Smooth Running

Herschel is gently moving from performance verification phase to normal operations via the Science Demonstration phase. Currently various short observations are being made. These have all been offered by the large, Key Programme teams, and represent a the full range of possible observing modes. The idea is to get a set of initial scientific observations to make sure that the whole system is performing well and to get a flavour of the science results that will come from the longer mission.

This is all going rather nicely and it’s already clear that some excellent results are coming. Unfortunately these are all embargoed until ESA has a big meeting in the middle of December to make the first announcement of Herschel science results.

I can nevertheless tell you that good stuff is on its way.

In the meantime those of you in London might like to know about the next if Imperial College’s Great Debates. The subject this time is ‘Human Spaceflight: Science or Spectacle?” with your humble correspondent arguing for ’spectacle’.

Details can be found here.

RSS feed

If you’re having trouble with the RSS feed for this site, the URL you should be using is:

http://herschelmission.wordpress.com/rss

I just checked after a suggestion there was a problem, and it seems to be working fine.

When is science not science?

I was interested to read, via Lord Drayson’s twitter about the IAwards. These have been ‘Launched by the Government to recognise and celebrate the best of British science, innovation and technology’.

Great, I thought. SPIRE is a UK led instrument that is now doing great things on Herschel. We should try to get a nomination.

Then I saw the list of categories:

Life Sciences
Places to Live and Work Sponsored by Building Magazine
A Consumer Product
Best British Inside
Transport
Digital Communications Sponsored by businesszone.co.uk
Cross-application Of Technology Sponsored by Rolls Royce
Energy and Environment
Entertainment and Media Sponsored by The British Library
Best Collaboration
Best Technology Start-up Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
The Next Big Thing Sponsored by Siemens
iaward of the year Sponsored by QinetiQ

Which is rather more technology than science, frankly. And even the science areas (eg. Life Science) have significant restrictions on them: ‘This category is for innovation in any life sciences area which supports society in terms of healthcare and the national challenge of an ageing population.’

So this isn’t exactly looking for the ‘best of British science’ is it? In these terms Nobel Prize Winning British science of the past, clearly among the best of British science, would not be eligible eg. the structure of DNA, the discovery of pulsars, the discovery of fullerenes. I’m sure there are more examples.

This would seem to reflect both a serious misunderstanding of how science works – these awards are much more for technology applications than science – as well as a serious undervaluing of many areas of British science that have been and are still (in spite of funding cuts) still very successful.

If you agree with me you might like to tweet Lord Drayson about this. Meanwhile it looks as if SPIRE will have to look elsewhere for an award…

Visiting academics and the UK

If you host visiting academics to the UK, or are thinking of visiting, you might like to sign this petition…

To: UK Parliament

The UK Home Office has introduced new bureaucratic procedures for
organisations that wish to invite non-EU artists and academics to the UK. As
professionals committed to the principles of internationalism and cultural
exchange, we are dismayed by these new regulations – which will curb our
invitations to non-EU artists and academics to visit the UK for talks,
artist residencies, conferences and temporary exhibitions.

The system is costly to both the host organisation and to the visitor, and
has already meant a number of cancelled exhibitions and concerts. All non-EU
visitors now must apply for a visa in person, and supply biometric data,
electronic fingerprint scans and a digital photograph. The Home Office’s
158-page guideline document also outlines new controls over visitors’
day-to-day activity: visitors must show that they have at least £800 pounds
of personal savings, which have been held for at least three months prior to
the date of their application; the host organisation must keep copies of the
visitor’s passport and their UK Biometric Card, and a history of their
contact details; and if the visitor does not turn up to their studio or
place of work, or their whereabouts is unknown, the organisation is legally
obliged to inform the UK Border Agency.

We, the undersigned, believe that these Home Office restrictions
discriminate against our overseas colleagues on the grounds of their
nationality and financial resources, and will be particularly detrimental to
artists from developing countries, and those with low income. Such
restrictions will damage the vital contribution made by global artists and
scholars to cultural, intellectual and civic life in the UK.

http://www.petitiononline.com/MCvisit/petition.html

Press coverage of the latest Herschel images

Further coverage of the galactic plane images can be found in:

Nature

The Telegraph which includes extensive quotes from the Cardiff SPIRE team

The Scotsman

Physics Today

Stunning new Herschel Images of the Milky Way

ESA released new images form the Herschle telescope today. This shows a two degree square region of our galaxy at wavelengths and resolutions that have never before been achieved.

