Table of contents

In his contribution to the March 1984 issue of Physics Bulletin entitled 'Two professions – physics and engineering', Professor Finkelstein has done much to explain current developments in the engineering profession, and their possible effects on physicists. This topic is of particular interest to me as both a physics graduate and a Chartered Engineer, not least because I work for one of the 'nominated' professional institutions.

In our report of the Wolf Physics Prize, which appeared in the April 1984 issue of Physics Bulletin (p135), Sir Peter Hirsch was quoted as having been involved in the development and utilisation of the scanning electron microscope. The prize in fact recognised his contributions to the 'utilisation of the transmission electron microscope as a universal instrument to study the structure of crystalline matter'.

Prim Doctor of Philosophy From academic Heidelberg! Your sum of vital energy Is not the millionth of an erg.

Departments of academic medical physics originated in the London medical schools and institutes during the first decades of the century and grew steadily during the pre-war years to blossom on the arrival of radioisotopes, megavoltage radiotherapy and microelectronics. In partnership with NHS physicists, the university teachers have made a major contribution to the growth of medical physics in London's hospitals.

In recent months we have all become saturated with media coverage of the happenings at Sellafield. The exploits of the Greenpeace organisation, the no-go beaches in Cumbria, the claims and counter-claims about contaminated fish in the Irish Sea and even the alleged linking of a previous Windscale fire with the birth of Down's syndrome babies are all topics on which physicists could probably contribute, in a meaningful way, to any after-dinner discussion or common room debate.

The H H Wills Physics Laboratory at Bristol University held an open day on 9 April 1984 to mark the installation of a new transmission electron microscope there. The microscope, a Philips EM430, was bought with the aid of a grant of £200000 from the Science and Engineering Research Council, along with the sum of £53000 from University funds.

British universities are to receive a further 350 'new blood' posts in the academic year commencing this October. They will be funded under the special three-year programme which began last year, to enable universities to create new posts for young academic staff during a period when the replacement of retiring staff is very low.

With the constant growth in the number of decommissioned satellites in the geostationary orbit (36000 km from earth above the equator), users are having to face the increasing risk of collision between operational and deactivated satellites. This orbit is of unique importance for communications and weather satellites because of the continuous ground station visibility.

Research and development programmes in five areas will be supported through the European Strategic Programme for Research and Development in Information Technology (ESPRIT), which was adopted by the European Community on 28 February 1984. The five areas are: microelectronics; software technology; advanced information technology; office systems; and computer integrated manufacture.

How much should the UK spend on basic science, and what are the priority areas in meeting the challenge of new scientific opportunities? How can the five British research councils adapt to meet this challenge?

The Industrial Fellowships scheme was established by the Royal Society and the Science and Engineering Research Council just over three years ago, to enhance communication in science and technology between industry and academia. The scheme enables scientists, mathematicians and engineers to move from one side of the industry–academia boundary to the other for a limited period, and results in profit for all three parties concerned (the Fellow, the company and the academic institution) – see Physics Bulletin October 1983 p442.

At the beginning of February, John Butcher, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry, presented the 1984 Design Council Molins Design prizes to the worthy winners. Each team received a £300 cheque, along with individual trophies, and all the winners will have the additional satisfaction of seeing their products further developed by their sponsoring companies.

On 18 April 1984 at the Science Museum, David Attenborough, CBE, FRS opened an historic exhibition of photographs of 'scientific revelation' (his words). At this private view, preceding the opening to the public the following day, Mr Attenborough said he found there was something for everybody, whatever their scientific bent, and that the accompanying book of the same name by Jon Darius (Oxford University Press, £15) described the photographs with 'precision and clarity'.

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, attained record-breaking energies in a preliminary run in February by accelerating a beam of electrons to 800 GeV – the highest energy level ever achieved by any accelerator. The beam was then extracted from the superconducting ring and transported to an experimental area.

The NASA Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew proved in April that it is possible to carry out repairs to satellites in space – even if the Solar Maximum Repair mission did present more difficulties than expected. Solar Max was launched in February 1980, carrying seven instruments intended to record and analyse the radiation that the sun emits during solar flares.

Considerable interest is being evinced in a laser probe microanalysis technique which can analyse both thick and thin samples under ultra-high vacuum conditions. Called LIMA– laser-induced ion mass analyser – the system was originally developed through cooperation between scientists at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston and Cambridge Consultants.

The same differences of view on metal polishing mechanisms exist today as did more than a century ago – a surprising fact with which J F Archard (Consultant, National Centre of Tribology) opened his review of the polishing of metals, at the recent meeting of the Tribology Group of The Institute of Physics. Over a hundred years ago Rayleigh suggested that polishing resulted from the removal of material on an atomic scale; the idea of plastic working of a surface where material is removed from the tops of imperfections by plastic flow to fill pits in the surface being polished, forming the Bielby layer, is another possibility.

