Stand Up For Physics
By Hayley Birch, Editor
We average Joes may feel that physics, that most elite sport of scientists, has nothing to offer us. Why should we care about stars and abstract particles that may or may not exist – things that seem to have no bearing on our daily toils and troubles?For a field that’s given birth to everything from our mobile phones and computers – via the invention of the transistor – to life-saving medical imaging techniques, it’s a bitter pill to swallow. Physics, perhaps more so than any other science, is continually being asked to justify its place in society.
But justify its place, it must. And that’s exactly what the latest crop of young physicists is doing.
“People don’t fully understand what physics does and how important it is, and that’s something that needs to change in the future,” Rosie Walton, a PhD physics student at the University of Bristol, told the Null. Walton, along with James Jackson, also a physics student at the university, is spearheading a campaign against recent funding cuts in the UK.
Last month, Walton, Jackson, and over 600 students and researchers assembled via a Facebook group, petitioned against a decision that had left the scientific community with an £80 million hole in its pocket. In a letter to the Science and Technologies Funding Council, Jackson wrote, ”We try to encourage others into the field, but the budget cuts will inevitably discourage the uptake of science at all levels; school, undergraduate and postgraduate.”
The Council's response, they feel, amounted to nothing more than one hell of a fobbing off. Ian Pearson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation, replied, “STFC has received a budget settlement that… as a result of the strategic priorities that the STFC has given to various areas of work, will result in certain restructuring and operational changes.”
In his reply, Pearson also refers to a ten-year strategy that aims to bring “a supply of people with science technology, engineering and mathematical… skills to support the science base.” Very little attention, however, is paid to the plight of physics in particular.
“I think most people’s response has been that this is not an acceptable reply,” says Walton. “Some people’s lifelong ambitions have been to go into physics. Now they are beginning to lose their jobs, and some people who are just applying for PhD places are being put off.”Some of the hardest hit areas are particle physics, and astronomy, subjects that have traditionally attracted large numbers of applicants. The UK has completely withdrawn funding from a future particle accelerator project called the International Linear Collider, leaving many postdoctoral researchers, whose career paths have been converging on this project, with nowhere to go.
“I guess it stems from the fact that people don’t realise what it is they’re losing,” says Walton. “It’s probably a much deeper problem than just an £80 million deficit, because I think that if people knew what that equated to, whether we’d get it covered or not wouldn’t be in question.”
So come on, give physics a chance. To show your support for Rosie and James, join their Facebook group - go on, it won't take a minute!
More reasons to support physics:
- It explains everything - Why your headphones get in a tangle
- And not just that - Why toast always lands butter side down
- It's just like magic - Levitation, no really
- It'll give your head a rest - No more annoying "low battery" beeps
More about funding cuts on the blog, this time in the US, from our Stateside reporter, Raychelle Burks.
You can add your own thoughts to the debate by using the comment box below. What other physicists have been saying:
"I'm coming towards the end of my first post-doc in astrophysics and have been actively job hunting for the past few months. So far all of my job applications are for institutions outside of the UK, so after the government investing in my education for approx. 20 years they're going to lose their investment. If the situation stays the same then if I'm ever to return to the UK the odds are it will be outside of my field of research!"
Adam Hill, University of Southampton
I work on accelerator physics for Lancaster University and have a contract that is due to run out in February. At the very least the STFC cuts are going to massively reduce the support resources available to me in the Cockcroft Institute at Daresbury and that's presuming I still have a job. This looks entirely doubtful.
Unlike STFC staff, university staff on temporary contract such as myself are looking at practically no redundancy payout, to bridge us into what looks like a completely different career. With 400 people, mostly highly qualified, going from Daresbury onto the local job market, I can't imagine finding new work is going to be easy.
Jonathan Smith, Oxford
With Prime Ministers that cut science budgets and close science departments in our universities, but advocate faith schools and believe in God and salvation, we would all be better off getting jobs in India, China or places like Singapore. It's too late for we old fogies, but young graduates should jump off this sinking ship... or take holy orders.
As things stand I will definitely lose my job, most likely at the start of the next financial year - April 2008. I doubt I will get another job in particle physics - I don't want to leave the UK, and I can't see UK institutions hiring any new post-docs with all this going on.
Clare Lynch, BristolWith Prime Ministers that cut science budgets and close science departments in our universities, but advocate faith schools and believe in God and salvation, we would all be better off getting jobs in India, China or places like Singapore. It's too late for we old fogies, but young graduates should jump off this sinking ship... or take holy orders.
Dr M D Magee
What do you expect from 'professional' politicians? Students' union, local council, county council, parliament. All the while being devoted 'yes' men clinging to the coattails of their patrons.
Alan Glyn Thomas
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