On this day in 1719

John Flamsteed FRS (born 19 August 1646 – died 31 December 1719) was an English astronomer who catalogued over 3,000 stars and was the first Astronomer Royal. Flamsteed wrote his first paper on astronomy at the age of nineteen, entitled Mathematical Essays, concerning the design, use and construction of an astronomer's quadrant, including tables for the latitude of Derby. He subsequently attended Jesus College, Cambridge (as did both RTA's Richard Thomson and Carl Richardson - although not at the same time ...). He is also remembered for his strong conflicts with Isaac Newton who published significant parts of Flamsteed's work against his request.

5,000 km in 2010

RTA's Richard Thomson has achieved a new personal cycling record - 5,000 km in a year. Completed today, in fact his first ride in December.

On this day in 1947

John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain presented their “little plastic triangle” to the Bell Labs VIPs and it became official: The super star team had invented the first working solid state amplifier.

Their invention of the transistor has been called “the most important invention of the 20th Century.”

Thought for the day

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

Season's Greetings stats

The current click statistics from today's newsletter with these links show
Dog Offers Milk and Cookies for Santa 63%
King's College Cambridge choir sings The Holly and the Ivy 31%
Our Blogspot 6%

Season's Greetings

Given the likely wide spectrum of tastes amongst our readers I have included a choice of two greetings:

King's College Cambridge choir sings The Holly and the Ivy

Dog Offers Milk and Cookies for Santa

With our best wishes for the New Year.

Well done York

Congratulations to The University of York for being been named University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2010. Also a honourable mention to Leeds University (Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology) and UCL (Research Project of the Year).

UK meetings in January

10th January 2011 Quantum Dot Day 2011, Bristol, UK
12th January 2011 UKSAF Winter Meeting 2011, The National Physical Laboratory, UK

Paint it black

I doubt that Mick Jagger will ever sing about carbon nanotubes. However NASA have devised a coating based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes that is about 10 times better at absorbing light, and thus suppressing stray light, than the black paint (NASA Z306) typically used by their instrument engineers. NASA has many observational and measurement related activities where background illumination is the ultimate resolution determinant and so require a paint that is blacker than black.

What can you do with 1,760 Sony PS3s?

The answer is build the fastest interactive computer in the US Defense Department and use it for quick processing of ultra-high-resolution satellite imagery, as well as research into artificial intelligence, radar enhancement and pattern recognition ( ... defense department discusses). The PS3 cluster is about the 33rd largest computer in the world. Interestingly, the staff at the US Air Force Research Laboratory reckon that this huge computer power cost is about 5-10% of the cost of an equivalent system built with off-the-shelf computer parts. Another advantage of the PS3-based supercomputer is its energy efficiency: it consumes just 10% of the power of comparable supercomputers. They must be pretty good at Gran Turismo by now.

On this day in 1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli dies

Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (April 25, 1900 – December 15, 1958) the Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after being nominated by Albert Einstein, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature, the exclusion principle or Pauli principle," involving spin theory, underpinning the structure of matter and the whole of chemistry.

Tech body: patents are 'useless'

Interesting article in The Telegraph
Patents are "practically worthless" for small companies, according to the chairman of the UK's first independent national body representing small businesses in the science and technology sectors.

Thought for the month

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist (1908 - 1970)

Buy that special present online?

The use of ICT and mobile technology has greatly changed our buying habits with online UK Christmas shopping set to exceed £11 Billion (online shopping via mobiles set to surge) with smart phone Apps becoming more prevalent (shoppers smart). For any readers who have yet to find that special something for their nearest and dearest you might like to consider the mere 17,000 tonne HMS Invincible. Available via the UK Disposal Service Authority it would be an alternative to socks or perfume but you have to tow it home. Full details at this link.

On this day in 1784 - Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer dies

Often referred to as Dr Johnson, Samuel Johnson was a British author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. He has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history".

After nine years of work, Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755; it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship".

On this day in 1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded

The highly successful chemist, engineer and inventor, Alfred Nobel, was unpleasantly surprised to read his own obituary in a French newspaper, titled ‘The merchant of death is dead’. Concerned with how he would be remembered his last will requested that his large fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature.

Well done York

Congratulations to The University of York for being been named University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2010. Also an honourable mention to Leeds University (Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology) and UCL (Research Project of the Year).

IBM - "Innovation Beats Manufacturing"?

In a month where IBM's commitment and achievements in research were to the fore (eg Silicon Nanophotonics) Big Blue's future within the wafer fab and manufacturing arena was questioned (IBM moving to fab lite - research heavy?). The huge costs associated with modern fab facilities appear to be the driving force behind IBM increasingly relying on Samsung and GlobalFoundries for its manufacturing, leaving it to focus on the IP generating research. An examination of capital expenditure data from Gartner reveals that the last time IBM spent more than $1 billion on semiconductor capital expenditure in one year was 2004, when it was the 11th biggest spender. IBM is not in the top 20 of semiconductor capital expenditure in 2010 and nor is it expected to be in the top 20 in 2011. Fab-lite, research heavy is the description being now applied to the company. By way of comparison, Samsung is expected to spend $9.2 Billion on capital expenditure in 2011.

Webinar succesfully broadcast but still available for view - Complete Chemical Characterization .....

Please click on this hyperlink to register and watch the saved Webinar.

Webinar - Complete Chemical Characterization and Failure Analysis of New Energy Materials using XPS and EDS

In order to meet the challenges of more economical and environmentally benign energy production, a new generation of complex materials and devices are being developed, such as thin film solar cells, fuel cells and batteries. In all stages of development, there is a requirement for materials characterization and analysis.

Recent developments in spectrometer hardware and software design have made the unique capabilities of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) more accessible to scientists and engineers.

In this webinar, our colleagues Dr Tim Nunney and Dr Nick Bulloss from Thermo Fisher Scientific together with Dr Harry Meyer, a Researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, describe with examples, how EDS and XPS can be used to both characterize and perform failure analysis on modern energy materials.

Please click on this hyperlink to register and find out more about this Webinar:

The Webinar is scheduled for Monday 6th December at 14:00 Greenwich MeanTime (15:00 Central European Time, 09:00 Eastern Standard Time).

On this day

Albert Einstein publishes the general theory of relativity (Thursday 02, 1915)