News

 

Welcome to the Institute of Physics news pages. In this section you will find the latest news from both the Institute itself and also from the national and international physics community.

Below are the news stories from the past 4 weeks.

Can we detect quantum behaviour in viruses?

The weird world of quantum mechanics describes the strange, often contradictory, behaviour of small inanimate objects such as atoms. Researchers have now started looking for ways to detect quantum properties in more complex and larger entities, possibly even living organisms

 
 
 
Institute of Physics News
Response to the Royal Society’s ‘scientific century’

The Institute of Physics (IOP) has responded to the Royal Society’s ‘The scientific century: securing our future prosperity’, a new report from the Royal Society

 
Dr Arthur H. Rosenfeld
New unit to measure electricity savings

Dr Arthur H. Rosenfeld, the scientist and energy policy expert who helped turn California into a global leader on the efficient use of electricity, will be honored with a new measurement unit to describe energy savings, under a proposal published today, Tuesday 9 March 2010, in IOP Publishing’s Environmental Research Letters

 
 
Institute of Physics News
IOP and the Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into the disclosure of climate data

The Institute of Physics recently submitted a response to a House of Commons Science and Technology Committee call for evidence in relation to its inquiry into the disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia which has become the focus of media hype

 
Institute of Physics News
Response to restructuring of the Science and Technology Facilities Council

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Institute of Physics (IOP) have today, Thursday 4 March, responded to the statement by Lord Drayson, Minister of Science and Innovation, setting out reforms to the structure of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

 
 
Widening the search for extraterrestrial intelligence

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been dominated for its first half century by a hunt for unusual radio signals. But as he prepares for the publication of his new book The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone?, Paul Davies tells Physics World readers why bold new innovations are required if we are ever to hear from our cosmic neighbours

 
How to hunt for exoplanets

A new report launched by the Institute of Physics (IOP) Exoplanets – The search for planets beyond our solar system explains how new technological advances have seen the discovery of more than 400 exoplanets to date, a number expected to rise to thousands in the next few years

 
 
Credit SELEX Galileo
A plan to support high-tech business

In a public note to policy-makers published today, Thursday 25 February 2010, the Institute of Physics (IOP) asserts the value of physics-based business to the UK economy and stresses measures needed, such as an expanded R&D tax-credit scheme, to create a world-leading, high-tech economy

 
Institute of Physics News
Response to Science and Mathematics Education for the 21st Century

The Institute of Physics (IOP) has today, Thursday 25 February, responded to Science and Mathematics Education for the 21st Century, an independent report on the future of science and maths education, compiled by the Science and Learning Expert Group and chaired by Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust

 
 
David Richardson
Stimulating physics in Norfolk

Did you know there are more atoms in one mouthful of water than there are spoonfuls of water in all the world’s oceans? Have you ever wondered why explosions explode outwards? Or why it feels like we’re standing still, even though we’re travelling around the Sun at more than 60 000 miles per hour?

 
Looking inside the atom for new technologies

Nuclear physics, which studies the huge variety of nuclei in all the matter that surrounds us, not only provides answers about the evolution of our universe, it also provides the underpinning knowledge needed to exploit nuclear properties in new technologies

 
 
Dr Melanie Windridge, 2010 Schools Lecturer
Focus on fusion in Schools Lecture 2010

Taking in 35 venues across the UK, this year’s Institute of Physics’ (IOP) Schools Lecturer, Dr Melanie Windridge, will explain to 13 000 students how scientists working on nuclear fusion hope to replicate the behaviour of the Sun here on Earth to produce a plentiful and environmentally friendly energy source

 
Sustainable development: Bringing physics to life in Africa

Nature Publishing Group and the Institute of Physics (IOP) have joined forces to advance physics education in Rwanda. Together they are funding a local workshop to build 100 sets of equipment each year and provide training to teachers

 
 
Swine Flu vaccination: voluntary system works

Social interaction between neighbours, work colleagues and other communities and social groups makes voluntary vaccination programs for epidemics such as Swine Flu, SARS or Bird Flu a surprisingly effective method of disease control

 
Institute of Physics News
HEFCE funding for 2010/11

Many IOP members will already be aware of the announcement by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) on 1 February on the provisional distribution of funding to English universities and colleges in 2010, including a £450 million reduction in funding compared with previously announced plans

 
 
The law and the Large Hadron Collider: who should have jurisdiction?

After court cases seeking to halt the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) were thrown out of Swiss and Hawaiian law courts, one US lawyer is arguing that it and other hypothetically destructive experiments should not expect to be beyond the rule of law

 
Prof John Harries
IOP fellow new Welsh Chief Scientific Adviser

Prof John Harries, Professor of Earth Observation at Imperial College London, has today been named the first Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales

 
 
 
 

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Artwork | Image by Fred Swist