STFC: New research led by a UK scientist indicates that Mars had significantly warmer weather in its recent past than previously thought. The research, funded by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), is good news in our quest for life on Mars as, the shorter the time period since the last warm weather on the planet, the better the chance that any organisms that may have lived in warmer times are still alive under the planet’s surface.
Dr Matthew Balme, from The Open University, made the new discovery by studying detailed images of equatorial landforms that formed by melting of ice-rich soils. His work indicates that the Martian surface experienced ‘freeze thaw’ cycles as recently as 2m years ago and that Mars has not been locked in permafrost conditions for billions of years, as had been previously thought.
The pictures show polygonally patterned surfaces, branched channels, blocky debris and mound/cone structures. All of these features are similar to landforms on Earth typical of areas where permafrost terrain is melting.
Dr Matthew Balme, from the Earth and Environmental Sciences department at The Open University, holds a prestigious STFC Aurora Fellowship to study the extent to which recent geological activity on Mars has been influenced by changes in its climate.
Press release ~ NASA’s HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging science Experiment) ~ Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) ~ Earth and Environmental Sciences department at The Open University ~ STFC Aurora Fellowship ~ British National Space Centre
LLUK: Lifelong Learning UK are pleased to announce their support for the Keep Britain Working campaign, which promotes innovative ways to preserve and create jobs. Recent research undertaken by the campaign found that 50% of UK bosses have become worse at motivating their staff since the recession began. The Keep Britain Working campaign focuses on how individuals can play their part in keeping colleagues motivated and organisations working.
OS: Over 30 developers were able to get hands on experience with OS OpenSpace and were given the opportunity to experiment with some of the world’s best mapping data, at an open evening held by Ordnance Survey recently. Attendees (including web developers, independent developers, new business start-ups, consultancies & developers from the police) were also given the opportunity to attend a selection of workshops.
The sessions included topics for all user abilities, starting at how to create your first web map and adding your own content, through to how developers can use the new boundary data with other datasets to create mash-ups. The developer workshops follow the release of the new enhanced version of OS OpenSpace.
The new application programming interface (API) gives users access to a range of Ordnance Survey mapping for FREE. Through OS OpenSpace, developers can use a range of mapping scales covering the whole of Great Britain down to street level, access boundary data and use a postcode look-up feature.
NA: The National Archives proposes a number of changes to its operations & public services. The proposals include closure of the Kew reading room to the public on Mondays, and a new daily charge for car parking on the Kew site. The changes reflect the growth in demand from their online customers, who account for over 90% of their usage and it is anticipated that they will be implemented from early September 2009.
Users are invited to attend an open information meeting at Kew (10:00 on Saturday 11 July, when Jeff James, Director of Operations and Services, will take them through proposed changes.
ACE: Arts Council England has responded to the publication of Marc Sidwell's report for the New Culture Forum. It believes that the New Culture Forum has missed important opportunities – for a proper analysis of arts funding & of the challenges that lie ahead and a proper debate about how the Arts Council can continue to change & improve its relationships with artists.
The response includes:
* The report is hampered and its analysis called into question by some basic errors and highly misleading factual inaccuracies.
* The New Culture Forum has spectacularly missed the point. It claims to want to reduce bureaucratic burdens on artists and then proposes massively increasing them.
* Today’s Arts Council will never allow artistic ambition to be smothered by a smallness of vision. We are committed to becoming a new kind of public sector organisation that ignites ambition and allows extraordinary things to happen, with a minimum amount of bureaucracy.
Press release (includes all comments) ~ 'The Arts Council - Managed to Death' report ~ Arts Council organisation review briefing note (24 February 2009)
Ofgem: Energy regulator Ofgem has urged suppliers to up their game in complaint handling, as consumer research found less than 1 in 4 customers were satisfied with the way gripes were dealt with. While an independent audit commissioned by Ofgem found that suppliers had made the necessary systems investments and updated their processes in preparation for new complaint handling standards introduced last year, customers remained dissatisfied.
Consumers were particularly unhappy with the number of times they had to contact the supplier, suppliers who promised to call back but didn’t, the attitude of some staff and the fact that suppliers often viewed the problem as resolved when in the customer’s eyes it was not.
While there were low levels of satisfaction across all suppliers some performed better than others. Out of the big 6, SSE and E.ON rated joint highest for satisfaction (29%) and npower was rated lowest (16%).
