigh?

8. How long does it take a photon to get from the interior to the surface of the Sun? Is it the same photon?

9. What is the name of the underground laboratory situated next to a road tunnel linking Teramo in Italy with Rome? What do they do there? Why there?

10. In 1925, an accident happened during an experiment involving electron scattering by crystal surfaces; as a result of this, a phenomenon was discovered which would prove to be one of the pillars of the new quantum mechanics. Whose experiment was it, and what was its unforeseen result?

11. Who cut off tails in order to make his data fit the theory?

12. Charles H. Townes was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1964. What for?

13. Harlow Shapley was a key figure in early 20th century studies of the scale of the Galaxy. But how did Shapley come to study astronomy in the first place?

14. Where should a snooker player hit the cue ball in order to impart pure rolling motion without spin or skidding?

15. What is the densest planet in the Solar System?

16. The tidal effect of the Moon on the Earth is gradually slowing down its rotation. How slowly? Will it eventually stop rotating?

17. What does the Rayleigh Criterion determine?

18. Christian Huygens called the idea "absurd", and Gottfried Leibniz condemned it as "occult". What was it?

19. If an instrument uses the Hall Effect, what does it measure?

20. It has been said that quantum tunnelling makes our existence possible. Explain.

See the Fusion Newsletter Spring 2004 for all the answers!

Green Light for New Revision Weekends

We are pleased to announce that the Committees of Fusion, the Chemistry Society (OUCS) and the Maths Society (M500) have formally agreed that Fusion will relieve the M500 Revision Weekend at Aston of any courses that begin with an 'S' (i.e. S207, S357, SM355 and SMT356), and that starting in 2004, Fusion and OUCS will jointly sponsor a Science Revision Weekend at York University.

Running from 1-3 October 2004, the first Science Revision Weekend will cover Open University physics, chemistry and biology courses, subject to sufficient student numbers. Full details of the weekend are being announced by both Fusion and OUCS shortly, and there are also plans for a Science Revision Weekend Web site to promote the event and provide detailed information and application forms. There is even the possibility of a Science Revision Weekend T-shirt!

The facilities at York are already booked for 2004 and 2005. The University can cope with the increase in student numbers, as there are additional classrooms available, mealtimes can be switched to two sittings if necessary, and there is plenty of additional accommodation.

Fees are not expected to increase in 2004 and the rates include dinner on the Friday evening. Both Fusion and OUCS members receive a £5 fee discount. Response from the Department of Physics and Astronomy has been very positive. The Committees of both Fusion and OUCS feel that this is an excellent step forward and that there is every reason for the enlarged event to be a resounding success.

PHOTO NEWS - Rutherford Appleton Lab

The Open Afternoon at the Rutherford Appleton Lab on September 24th included a laboratory-style demonstration of some of the basic results underpinning particle physics. Here we see Fusion members Jim Grozier, Brian Rowed, Wendy Mayhew, John Robinson and James Dallard, and other visitors, with the equipment used to demonstrate the behaviour of electrons in electric and magnetic fields.

Earth-Mass Exoplanets

by David Underwood

There are currently 102 known solar systems other than our own, with 117 Jupiter-like planets orbiting them. Two of these systems contain three known planets, 11 contain two and the remaining 89 each have one. All but one of these planets have been discovered by their effect on the parent star's motion in the sky, causing it to move towards and away from Earth as both bodies orbit their common centre of gravity. This continual change in stellar radial velocity causes a small regular change in the position of the star's spectral lines as the Doppler effect causes a blue and red shift as it moves towards and away from Earth respectively. The only planet not discovered by this technique was found by its regular transits in front of its parent star, causing small losses in detected radiation.

All of the planets discovered so far are of the order of Jupiter's mass because they are the easiest to detect. They have the greatest effect on the radial velocity of stars due to their large mass, an effect enhanced even more when they are in close short-period orbits. Currently the detection of relatively small Earth-like terrestrial planets is beyond the limits of present instrumentation and technology, however it is hoped this will no longer be the case in five to ten years time.

Where there are Jupiter-mass planets in other solar systems, then there may also be Earth-sized or terrestrial planets. Life, as we know it, cannot survive on a giant planet; however for putative Earth-sized planets orbiting within the known systems, particularly at a distance from the star where liquid water can exist on their surface, life may well exist. The distance from a star where water can exist on a planet's surface is known as the 'Habitable Zone'.

