Table of contents

I refer to the lecture title discussed by Dr Lomer in the March 1984 issue of Physics Bulletin (p90). Eyecatching?

Recent correspondence has shown that many physicists feel, since physicists invented the bomb, they have a special responsibility to do something to prevent a nuclear holocaust. Yet they see nothing that they can do.

I have recently visited the University of Cauca in the city of Popayan in Colombia, which was largely destroyed by an earthquake a year ago. The Physics Department of the University is carrying on as best it can in temporary accommodation, but it lost virtually all its teaching equipment in the disaster.

In the March 1984 issue of Physics Bulletin a report appeared on page 94 concerning the Royal Institution Christmas lectures given by Professor R B Cundall in Manchester and Liverpool. Unfortunately we omitted to mention that Professor Cundall had already given his lecture in Portsmouth (to the Portsmouth and District Physical Society) and that the photograph had actually been taken at this latter event.

The lamp-light falls on blackened walls, And streams through narrow perforations, The long beam trails o'er pasteboard scales, With slow-decaying oscillations. Flow, current, flow, set the quick light-spot flying, Flow current, answer light-spot, flashing, quivering, dying

Ask a physicist if there is enough physics being done and you might expect the answer 'No'. Ask him if certain topics receive more than their fair share, and the answer may well be 'Yes', depending on his own topic.

Parents are much more likely to be considering possible careers for both their sons and their daughters these days, and if those daughters give up science subjects at an early age, many doors will be closed to them. That was just one of the points made by Baroness Platt of Writtle, who chairs the Equal Opportunities Commission, in her opening address to the 'Girls and physics' meeting held at the beginning of April.

1983 was a very successful year for Fulmer Research Institute, both financially and technically. Total turnover increased by 26% to above £4m and profit increased 2½ times to £360000, after providing for losses in the startup of the Singapore laboratories.

For an undergraduate, 20 years ago, it was possible to believe that physics was really important; that further advances in pure physics might change the world, improve our conditions of life. The fundamental discoveries of the golden years, and later, had achieved this; we did not think to query their continuation.

The remarkable success of Japanese manufacturing industry is something which has been noted, not without some alarm, by many European and US based companies. This success has been attributed, at least in part, to the large numbers of highly trained engineers employed by the Japanese companies.

The British scientific spacecraft AMPTE (active magnetic particle tracer explorer) has recently been tested in British Aerospace Dynamics Group's electromagnetic test facility in Bristol. Emissions from the spacecraft were measured to determine their effect on on-board experiments, and tests were performed to discover the susceptibility of spacecraft electronics to RF energy from sources on the craft itself, the launch vehicle and earth-based transmitters.

An international effort, in which British astronomers participated, to study the comet Crommelin took place during the week 25–31 March 1984. The comet, first seen in 1818 (and again in 1873, 1928 and 1956), is quite faint and was just visible from the United Kingdom with binoculars in February and early March of this year.

The reproduction of recorded music has always suffered from the introduction of noise and distortion in the playback system. With conventional LP records, engineering advances have tremendously improved the tracking of the stylus and the quality of the output audio signal.

Many industrial processes require the swift, accurate evaluation of particle size distributions. Equipment has been developed at Brunei University by the electro-optics group, led by Professor B R Jennings, that can quickly determine the size distribution of macromolecules and particulates when in dilute solution or suspension.

In the search for relatively simple large-area arrays for detecting ultraheavy nuclei in cosmic radiation, J A Simpson and A J Tuzzolino have demonstrated that sensors made from pyroelectric materials respond to individual nuclei of this type (Phys. Rev. Lett.52 601). Although pyroelectric materials have been studied for many years, the possibility of their response to an incident fast, highly charged nucleus has not previously been examined.

An 'advanced work performing manipulator arm' has recently been built by Taylor Hitec as part of a joint project with the CEGB to develop a computer controlled manipulator for carrying out remote maintenance work within a nuclear reactor. Currently, repairs to the insides of reactors are made by purpose designed 'work packages' via manipulators inserted down fuel access tubes during reactor shutdown periods.

A recent research programme at Harwell, sponsored by the DHSS, has shown that by using the surface treatment known as 'ion implantation' the wear rates in the titanium alloy used in replacement hip joints can be reduced by a factor of about 400. Artificial hip joints consist of a metal femoral component, for which the titanium alloy IMI 318 (Ti–6AI–4V) is the usual material, and an acetabular cup made of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE).

Until the 1950s, the only practicable way of obtaining useful images of the internal structure of the intact human body was by means of traditional x-radiography. The choice for the diagnostic radiologist has since been expanded by the development of many new methods of imaging.

Bats 'see' with it; engineers detect flaws with it. Ultrasonics is a well used tool for gleaning information where the eye cannot see.

Derek Ezra (ed) 1983 Croydon: Tolley 252 pp price £12.95 ISBN 0 85459 087 0

Now is a good time to review energy policy, for the world has had a year or two of relative stability after the turbulent years following the 1973 oil crisis. However, if you are looking for a wide-ranging energy debate you may be disappointed in this book.

Jean Charon 1983 London: Coventure 192 pp price £4.95 ISBN 0 904575 187

I approached this book with some sympathy, since it is after all an imaginative attempt to reconcile science with transcendent issues such as the origins and destiny of the human personality, issues that ought to concern us all much more than they do. But Charon has an off-putting insistence on his own eminence and an irritating way of referring to people like '... Richard Feynman, the American physicist, whose theories have been confirmed by my own research on the structure of the electron'.

S Lundqvist and N H March (eds) 1983 New York: Plenum xiii + 395 pp price $55 ISBN 0 306 41207 1

This book is essential reading for everyone interested in calculating the electronic structure of solids and surfaces. It describes the basis and applications of density functional theory, which shows that the properties of a many-body system are uniquely determined by the ground state charge density, and particularly the use of the local density approximation for electronic exchange-correlation.

Fritjof Capra 1983 London: Fontana Paperbacks xx + 516 pp price £3.50 ISBN 0 00 654017 1

Discoveries in modern subatomic physics have introduced into the scientific world the idea that an innate systemic interdependence exists between all physical phenomena. Gradually all investigators of the true nature of reality will adopt this new philosophy of interrelatedness, which will bring today's confused Western culture to a natural 'turning point'.

Martin Goldman 1983 Edinburgh: Paul Harris Publishing, in association with Adam Hilger 224 pp price £18 (IOP members' price £14.50) ISBN 0 86228 026 5

Don't be too put off by the dreadful title, and don't be too put off by the interminable misprints, or by the extraordinary punctuation, or by finding the same quotation, from the 'official' biography, used twice within ten or a dozen pages. Again, don't be too put off to find that the plates referred to in the text do not exist, or that the text figures have either been quite wrongly labelled (p126) or not labelled at all (p148), or that there is no proper bibliography.

Norman W Lord et al 1983 Michigan: Ann Arbor Science xii + 155 pp price £27.50 ISBN 0 250 40626 8

This book is based on two reports, prepared for the Commission of European Communities (Euratom) and for Electricitè de France. The former surveys the supercomputer market in the United States, with particular reference to CRAY 1, CYBER 205 and Denelcor HEP.

Monthly round-up of new instruments, components and equipment released by industry vendors.

Information about appointments and awards, meetings, and member services from the Institute of Physics.

Late-breaking conference news, calls for papers and general news.