Hands up anyone who has heard of little-known 19th century British physicist Hertha Ayrton? If you have not, you're not alone. But Hertha is one of the forgotten female physicists who got a mo-ment of glory when she had a room named after her at the opening of the Institute of Physics new building in central London. The main reception rooms in the new building were all named after famous female physicists – Daphne Jackson, the first woman professor of physics at a British uni-versity, Rosalind Franklin whose X-ray crystallography pictures led to the discovery of the struc-ture of DNA, the astronomer Caroline Herschel and Hertha Ayrton who worked on electricity. "We at the Institute of Physics are proud to take this opportunity to honour female physicists who have been hidden by history, in a long overdue recognition of these women's talents and their de-termination to succeed. The naming of these new rooms will go some way to evening up the score as in our existing building the rooms are all named after famous male physicists," said Institute of Physics chief executive Julia King before the ceremony. Science Minister Lord Sainsbury performed the opening ceremony on Wednesday May 21st.

Among the guests there were descendants of these pioneering women. Shirley Zangwill, the step granddaughter of Hertha who was going to attend the opening ceremony commented: “I am sure that Hertha would be delighted with this hon-our. Although she was the first woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers she was not allowed to join the prestigious Royal Society because she was a married woman – even though she was the first woman to present her research there in person. This is a fitting way to mark her achievements and those of other women physicists.” When Lord Sainsbury opened the Institute of Physics new building and launched a programme to encourage more women to do physics he met a keen potential female physicist, Clio Franklin. Clio is the physics-mad great-niece of Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray pictures of DNA led to the dis-covery of its structure 50 years ago this year. Clio presented Lord Sainsbury with a biography of her great-aunt at the opening ceremony. To emphasise the Institute’s commitment to women physi-cists, the rooms in the building are named after famous female physicists - including Rosalind Franklin. Speaking at the launch, Lord Sainsbury said: "I am very pleased to be at the launch of the Women in Physics programme. This will surely augment the efforts of the Government in dealing with the under-representation of women in science. If the UK is to retain its position as a world-leader in science and engineering, we must take advantage of all the country’s available talent and overcome the barriers that impede women from entering and progressing in science careers." Dr Wendy Kneissl, Women in Physics programme leader, said: "Starting our Women in Physics programme with such a well-attended and successful launch makes it easier for us to continue opening doors not only on physics, but also on new collaborations and alliances to tackle the low participation of women in physics."

North Eastern Branch of the Institute of Physics Issue 7 - August 2003 Online: http://iop.ncl.ac.uk

Inside: “Annual General Meeting 2003” — “The Aerodynamics of Sports Cars” — “The Millennium Bridge” — “The Physics Congress 2003” — “Annual Industrial”

The

new

slet

ter

for

Phy

sics

and

Phy

sici

sts

in t

he N

orth

Eas

t

Honouring little-known female physicists

'Hertha Ayrton' with her real-life step grand-daughter, Mrs Shirley Zangwill in the Institute of Physics' new building. The main reception

rooms are named in honour of women physicists including Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923) who carried out pioneering work in electronics.

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 2 :: NE Branch Events

Crossing the Tyne has always chal-lenged people living on either side of the river and Newcastle has there-fore been famous for its bridges through the ages. The first quayside level bridge over the Tyne was built by the Emperor Hadrian circa AD 122 and named Pons Aelius in hon-our of the Emperor’s family name. It was a substantial construction of timber supported by stone piers and abutments on either side of the river and was used as a crossing point until it was destroyed by fire in 1248. Its successor, the medieval bridge which supported a commu-nity of shopkeepers, was washed away by a disastrous flood in 1771, and replaced in 1781 by a stone bridge which eventually, because of navigation problems due to its low arches, was succeeded by the Swing Bridge in 1876.

In the meantime, with the advent of the steam age, Stephenson’s High level Bridge had been opened in 1849, the first double-decker bridge in the world to carry both a railway and roadway. The familiar other high level bridges followed in suc-cessive decades, but until 2001 there was no other low level bridge across the Tyne from Newcastle to Gates-head, that is, until the appearance of the Millennium Bridge In this introduction to an informa-tive, interesting and well illustrated lecture, Mr Gordon Clarke had set the scene for an intriguing account of the design, realisation and con-struction of the latest Tyne bridge and the unique engineering prob-lems and how they were overcome.

In 1996 Gateshead Council had en-tered the race for Millennium Fund-ing and announced a competition for a new opening bridge to link Gates-head with Newcastle. Eventually a short list of six had been produced from the original 150 entries and the winning design was that submitted by the Engineers, Gifford and Part-ners and the Architects Wilkinson Eyre. There had been several engineering and aesthetic criteria. It should not dominate the Tyne Bridge but should complement it and the 6 other bridges over the river, and it had to provide access to the new Baltic Art Gallery and to the Music Centre. The river width at that point is 130m and access should be from quayside level with no ramps other than a gentle1/20 slope and at spring tide the bridge should be 4.5m above the water level with a head-room clearance of 25m when open to allow medium sized boats to pass underneath. Although the architects had initially suggested a conventional arch, this was soon replaced with a unique tilting design based on two arches, the length of the crossing being in-creased to a 170m curve which would achieve the 25m clearance. A wooden working 1/50 model with a combined walkway and cycle way was investigated in a wind tunnel, and after extensive testing, work started on the actual construction of the arch and deck in Bolton. In the meantime the opening mechanism was being manufactured in Shef-field. The bridge would be opened and closed by underground hydrau-lic rams which would move 3m to raise the deck the required 25m. The controls on each side would be synchronous with a 25mm tolerance and 100 tones of push to open the bridge and 400 tones of pull to keep it open.