Press release ~ Changes to consumer representation ~ Ofgem - Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets: Making a complaint or inquiry
STFC: The computing grid that will provide the massive amounts of computer power needed to support the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the world’s most powerful particle accelerator - has passed a new series of tests that mimicked the immense load it will be under when the LHC restarts later this year.
After months of preparation and 2 intensive weeks of continual operation, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (wLCG) has demonstrated that it is ready to support the massive growth in LHC users once data taking commences.
wLCG combines the IT power of more than 140 computer centres, the result of collaboration between 33 countries. The UK contributes 21 of these sites and almost 15,000 computers. The UK facilities are all managed by GridPP, a project funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
Press release ~ Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ~ Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (wLCG) ~ GridPP ~ Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
NA: From searching for records of transportation to Australia to chronicling the history of the Irish revolution, free talks at The National Archives in July offer a wealth of help & information to people researching their family history. Other highlights include:
* The life of the Victorian poor
* The summer of '69
* The creation & service records of the Metropolitan Police
* Railway disasters
Press release ~ Podcasts ~
MoD: The Queen is to honour families of fallen heroes. The Elizabeth Cross will be granted to the next of kin of Armed Forces personnel killed on operations or as a result of terrorism in a mark of national recognition for their loss.
This is the first time the name of a reigning Monarch has been given to a new award since the George Cross was instituted in 1940 by King George VI for brave acts by both civilians and the military. Prior to this, the Victoria Cross was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856 for acts of gallantry by the Armed Forces.
The next of kin will receive the Elizabeth Cross – a sterling silver emblem, in the shape of a cross over a wreath - plus a Memorial Scroll signed by The Queen which will bear the name of the person who died. The Queen’s recognition will be available to the families of those who died in conflicts dating back to 1948, including the Korean War, the Falklands conflict and operations in Northern Ireland.
The Elizabeth Cross & Memorial Scroll have been inspired by precedents from the WW1 & WW2. A scroll & memorial plaque were presented to the families of those killed in WW1, while a scroll was given to the families of those who died in WW2 and in the Korean War in the early 1950s.
Press release ~ The Elizabeth Cross – Died On Operations Recognition Award~ Armed Forces Memorial Appeal ~ The National Memorial Arboretum ~ Memorial Plaque and scroll from WW1 ~ Imperial War Museum – Background to Scheme ~ Military Honours and Awards ~ Commonwealth War Graves Commission ~ Royal British Legion
HO: Visitors will now be fingerprinted & checked against watch-lists before being issued with a visa to travel. The new rules have been introduced by the Home Office to counter passport & identity fraud and follow Britain’s first global review of who needs a visa to come to the UK for a short-term visit.
Visa regimes for visitors have now been imposed on five new countries – Bolivia, Venezuela, South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. This follows a global assessment by the Government of all non-European countries to determine the level of risk their citizens potentially pose to the UK in terms of illegal immigration, crime and security.
Nationals from more than 100 countries now require a visa and the UK Border Agency has already collected more than 4m fingerprints from people applying for visas worldwide.
Press release ~ UK Border Agency – Travelling to the UK ~ UK Border Agency 10-point Delivery Plan for 2009
MoD: The advanced Hawk T Mk2 will train next generation of fast jet pilots from 2011. The new aircraft builds on the success of its long-serving predecessor, but benefits from significant enhancement to bridge any gap with the latest front line jets entering service, such as Typhoon.
Featuring a ‘glass’ cockpit and the latest advances in radar, weapons & defensive aids simulation, the Hawk T Mk2 is aimed at providing a seamless transition from flying training to operational squadron.
In addition to the realistic in-flight training environment, the new Hawk benefits from simpler design & construction, leading to lower acquisition & support costs. Infrastructure to support the new training regime is currently under construction at RAF Valley by the Ascent Flight Services consortium, which was awarded the £600m contract to deliver all military pilot training on an incremental basis last summer.
MCA: The European Commission-funded Project Horizon brings together 11 academic institutions & organisations with a broad range of interests from the shipping industry in a 30-month research programme to examine the way in which fatigue affects the cognitive performance of ships’ watchkeepers.
The €3.78m project will make extensive use of bridge, engine and liquid cargo handling simulators in Sweden and the UK to produce real-time, realistic scenarios in which the impact of fatigue on decision-making and performance can be assessed.
