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purplecthulhu at 02:18pm on 08/02/2008
purplecthulhu at 02:18pm on 08/02/2008Those of you who signed the No. 10 petition about physics funding will have received an email from out esteemed prime minister. This links to a release from STFC that is largely content free and a restatement of the current situation. Indeed it is in fact rather out of date as it fails to mention the Gemini situation.
There's is also a bit of creative accounting at the end that suggests that the 25% cut to grant funding will produce only a 10% cut to the numbers of postdocs. This is being described as spin by some who've gone through the figures. Why am I not surprised?
The petition is now the 11th largest at over 16000 signatures. If you've not signed please do so now so that at least we can say that the government is ignoring the views of its citizens that funding levels should be restored.
There's is also a bit of creative accounting at the end that suggests that the 25% cut to grant funding will produce only a 10% cut to the numbers of postdocs. This is being described as spin by some who've gone through the figures. Why am I not surprised?
The petition is now the 11th largest at over 16000 signatures. If you've not signed please do so now so that at least we can say that the government is ignoring the views of its citizens that funding levels should be restored.
angry
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We should suck it up for the sake of the country?
We should make the case for particle physics and astronomy because the people at STFC whose fucking job it is have screwed it up so badly?
That when the guarantees that PPARC science funding was ring-fenced and protected made when PPARC and CCLRC were merged are found to be lies that we should ignore it?
That when we see careers ruined, projects that people have worked on for decades abandoned, and nobody in STFC, DIUS or government is prepared to tell us why that we should just act like the horse in Animal Farm and say 'we must try harder'?
That we should look at those amazing facilities, built by physicists, based on discoveries made by physicists but that are being used by medics, materials scientists, archaeologists but not physicists, because that's not what they're meant to do, and say 'gosh wow, isn't that nice' and ignore the fact that the next similar set of machines will be based on discoveries made elsewhere because we're not doing that kind of physics any more?
[In fact this comment by your friend makes me think that they're a little unclear on the distinctions between physics, astrophysics and particle physics and science in general, which might help to explain some of STFC's idiocies.]
In short that when we're being sold down the river by people who don't care, for reasons they're not prepared to tell us that we should not be shouting from the rooftops that this is a huge fucking mistake?
Talk about self serving arse covering bollocks. Just how long do they expect us to stay world leaders when whole areas of physics are being abandoned?
I'm sure if your friend was facing redundancy that they'd want their union and professional bodies fighting for them. Well, that's what we're doing.
One thing your friend is right about is that this concerns the next spending review. We have to make sure that government realizes that we are not a soft touch, that cuts in this area will hurt them as the long term economy so they won't do it again.
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I think also that there is a distinction between physics _is in trouble_ and physics _will be in trouble if nothing is done_. After all - with the media that Sussex got when closure was threatened, I got the feeling that our student numbers rose when it was saved, because students saw that actually it was worth saving and the government had been convinced there was potential. (Either that or so many departments had been shut that there were just more students per still open department). So it's only doom and gloom if they don't reverse the funding, in which case the advice to head for the hills is probably good. Certainly there are countries with a greater proportion of more motivated students (and larger numbers in general) who are much more likely to achieve in the near future, so a few less UK students is neither here nor there in terms of overall physics ... (said partly tongue in cheek - you never know who needs to be in the right place at the right time with the right background in my view)
*pauses for breath ...* :)
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FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS
The launch of the Columbus science laboratory marks a key moment in space exploration for Europe. Lofty ambitions
Europe demonstrates its desire to join the big boys in space
Diamond synchrotron Bright light
A tour around the Diamond synchrotron
(though I can't help thinking that for some people 'Europe' means continental europe)
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The ESA stories are definitely not. The UK is hardly involved in the Columbus module (might not be involved at all) and this is clearly an item placed by what passes for a press office at ESA, who really could take some lessons from NASA.
The interesting story from ESA over the last two days is the one dealing with the renaming and repurposing of ExoMars. This was intended as technology demonstrator but the design has now got so much real science on board that it needs to be bigger and significantly more expensive. The UK wants a prominent role in this project in spite of the fact that the UK (and in fact Europe as a whole) has very little experience in this kind of science. If it's to be more costly that money has to come from somewhere and it's like to be paid by STFC. This is where it collides with the current priorities in astronomy and particle physics and the well known lack of money. It could get very messy. If I start getting enthusiastic about Mars rovers you'll know how bad it's got.
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