School of Physics and Astronomy

Dr Victoria Martin of the School's Particle Physics Experiment group has joined the Young Academy of Scotland, the Royal Society of Scotland's mutli-disciplinary forum.

She joins the School's six other members: Cait McPhee, Rosalind Allen, Duncan Forgan, Tiffany Wood, Job Thijssen, and Catherine Heymans.

"I am delighted to be appointed to the Young Academy of Scotland. I look forward to working with fellow young leaders from around Scotland on diverse issues such as research and education policy, engagement with the media and the implications of constitutional reform." Victoria Martin

The Young Academy of Scotland

The RSE Young Academy of Scotland fosters interdisciplinary activities among emerging leaders from the disciplines of science and humanities, the professions, the arts, business and civil society. Established by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2011, the Young Academy of Scotland provides a platform for able and innovative young entrepreneurs, professionals and academics to develop a coherent and influential voice, and to address the most challenging issues facing society in Scotland and beyond.

The Young Academy provides a means of reaching beyond the professional environments in which members work, thus contributing to policy and practice in all areas. It provides an opportunity for its members to interact across disciplines and professions with decision makers, opinion formers and experts, business leaders, funding bodies, national institutions, the public and the media within Scotland, the UK and internationally.

The Young Academy of Scotland is part of a growing international movement in which national academies are establishing young academies across Europe and beyond.

The School of Physics & Astronomy has made a short film called Breaking Waves to coincide with the opening of the new Flowave tank at the University. 

Theoretical research into the generation of three-dimensional random seas was carried out in the School (then the Department of Physics) in the early 1980s and at about the same time the School also developed new optical techniques for the measurement of complex water waves.

The film explains the fundamentals of how waves are generated in the real sea and reproduced in a wave tank. It also gives a whistle-stop tour of some of the new wave energy devices under development in Scotland including, for example, new footage taken inside Pelamis on the island of Hoy in Orkney.

Breaking Waves will first be shown in Satrosphere Science Centre in Aberdeen during the summer. For more details contact c.a.greated [at] ed.ac.uk (Clive Greated).

Flowave

The FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility is a world-unique facility for testing and de-risking marine energy technologies and projects.

The tank and equipment

The heart of FloWave is a 30m circular concrete basin containing the 25m diameter wave and current tank. The 5m deep tank contains 2.4 million litres of fresh water and is circumferentially ringed by 168 absorbing wave makers. Additionally, twenty-eight submerged flow-drive units can simultaneously and independently drive current across the tank in any relative direction, with maximum current velocities of 1.6 metres per second. A rising tank floor and overhead crane enable quick and easy installation of individual devices, or arrays of wave or tidal current generators.

The MASE (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration) research project based within the UK Centre for Astrobiology will assess the habitability of Mars by studying how life survives in extreme environments on Earth. Dr Petra Schwendner, who plays a major role in the scientific co-ordination of MASE, explains the work of the project.

I have a strong background in the enrichment of anaerobic microorganisms with a focus on astrobiology. Over the next 3 years I will be using a diverse set of different present-day Earth-Mars analogue environments to help further the assessment of the habitability of Mars.

Detecting life of Mars, and investigating whether it was ever there, depends on knowledge of whether the combined environmental stresses experienced on Mars are compatible with life and whether a record of that life could ever be detected. Therefore, I will obtain samples from sites including the cold sulphidic springs of the Sippenauer Moor and Islinger Muehlbach in Germany, subsurface environments at 1.1 km depth in the Boulby salt mine (UK), permafrost in Canada and Russia, acidic cold lakes in Iceland, and the Rio Tinto sediments in Spain.

Each of these environments is characterized by exhibiting environmental extremes like low temperature, aridity, high salinity, acidity and low nutrient availability. Once I have obtained samples, I will try to isolate and characterize microorganisms that can thrive under anaerobic conditions. Future goals are to study their responses to realistic combined environmental stresses that might have been experienced in habitable environments on Mars and their potential for fossilisation on Mars and their detectability.

l am looking forward to being part of this promising collaborative research project involving partners from across Europe. To find out more, see our MASE website.

The University of Edinburgh is the scientific coordinator of MASE. This 2.5million euro project is supported by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities.

Celebrated Nobel laureates Professors Peter Higgs and Francois Englert are to receive honorary degrees at a ceremony in Edinburgh this weekend.

Professor Higgs, of the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Englert, of Université Libre de Bruxelles, are to receive doctorates in science from one another’s institutions, at a graduation ceremony in the University of Edinburgh’s McEwan Hall.