Assembly and welding were carried out at the idle Amec Hadrian Yard down river in Wallsend. The Arch and Deck, which came in 9 and 11 pieces respectively, were aligned with the arch orientated upwards with cables hanging down to be attached to the deck. Finally a strut was attached across which would be for lifting the bridge. In October 2000, the second largest floating crane in the world, the Asian Hercules II, was set to trans-port the Bridge up river, but bad weather caused delays for two weeks until the neap tide and perfect weather conditions on November 20th. The following day it was low-ered into position with complete precision onto 16 mm bolts with only a 3 mm tolerance. In the following ten months the me-chanical and electrical fittings were installed, the deck stainless steel pedestrian walkway, cycle track and railings fitted and the lighting sys-tems added. Other interesting facts mentioned by Mr Clarke were that the bearings in the turning mecha-nisms would have a 50 year life, that the specialist paint was guaranteed for 30 years and that maintenance would be carried out by specialist climbers who would ascend the stays and abseil down! The bridge was opened to the public on September 17th 2001, with the official opening by the Queen on May 7th 2002.

March: “The Millennium Bridge”

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 3 :: NE Branch Events

He began by explaining the differ-ence between Formula 1 and Le Mans Sports cars in terms of engine capacity, engine size, power and wheels. However, the major differ-ence was that at Le Mans the race lasted 24 hours compared to the relatively short Formula 1 races and it was this factor which affected the design. The particular problems of Le Mans had a lot to do with the circuit itself which involved long straight sec-tions followed by chicanes requiring rapid deceleration, which seemingly drivers either love or hate! More-over the Le Mans regulations re-quire sufficient design flexibility to allow similar power/weight ratios with widely different designs. In short, the problem was to find an optimum configuration, with the flexibility that there should be a wide range of cars of different shapes and sizes in the same race. Essentially an engine is chosen, put in a car and the drag, thrust and downward forces optimised to maxi-mise stability. On the other hand, the purpose of the tyres is to assist axial acceleration and braking, lat-eral acceleration – cornering and lane change, and steering. They were fat not for technological rea-sons but to make them last longer! The consequences of lack of down-ward forces at the front of a car was dramatically demonstrated with a video-clip of a flying, somersaulting Mercedes, in which the driver was unhurt, but did suffer the indignity of being breathalysed by the police

since the accident had occurred on a public road! It was concluded that a slight turbulence could have caused this and other similar incidents, and design teams set about to devise strategies to prevent this. The use of “wings” had been long established but these had disadvan-tages in respect of drag. A down-ward force could also be achieved by reducing the air gap under the car and the closer to the ground the bet-ter, since the removal of such small air volume at high speed created a vacuum and the car was essentially “sucked” downwards. A splitter at the front of the car also produced a higher downward pressure and the introduction of louvres on the front wheel arches also helped to push the front of the car downwards. The design engineers eventually concluded that there was no opti-mum configuration; design de-pended on experience! Simulations optimising the chassis, engine, transmission, aerodynamics, and tyres had shown that the Le Mans Prototype 675, a small car, was ca-pable of beating a bigger car. When watching a race on TV, what is striking is that because of slip-streaming, little and big cars con-

stantly exchange positions and what the bigger car gains on the straight sections, the smaller does on the curves. Dr Dominy then described some of the techniques for studying car aero-dynamics. The predominant tool was still the wind tunnel although, unlike an aerofoil, the car is in con-tact with the ground, and this has to be simulated by a conveyor belt travelling backwards at the same speed as the wind. Results were presented of work carried out in the Durham University Automotive Wind Tunnel, which combined with Hot Wire Probing, to allow flow and velocity directions to be determined. He concluded the presentation by discussing the latest non-invasive technique - Particle Imagery Ve-locimetry. This uses sheets of light produced by a Nd:Yag laser to look over two successive planes of smoke particles, and produce a double ex-posure on one image or two separate digital images. By carrying out spatial autocorrelations, the airflow could then be mapped. The interest generated by this well presented and entertaining lecture was evidenced by the large audience and the number and range of ques-tions at the end. In fact, the last of these came from the ten-year-old son of the Branch Treasurer seeking advice and help about how to stop his Scalectric cars coming off the track. A potential aeronautical en-gineer - or, who knows, maybe even a physicist!

A Joint Lecture with the IMechE - April 24th April: “The Aerodynamics of Sports Cars”

We are all familiar with wind tunnel pictures and the characteristic smoke flow trail patterns around aero-foils, but such trails are somewhat deceptive when applied to a low speed aerodynamical situation in the case of cars. Here we need to know the forces and must devise the instrumentation to measure them. In his lecture Dr Bob Dominy, of the School of Engineering, Durham University, outlined the problems of matching design aspirations to real situations on the racing track and described the varied solutions adopted.

