Misogyny in pop science books

 My 8 year old daughter is quite into the idea of time travel, and would really like it if it were possible to build a time machine.  So, I figured I'd get a copy of Paul Davies's book How to Build a Time Machine and read it to her.  I hadn't read it and figured it wasn't quite aimed at her age, but I also figured it would be pretty readable and she'd get something from it. 

Mainly she seems to be enjoying it, and I am too, but one phrase in the introduction did jar with me when reading it out to her.  The author talks a bit about time travel in popular culture, mentioning Doctor Who and how audiences "thrilled to the adventures of the time lord Dr Who and his attractive lady accomplices."  

I didn't stop reading or start talking about why the "lady accomplices" should have been described as "attractive" when they are no doubt lots of other things, and she didn't stop to ask, but I certainly gave a huge inward sigh, realising that this is the world she is living in.  We're still reading through the book together, and I think I indeed must say something to her about it.  Perhaps when we've finsihed we can talk about things we thought about the book, and I can give my thoughts then.

Home office to X-ray people?

 The Daily Mail and General Trust's publication New Scientist has a report in it, here, that the Home Office has commissioned a report on supposed scientific methods to determine someone's age.  The "someones" in question are those who come to UK seeking asylum.  The UK government has come up with a high-profile scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda while their claims are being dealt with, despite being technically competent to look after people and process their asylum claims in the UK.

One sticking point with the process is that children are not supposed to be sent to Rwanda, but the exact ages of asylum seekers (who are quite possibly without documents) can't be verified by the government, who may doubt the claim of someone to be still a child.  Their bright idea, then, is to find ways of accurately determining age, and so a report has been commissioned. 

According to the New Scientist story, which includes some details of the yet-unpublished report, one of the methods is in the use of dental X-rays.  I'm not qualified to comment on whether any of the physiological measures of age are reliable (but it strongly looks like not) but the idea of giving someone ionizing radiation for a non-therapeutic purpose is totally immoral.  Ionising radiation is damaging.  It carries a risk of causing damage to the body, which could result in cancer.  The effect is small, but giving X-rays is a calculated risk if there is a medical reason for it.  In this case, there is no medical reason, simply a political one, and there can be no justification for it at all.  

I hope when the report appears that it is not implemented, and that if there is an attempt to implement it, no medical practitioner would agree to do it, but it's bad enough that it's even being thought about.

Philip Walker recipient of 2022 Lise Meitner prize

It has just been announced that my colleague at the University of Surrey, (emeritus) Prof Phil Walker, has received the 2022 Lise Meitner prize for his work on nuclear isomers.  A good description of the significance of isomers is given in the announcement from the European Physical Society. It points out that the discovery of isomers happened 100 years ago (actually 101), and Phil co-organised a meeting in Berlin in the place where Hahn made that discovery.  The workshop took place this year and was able to happen in-person, though Phil only attended remotely thanks to the general ongoing difficulties in international travel through the pandemic. 

This is not the first time I have blogged about Phil winning a prize.  He was also awarded the 2019 IoP Rutherford medal.  When I mentioned that,  I pointed out how kind and helpful Phil has been with me in my career, and that I had 14 co-authored papers with him and hoped that I might be able to increase that number.  In fact, that has happened - last year Phil and I published a paper together on gamma decay of isomeric states.  

Congratulations Phil!

Laura Veirs @ The Boileroom

 

Last night was the Covid-rescheduled visit of Laura Veirs to Guildford's premier music venue, the Boileroom.  I was bought a ticket by my mother-in-law for my birthday last year, and the original date for the gig was in October 2021.  That got pushed to last night, and I went along to see her play.  The support act was Joni - a singer-songwriter from LA, now living in London, who sung a set of sweet folky songs, a little reminiscent of Edie Brickell (though looking up the blurb for tonight's gig in Brighton, I see she is also described as "evoking the feelings of indie darlings Cat Power, Feist and Charlotte Gainsbourg."). 