For some known extrasolar systems, the orbit of the giant planet(s) lies within the habitable zone, making the co-existence of a terrestrial planet in a stable orbit within this region of the system very unlikely. For other known systems the gravitational reach of the giant would perturb the orbit of a terrestrial planet within the habitable zone, and again stable orbits in this region would be very unlikely. Ideally, as is possible in many of the 102 known exoplanetary systems, orbits of terrestrial planets can be stable, confined to the habitable zone and, therefore, outside any giant planet orbital range and gravitational influence. If it were possible for such an 'Earth' to support life, it would need to have remained in such a situation for at least the last billion years of the star's main sequence lifetime, the longest stable period of a star's life when it burns hydrogen into helium in its core. One billion years is very approximately deemed to be the time required for life to have developed sufficiently to start leaving its atmospheric biosignatures, i.e. signs of chemical disequilibria.

To determine which systems could host habitable terrestrial planets in stable orbits confined to the habitable zone, a stellar evolution program has been used to model main sequence stars. The masses and metallicities (the amount of a star's mass which is not hydrogen or helium) of these models is such that the main sequence lifetime of the star is at least two billion years, i.e. the time for life to develop over one billion years plus one billion years of 'heavy bombardment,' the approximate time for early solar system accretion processes to complete. This confines stellar masses to 1.5 solar masses and less, of which a minimum mass was set at 0.5 solar masses. Each of these masses had metallicities between 0.8% and 5%, and their habitable zones were determined from the program output and on six atmospheric models. The two most important atmospheric models, which define the middle ground of the inner and outer boundaries of the habitable zone were taken to be, respectively, where the planet surface temperature in a cloud free atmosphere did not exceed 647K (the critical point of water above which water vapour cannot exist), and where water can exist at its freezing point of 273K, in a 100% carbon dioxide cloud free atmosphere.

These limits of the habitable zone around stars are by no means set in stone. This allows the stars of known extrasolar systems to have their habitable zones matched to the nearest models, in terms of mass and metallicity, without undue error. The orbital excursion and gravitational reach of the giant planets in each system can be mapped onto the star's habitable zone. Areas left within the habitable zone but outside any influence of the giant planet are regarded as regions where terrestrial planets may exist, provided they could have formed there.

A second computer program, an 'Orbital Integrator', is used to simulate the orbital motion of planets within solar systems. This is used to determine whether such hypothetical terrestrial planets could exist in stable orbits within regions of habitable zones of extrasolar systems and outside the giant's influence, for at least one billion years and hence possibly support life. This program will also be used in future work to determine whether these planets could form and also to look at the prospect of terrestrial planet-sized satellites existing in stable orbits around giant planets that orbit their star within the habitable zone.

From the information and results gathered so far, about half of the 102 known extrasolar systems could have a terrestrial planet in a stable orbit confined to the habitable zone. These hypothetical planets could have existed for at least the last billion years and, provided they could have formed, may house life. Of the 102 systems, about three-quarters could house such terrestrial planets at some time during their main sequence lifetime, either in the past, now, or in the future.

This method of determining whether any extrasolar systems can house habitable terrestrial planets can be applied rapidly to newly announced discoveries. In the next five to ten years, satellites will be launched which will be capable of detecting the atmospheric biosignatures of life. It is hoped that by identifying these exoplanetary systems most likely to house habitable terrestrial planets now, then these future searches for extrasolar 'Earths' and extraterrestrial life can be directed at the most likely candidates.

David is a postgraduate PhD student at the Open University and can be contacted at d.r.underwood@open.ac.uk.

New Open University Courses in Astronomy and Planetary Science

by Andy Norton

Over the last year or so, a number of new courses have been presented in the Astronomy and Planetary Science area, and over the next few months a couple more will come on line too. This article summarizes these recent developments.

Level 1 short courses

We will shortly have four short 10 point courses in Astronomy and Planetary Science. Joining the highly successful S194 Introducing Astronomy course for a first presentation in May 2003, was a course I wrote, namely S197 How the Universe Works. This course grew out of Block 11 of S103 Discovering Science and is a fully updated and revised account of modern cosmology and particle physics. The aim of the course is to go beyond the purely descriptive treatments in coffee table books such as those by John Gribben, Paul Davies, Steven Hawking, etc. and present an overview of the current knowledge in these two areas that are at the forefront of scientific understanding. A while ago I was asked to provide a list of the topics covered by this course and came up with the following:

