General News
CIOB: The Construction Youth Trust (CYT) is set to launch the ‘Budding Brunels’ pilot scheme and is looking for support from charitable trusts and industry bodies. The Budding Brunels project is an opportunity to excite & inform pupils in Year 12 (aged 16-17) about the building and engineering professions. It involves weekly sessions of 1 – 2 hours held during the school term (but outside school hours), although some topics will be connected within General Studies.
Participating students will take part in a number of activities such as trips to construction & engineering sites, combined with visits to working museums, heritage sites and university materials testing laboratories, as well as presentations on exciting projects from across the globe and classroom activities exploring building and engineering principles.
Press release ~ Construction Youth Trust (CYT) ~ The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) ~ Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) London
TfL: More than 100,000 texts from people looking for a safe journey home in a licensed minicab or taxi were sent in 2007, tripling the number of Cabwise requests in the two years since its launch. By texting the word 'HOME' to the Cabwise number, 60835, the area a caller is in can be identified and the phone numbers of a black cab company, as well as two local licensed minicab firms, sent back.
The Cabwise service is a key part of the Mayor’s Safer Travel at Night Campaign which works in partnership between the GLA, the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London to raise awareness of the dangers of using illegal minicabs and the safe travel options in the capital at night.
AH: Animal Health has launched a free news alert service to help people on the move keep in touch with the latest developments on notifiable animal disease. The service is targeted mainly at the farming community, although it is available to everyone.
By registering, subscribers will receive alerts on up to five notifiable animal diseases; foot & mouth disease, bluetongue, avian influenza, Newcastle disease and classical swine fever. Subscribers can choose to receive alerts via a voicemail on a landline telephone or mobile telephone, via text, fax or email.
BERR: The UK will take part in the ‘global development of secure nuclear energy’ Business Secretary John Hutton has announced, as the UK accepted an invitation to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Mr Hutton, who signed the agreement during a two day visit to Washington DC, also met with US energy companies to discuss potential investment in new nuclear build in the UK.
GNEP is a US initiative and promotes international collaboration to develop new spent fuel processing technology and advanced breeder reactors. Fuel production, reprocessing and ultimately waste storage services will then be provided to countries that have reactors but do not have those associated fuel cycle activities. This will enable countries to use nuclear energy for electricity generation without the need for them to possess sensitive technologies that could be used for weapons production.
Press release ~ GNEP ~ International Atomic Energy Agency ~ United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 ~ GNEP Statement of Principles (5th page) ~ Nuclear Power - BERR
Home Office: A tracer trial to study the movement of airborne material in the urban environment is being carried out in the London Borough of Westminster. The trial consists of small releases of a harmless, odourless gas at various locations within Marylebone and the monitoring of how it disperses within the local area.
The trials aim to improve contingency planning in the unlikely event of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear release. It follows similar trials that were carried out in May and June of 2007 and is not a response to any specific threat.
Press release ~ Dapple project ~ UK Resilience ~ The release of Chemical, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) substances or material guidance
LSN: The Learning and Skills Network is launching a new series of podcasts each month which can be downloaded from the LSN’s new podcast page. The opening episode delivers a broad introduction to improving retention and achievement – exploring the reasons learners leave course and what can be done to improve achievement rates.
BGS: The British Geological Survey (BGS) recorded an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 (ML) on the Richter scale near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire last week. Earthquakes of this size occur in the mainland UK roughly every 30 years, although are more common in offshore areas.
This is the largest earthquake in the UK since the magnitude 5.4 ML Lleyn Peninsula earthquake in 1984, which was widely felt across England and Wales. The BGS records approximately 200 earthquakes in the UK each year on its monitoring stations. Approximately 25 earthquakes in the UK are felt by people each year.
STFC: The ATLAS collaboration at CERN is celebrating the lowering of its last large detector element. The ATLAS detector is the world’s largest general-purpose particle detector weighing 7,000 tonnes and consisting of 100 million sensors that measure particles produced in proton-proton collisions in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Experiments at the LHC will hopefully allow physicists to take a big leap on a journey that started with Newton's description of gravity. Gravity is ubiquitous since it acts on mass, but so far science is unable to explain why particles have the masses they have. Experiments such as ATLAS may provide the answer.
LHC experiments will also probe the mysterious dark matter and energy of the Universe, they will investigate the reason for nature's preference for matter over antimatter, probe matter as it existed close to the beginning of time and look for extra dimensions of spacetime.
Press release ~ CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research ~ CERN in a nutshell ~ CERN - LHC Experiments: ATLAS ~ Science and Technology Facilities Council
NA: The first comprehensive survey of local authority archive services reveals a 'postcode lottery' of service quality across England and Wales. The variations in service mean that some irreplaceable historical records run the risk of not surviving for future generations.
OS: Learn how you can make the most of a day out with your Ordnance Survey map in this downloadable video podcast. Watch experienced outdoor experts Chris Butler and Cathy Ward dish out their top map reading tips whilst navigating the New Forest National Park.
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