Physics Monday Bulletin 2021-05-17

 

Coronavirus fatigue

As we all continue to deal with the changing levels of restriction concerning the coronavirus and the exam season beginning, it is a good time to remind everyone to take a moment to check the wellbeing of their staff and themselves. There is a range support on the University Wellbeing pages and talking to line managers and colleagues can help.

We have all been affected one way or another by the pandemic and nothing is “normal” anymore so take a few minutes to look after yourself and your team.

Shonah Ion

 

 

Chester the Cat who Co-Authored a Physics Paper – Follow Up

The cat that wrote a paper has a Lancaster connection.  The cat’s “owner” was Jack Hetherington, a quantum fluids theorist from Michigan State University whom we know well as MSU had close connections with the ULT group in the eighties.

Jack had written a theory paper on exchange in solid 3He which he sent to PRL.    The editors took exception to Jack’s using “I” and “me” in the text instead of the editorial “we”.  As the lone writer, to change to “we”, he thought stupid and to keep things consistent he just added Willard as an author to justify the “we”.

It later occurred to him that Willard now had a publication record.  So, when Jack wanted to publish a slightly dodgy bit of theory he presented it to the world with Willard’s name alone just to be on the safe side.

I am pretty sure Jack has visited Lancaster so we can claim a bit of the story.

References:

  1. 2-Atom, 3-Atom, And 4-Atom Exchange Effects In Bcc He-3,

JH Hetherington,  FDC Willard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 35, 1442 (1975).

  1. Solid He-3, A Nuclear Anti-Ferromagnetic, FDC Willard, Recherche 11,  972  (1980).

George Pickett

 

 

Automatic detection of Auroral Kilometric Radiation and its role in Terrestrial Solar Wind – Magnetosphere coupling

Online event
Thursday 20 May 2021
2:00pm to 3:00pm

Space and Planetary Physics webinar

Speaker: Alexandra Fogg (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)

Wayne Gould

 

 

Energy harvesting based on single-molecule-device design and photocatalytic water splitting

Online event
Friday 21 May 2021
3:00pm to 4:00pm

Condensed Matter webinar

Speaker: Wu Qingqing (Lancaster University)

Michael Thompson