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 4 :: Branch Events

“Comets: an illustrated Talk by Eva Hans, Director of the Planetarium” The Annual Industrial Visit to the South Tyneside Planetarium

It was dusk over South Shields and, as the last rays of the sun began to fade, gradually you could make out pinpoints of light in the sky. And then to the strains of the slow movement of the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, the sky blackened, the pin points grew brighter and more nu-merous until the whole of the firma-ment was a starlit canopy above, with the Milky Way making its hazy progress across the sky. There was no pollution from street lights, not even from the not too far away Sta-dium of Light; only a glorious star-studded blackness. Of course that would never happen except in the Planetarium at South Tyneside College, which was the venue for the Branch Annual visit on May 15th!

EVENTS AT THE PLANETARIUM

Summer Holiday Opening

For the first time ever the Planetarium will be open during the Summer Holidays with shows at 10.30 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. Twelve different shows to entertain and educate the whole family are available and you should contact the Plane-tarium for specific details.

August 23rd–30th: National Astronomy Week

http://www.astronomyweek.org.uk

Making its closest approach for about 6000 years, Mars inspires a Festival of Space. This will provide an opportunity to explore both science fact and fiction through planetarium shows, space art, creative writing and much more. Truly an event for all the family. Satur-day 23rd and 30th August, 10.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.; Tuesday August 26th to Friday August 29th, 9.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. For both events: Adults £3.00; Children £1.50 (No children under 5 years admitted. All children to be accompanied by an adult). For more information please contact: The Planetarium, South Tyneside College, St. George’s Avenue, South Shields, NE34 6ET T: 0191 427 3589 — E: astro@stc.ac.uk

The director, Eva Hans, began by orient-ing her audience with reference to well known night sky formations – the con-stellations, 88 imagined groupings of bright stars on the celestial sphere that are named after religious or mythological figures, animals, or objects. Using a laser pencil she pointed out some old friends, and beginning with perhaps the most familiar, the Plough or Big Dipper, moved across the night sky pointing out the shapes of the Signs of the Zodiac, which had remained more or less the same since the time of our ancient ancestors. All civilisa-tions had seen something important in these arbitrary arrangements of stars, which are light years apart. The Eskimos had seen seals and the Aborigines of Australia emus and kangaroos. All ancient civilisations had marvelled at the night sky, and had explained it in terms of heavenly beings manifesting their power in the night sky. There were hunters, ser-pents, dragons up there; anything that could be conjured up by the mind of people. However, some civilisations had been truly scientific and had measured the positions of the stars, notably the Egyptians and the Chinese, and they had devised specialised instruments. For example, the Chinese had used a jade “polo-mint” annulus, which when oriented correctly and held at arms length, located the Pole Star. Eva dramatically traced out the elliptical path of the variation of “north” due to the precession of the earth, which meant that the pole star would not always be Polaris. The main topic however was Comets, and with the appearance of two later in the year, it was appropriate that some consideration be given to the con-tribution made by comets to our understanding of the Solar System based on the Copernican heliocentric system. In the previous geocentric uni-verse, the earth was stationary and motionless at the centre of several con-centric, rotating transparent spheres. These spheres were thought to bear (in order from the earth outward) the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, with a finite outermost sphere on which lay the so-called fixed stars. Comets had been thought to be atmospheric phenomena until 1577, when the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe proved that they were in fact celestial bodies. This raised problems of how they could possibly move through the surface of the spheres, and this and the observed retrograde motion of the planets had lead to the abandonment of the heliocentric model. Newton subsequently confirmed that the motion of comets was essentially the same as the planets except that they moved in orbits of great ellipticity. Perhaps the most famous comet of all was Halley’s Comet. By comparing the orbital data for previous sitings he had predicted the return of the comet in 1759. Earlier appearances of Halley’s comet have now been identified from records dating back to the pre-Christian era, and it is famously the bright comet which heralded the defeat of King Harold 1066. Its most recent appear-ance was in 1986.

Continued on page 5

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 5 :: Branch Events

Continued from page 4: But what is a comet? In fact it is a “dirty snowball” con-glomerate of ice and dust! Many of the most common elements are to be found there: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen plus methane, ammonia, water and alcohol. It is possible therefore that comets, with their organic content, could

be carriers of pre-requisite life material which upon impact with a planet, say the Earth, could have “planted” the seeds of life, although this is highly speculative. We would only know when a probe could be sent to retrieve and analyse mate-rial from a comet. The lecture concluded with a speeded up motion of the

heavens in which the moon moved across the sky in front of a background of the constellations changing their positions until the sky be-fore dawn was reached. There were several ques-tions about the projector itself and its optics. It had been installed in the college in 1963, was of American design and in fact, had been used to train navigation to