Atoms, nuclei, leptons and quarks; mass-energy equivalence, annihilation and pair-production; electromagnetic spectrum, electromagnetic radiation as waves and as photons; inverse square law for luminosity and brightness; Doppler shift, redshift; Hubble expansion of the Universe; blackbody radiation and cosmic microwave background radiation; Coulomb's law, fine structure constant, development of electromagnetism and QED, energy-time uncertainty principle; strong interactions, QCD, gluons and colour charge; weak interactions, W and Z bosons, beta decay; Newton's law of gravity, general relativity, gravitational lensing, gravitational radiation, quantum gravity; the Sun including p-p chain, bound/free - bound/free emission/absorption, ionization, recombination, convection in the Sun, helioseiemology, the solar neutrino problem and its solution; electroweak unification, grand unification, super unification, string theory, M-theory; the Big Bang, inflation, the quark-lepton era, the hadron era, primordial nucleosynthesis, the formation of structure in the Universe, anisotropies in the CMB; closed/open/flat universe models, accelerating and decelerating Universe models, type Ia supernova results, cosmological constant and dark energy, baryonic and non-baryonic dark matter; ekpyrotic Universe models, colliding branes and 11-dimensional space-time!

So if a few of these topics grab your attention, then S197 may be the course for you. As well as the full colour study guide, S197 includes three activities provided on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. These are the interactive Virtual Telescope activity, the multimedia History of the Universe, and a video detective story called Seeing inside the Sun.

New for November 2003 presentation is S196 Planets: an Introduction written by Dave Rothery. The course includes Dave's own book Teach Yourself Planets accompanied by a full colour, purpose written study guide and a CD-ROM with an extensive archive of planetary images. As well as sections covering each of the planets of the Solar system in turn, the course covers the asteroids and the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt objects, as well as a section on planets around other stars. This latter topic is an area of major international activity at the moment. (Indeed we at the OU are involved in a research project called SuperWASP - the Wide Angle Search for Planets. Perhaps I'll write more on this in a future issue of Fusion!)

Finally, a new course for February 2004 to complete the set of four Astronomy and Planetary Science courses is S198 Exploring Mars. Timed to coincide with the arrival on Mars of the Beagle 2 lander on Christmas Day, the course includes the book Beagle: from Ship to Spacecraft written by the Beagle 2 project's lead scientist Colin Pillinger. Other components are a full colour, purpose written course book Understanding Mars and a map of the red planet itself.

Level 2 courses

Many of you are I'm sure already aware of the two 30 point courses presented for the first time in 2003, namely S282 Astronomy and S283 Planetary Science and the Search for Life. I can honestly say that I think these two courses really are excellent (I had virtually nothing to do with their production!) The Astronomy half of the pair is in two halves, covering The Sun and Stars in the first half, and Galaxies and Cosmology in the second. The chair of the course, Mark Jones, and his course team have produced an up to date course that is richly illustrated and stuffed full of exciting multimedia activities. Similarly, the Planetary Science course is also in two halves, exploring The Solar System in the first part and Life in the Universe: the Science of Astrobiology in the second part. The chair of this course, Iain Gilmour, and his course team have also excelled themselves here. The course covers major recent developments in planetary science and like the astronomy course is also richly illustrated and packed with exciting activities. The quality of the two courses is reflected in the fact that the major international publisher Cambridge University Press are to co-publish the course books in 2004, making them available to a wider audience world wide.

To complement these two courses, we shall for the first time in Autumn 2004, present an OU residential school in Astronomy and Planetary Science. The 15 point course, SXR208 Observing the Universe will be centred around a week-long residential week based at the Observatori Astronomic de Mallorca, on the Mediterranean island we know as Majorca. Facilities at the observatory include seven small domes with fully networked optical telescopes, a teaching laboratory, computers with data-analysis software, and a state-of-the-art planetarium. The main observatory building houses three larger telescopes used for research projects.

The production of this course is currently in full swing, with a large course team chaired by Ulrich Kolb. We are busy writing project outlines that will focus on such topics as: colour magnitude diagrams of star clusters, spectral classification of stars, variable star lightcurves, stellar populations in galaxies, galaxy redshifts, rotational lightcurves of asteroids, planetary observations, extrasolar planet transit observations, and supernova studies.

