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Not So Elementary (the Cosmos, That Is)

Recently there are appeared a paper showing how Physics - Iron–Helium Compounds Form Under...

Carbon — to capture or not to capture

This came up on 2nd November 2024 (give or take a day), a broadcaster objecting to a carbon capture...

The Azolla Event: when is a fern not a fern?

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Betelgeuse, Gamow, and a Big Red Horse

There has been a lot of talk recently of Betelgeuse possibly going supernova this century or not...

Robert H Olley

Until recently, I worked in the Polymer Physics Group of the Physics Department at the University of Reading.

I would describe myself as a Polymer Morphologist. I am not an astronaut,

How Group Theory Dispelled My Worry About Mirrors

Sep 17 2010 | comment(s)

I remember, as a child, being very upset by a ventriloquist’s dummy at a show, and crying out and making a ‘scene’. Even well into my teens and beyond, I felt disturbed by “magic”, even in mathematics or science. One particular incident I remember was being shown in class the ‘proof’, by an elementary form a calculus of variations, that the shortest path[1] between two coordinates is a straight line. This left me with an uncomfortable feeling.

Micro-Missiles?

Sep 11 2010 | comment(s)

Retirement in less than three week’s time! What shall I sing? How about this?

And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain

Well, that’s my second most hated song, suited either to a dictator facing trial at the International Criminal Court or a drunkard expiring in a ditch. Even the melody was stolen from a much superior (in my opinion) French song “Comme d'habitude”[1,2].

Not that I could justifiably sing it, anyway:

Regrets I’ve had a few
But then again too few to mention

On the contrary, my career in science is littered with them. One of the most poignant is the memory of the many students we have had whose work has not reached publication to the extent that it should have.

Citric toilet

Sep 04 2010 | comment(s)

One of the things that I learnt from my father, who was a chemical engineer, is that halide ions are aggressive towards metals, and steels in particular. Now bleaches contain a lot of chloride ions, and I have just looked at the bottle of limescale remover in our toilet and it contains hydrochloric acid. It is not advised for use with stainless steel. Since DIY toilet seats often come with steel or brass hinges, this implies trouble around the corner.

Now my favourite de-ruster is citric acid, which can remove both rust and limescale without attacking the steel. So I was gratified just now to come across the following scenario for iron-citrate complexes in Science Codex:

Bucket Chemistry!

Aug 31 2010 | comment(s)

One month to go before the Physics Department closes! And I have the job of classifying and disposing of unwanted and waste chemicals. This year, when “everything must go”, this is proving a mammoth task.

How did I get this job? Being the only practicing chemist in the department, in effect I am Snape, the Potions Master. This in not only because of my academic training, but my work has taught me what chemical can go with which without creating an explosion (for example, NOT acetone and chloroform!)

The Language Barrier Attacked (2 – Eigen)

Aug 21 2010 | comment(s)

When I was in my late teens, my father (a chemical engineer) took an interest in quantum mechanics. Two words from his conversation at that time stuck in my mind, namely Hamiltonian and eigenfunction. The former was almost certainly due to the Scottish part of my ancestry, but with the latter it was the word itself.

Indeed, it at first sight seems quite an intimidating word, along with its relatives eigenvalues and eigenvector. Fear not – I will show you that it despite its fearsome bark, it has a very soft bite.

Integrity In History Of Science

Aug 18 2010 | comment(s)

It may surprise those who know of my Ulster Protestant background that I am something of a fan of Flannery O’Connor. As yet, I have not delved into her novels, but I have read all her stories, and also Mystery and Manners : Occasional Prose, from which I take the following