the Apollo astronauts. And so again to the strains of the Elvira Madigan theme, the night sky over South Shields slowly faded away and a new day dawned. The lecture had been entertaining and infor-mative and the demonstra-tions impressive and much appreciated by the 32 mem-bers who attended.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Mr John Brindley, Director Mem-bership and e-services, was the IoP Headquarters’ speaker at the Branch Annual General Meeting held on June 3rd in the Herschel Building at Newcastle University. His talk began with a presentation of the membership statistics. There were now about 38,000 members with an average age of 31, indicative of the significant increase in the numbers of young people. Undoubtedly this was due to the proactive initiative schemes such as the direct targeting of students, Nexus, the setting up of the Student Advisory Committee and the Young Professionals’ Forum, a Website for Careers and several others. About 30% of the membership are from the business sector, again due to schemes such as the SME Club, Technical Briefings and the increase in the enter-prise ethos. According to the FTSE index, physicists were now in charge of 21% of the leading companies. The Institute had received significant media coverage in recent months and there had been many articles in the broadsheets and tabloids, on Radio 4 and on ITV’s Television “News at Ten” about a variety of events. Wher-ever possible, the message was “this is what physics is about and if you want to do engineering – study Physics!” In terms of the Institute’s own pub-lishing activities, the profits from journals had increased to about £1M, but the Magazines were down by £2M, due to a loss in advertising reve-nue. An interesting development was that the Archival Proceedings of the

Physical Society from 1874 would soon be available on the WEB. How-ever, the next (17th) edition of Kaye and Laby would be the last and there-after it would only be available in electronic form. The end of an era? “Advancing Physics” had continued to be highly successful. The first A2 output had been in 2002. The numbers starting physics at A/S level had in-creased and the pass rate had also improved. Numbers taking A-level physics in a given cohort had also typically increased from 20 to 35, but it would be too early to claim a suc-cess story, but there was the potential for this. On the other hand the 11-14 age group was still a cause for concern, since 2/3 of these students were taught physics by a non-physicist, and 1/3 by a teacher who did not even have A-level physics. The average age of graduate physics A-level teachers was now about 50. The Institute was therefore developing material for such middle school teachers, and it was hoped that the pilot CD- and web- based version would be available in 2004. £900K had been invested in the project.

As reported in a recent Physics World, a Teacher Network which was being Coordinated by Catherine Wilson, which ultimately would involve part-time regional coordinators. The scheme was being started in Scotland, and the £90k allocated would be matched by the Scottish Executive. There was also a proposal to provide direct help to Branches to make bigger contributions to the Institute, based on the successful schemes already operat-ing in Ireland and Scotland. Two to three representatives would work up to 100 days a year to coordinate projects generated by the branches, in areas such as school/teacher/university liai-son. They would act as a single point of contact and be attached to a given branch for about 25 days a year. The pilot scheme would start shortly and suitably qualified persons were being sought. Finally, John Brindley listed some of the challenges facing the Institute. These included:- enhancing the role of Women in Physics; raising the status of the CPhys in the light of a possible CSci; increasing international links, particularly with the U.S.A; rebuild-ing the magazines; and strengthening the journals, including new titles and authors, such as Cosmology and Physical Biology. The IoP therefore had continued to improve its support for physicists and those working in physics and hope-fully it would extend these activities in the coming years.

Mr John Brindley and Dr Ben Rudden.

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics

Page 6 :: Featured Articles The Physics Congress 2003

Fighting the fade

Just imagine if the colour in Van Gogh's Sunflowers had faded away a few years after it was painted. Luck-ily this was not the case, but newer more extreme works of art that are not exhibited behind glass do run the risk of fading away before future generations get to appreciate them. Speaking at the Institute of Physics Congress at Heriot-Watt University on Monday 24th March, researchers from the Centre for Fine Print Re-search (CFPR), University of the West of England, will explain how microphotography techniques are being used to safeguard this new area of art. Inkjet printing allows images to be created on a much bigger scale so artists can develop large prints, paper engineering, bookworks and sculptural prints. The problem is that these pieces are exposed to the atmos-phere and are therefore susceptible to fading induced by harsh conditions such as changes in humidity, light-ing conditions and pollutants. The optical physicist John Dancer developed the earli-est form of microphotography in Manchester in 1853. It was use to produced tiny pictures and its first major application was sending secret messages during the Franco-Prussian war. Today the technique involves the use of a digital camera to take photographs through a microscope. It is commonly used to view microscopic details in areas such as precision engineering, forensic science and banknote recognition. Now, a new applica-tion has arisen for the versatile technique: it is being used, by artists, to measure how different inks fade on different paper types. Carinna Parraman, a Research Fellow and a member of the CFPR team, said: "Over the next few years we hope to develop a catalogue that will tell artists that an ink will last longer on paper A than on paper B." This knowledge could help artists such as Richard Hamilton, whose Pop Art print works can be viewed at the Tate Britain.

The images below show how cyan ink samples printed on enhanced paper faded over a 12-month period. Top left shows a pigment-based ink sample from March 2002; top right shows the same sample in March 2003. Bottom left shows a dye-based ink sample in March 2002; bottom right shows the same sample in March 2003.

