Skip to main content

Reset your password

Please enter the e-mail address you used to register to reset your password

Note: The verification e-mail to change your password should arrive immediately. However, in some cases it takes longer. Don't forget to check your spam folder.

If you haven't received the e-mail in 24 hours, please contact customerservices@ioppublishing.org

Registration complete

Thank you for registering with Physics World
If you'd like to change your details at any time, please visit My account

Close

Nuclear fallout used to spot fake art

Scientists and art historians have developed what they say is a foolproof way of identifying forged works of art. They can distinguish between art created before 1945 and that produced after that date by measuring levels of the isotopes caesium–137 and strontium–90. These isotopes do not occur naturally but are released into the environment by nuclear blasts.

Over 2000 nuclear tests have been carried out since the first atomic explosion took place in New Mexico in July 1945, and the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed a few weeks later. Among the by-products of these tests are caesium-137 and strontium-90, tiny quantities of which make their way into the Earth’s soil and plants. It is then via the natural oils, such as linseed from the flax plant, that are used as binding agents in paints that these isotopes end up in post-1945 art.

According to The Art Newspaper, the idea of using non-naturally occurring isotopes to identify forged paintings occurred to Elena Basner while she was working as curator of 20th-century art at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. Basner, who is now a consultant for the Swedish auctioneers Bukowskis, said she was spending lots of time trying to distinguish between fakes and genuine works of art, given the high quality that forgers have managed to attain.

Mass spectrometer

Basner contacted a number of scientists to find a reliable and systematic way of weeding out forgeries. She ended up working with Andrey Krusanov, a freelance chemist and writer with an interest in the history of Russian avant-garde painting. Several physicists, chemists and mineralogists at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg were also involved. Together they hit upon the idea of looking for the presence or absence of caesium–137 and strontium–90 using a mass spectrometer

The patented technique involves extracting tiny (of the order of 1 square millimetre) samples from paintings. The team were able to show that the two isotopes are not present in paintings from the first half of the 20th century, but that there were traces in paintings done in the 1950s.

Basner says she plans to use the technique to identify post-war imitations of Russian avant-garde works produced between 1900 and 1930. According to Basner, the originals are now probably outnumbered by the imitations, which first started to appear on the market in the 1960s. But she believes that, like any other work of art, if these paintings contain traces of caesium–137 and strontium–90 then they can be definitely declared post-1945 forgeries.

However, as Antonia Kimbell points out, while the presence of these isotopes would prove that a pre-1945 painting is a fake, their absence does not necessarily mean that the painting is genuine. Kimbell, who woks for the Art Loss Register, a UK organization that helps to tackle art crime, says that cunning forgers can reproduce paintings using canvasses and paints from the period in question. She therefore believes that while the technique will prove to be useful in identifying forgeries it must be combined with research on other indicators of authenticity, such as stylistic composition and provenance.

Nanotubes get sorted

When single-walled carbon nanotubes are made, a mixture of both metallic and semiconducting nanotubes is produced. This is a problem for those trying to make electronic devices from nanotubes, who need pure samples of either semiconducting or metallic tubes (depending upon the application), not both.

Now, researchers in the US and South Korea have a developed a new and simple technique that not only efficiently separates the two types of nanotube but also allows them to be patterned onto a substrate as thin films. These films could be used to make electronic devices with desirable properties, and could even replace silicon as the material of choice for integrated circuits.

Single-walled nanotubes are essentially rolled up sheets of graphite just one atom thick and can be metallic or semiconducting depending on the direction in which the sheet has been rolled. They have enormous potential as the building blocks in nanoscale electronics, and are often touted as being the perfect alternatives to silicon thanks to their tiny size and their ability to carry large currents. Metallic tubes could function as transparent conducting leads, while semiconducting tubes could make good nanoscale transistors.

Selective molecules

Although researchers have already proposed several techniques to separate nanotubes, most of these have proved difficult to perform on an industrial scale. However, help may be at hand: recent experiments have shown that specific molecules tend to interact selectively with metallic or semiconducting tubes in solution. Now, new work, by Zhenan Bao of Stanford University and colleagues, builds on this work by using such molecules to create a special surface that interacts selectively with nanotubes (Science 10.1126/science.1156588 ).

Bao and co-workers obtained their results by treating silicon substrate surfaces with molecules containing amines that “grabbed” the semiconducting tubes and ignored the metallic ones. Once this surface modification step was complete, the researchers then created thin films of the nanotubes on the substrate using a method called spin coating, in which the nanotubes are placed on a rapidly spinning surface so that they spread out thanks to centrifugal forces.

