Alan Heavens, Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in the Institute for Astronomy within the School of Physics and Astronomy is among 44 newly elected UK and International Fellows adding to the Royal Society of Edinburgh's almost 1500-strong Fellowship of experts in the Sciences, Arts, Humanities, the Professions, Industry and Commerce. Each new Fellow of the RSE is recognised within his or her peer group as having achieved excellence within their discipline or profession.
Fellows are encouraged to contribute to the aims and objectives of the Society, including the provision of expert policy advice to Government and Parliament, outreach education programmes for young people, and public engagement events including conferences and discussion forums.
The School of Physics and Astronomy is sponsoring an innovative exhibition entitled DEAD or ALIVE at the National Physical Laboratory during Science and Engineering week
The School of Physics and Astronomy is sponsoring an innovative exhibition entitled DEAD or ALIVE at the National Physical Laboratory, Hampton Road, Teddington during Science and Engineering week. It is part of the project SOUND in a man-made environment funded at The University of Edinburgh by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under their Public Engagement programme. The exhibition is a visual and sonic exploration of sound in the environment showing works by Glasgow artist Marianne Greated in very unusual acoustic surroundings. It will be of interest to scientists and artists alike. If you wish to attend the preview on Tuesday Mar 10th 09, 17.00 – 21.00 please RSVP to Leanne O'Donnell at L.O'Donnell [at] ed.ac.uk (L.O').
Two papers from researchers in the Condensed Matter Group have appeared in a single issue of one of the top physics journals, the Physical Review Letters.
In the first paper, Edinburgh scientists (Pierre Ballesta, Rut Besseling, Lucio Isa and Wilson Poon) collaborated with a Cretan colleague (George Petekidis) in an experimental study of the flow of concentrated suspensions in a ‘rheometer’ – a standard device for measuring the mechanical properties of many substances. The novelty here is that the Edinburgh team has built a unique instrument (see picture) to look through the sample as its properties were being determined. This led to the discovery of certain unexpected features in the way samples ‘slip’ on the walls of the measuring compartment. If such slip is not understood and properly accounted for, rheometric measurements will yield wrong results. Interestingly, the way suspensions of hard particles ‘slip’ appears totally different from the way suspensions of soft spheres do it, the latter having already been studied by Steve Meeker (who started his research career in Edinburgh) and Michel Cloitre of the ESPCI in Paris.
In a second paper in the same issue, Edinburgh scientist Richard Blythe teamed up with colleagues in Manchester (Alan McKane) and Wellington (Gareth Baxter), New Zealand to explore theoretical connections between models used to describe apparently disparate phenomena: from species diversity in ecosystems through the way opinion changes in society to the evolution of language (illustrated in the schematic diagram). The common thread is that in all these cases, particular changes eventually get ‘fixated’. Blythe and his coauthors were able to derive an approximate expression for the average time taken to reach ‘fixation’ (or, in the case of opinion, consensus). Theirs results have direct application to current theories of language change.