The groundwork for the project began last year when the CFPR team started a project with Hewlett Packard, through the Art and Science Funding programme, and a Teaching Company Scheme with John Purcell Paper. Parraman said: "We undertook experiments that speeded up long-term exposure conditions so that over a short space of time we could see how inks fade over long time periods. However, we wanted to obtain a better understanding of how inks fade, to look at the relationship between paper and ink over a much longer period and to make a record of fading characteristics using microphotography."

Flying high at the Institute of Physics Congress Eddie Robertson, Grant McHenry and Sarah Berringer soared their way to winning the “Great Paper Plane Flying Competition” held by the Institute of Physics on Sunday 23rd of March. Entrants designed and flew paper airplanes to see whose would stay in the air for the longest as part of the Free Physics Fun Day at the Institute’s annual Congress at Heriot-Watt University. Over 500 parents and children also took part in other interactive science activities and demon-strations such as exploring the solar system in a planetarium and learning about meteorites.

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics

Page 7 :: Featured Articles The Physics Congress 2003

Counter-terrorist spray New electrostatic spray apparatus which could save lives after a terrorist attack involving chemical or bio-logical weapons was to be revealed by Professor Law of the University of Georgia, USA, to this year's Insti-tute of Physics Congress. The apparatus can quickly and effectively decontaminate the skin without produc-ing lots of contaminated waste. The equipment is based on an electrostatic system that sprays a fine, atomised mist carrying decontaminating compounds, such as an antitoxins, disinfectants, or sanitizers, on to bare skin. The mist penetrates every crevice, the tiny droplets have what Professor Law de-scribed as "adequate residual aerodynamic energy to convey and penetrate the electrified droplets into Fara-day-shielded regions." In other words, the droplets get on to the skin of the armpit and groin areas. Electrostatic spraying has been used in industry to en-sure an even and complete coating of paint and col-oured powders on manufactured goods, such as cars, and in agriculture to make sure pest-control chemicals cover a crop. Professor Law and his colleagues have previously developed improved electrostatic spraying systems for industry and agriculture. In the current in-ternational political climate, Law was motivated by the need to make a contribution towards protecting people, both civilians and the armed forces, exposed to biologi-cal and chemical weapons. The apparatus takes the form of a walk-through booth with several microprocessor-controlled nozzles. The nozzles are electrically wired so that the droplets of decontaminant solution spraying out are electrostati-cally charged and so stick to the skin of anyone stand-ing in their path. Professor Law said 90 people an hour can be sprayed head to foot with 100 millilitres each of decontaminating spray. Only about 20 millilitres per spraying is wasted. Tests on mannequin and human subjects with innocu-ous bacteria put on their skin has demonstrated how effective the portable apparatus is in covering the per-son with antibacterial spray, said Professor Law. "Our apparatus was about fifty times better at decontaminat-ing than other methods using uncharged spray." "An important feature retained in our engineering de-sign is mobility, the booth is not restricted to hospital use, and provides relatively high human 'throughput' for protective treatment," he added.

Photonic Crystals in 3-D Telecoms systems contain an awkward mixture of op-tics and electronics. A purely optical system would permit the very high data rates needed by the Internet, but at the moment the switching and routing, as well as the "last mile" to the customer, still depend on slower electronic components. Speaking at the Institute of Physics Congress, Professor Robert Denning from Ox-ford University was to explain how his novel holo-graphic approach to making 3-dimensional photonics crystals could allow optical components to be built that remove this bottleneck. Professor Denning said: "By analogy with electronics the complex optical systems required are called 'photonics', because they use photons in place of elec-trons but, because it is much harder to control the flow of light than an electrical current, their development has been slow." The outlook has recently been transformed by the invention of a new type of device, the photonic crystal. This acts like an optical insulator, and allows the components that handle optical data to be reduced to microscopic sizes. They can then be densely pack-aged like electronic circuits in a silicon chip. Unfortu-nately, the methods used for making electronic chips are not well suited to these new devices. Current manu-facturing techniques can only create devices featuring 2-dimensional photonic crystals. However Professor Denning and Professor Turberfield, from the Chemistry and Physics Departments in Oxford, have now found a simple way of using a laser to make the perfectly regu-lar microscopic patterns that are required for 3-dimensional photonic crystals. Professor Denning said: "2-dimensional photonic crys-tal structures are easier to make, but diffraction at the edges of the holes that form the pattern leads to the loss of some light. Although this can be made quite small, it cannot be removed completely. In a 3-dimensional structure, confinement of the light is omnidirectional, so no losses can occur. Defining waveguides and cavi-ties within a 3-dimensional structure makes much larger component densities possible, just like the advantage of a multilayer circuitboard over a single layer one." The team uses holographic lithography to make the 3-dimensional photonic crystals. “Holograms are usually made by making two beams of light interfere with each other and then storing the resultant intensity pattern via a light induced chemical change in some medium, pho-tographic film for example. The holographic lithogra-phy is just a fancy name for defining the pattern of the photonic crystal via the intensity variations caused when four laser beams interfere. The trick is to find the right chemical reactions to make this possible."

Ever wondered why the sound of a fire engine’s siren changes as it whizzes past you? The winners of the Paperclip Phys-ics competition could show you exactly why it does this with their presentation ‘The Doppler Effect’. The all-girl team from Hull High School used slinky springs, musical instruments and even themselves as props to demonstrate this effect in under five minutes! Out of 13 teams in the final, the judges gave Hull High School first prize, and each team member received a palm top computer.

