General News

STFC: The Sunday Times article of 4 October 2009 on UK involvement in the European particle physics laboratory CERN and high profile global astronomy projects, such as ALMA, is incorrect.  The article has misquoted the Chief Operating Officer of STFC, Professor Richard Wade and taken other comments out of context.
 
STFC's position in relation to the LHC is made clear in their Vision document, published in July 2009, which states that ‘our highest priority in particle physics is to exploit the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN’.  Particle physics delivers significant benefits to the UK economy, as demonstrated in the joint STFC-Institute of Physics publication Particle Physics - It Matters published in May 2009.
Press release ~ STFC review
 
ScotGov: A national conference - organised & run by pupils - has been held that will encourage young people to take action over sustainable development issues.  Inverkeithing High, Bellahouston Academy and Peebles High are leading 'eco-schools' and pupils from the 3 secondaries worked together to organise a conference where they could share the work they are involved with in their schools & communities.
 
The Eco-Schools programme is an international initiative designed to encourage whole-school action for the environment. Schools can apply for 3 levels of award - Silver, Gold & Green - with specified criteria at each level.
Press release ~ Eco-Schools Scotland ~ ScotGov - Schools ~ Keep Scotland Beautiful
 
ScotGov: Scottish social workers have begun receiving advice from a new hub of child protection expertise - the first in the UK - as they work to keep young people safe from neglect or abuse. The Multi-Agency Resource Service (MARS), based at the University of Stirling, is helping child protection professionals work through difficult cases and share good practice to help spread successful approaches across Scotland.
Press release ~ Multi-Agency Resource Service (MARS) ~ ScotGov: Examination of child protection measures ~ Related press release
 
NA: A new partnership between JISC, the University of Sunderland, the Met Office Hadley Centre and the British Atmospheric Data Centre has enabled the use of historical naval logbooks in ground-breaking research on climate change.  The logbooks include the famous voyages of Charles Darwin's ship, the Beagle, Captain Cook's HMS Discovery and William Parry's polar expedition in HMS Hecla.
 
The UK Colonial Registers and Royal Navy Logbooks (CORRAL) project has digitised nearly 300 ships' logbooks dating back to the 1760s and, for the first time, the accurate weather information they contain is being used as scientific data to reconstruct past climate conditions.  Modern researchers are able to find out what the weather was like anywhere in the world on a particular day.
 
A fully searchable version of the logbooks, which also include unique accounts of life on board ship and the lands encountered on the adventurers' voyages, will be available on The National Archives' website in 2010.
Press release ~ JISC ~ Met Office Hadley Centre ~ BADC: Historical naval logbooks ~ UK Colonial Registers and Royal Navy Logbooks (CORRAL) project ~ The National Archives
 
HO: Design students from across the country are being invited to propose ways to prevent a vehicle-borne terrorist attack in a crowded place in the Public Spaces, Safer Places competition. The competition brief is based on a fictional site, described as the country’s largest nightclub.
 
Students can provide solutions to deal with different styles of vehicle borne attack or provide innovative proposals that will enable site owners to verify vehicle entry at specific vehicle control points in the site (both are described in the brief). The competition will close on 11 December 2009 and an award ceremony will be hosted in April 2010.
Press release ~ Public Spaces, Safer Places competition ~ RSA’s Design Directions student award scheme ~ Police National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) ~ Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure (CPNI)
 
OS: 8 lucky schoolchildren spent the day unearthing archaeological remains with Channel 4’s Time Team after winning a competition run by national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey. The winners met with presenter Tony Robinson and the rest of Time Team in Litlington, Cambridgeshire, where an exciting dig had already begun for the show’s new series.  The winners were able to tour the trenches and be on hand as a Roman Villa was uncovered.
 
The competition was run as part of Ordnance Survey’s Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme, which offers every Year & Primary 7 pupil in the country a free OS Explorer Map.  It is one of the largest educational resource initiatives of its kind, with the 5 millionth map given away last year.
 
Every school in the country still has the chance to order their pupils’ maps for the 2009 scheme and enter this year’s competition to win an ‘all-expenses paid’ trip with the Field Studies Council in Exmoor National Park.  Competition entry forms will be delivered with the maps to all schools that order by the closing date of the 30 November 2009.
Press release ~ OS: Free maps for 11 year olds ~ Field Studies Council in Exmoor National Park
 
HO: A crime-fighting project has won top spot in the national Tilley Awards ceremony after delivering a 90% drop in incidents of metal theft. Operation Fragment was set up by Avon & Somerset Police to tackle a spate of metal thefts at schools, churches and community buildings.  
 
Working with local councils and metal dealers police launched a series of crime reduction campaigns including presentations to church wardens and school staff on how to improve security. Test sales were carried out on metal dealers and intelligence led checks were made on suspicious vehicles. The operation led to a drop in thefts and an increase in arrests.
Press release ~ Tilley Awards ~ Top 3 entrants
 
ScotGov: Two of Scotland's world-renowned science institutes are to join forces to form a new powerhouse for research into food, land use and climate change. The Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute have agreed in principle to unite, strengthening Scotland's rural-environmental research capacity and further enhancing their international competitiveness.
 