The scientists found that the thin films behaved as excellent field-effect transistors, with on-off ratios as high as 900,000, which is very close to the value for transistors used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs), for example. “The sub-monolayer films can also be completely transferred to different substrates,” team member Melburne LeMieux told physicsworld.com. “They could be used to better understand nanotube networks by electrical testing and in techniques such as scanning Kelvin probe microscopy in which every nanotube can be characterized (since none are ‘buried’).”

To selectively absorb metallic tubes from a mix, the researchers used phenyl-terminated silanes on the silicon substrates. This selectivity is possible because the nanotubes are extended pi-electron systems that interact with other such systems via a mechanism called pi-pi stacking. Metallic nanotube films are excellent transparent conducting materials and could find applications in solar cells and touch screens, said LeMieux.

The researchers now hope to be able to scale up their technique and increase the density of sorted nanotubes on a substrate. One way to do this is by multiple transfers onto a target substrate, added LeMieux.

Voyager 2 reports from the edge of the solar system

Over 30 years after it was launched, NASA’s Voyager 2 space probe has reached the “edge” of the solar system.

In doing so the probe has confirmed that the heliosphere — an immense bubble-like structure surrounding the Sun and formed by the solar wind — is not a perfect sphere but is a squashed ellipsoid.

Voyager 2 crossed the “heliospheric termination shock” in August 2007 at a distance of about 12bn kilometers from the Sun. This is about twice as far from the Sun as Pluto and about 1.5bn kilometers closer to the Sun than where its partner Voyager 1 crossed this threshold in 2004. This confirms telescope-based observations of the flow of hydrogen and helium in this region made in 2005, which suggested that the heliosphere is squashed by interstellar magnetic fields.

This termination shock is a turbulent region is where the solar wind — a fast-moving stream of electrically charged particles expelled by the Sun in all directions — slows down significantly. It marks the boundary between the inner heliosphere — where the solar wind dominates — and the heliosheath, where the effects of the interstellar gas begin to dominate.

Scientists are hopeful the data gathered by Voyager 2 as it travels beyond the shock will give them an insight into how the Sun interacts with the rest of the Milky Way. Although Voyager 1 crossed this threshold four years ago, its plasma sensor had stopped working by then – forcing scientists to estimate many of properties of the shock that they had hoped to measure directly.

Working plasma sensor

Voyager 2 has a working sensor, allowing the probe to measure directly the velocity, density and temperature of the solar wind at this juncture. Coupled with the fact that Voyager 2 had at least five shock crossings over a couple of days thanks to the tumultuous nature of the shock front, researchers were able to study the shock front in unprecedented detail – publishing their first findings in a series of six papers in Nature (Nature 454 63-81).

The data reveals the shock front is indeed irregular and turbulent as expected. However, the temperature of the heliosheath is about one million Kelvin, which is about ten times cooler than had been predicted. This indicates that the energy is being transferred from the solar wind in collisions with interstellar particles, which are accelerated to high speeds at the shock.

Researchers expect the two Voyager spacecraft to continue providing invaluable observations of the heliosheath for years to come. Scientists are hopeful that the probes will continue to function for another decade, by which time they should cross the heliopause — giving us glimpse of pure interstellar space.

In the meantime, NASA plans to launch the Interstellar Boundary Explorer later this year, which aims to image the entire termination shock and heliosheath from Earth orbit, providing further insight into the interaction between the heliosphere and interstellar space.

33 years later, NASA finds Mercury to be even more active

The first flyby of Mercury by the Messenger probe has shown the innermost planet to be a surprisingly dynamic place, according to its NASA mission team.

Among the barrage of new data are observations that Mercury’s magnetic field is probably generated by a molten outer core, and that the planet’s peculiar surface features were produced by ancient volcanic flow that solidified and slowly contracted. Scientists had been speculating about these properties since 1974, when NASA’s Mariner 10 probe made the first scouting mission to the planet.

Sean Solomon, the principal investigator for the Messenger mission, says that the flyby — which took place in January this year — hints at what other observations will be possible when the spacecraft settles into orbit in 2011.

“Our Mercury flyby in January was our first close-up view of the innermost planet in nearly 33 years,” Solomon told physicsworld.com. “We have a payload that takes advantage of three decades of technology beyond that available to Mariner 10, and the flyby provided a wonderful return of new observations by every instrument on board.”

Unusual planet

Many scientists consider Mercury — with its high density composition, heavily cratered surface and magnetic field — to be the most unusual planet. It was produced at roughly the same time and via the same processes as the other terrestrial planets, but turned out very different.

The number of impact craters on its surface implies that Mercury’s geological activity stopped fairly early. However, when Mariner 10 uncovered 45% of the planet’s surface it found that much of it was broken up into prominent escarpments up to 600 km in length, implying that the surface has suffered a period of contraction. Messenger has now uncovered another 21% of the surface in more detail, and has found that these escarpments are indeed widespread.

