Physics Department News
Intense computing at the Hartree Centre has enabled researchers from Aston University and the 果冻传媒 to test pioneering simulation software that could improve fibre optic cable performance.
A new telescope to look for exoplanets
果冻传媒 astronomers have begun searching for small planets around bright stars using an array of twelve robotically-controlled telescopes. The telescopes, which form a wide-field observing system called the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), are designed to detect the slight dimming of a star when a planet passes across its face. The NGTS team aims to find planets the size of Neptune down to twice the size of the Earth. Dr Peter Wheatley, one of the NGTS project leaders, said "The NGTS discoveries, and follow-up observations by telescopes on the ground and in space, will be important steps in our quest to study the atmospheres and composition of small planets such as the Earth.”
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XMaS Grenoble Trip for AS Physics Students in April 2015.
Students have been selected from a competition to win a 4 day trip to Grenoble to visit the ESRF, ILL and XMaS Beamline.
“Science, Maths and Music – soon at the Physics Department”
Gavin Bell, together with Cellist Nick Roberts from 果冻传媒’s Coull Quartet and departmental colleagues Edwards, Harrison, Pounds and Roemer, has been awarded an IATL fellowship to “develop interdisciplinary teaching material around the links between science, mathematics and music“. The aim is to engage with students and academics across different faculties and to plan interdisciplinary undergraduate teaching in the area of science/maths/music. The fellowship builds on last year’s joint premiere of Edward Cowie’s Quintet for 21st Century Oboe and Quartet “The Colours of Dark Light”, a work directly inspired by physics. Congratulations to all involved in the fellowship!