The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) at RAE, Farnborough is the home of activity in the UK for the collection and processing of remote sensing satellite data. The centre supplies the data and the resultant imagery to a wide range of users, who have access to facilities for research.

Why is there so much interest in space radar systems? Radar is the way to monitor changing events in a reliable manner as it is largely independent of weather – particularly useful for Europe which is so often widely cloud-covered.

There is a growing awareness that it is the changes in climate, not in the weather, that matter. Concern about both natural and anthropogenic fluctuations and changes in the climate has resulted in the formation of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organisation and the International Council of Scientific Unions.

The launch of SEASAT in 1978 was decisive in proving to a largely sceptical community of marine scientists and engineers that operationally useful accuracies and resolutions could be achieved by remote sensing of the ocean surface from satellites. SEASAT – the first satellite devoted exclusively to marine applications – was defined by NASA as a 'proof-of-concept' mission.

For many months each year the polar regions are remote, cold and dark. Certain areas are frequently covered by cloud.

Hermann A Brück 1983 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press viii + 151 pp price £8.50 ISBN 0 85224 480 0

In 1972 Hermann Bruck wrote a booklet on the history of the observatory and of the chair of astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. This stimulated him to write a much fuller account of the lives and works of his predecessors as Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh.

Nigel Henbest and Michael Marten 1983 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 240 pp price £12.50 ISBN 0 521 25683 6

Pictures selected by Marten and text by Henbest combine to give the uninformed reader a glimpse of the new information from space available at frequencies beyond the visible spectrum. Radio, infrared, ultraviolet, x- and gamma-ray data are processed into full colour 'photographs' which give a new perspective on both familiar and unfamiliar astronomical objects.

Richard F Hirsh 1983 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press viii + 186 pp price £20 ISBN 0 521 25121 4

This book is a history of x-ray astronomy's infancy, from its roots in upper-atmosphere research to the UHURU satellite in the early 1970s. Hirsh analyses the roles of funding, public policy, instrumental innovation and flight opportunities, as well as the contributions of the individual scientists and their research groups.

ESA 1983 Noordwijk: ESA iv + 317 pp price FF175 ISSN 0379 6566

In May 1986 (d.v.), NASA and the European Space Agency will jointly launch the International Solar Polar Mission satellite. The orbit will be Jupiter-gravity assisted, and the satellite will make observations in regions of the heliosphere where the very complex solar wind, which confuses observations near the ecliptic, is expected to be absent.

Barry E Jones (ed) 1983 Bristol: Adam Hilger x + 148 pp price £7.95 (paperback) (IOP members' price £6.36) ISBN 0 85274 7535

This excellent book is that rarity, a collection of papers (in this case all from the Journal of Physics E) which makes up a coherent, readable and valuable volume in its own right. The companion Volume 1, equally useful, comprised 13 articles written on topics which are fundamental to all scientific instruments.

Moshe Carmeli 1982 New York: John Wiley xvii + 650 pp price £42.70 ISBN 0 471 864374

The first 400 or so pages of this book provide a detailed and traditional exposition of tensor calculus and general relativity. The concepts and modern notation of differential geometry are relegated to a few pages in chapter 10.

Paul Erdös and John M Robinson 1983 New York: Plenum xi + 213 pp price $39.50 ISBN 0 306 41150 4

The actinides have been called the materials of the 21 st century, but this book teaches us that the millenium is fast approaching. As in all useful books about complicated materials there is a detailed and systematic catalogue of the different types of actinide compound including the following: NaCI type (UP, PuC, NpN etc); UX₂ and UXY (e.g. UP₂, UO_S); U₃P₄ type; U₂N₂M (M=P, As, S, Se); U₂N₂Z(Z=Sb, Bi, Te); oxides (UO₂, NpO₂ etc); intermetallics, such as NpAI₂, NpPd₃; and halides (e.g. Ul₃).

K McLaren 1983 Bristol: Adam Hilger x + 186 pp price £17.50 (IOP members' price £14) ISBN 0 85274 426 9

In just 167 pages of text this book gives a comprehensive background to the specialised technology of colour measurement, colour difference determination and colour matching using dyes or pigments. Keith McLaren reviews the complexities of the problems involved: not just the physics and chemistry but even the psychology, since 'colour, like beauty, exists only in the eye of the beholder'.

F Pasquill and F B Smith 1983 Chichester: Ellis Horwood 437 pp price £35 ISBN 0 8531 24264

In its first and second editions this book has become a standard text for those involved in the study of the dispersion of pollution in the atmosphere. This third edition maintains the high standards of its predecessors and includes a thorough coverage of material which has become available since the second edition.

J W Haggith (ed) 1983 London: Hospital Physicists' Association viii + 169 pp price £15 (£12 paperback) ISBN 0 904181 28 6 Hdbk, 0 904181 29 4 Pbk

The HPA was 40 years old last year. This little volume is a fitting record of its history and of those who made it, from the modest beginnings during the last years of the second World War, through sustained growth, to its present healthy size of over 1400 members.

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.