Launched in response to concern over aspects that lead to seafarer fatigue, the project seeks to improve safety at sea by developing a fatigue management toolkit for the industry, as well as recommendations for improving work patterns at sea.
Press release ~ MCA – Safe Manning ~ MCA – Guidance on fatigue ~ Cardiff Research Programme report ~ MCA - Managing Fatigue in Seafarers (VLF 4Mb) ~ ITF - Fatigue ~ Mariner Fatigue – A review of research and related literature ~ Sea Vision UK
STFC: A group of 15-16 year old students have been reporting directly to the UK government on their proposals for how nanotechnology could be used to help meet the future needs of the healthcare sector.
During a 2-week placement period at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC’s) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory the A-level and GCSE students have been working on the ‘Nanotechnology in Healthcare’ project which involves researching the key areas in the health sector that need addressing, the technologies currently available to do this and how the UK can play a role.
It’s being sponsored by STFC’s Futures Programme, which was set up in response to the government’s Grand Challenges, which are a set of key priorities set up to respond to the future demands of society.
Press release ~ STFC ~ European Nanotechnology Gateway ~
NE: A man has been ordered to restore an area of the Cam Washes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near Wicken after constructing a track and a car parking area through an important wildlife habitat.
The SSSI, consisting of a series of low-lying washland pastures, is nationally important for its numbers & diversity of breeding wildfowl and wading birds including snipe, redshank and teal. The Cam Washes are the third largest area of washland remaining in Cambridgeshire.
Press release ~ Cam Washes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) ~ Natural England - Information for SSSI Owners and Occupiers
STFC: A new laser technique that could lead to bone disorders being diagnosed earlier is to be tested in a hospital for the first time. The study, which it’s hoped will pave the way for future clinical trials, will apply a revolutionary approach known as SORS (Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy), to examine specific substances in non see-through surfaces deeper than has previously been possible, without damaging the surface.
The research team hope ultimately that the method can be used both to detect & screen for early signs of diseases such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. The concept has been evaluated on bone samples with differing chemical composition, but never before in a hospital on patients - as will happen in the next few years.
If these trials are successful it may still take several years for the method to become fully realised for diagnostic use in the mainstream health service. The SORS technique has also been developed for pharmaceutical and security applications. These applications are in more advanced stages and are presently taken forward through STFC’s spin-out company Cobalt Light Systems Ltd.
Press release ~ Central Laser Facility at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ~ Science and Technology Facilities Council ~ Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science, University College London (UCL) ~ Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ~ RNOH ~ Cobalt Light Systems Ltd ~ SORS bone spectroscopy technique
NA: A rare print of America's Declaration of Independence has been found among files at The National Archives at Kew. Printed on 4 July 1776, the Dunlap print is one of only 26 known copies in the world and is named after John Dunlap, the printer whose name is at the bottom of each copy.
The last discovered Dunlap Declaration, found at a flea market in 1989, sold at auction in 2000 for $8.14m. The newly discovered print was found, hidden among correspondence from American colonists intercepted by the British in the 18th century, by an American carrying out research at The National Archives.
A copy of this rare find can be downloaded free of charge from our DocumentsOnline service, or you can choose a colour image of all three copies of the Declaration held by The National Archives, the only copies held outside the United States, for 75 pence.
CWGC: On Monday 6 July 2009, at 11am at Comely Bank Cemetery in Edinburgh, former machine gunner Alf Tubb unveiled a headstone in memory of Reginald Earnshaw, his friend & former shipmate who was one of the youngest service casualties of the WW2. Records show Reginald Earnshaw was aged ‘about 15’ when he died aboard the SS North Devon, but it’s believed he may have lied about his age in order to serve his country, perhaps being as young as just 14.
For reasons unknown, the location of Reginald Earnshaw’s grave was never reported to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, though his name is listed on the Tower Hill naval memorial in London. On Monday the Commission unveiled a granite Commission headstone - a fitting & lasting memorial for a boy who died fighting for his country.
Alf has spent the past few years piecing together information on his friend Reggie, who was killed after German aircraft attacked their merchant ship on 6 July 1941. Alf said: “I only knew young Reggie for a short time, but we were good friends. It still upsets me to think of a young lad trapped inside that engine room and I couldn’t save him. Monday will be a special day, and I am indebted to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and all those who helped me piece together Reggie’s story.”