The winning presentation demonstrated how the Doppler Effect works with both sound and light. First off, Hannah Caley used musical instruments to show that sounds are produced by vibrating ob-jects. Lilly-Ann Tang then pretended her team mates were air particles, to show how the vibrating objects make sound waves. By attaching a slinky spring each to the front and back of a toy truck, the team made a simple model of a fire engine with its siren on – the slinky springs represented the sound waves made by

the siren. Heather McKay pushed the fire engine forward to show why we hear the pitch change when a fire engine drives past. To round off the presentation, Melanie Arrow described two very different effects. The Doppler Effect in light, known as ‘red shift’, lets us know about move-ments of stars and galaxies. Lastly, she described the lesser known ‘Doppelar Effect’ which states that “the faster nonsense comes at you, the more believable

it sounds”. Luckily, the team did not demonstrate this effect in their talk!

Left to right: Gemma, Melanie, Heather, Hannah, Lilly-Ann.

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 8 :: Institute of Physics News

Heather Reid presents Institute of Physics award to local teacher

Local teacher Martin Robertson, principal teacher of physics at Elgin Academy, Morayshire, has been awarded an Institute of Physics Teachers’ Award 2003, recognising his outstanding teach-ing. Martin is one of four teachers to receive the award this year, and the only recipient from Scotland. Heather Reid, BBC Scotland weather presenter and former chair of the Institute of Physics in Scotland, presented the award at the Stirling Physics Teaching Meeting, held at Stirling University on 5th June 2003. Every year the Institute recognises and rewards the work of out-standing teachers who have excited young people in physics through their exceptional practice in the classroom. Martin has inspired pupils and teachers alike at Elgin Acad-emy for over 30 years with his captivating style of teaching physics, motivating his students to take sixth year physics, study physics-related degrees at university, or to teach physics themselves. One student said that his en-thusiasm and humour are what makes his lessons so much fun. “The Institute recognises the significant impact of teachers who go the extra mile because of the love of their subject. We are proud to reward physics teachers for their inspirational teaching and active involvement in their school life,” said Chris Shepherd, Teacher Support Manager at the Institute.

Hull High School team wins Paperclip Physics Institute of Physics wel-comes Government’s new

approach regarding women and technology

The Institute of Physics welcomes in principle the new approach from the Gov-ernment to increase funds for women in science and technology - but recom-mends other forms of action also need to be taken. Dr Wendy Kneissl, leader of the Institute of Physics Women In Physics pro-gramme, said the Govern-ment’s new integrated initia-tive to tackle the problem of the under-representation of women in science was “a positive start”. “In particular, in physics we are seeing less boys and girls take the subject, and most children who do study it are boys,” says Dr Kneissl. “Women represent only 20 per cent of our com-munity at best and this issue must be addressed.”

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 9 :: Regional News

Praise for Newcastle University’s technology transfer record

Newcastle University has been named as one of the UK's top universities for 'technology transfer' – using its world-class research facilities to benefit businesses and the econ-omy. A survey revealed that the University’s £5 million sale of its shares in its spin-out company, Novocastra Laborato-ries, last year, represented the most profitable equity sell-off by any university in the country. The research, by Nottingham University Business School, identified four UK universities that were excelling at tech-nology transfer. They were Newcastle, Edinburgh, Loughborough and Strathclyde. The interim report, published this week, details UK uni-versity technology transfer activities in 2002 but does not name individual universities. However, the four leading universities which served as case studies were named in an article in the Times Higher Education Supplement on Fri-day, 13th June. The full report is expected to be published in September and is being modelled on the North American Association of University Technology Managers' survey, which has been running for 11 years. Novocastra Laboratories, which was taken over last July by Vision BioSystems, was set up by Wilson Horne, a former professor of pathology at Newcastle University, and his colleagues. It quickly became a world-leading manufacturer of antibodies, probes and kits used primarily in cancer detection and characterisation. Last year five spin-out companies were formed at Newcas-tle University, which has set itself the target of increasing the number to seven to ten per year. Dr Douglas Robertson, Director of Business Development at the university, said today: “This just goes to show how important research-intensive universities like Newcastle are to the UK and regional economies. “Spinning out companies from our powerful research base is helping to create sustainable jobs and wealth. The com-panies we are setting up today could be the Novocastras of tomorrow.” “We also work with existing companies to help them im-prove their products and processes. We pride ourselves on being open for business, quite literally.”