As a student on the course, before you arrive at the observatory you will be sent a full colour course book - A handbook for observational astronomy and planetary science - that gives the background information necessary to prepare you for carrying out observational projects. I am the main author for this book, and the topics covered include team working, preparing for astronomical observations, keeping records, the night sky, telescopes, spectrographs, astronomical detectors, reducing CCD data, photometry, spectroscopy, microscopes and microscopy techniques (for meteorite samples!), experimental uncertainties, analyzing experimental uncertainties, making use of graphs, using calculators and computers, and communicating your results. There will be an assignment based on this material to complete before you go to Majorca, as well as an assignment when you return based on the work you have carried out.

The course will be presented in both the Spring and Autumn of each year from 2005 onwards, but places on each week will be limited to 42 students. Whilst the course naturally complements S282 and S283, it can also be studied as a stand alone level 2 course, providing you have the requisite background knowledge. As usual, the Are you ready for SXR208? document will help you to assess your preparedness.

Level 3 courses

The level 3 courses S357 Space, Time and Cosmology and S381 The Energetic Universe are both now well established, but there is nonetheless a new offering in the Physics and Astronomy subject area for 2004. The 30 point project course SXP390 Radiation and Matter is designed to support the Physical Science curriculum, and within it there is an option to pursue a project on an astrophysical or cosmological topic. To fit in with the radiation and matter theme, we have chosen the topics of Astrophysical Jets (to link with the material in S381) and Gravitational Lensing (to link with the material in S357). Two other topics are designed to appeal to students coming from either the quantum mechanics or the electromagnetism level 3 courses. The intention is that as a student you will study SXP390 after you have completed one or more level 3 courses. Investigations will be predominantly literature based, but data from practical work may be incorporated, where appropriate. Your research for the project will require access to books and articles from journals, some of which will be from electronic library sources. This course is required for the named degree BSc Physical Science.

As usual, full details of all the courses mentioned above are available on the OU's Courses and Qualifications website. Good luck with your choice of course!

Andy Norton is Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy and Curriculum Director for Astronomy and Planetary Science within the Science Faculty.

DEGREES FOR OU PHYSICS STUDENTS

BSc or BSc (Honours)? Physical Science or Natural Science (with or without Physics)?

By Stuart Freake, Director of Teaching at the OU Department of Physics and Astronomy and Course Team Chair for the new level 3 Electromagnetism course (SMT359)

Over the last few years there have been major changes in the degrees that the OU awards. For 25 years the University only awarded unnamed degrees - in the first decade only a BA but more recently either a BA or a BSc - but a few years ago the first named degrees were awarded, and earlier this year five new named Science degrees were announced.

If you are a reader of the Fusion Newsletter, then you're likely to be including a reasonable proportion of physics, astronomy and maths courses in your degree and you will have half a dozen main options for your degree. Here I'll just provide an overview of these options, since all of the details are available on the OU Courses and Qualifications website http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses or in the Undergraduate Certificates, Diplomas and Degrees prospectus, and you should refer to those sources for the fine detail.

So how do you decide which degree is most appropriate for you?

Ordinary or Honours?

The first decision is whether to go for a BSc or a BSc(Honours) degree.

BSc degree

The regulations for the ordinary BSc degree are about to change. Until the end of 2004, you can be awarded a BSc with 360 points, of which at least 240 points are above Level 1, but there is no requirement for any of this study to be at Level 3. From 2005, you will require only 300 points, of which at least 180 points must be above Level 1, and at least 60 points must be at Level 3.

BSc (Honours)

To be eligible for the BSc (Honours) degree, you need a total of at least 360 points, with at least 240 points above Level 1 and at least 120 points at Level 3.

So until the end of 2004 you require the same number of points (360) for the ordinary and the Honours degree, but the Honours degree requires at least 120 points at Level 3, whereas the ordinary degree requires no Level 3 study. From 2005, you'll require 60 points fewer for the ordinary BSc but you will have to include 60 points at Level 3. The Honours degree requires more study at Level 3 and is therefore a more prestigious and more advanced degree.

So when deciding whether to go for a BSc or a BSc (Honours) degree, you need to consider whether you want the more advanced degree for career reasons or for personal satisfaction, and whether you are willing and able to tackle additional Level 3 courses to get the BSc (Honours).

Apart from the requirements for total number of points and for numbers of points above Level 1 and at Level 3, there are no restrictions on the courses that you can include in the BSc and BSc (Honours). This means that you can include as many (or as few) physics, astronomy and maths courses as you wish, and there are no requirements to attend residential schools. However, if you are aiming for an Honours degree, you have the option of selecting courses that make you eligible for a named degree - a degree whose title indicates that you have concentrated your studies in a particular area. The named awards that are most likely to be of interest to you if you are studying physics and astronomy courses are the BSc (Honours) in Physical Science, Natural Science and Natural Science with Physics.