Professors Higgs and Englert won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2013 for independently discovering a mechanism that enables elementary particles to acquire mass.

The new subatomic particle predicted by the mechanism, the Brout-Englert-Higgs boson, was confirmed to exist in 2012 following ground-breaking experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva.

At the event, Professor Sir Tom Kibble from Imperial College London, who also developed the theory of the mechanism, will receive a Royal Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General of CERN, will be awarded an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh.

At the ceremony, Professor Higgs will be awarded the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh by the Lord Provost, the Rt Hon Donald Wilson.

All the sky – all the time: UK astronomers debate involvement in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

Astronomers will discuss the case for UK involvement in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project (LSST) on Monday 23 June at the National Astronomy Meeting in Portsmouth.  The LSST will be sited at Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes and will have a primary mirror 8.4 metres in diameter, making it one of the largest single telescopes in the world, as well as the world’s largest digital camera, comprising 3.2 billion pixels.  It will achieve first light in 2020 and its main sky survey will begin in 2022. 

Uniquely, the LSST will be able to see a large patch of sky, 50 times the area of the full Moon, in each snapshot.  Also it will move quickly, taking more than 800 images each night and photographing the entire southern sky twice each week.

The greatest movie ever made?

A powerful data system will compare new images with previous ones to detect changes in brightness and position of all the objects detected. As just one example, this could be used to detect and track potentially hazardous asteroids that might impact the Earth and cause significant damage. Billions of galaxies, stars and solar system objects will be seen for the first time and monitored over 10 years. Ultimately, the goal is to record the greatest movie ever made.

LSST is a partnership between public and private organizations and is led by the US. The unique scientific opportunities presented by LSST have led to the formation of a consortium of astronomers from more than 30 UK universities to seek funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council to support UK participation in the project.

The LSST:UK Project Scientist, Sarah Bridle from the University of Manchester, said, “Every night LSST will provide millions of alerts signalling objects that have changed on the sky. We want to compare these to earlier observations and other data including that from the Square Kilometer Array, to find out what they are – from exotic superluminous supernovae to colliding asteroids. Over the whole of the next decade, LSST will also measure the approximate distances to billions of galaxies, which will allow us to learn the nature of the mysterious dark energy that seems to be making the Universe expand faster and faster."

Steve Kahn, the LSST Director added, "I am delighted that the UK is seriously considering participation in LSST. The UK's traditional strength in survey astronomy and the pioneering work done through the Zooniverse project to engage the public make it a natural partner for us.  We would greatly value the contribution that the UK astronomy community would bring to enable the success of LSST."

"LSST offers tremendous opportunities for the training of young researchers in the computational skills needed to meet the 'Big Data' challenges prevalent in both public and private sectors today. LSST is already driving research into the management and manipulation of multi-Petabyte datasets in the US and we are sure that our involvement in the project will stimulate similar developments in academia and industry in the UK." The LSST:UK Project Leader, Bob Mann, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh

Science themes

The science themes of the LSST encompass astronomy, physics, chemistry, earth science, space science, mathematics, technology and computing, and the discoveries made by the LSST will be used to construct educational materials that will be freely available to schools and the public. Andrew Norton from the Open University, the LSST:UK Education and Public Outreach Coordinator, said, "The LSST will allow us to see the night sky changing in front of our eyes and everyone can get involved to understand how the Universe works. The LSST will really show us what a dynamic place the Universe is."

Citizen science

The LSST will provide unprecedented access to data, allowing for new kinds of citizen science and discovery. In recent years, the Zooniverse project has pioneered citizen science investigations of data in astronomy, enabling more than one million members of the public to explore data in projects such as Galaxy Zoo and Planet Hunters. The Zooniverse's Robert Simpson, the LSST:UK Public Data Coordinator from Oxford University, noted, "The citizen science and amateur astronomy communities around the UK, and the world, will be able to access the amazing data that comes out of the LSST. The potential for discovery will be on a scale we haven't seen before."

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)

The LSST will be sited at Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes at an altitude of 2715m. The primary mirror diameter is 8.4m, making it one of the largest single telescopes in the world. It also contains secondary and tertiary mirrors with diameters of 3.4m and 5.2m respectively. It will contain the world’s largest digital camera, comprising 3.2 billion pixels (3200 Mpix) in a circular array of 189 detectors. The size of the camera detector is 63cm across. It will generate 30 Terabytes (30,000 Gb) of data every night.

It will achieve first light in 2020 and its main sky survey will begin in 2022. The scale of the technical challenges involved in storing and analyzing LSST’s data are daunting, and  researchers are already starting work in earnest on the project.