Volcanic eruptions — 14/5 Dr Gillian Foulger (Durham Geological Sciences) led a team of international scientists to discover the facts about volcanic eruptions. Her experi-ments in Iceland showed that volcanic eruptions did not come from the Earth's core, as it had been widely thought, but were in fact only skin-deep. Reported in The Journal. Freak conditions force last-minute cancellation of the Boat Race — 16/5 Freak conditions forced the 2003 Northumbrian Water University Boat Race to be abandoned , to the immense disappointment of the rowers and the thousands of spectators who had gathered on the Gateshead and Newcastle Quaysides to witness the annual clash of oars between Newcastle and Durham Universities. The race was called off at the eleventh hour after the umpires declared the course unsafe, saying that the conditions on the water between the Metro rail bridge and the Swing Bridge were 'appalling', with three-to-four-feet high waves. Academia Europaea –23/5 Professor F. Richard Stephenson (Physics) has been invited to become a member of Academia Europaea - an organisation of eminent individual scholars from across the continent of Europe. The invitation recognises Professor Stephenson's dis-tinctive work on historical astronomy and the study of eclipses, comets, the features of the sun and supernovae. Disappointment over culture bid — 4/6 After hearing of Liverpool's success in the bid to become the UK's Capital of Culture in 2008, the Vice-Chancellor of Durham University, Sir Ken-neth Calman, said: "This is hugely disappointing, of course, but we should not let it become a set-back. Thousands of people throughout the North East have worked extremely hard to prepare and support the bid. On behalf of the University I thank them for their superb efforts. We must all now find the way to carry on from where we are. The region may have missed out on the title but we still have the teamwork."

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 10 :: Regional News

Mr Patten is a former Chairman of the Conservative Party and was Governor of Hong Kong during the handover of the colony by the UK to China. A Balliol College graduate, he met his wife Lavender at Oxford. One of his daughters, Kate, is a graduate of Newcastle University.

A steam turbo-generator, built by Parsons, is being donated from Northumbria's School of Engineering and Technology, along with all its documentation such as service records, energy outputs and costings. Some of the records show that Rutherford College of Technology - which merged to become part of Newcastle Polytechnic, now Northumbria University - considered the purchase of three turbines in 1938 but due to the war were unable to proceed until 1946 when the decision to buy from Parsons was made. Records also show how the College tried to sell the electricity produced to the Newcastle Electricity Company. David Gregg, who studied Mechanical Engineering at Rutherford, is now a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering and has used the turbine both as a student

and as a lecturer for 40 years. He said: "I worked with this turbine as a student and spent many years using it to teach my own students. I was devastated when I heard this might have to be cut up for scrap but it's fantastic news that it's being put on public display as a piece of classic engineering from the 1950s. It will bring back memories for many people who worked at Parsons and hopefully make the city's industrial history more accessible." The turbine was bought by the College on 4th May 1954 and has been used to teach generations of students about electricity production. Parsons was one of the few companies at the time to produce the gears for this type of turbine which essentially produces electricity as a power station but on

a much smaller scale. In the 1950s they were exported all over the world. John Clayson, Keeper of Science & Industry for Tyne & Wear Museums, said: "This acquisition is great for Discovery Museum because it shows some important features of Parsons' turbine technology. Of particular interest is the geared drive, because Charles Parsons invented a new manufacturing system to make the extremely accurate gearing needed for turbine systems. None of our existing exhibits have this feature. "Although we are not able to put this new exhibit on display immediately, it will be looked after at the Regional Museums Store, a brand new facility we share with Beamish. Visitors will be able to see it on regular open days, and it will be available in future for displays and exhibitions at the Discovery Museum."

Turbine generates its own piece of history

Newcastle and Oxford to share Chancellor

On the 17th of March, Newcastle University's Chancellor, Christopher Patten, was named as the new Chancellor of Oxford University. He will hold both posts simultaneously, forging a sym-bolic link between the two universities. Mr Patten, who is European Commissioner for External Affairs, has been Chancellor of Newcastle University since 1999.

He was elected to the Oxford Chancellorship against competition from three other candidates: the senior judge Lord Bingham, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Lord Neill and the comedian and media personality, Sandy Toksvig. More than 8,000 Oxford graduates and academics voted. In the final round of counting Mr Patten received 4,203 votes, 1,720 more than his nearest rival, Lord Bingham.

Mr Patten, 58, who is likely to be installed as Chancellor of Oxford at a ceremony this summer, replaces former Home Secretary Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, who died in January. The Chancellorship of a university is largely a ceremonial post but car-ries great status.

Olivia Grant, Chairman of the Council of Newcastle University, said of Mr Patten's appointment : 'We are absolutely delighted on his behalf. His appointment provides an excellent opportunity for the needs of the University sector to be represented at the highest level, and we are very, very pleased for him.'

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics Page 11 :: Editorial

Investigation launched into benefits and problems of nanotechnology

The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering have been commissioned by the UK Government to investigate the potential benefits and possible problems associated with nanotech-nology and nanoscience, it was announced on the 11th of June. The independent study will include an assessment of how this emerging area of sci-ence, engineering and technology should be regu-lated as it develops. The study will be chaired by Professor Ann Dowling CBE FRS FREng and begins with a call to stakeholders to express their hopes and con-cerns about the new technology. The issues raised will be used to decide on the breadth of the pro-ject’s brief. The working group, which Professor Dowling will assemble, will consult the public and other stakeholders during the project. Professor Dowling said: “Some unease about nanotechnology was expressed earlier this year with suggestions that plagues of self-replicating nano-bots could turn the world into ”grey goo”. A key role of the project will be to separate the hype and hypothetical from the reality. The working group will determine where research is now, where it might be in 10 or 20 years’ time, and where it could be further into the future”. The study will identify the environmental, health and safety, ethical and societal implications, and uncertainties that may arise from the use of the technology both at present and in the future. It will also identify areas where additional regula-tion needs to be considered. It has been commis-sioned by the Government’s Office of Science and Technology (OST). Lord May of Oxford, President of the Royal Soci-ety, said: “The public need to feel that their con-cerns and interests are properly being taken into account when it comes to deciding how nanotech-nology, which is still a relatively young disci-pline, develops. This is why our study will con-sult and engage with key interest groups, such as the environmental lobby, and the public. We want to supply the Government with an independent, authoritative, representative, and above all fact-based, report on nanotechnology and the environ-mental, health and ethical issues that might stem from it.”