It will be the first institute of its kind in Europe and the new organisation is expected to create an international office to reinforce its global presence. SCRI and the Macaulay already have extensive global links: SCRI has international development links to Africa & trade links to China and the Macaulay is active in more than 40 countries worldwide.
Press release ~ Scottish Crop Research Institute ~ The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute
 
HMT: Over 6m people aged 50 & over can now take advantage of a £3,000 increase in the tax-free ISA allowance, with the limits rising to £10,200 (up from £7,200), of which up to £5,100 can be saved in cash (up from £3,600).  From 6 April 2010 the ISA increase will be available for all, regardless of age.  Over 19m people currently have an ISA and the increase could directly benefit over 5m people.
Press release ~ HMT - ISAs
 
HEFCE: Over 7,000 young people have been inspired & encouraged to apply to university through the support of student mentors following the success of the Aimhigher Associates scheme, which is now to be rolled out nationally across England.
Press release ~ About Aimhigher Associates ~ National Aimhigher Awards 2009
 
BIS: Last week, rocket scientists have headed down to Earth and back to school as part of World Space Week - the largest annual public space event on the planet, which celebrates the contributions of space science & technology to human society and involves all the world’s space-faring nations.
 
The UK space sector is second only to the United States in space science, supporting 68,000 jobs and contributing £6.5bn to the economy.  UK science & engineering expertise features in over 40 operational missions– from Herschel, the largest space telescope ever built – to Galileo, Europe’s first satellite navigation system.
 
World Space Week will be followed by space-related events during the half-term holiday, including activities at the National Space Centre in Leicester to highlight all the different nations involved in space missions.
Press release ~  World Space Week ~ British National Space Centre
 
PCS: The PCS union has accused the government and the Conservatives of ‘playing political football with civil & public servants' lives in a bid to outmanoeuvre one another on public sector pay & job cuts’. Responding to the government’s & Conservative’s announcements to cap pay increases and freeze the pay of civil & public servants, the union warned that the two parties were damaging the morale of hard working staff at a time when people needed public services the most.
 
With 40% of people working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) getting no pay rise last year and half the civil service earning less than £20,000, the union went on to say that low paid workers should not be penalised for the failures of the City. IDS, the independent pay monitoring body, is predicating pay rises of 2-3% next year for the private sector,leading the union to warn that the gap between the civil service and private sector will continue to grow.
Press release ~ PCS ~ Related previous TUC press release ~ Decent Pensions for All
 
ACEUnlimited, the UK’s largest arts & disability programme has been launched by London 2012 as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.  The £3m programme is the result of a 3-year consultation process across the disability, arts and disability sports sectors. 
Press release ~ ACE - Unlimited ~Information sheet ~ London 2012 Cultural Olympiad
 
MO: Global warming could melt the vast Greenland ice sheet beyond ‘tipping points’ from which it would only partially recover even if global carbon dioxide concentrations returned to levels prior to the industrial revolution. Previous studies have already shown that the ice sheet, covering an area of about 1.7 million km², could melt completely over a few thousand years if global temperatures rise unchecked.  This would raise sea levels by up to seven metres.
 
This latest study used a sophisticated climate model coupled to a 3D simulation of the ice sheet to predict changes over thousands of years — a method pioneered by the Met Office Hadley Centre.  Scientists found there were ‘tipping points’ in the melting of the ice sheet which, when crossed, meant that the ice sheet may only recover to certain levels even when temperatures returned to pre-industrial levels.
Press release ~ Met Office Hadley Centre ~ Thresholds for irreversible decline of the Greenland ice sheet
 
ACE: If you’re looking for a different way to spend an evening without spending any cash, then some ‘legendary’ characters would like to recommend your local theatre. Stars of the hit BBC3 series 'Being Human', including Aidan Turner (brooding vampire Mitchell), Russell Tovey (conflicted werewolf George) and Sinead Keenan (George’s girlfriend Nina) are all huge fans of live theatre and they’re urging students across England to try it – for FREE – with the Arts Council England scheme - A Night Less Ordinary.
 
During the first 3 months of the scheme, more than 50,000 free theatre tickets were given away, but there are hundreds of thousands more available to anyone under 26.  With over 200 theatres across England taking part there’s a theatre event to suit everyone – from comedies to tragedies, musical theatre, dance, modern mime, plays, circus and much more.
Press release ~ A Night Less Ordinary ~ National Union of Students (NUS)/A Night Less Ordinary
 
ACE: Dame Liz Forgan, Chair of Arts Council England, last week told a gathering of the UK’s libraries to join up with the wider cultural sector and “reinvigorate the role public libraries play in championing the value of reading”.
 
Speaking at the Public Library Authorities (PLA) conference in Bristol, she discussed the Arts Council’s Taking Part research which revealed reading had the highest level of public participation of any artform, creating an ‘unseen army of support’ for libraries to utilise.
Press release ~ Arts Council’s Taking Part research
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