Learn more at www.lsst.org.

The Edinburgh nuclear physics group has led new research indicating the surface of heavy atomic nuclei comprises a thin "skin" of neutrons, having an average (root mean square) radius around 0.15 millionths of a nanometre larger than that of the protons. A paper co-authored by the School's Prof. Dan Watts has been published as an Editor's Suggestion and features in the commentary section of the current issue of  Physical Review Letters. 

Dan explains the background to the paper:

"The experiment provides the first measurement of the neutron skin using an electromagnetic probe. This allows a new level of precision in the determination of neutron skin properties and has different systematic errors to other attempts. The neutrons in the nuclear surface were measured to have a more diffuse distribution than the protons. The new results discriminate between nuclear theories in common use but also provide new constraints on how nuclear matter behaves as it is compressed. This information guides the latest theories of neutron stars affecting the predicted star radius for a given mass, possible star cooling mechanisms and gravitational wave emission. The neutron skin is like a mini laboratory for neutron star physics!"

The initial data analysis was carried out by Claire Tarbert who now works as a medical physicist, developing new diagnostic devices for the UK National Health Service.

"This paper arose out of a project I worked on with Dan Watts that formed the basis of my PhD thesis. I’m really pleased to see it published, its been a great project to be a part of.

"I now work for the NHS as a medical physicist.  My current role involves collaborating with clinicians, other physicists, and engineers to develop new medical devices (either pieces of software or hardware) mainly for ophthalmic applications. While my knowledge of neutron skins doesn’t come up too often in this job, I find that I use the other skills that I developed during my nuclear physics PhD on an almost daily basis. Through developing hardware for nuclear physics experiments, performing Monte Carlo simulations and data analysis, I gained programming skills and an understanding of electronic and mechanical engineering. That experience, together with the scientific writing skills I picked up as I put together my thesis, I now find invaluable." Claire Tarbert, NHS Medical Physicist

Neutron skin of ²⁰⁸Pb from coherent pion photoproduction: C.M. Tarbert, D.P. Watts, D.I. Glazier et al

Are men more promiscuous than women? The results of the latest National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) appear to suggest so. However, in a comment in The Lancet - one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world - Tom Underwood has highlighted that this is mathematically impossible.

Natsal, one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys on sexual behaviour in the world, aims to provide
much-needed up-to-date and accurate information regarding sexual practices in the UK. There have been 3 Natsal surveys: in 1990-1991, 1999-2001, and 2010-2012. The data from these surveys is widely used, and have played an important role in shaping sexual and reproductive health policy in the UK.

The results of the latest survey have been published in The Lancet, and have also received widespread media coverage.

One of the results of the survey, which was picked up by BBC News and The Telegraph, is that the average number of (opposite-sex) sexual partners which a person has had throughout their lifetime differs significantly between men and women - it is much higher for men. Specifically, the values are 14.1 for men and 7.1 for women for the age range 16-74 years.

"In Natsal, the average for men is twice that for women. Half the time, for men, it seemingly takes one to tango." Tom Underwood, Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems

In his comment, Tom pointed out that the mean lifetime number of opposite-sex sexual partners is necessarily identical for men and women, given the following assumptions: firstly, that the population under consideration consists of equal numbers of men and women; and secondly, that for each member of the population, all of their sexual partners also reside within the population. With this in mind, he then suggested that the large difference in the averages for men and women obtained from Natsal casts doubt on the extent to which the survey results reflect the true sexual behaviour of the general population.

There are a number of explanations for the discrepancy in the averages. One is that either men are over-reporting or women are under-reporting their number of lifetime sexual partners. Another possibility is the breakdown of one or both of Tom's assumptions - which at first glance appear reasonable with regards to the general population. In this regard, the authors' reply to Tom's comment is interesting. In the reply, the authors of the Natsal study suggest further possible reasons for the discrepancy, including:

1) Under-representation of female sex workers in the survey.

2) Men having sex with foreign women while either the men are abroad, or the foreign women are visiting the UK, more than the opposite situation (ie women having sex with foreign men while either the women are abroad or the foreign men are visiting the UK). The idea is that foreigners are not picked up by the survey, violating the assumption of a closed population.

3) More complicated effects involving generational changes in promiscuity, the fact that men generally take younger sexual partners, and the fact that women generally live longer than men.

The source of the discrepancy is not clear, and requires further investigation. For the population 'of all human beings who have ever lived' Tom's assumptions are valid, and the averages are therefore identical. This reflects the truth that 'it takes two to tango': each opposite-sex partnership involves one man and one woman, and hence promiscuity (which, at the risk of misusing the word, we have here equated to the number of lifetime sexual partners) is necessarily the same for both sexes. The crux of Tom's observation is that this truth is not borne out in the results of Natsal.