The images show intricate filamentary structures made from cold interstellar material. This matter feeds galactic star formation, and this image provides new insights into these highly turbulent processes. This is also the first image released from Herschel’s ‘parallel mode’ that allows it’s two imaging instruments, PACS and SPIRE, to work together. This observing mode is immensely powerful as it allows 5 colour images such as this to be produced which might otherwise have had to be pieced together from separate observations. It’s a critically important mode for many of Herschel’s large area surveys, including the HIGAL project which will observe the entire galactic plane with sensitivity and resolution matching the 2 degree by 2 degree image shown here.

Further information about Herschel can be found from ESA, the SPIRE instrument team, the UK’s STFC and the BBC.

At least someone likes us…

Media support from at least one quarter for pure research over the increasing tendency to divert blue skies research money to areas deemed to be more immediately of economic benefit.

Of course ElReg’s tone is always irreverent and more than a little hyper, but in this case their heart is in the right place and they’re making some telling points.

ETA: If you’re in the UK and would like to express an opinion about these funding changes you can use WriteToThem to send a message to your MP.

Funding crisis confirmed

Thanks to comments on the e-Astronomer’s blog we now have confirmation of a funding crisis in 2010-2011 for the UK astronomy and particle physics communities.

‘…there is indeed a looming deficit of circa £ 40M for 2010/11, due largely to increases in major international subscriptions as a result of exchange rate fluctuations. Over the last year alone the subs to ESA went up by £17M and CERN by £5M. DIUS has helped out for the last 2 years but nearly half of their £90M subsidy was in the form of a loan, to be repaid (presumably to BIS) in 2010/11′ said Paul Crowther.

[This would suggest that it's in our interests to campaign for the UK to join the Euro]

There was a further, even more worrying comment from Richard Wade:

‘…the real concern, that has lead to the current restriction on grants, is the future of public spending… the focus of the current prioritisation exercise is not just on balancing the books for next year but more importantly on preparing for likely tough decisions as public spending is squeezed.’

While this isn’t unexpected, it is rather galling that this comes up in the same week that it’s revealed that the UK Home Office is wasting money on a scientifically flawed DNA-based race profiling system and the Ministry of Defense is spending four times as much money per flying hour to keep its aging Puma fleet on life support than a proper replacement would cost. It’s also worth noting that the entire STFC funding debacle for the last two years, including this latest installment, amounts to less than the price of two Eurofighters.

It seems that if you’re pandering to the xenophobic paranoia of the Daily Mail readers or propping up lame duck industries rather than saving soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan, then the coffers are open. If you’re trying to find out how the universe really works then you can’t even have the funding equivalent of scraps off the table.

And now I’ve got that off my chest, I return you to your normally scheduled news about Herschel…

Another UK Astronomy Funding Crisis?

Rumours are coming in to the effect that the UK research council that funds astronomy, the STFC, is in the throes of a further funding crisis.

The full and sorry story of the STFCs financial woes, which go back to its formation from the amalgamation of PPARC (who used to fund astrophysics and particle physics in the UK) and the CCLRC (the ‘large labs’ funding council in the UK, looking after Daresbury, Rutherford and Diamond) can be found in great detail here. It had looked as if things were calming down, though we were all rather worried about the current reviews underway on both astronomy facilities and research areas. Worries were heightened today with the following news from STFC:

‘STFC Council policy on grants

STFC Council examined progress of its current science and technology prioritisation exercise at a strategy session on 21 and 22 September. Without prejudging the outcome of the prioritisation, Council agreed that prudent financial management required a re-examination of upcoming grants.

Council therefore agreed that new grants will be issued only to October 2010 in the first instance. This temporary policy is in place pending the outcome of the prioritisation exercise, expected in the New Year.’

From STFC.

This suggests that the current money shortages are so severe that the reviews will lead to substantial changes in priorities, possibly with significant areas of research being cut. Any grants from the current application round, already nearing completion, will not reflect these cuts so, without some way of keeping those grants short term, as was announced today, there is the risk of ’sending good money after bad’.

One might think that this is a rather paranoid interpretation, but there are other rumours circulating of budget holes at STFC in the tens of millions. Again.

The short term exploitation of Herschel data in the UK is probably safe, but the long term prospects for astronomy don’t look so good this evening…

Meanwhile, there should be another press release from Herschel soon, so I can return you to pretty pictures rather than depressing news.

Science Begins…

Those of you watching the Herschel Twitter will have seen that the first science data from the observatory is now being delivered to a few lucky astronomers. I’ve seen some of it, and it definitely looks rather good!

Meanwhile, there should be new public announcements and images from SPIRE and PACS in the next few days. Keep a look out!