http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/nanotechnology/

Volta was electrified and Ar-chimedes was buoyant at the thought. Ampere was worried he wasn't up on current research. Ohm resisted the idea at first. Boyle said he was under too much pressure. Hertz promised that in the future he will attend with greater frequency.

Pierre and Marie Curie were radiating enthusiasm. Born thought the probability of enjoying himself is pretty high. Einstein thought it would be relatively easy to attend. Heisenberg was uncertain whether he could make it. Schrodinger had to take his cat to the vet, or did he?

After Receiving an Invitation to a Physicists' Ball:

Q: What's the difference between an auto mechanic and a quantum mechanic?

A: The quantum mechanic can get the car inside the garage without opening the door.

Editorial I hope you will enjoy this issue of our newsletter for two reasons. First of all this is the second 12-page issue which is a strong indication of the branch’s willingness to communi-cate all the latest branch and regional news with its mem-bers. The second reason is that this is the last issue of the second academic season since the newsletter started. As such, I would like to dedicate this issue to everyone who helped by writing event reviews and articles. May I also take this opportunity to thank Dr Mike Smith who has proof-read all the newsletters so far! Once again, if you would like to contribute by writing an arti-cle please send it via email: savvas.papagiannidis@ncl.ac.uk.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Savvas Papagiannidis

Physics Humour!

Q: What's the difference between Max Factor and Quantum Theorist?

A: Max Factor has models that work.

northern eastern branch of the institute of physics

NE Branch Contact Details: Dr. Lidija Siller (Secretary) Telephone: 0191 222 7287

Email: Lidija.Siller@ncl.ac.uk

Physics, Herschel Building University of Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU

Feynman goes

on-line at Vega

If a picture says a thousand words then videos of physicists such as Richard Feynman, Walter Kohn and Joseph Rotblat explaining their work should be worth an encyclopedia or two. Thanks to increasing bandwidth and new digital technology, you can now watch all these and more directly over the Internet, and all free. The Vega Science Trust is a charity whose remit is to provide a broadcast plat-form where scientists can communicate directly with the public on issues that are important to them. The chan-nel's programmes cover all aspects of science at every level, from the UK's first as-tronaut, Helen Sharman, ex-ploring life in space with primary school children, to research level debates such as "Bernal and the social func-tion of science". The pro-grammes were originally recorded to the BBC's stringent broadcast standards, and have been compressed for viewing on the Web. The site features a growing collection of archive recordings of scientists who have changed the world we live in. These provide priceless recollection – what was it like to work on the bomb project? Hear Joseph Rotblat discuss it. What was Fermi really like? Millie Dresselhaus talks about her experiences working in his group. The online lectures and mas-terclasses provide a great ‘leg-up’ into new fields, such as the science of MRI or risk analysis of BSE. Discussion programmes provide intelligent and rea-soned debate of important contemporary scientific issues including GM Foods, the science of cloning and new developments in artificial intelligence. "Our aim is to bridge the gap that is often perceived between science and society", says Sir Harry Kroto,

Nobel prize-winning founder of the Trust. "The Trust aims to provide well-informed views on tech-nical issues, and so make science more accessible and understandable to the widest possible range of target audiences. In areas of public concern we want to help ensure the best possible advice is available and so ensure that decisions may be made judi-ciously". Thanks to the generosity of the Feynman family and Auckland university, the Trust has recently made available a series of Richard Feynman lectures filmed in New Zealand as part of the Douglas Robb memorial lecture series. Although the recording is of modest technical quality the exceptional personal style and unique delivery shine through. Feynman

gives not just a lesson in basic physics but also a deep insight into the scientific mind of a 20th century genius analysing the approach of the 17th century genius Newton. Vega is a charity and the programmes are all provided free. There is no commercial adver-tising on the site and the software you need to play the videos is

also free and can be downloaded from the Web (the "RealPlayer", as used on the BBC Website). The programmes are viewable from a home modem, al-though the quality improves if you are using a better connection. "Internet broadcasting has several advantages over conventional television", said Dr Chris Ewels, who developed the Web site. "For example, unlike con-ventional broadcasting, we are not restricted to fixed schedules. Instead you select the programme you want and it plays immediately on your computer." "Vega's aim is to provide a service we feel is impor-tant", adds Sir Harry. "We’re one of the few success-ful Internet sites in that we're actually planning not to make a profit!"

The programmes can be viewed by visiting the Website http://www.vega.org.uk/