Tom is based in the Computational Materials Physics research group, in the School's Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems.

Prof. John Peacock has been jointly awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy. He shares the award with Professors Daniel Eisenstein (Harvard University) and Shaun Cole (Durham University).

The 2014 Shaw Prize recognises the achievements of two large-scale sky surveys: the UK-Australian Two-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) and the USA-led Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). John Peacock was a co-leader of the 2dFGRS, which catalogued 220,000 galaxies between 1995 and 2002, a tenfold leap in the size of such studies.

For their contributions to the measurements of features in the large-scale structure of galaxies used to constrain the cosmological model including baryon acoustic oscillations and redshift-space distortions. Shaw Prize in Astronomy for 2014 citation

Sky surveys

The distribution of galaxies makes colossal patterns in space, hundreds of millions of light-years in extent. The form of this structure is set by the action of gravity over the entire history of the universe, and its detailed properties tell us much about the overall nature of the universe.

The characteristic size of these structures gives a natural standard ruler (the so-called "Baryon Acoustic Oscillation" scale) which allows us to measure the expansion history of the universe. The size of the velocities associated with the growing structure gives a test of Einstein's theory of gravity (measured via "redshift-space distortions"). These are two distinct applications that are possible with large surveys of the three-dimensional positions of galaxies.

The 2dFGRS was an incredibly successful project, made possible by many essential contributions from members of a big team. We all felt at the time that we were doing something revolutionary, and it's wonderful to see this work get the recognition it deserves. John Peacock, Professor of Cosmology, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh

The Shaw Prize

The Shaw Prize is an international award to honour individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and significant advances, who have made outstanding contributions in academic and scientific research or applications, or who in other domains have achieved excellence. The award is dedicated to furthering societal progress, enhancing quality of life, and enriching humanity's spiritual civilization.

Preference is given to individuals whose significant work was recently achieved and who are currently active in their respective fields.

The Shaw Prize consists of three annual awards: the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and the Prize in Mathematical Sciences. Each prize carries a monetary award of one million US dollars.

The Shaw Prize, established under the auspices of Mr Run Run Shaw in November 2002, is managed and administered by The Shaw Prize Foundation based in Hong Kong.

EPCC, the supercomputing centre at the University of Edinburgh, has been designated an Intel Parallel Computing Center (IPCC) through a prestigious grant from Intel – a distinction currently held by only a handful of parallel computing centres worldwide.

Through this new partnership, EPCC will collaborate with Intel to optimise several open source high-performance computing (HPC) applications for Intel’s latest parallel processor architectures.

Incredible opportunity

Designation as an IPCC gives us an incredible opportunity to work on a range of important, and widely used, simulation codes to ensure that they can utilise the latest Intel hardware effectively. ARCHER, the UK’s national HPC service hosted and supported by EPCC is a Cray XC30 system with Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2697 v2,” continued Mark. “It is therefore essential that mainstream simulation packages, which account for more than half the usage of ARCHER, are properly optimised to get maximum benefit from this technology. Prof. Mark Parsons, EPCC Executive Director (Research & Commercialisation).

“The centre will build on a range of world-class projects, collaborations, and initiatives that EPCC is currently involved with, including European HPC projects such as PRACE and CRESTA and global simulation initiatives, such as the G8-funded Nu-FuSE project,” said Adrian Jackson, Research Architect at EPCC and leader for EPCC’s involvement in NU-FuSE.

Dr Michèle Weiland, Project Manager at EPCC, said: “The initial target for optimisation and porting work are codes that EPCC is already very familiar with, have had experience parallelising and optimising for standard distributed memory parallel systems, and are used by a wide community of simulation scientists for world leading science on global challenges such as energy security, climate change, and future manufacturing technologies.”

"Intel is pleased to expand our Intel® Parallel Computing Center program in collaborating with EPCC," said Bob Burroughs, Director of Technical Computing Ecosystem Enabling at Intel. "This new centre creates an opportunity for Intel and EPCC to innovate and optimize applications which benefit industry and science in Europe and globally."

Performance tuning

EPCC’s Application Consultants, who are experts in the performance tuning of HPC modelling and simulation codes, will undertake the code porting and optimisation tasks. A further aim of the IPCC is to leverage the world-leading hardware available at EPCC, and its extensive training programmes, to provide training and expertise to a wider range of academic and industrial participants in the UK and Europe on efficiently using Intel hardware for computational simulation.