BSc (Honours) Physical Science - available from the end of 2004

This is the closest option to a degree in Physics or in Astronomy. For this you need:

Level 1: 70 points from a range of science, maths or technology options.

Level 2: 60 points from S207, MST207, S282, S283.

Level 3: 60 points from SM355, SMT356, S357, S381.

Level 3: 30 points from SXP390.

Residential school courses: two from SXR207, SXR208, SMXR355, SMXR356 plus a third from these or other Physical Science residential school courses.

Plus at least an additional 45 points of Physical Science courses.

Plus up to 60 points of free choice from any OU courses.

With appropriate choice of courses you can build a BSc Physical Science degree that is similar to a BSc Physics degree, a BSc Astronomy degree or a BSc Physics and Maths degree offered by other universities.

BSc (Honours) Natural Sciences - old version - available until the end of 2006

This degree requires you to study S103 and SXR103, but leaves plenty of scope to study physics and astronomy courses. For this degree you need:

Level 1: S103.

Level 2 & 3: 120 points from courses with codes starting with an S, with at least 60 points at Level 3.

Three residential school weeks from courses with codes starting with S, with one at Level 1 and at least one at Level 3.

Level 2&3: at least a further 120 points from courses with codes that include an S, or from a small number of specified T or U courses, including a minimum of 60 points at Level 3.

Plus up to 60 points of free choice from any OU courses.

Many combinations of courses that are eligible for the Physical Science degree are also eligible for this degree. In particular, if you pass S103, SXR103 and one of the Level 3 physics residential school courses, and if your courses qualify for the Physical Science degree, then you will also be eligible for the Natural Sciences degree.

BSc (Honours) Natural Sciences with Physics - available until the end of 2006

This degree title is available if you meet the requirements for the old version of the Natural Sciences degree (see above) AND you also meet the following subsidiary requirements:

Level 2: MST207.

Levels 2 & 3: 120 points from S207, SXR207, S282, SXR208, SM355, SMT356, S357, S381, SMXR355, SMXR356, SXP390, with at least 60 points at Level 3.

Plus three residential school weeks, with one at Level 1, and two from the Science courses listed above, with at least one at Level 3.

If you are eligible for the Natural Sciences with Physics degree you will also be eligible for the old Natural Sciences degree. You will also be eligible for the Physical Science degree if you include in your degree SXP390 and two of the other 30-point Level 3 physics or astronomy courses listed above.

BSc (Honours) Natural Sciences - new version - available from the end of 2004

The new version of the Natural Sciences degree emphasises interdisciplinary science study, and requires you to study at least six interdisciplinary courses. However, this still leaves plenty of scope to include physics and astronomy courses. For this degree you need:

Level 1: S103 and SXR103.

Level 2: S280 Science Matters.

Level 2: at least a further 70 points from courses with codes starting with S, including an SXR residential school course.

Level 3: 60 points from the following interdisciplinary courses: S320 Infectious Disease, S328 Ecology, SD329 Signals and Perception, S330 Oceanography, S365 Evolution.

Level 3: 30 points from SXN390.

Plus at least an additional 50 points from courses with codes starting with S.

Plus up to 60 points of free choice from any OU courses.

This programme allows you to incorporate 170 points of physics, astronomy and maths courses within your degree, or 200 points if your topic for the project course has a physics or astronomy slant.

Which is the appropriate Honours degree for you?

If you're aiming for an Honours degree, how do you choose between the various named awards and the unnamed award? The table below compares five options for a BSc (Honours) degree that could include 50 - 100% of physics, astronomy and maths courses, and this comparison may allow you to eliminate some of the options.

If you're still left with more than one option, ask yourself :

• How important is a degree with a particular name to me? Remember that when you graduate, you will receive a transcript showing all of the courses you have passed, and this will demonstrate to an employer what subjects you have studied.

• Do I want to include a project course in my degree. The ability to carry out project work is an important outcome of the new degrees, so if you don't want to do a project course you will have to aim for the unnamed degree or the old version of the Natural Sciences degree, with or without Physics.

• Do I want to include residential schools in my degree? These are an important part of the Science named degrees, so if you are unable to participate in them you will have to aim for the unnamed degree.

Hopefully your answers to these questions will help you to choose the most appropriate degree. But remember that you can always change your mind at any time until you actually claim that well-earned degree!