Then came Laura Veirs.  The last time I saw Laura Veirs was a few years ago also at the Boileroom.  Last time, I'm pretty sure, she came with a band.  This time she was by herself, so although she is overall quite a folky and acoustic artist, some of her songs are a bit rockier and she did not play those ones last night.  There was quite a range of material played covering her many albums, including from the period of hers that I know best (around the time of July Flame and Warp and Weft).  She played some new songs from her soon-to-be-released album which (she explained) were a bit more experimental, using alternative tunings, and playing off beat for example.  I liked the new stuff and look forward to listening to the album.

Near the end she said she'd take requests and I didn't shout anything out, but she finished pre-encore with the song I probably would have shouted for, I can see your tracks.  I see that I posted a video to that before when I went to see Laura Veirs play.   This time, I'll post another one.  It's from the same album (July Flame) and she played it about half way through the set last night.  It's called When You Give Your Heart.  This version is a live-on-radio take:

 

Lord of the Dance

 Hot on the heels of my trip to GLive on Monday to see the Unthanks, I was back to see Lord of the Dance.  This was quite a different event to the minimalist and intimate folk music of Monday night.  Lord of the Dance featured a giant projected screen starting with a mini hagioraphy of Michael Flatley, dancer and founder of the show.  After that the live dancing started, along with grandiose scenic accompaniment on the projected screen.

The dancing was very impressive, with a mixed group of dancers playing out scenes in story of a battle between good and evil (loosely, and to the extent that I understood the story).  The music was augmented by the rhythmic sounds coming from the dancers' hard shoes, and I enjoyed seeing brilliant well-practiced artists doing their thing.  Monday night was more my scene, but I'm glad I came to see the dancing.  

From where we were sitting we had a good view, but it was quite far back, so my picture taken as the cast were coming on to take their bows is not the clearest

The Unthanks at GLive

 Last night I went to see The Unthanks play at GLive in Guildford.  I was excited when I heard that they were coming and managed to be online when the tickets were released, so I and my partner were right in the middle of the front row.  They played a 2x1hr set with a break in the middle, where I had the pleasure of talking to my colleague Wilton and his wife Andrea at the bar. 

This is the start of an unusually hectic week for me.  I'm back at GLive on Wedensday for Lord of the Dance, out for my ice skating lesson on Thursday and at book club (for Elena Knows) on Friday.   Perhaps once this would not have been so unusual, but since having children it is.  I guess the youngest is now getting to the age that going out and leaving him with a babysitter is doable.  Still, the fact that he wakes us up at least an hour before we want/need to get up is still a hindrance to having too many late nights!

 Here's a picture taken from our plum seats in the front row:

14 year-olds using matrices

Coming up soon is the Qiskit Global Summer School which is something I'm suggesting some of my students attend. 

I was wondering whether at least some of it might be far too elementary for them, as the summer school is open to students aged 14 and over, with a prerequisite of knowledge that attendees know some basic maths including matrices.  One of the co-supervisors I was discussing this with, who is a bit younger than me, commented that he'd never come across a 14 year old who knew about matrices, which reminded me that today's students indeed don't come across them at that age. 

I happened to have on my desk a copy of Book 4 volume 2 of the School Mathematics Project textbook that I used at school.  Indeed, it has a stamp in it of my secondary school, and it is presumably a copy I should have, but didn't, give back to them after using. 

Here's a picture of the first page, the start of chapter 11 (it being volume 2, after all)

 Its opening sentence is "we saw in Book 3 how a matrix could be used to represent a transformation ..." so matrices were obvioulsy introduced no later than book 3, possibly eariler.  Inserted into this book was a folded timetable for my 3rd year (Y9 in current terminology) timetable, so I suppose I used book 4 volume 2 in that year.  Clearly, I was a 14 year old once who knew about matrices.  Being taught them then was so matter of fact that I never thought much about it.  There was a simple enough rule for multiplying them and that was effectively all that one needs to learn about matrices to use them.  Applications, such as using them for geometrical transformations, is another matter, and one can find ever more esoteric and advanced applications, but the basic properties are really rather simple.  Of course, I am the sort of person who ended up doing a PhD in theoretical physics, but the educationalists of the time presumably thought matrices a perfectly wholesome activity for 11/12 year-olds.