“We’ll image another 30% of the planet on our next flyby, on 6 October,” explains Solomon. “Once in orbit we will be able to image the entire planet, except for the floors of the polar craters in permanent shadow. [But] we will peer into even those craters with other instruments, including our gamma-ray and neutron spectrometers, and our laser altimeter.”

Messenger has also found the best evidence yet that Mercury — like Earth — generates its magnetic field through motion in its molten outer core. This evidence is a measurement of a strong dipolar field and a lack of shorter-wavelength fields. If the latter had been detected, it would have implied that — like Mars — a remnant magnetic field had been “frozen” into the planet’s surface.

Waiting for orbit

Other firsts for Messenger include a measurement of ionized particles in the atmosphere, which tell how Mercury’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind; a chemical analysis of the surface, in which iron makes up less than 6% by weight (despite being abundant in the core); and a record of surface strain generated by contraction, which is at least a third more than previously thought.

However, it is the data taken when Messenger reaches orbit in 2011 that the mission team is waiting for. This will bring global data so that, for example, the scientists can test competing models for how Mercury was formed and how its magnetic dynamo works. “The scientific goals of this mission will be addressed most fully from the orbital measurements,” says Solomon.

The data from the Messenger flyby are presented in 11 reports published by Science.

US presidential candidates receive questions on science

In a bid to trigger a televised debate, organizers of ScienceDebate 2008 have sent the US presidential candidates a series of questions about the role of science in the nation’s future. The questions come after the candidates twice ducked the opportunity to participate in a debate on science during the primary season.

The ScienceDebate organizers started with a list of 3,300 questions put forward by the group’s 38,0000 signatories. Working with 11 other organizations — including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences — the group whittled down the list to 14.

“I remain convinced that we will see them debate these issues,” Matthew Chapman, president of ScienceDebate 2008, told physicsworld.com. “It’s one of those situations where the whole thing could suddenly lurch into place. What we really need is some support from mainstream media.”

‘Unresolved challenges’

According the ScienceDebate website, the 14 questions are designed to be “broad enough to allow wide variations in response, but specific enough to help guide the discussion towards many of the largest and unresolved challenges currently facing the US.” Shortened versions of the questions include:

  • To maintain a growing economy, how will you ensure the US remains the world leader in innovation?
  • Given spending constraints, how will you prioritize investment in basic research?
  • Is it acceptable for elected officials to hold back or alter scientific reports if they conflict with their own views, and how will you balance scientific information, politics and personal beliefs in your decision making?
  • What role do you think the federal government should play in preparing primary and secondary school students for science and technology in the 21st century?
  • How can science and technology be used best to ensure national security?
  • What is your position on the following measures that have been proposed to tackle climate change: a cap and trade system; a carbon tax; increased fuel-economy standards; or research?
  • How will you meet energy demands while ensuring an economically and environmentally sustainable future?
  • How would you prioritize different areas of space exploration?

The latest poll, conducted by lake Research Partners, shows that 72% of the US public is more likely to vote for presidential candidates that support scientific research. The poll also shows 87% of the US public is more likely to vote for candidates that will invest in scientific education, while 43% consider science to be “extremely important” in influencing policy decisions.

UK physics funding plans are approved

After six months of often bitter debate and recriminations, the UK’s Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) has approved its funding programme for astronomy and nuclear and particle physics for the next three years. The funding package totals nearly £2bn.

The announcement comes in the wake of accusations of mismanagement against the STFC by both British physicists and a parliamentary committee after an apparent £80m shortfall in funds for 2008-11 came to light in December 2007.

In a decision taken by the council on Tuesday and announced today, the STFC has broadly accepted the recommendations of its two committees — the Particles Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Committee (PPAN) and the Physical and Life Sciences Committee (PALS) — which first reported in March, 2008. The committees ranked all STFC-funded programmes with the aim of deciding which projects deserved continued funding.

Both committees then received input from ten panels that were convened in response to complaints from the physics community regarding the consultation process. The concerns of more than 1400 physicists were considered by the panels, which reported in May.

We have had a healthy debate over the past six months Keith Mason, STFC

Keith Mason, chief executive of the STFC, told physicsworld.com that there was little difference between the recommendations of PPAN and PAL and the ten panels. As a result, there are no reprieves for any programmes originally slated to receive no further funding. This includes UK involvement with the International Linear Collider (ILC) — the next big particle-physics facility after CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

Brian Foster of Oxford University who is European director of the ILC’s global design effort told physicsworld.com that the STFC’s decision to “claw back” money already promised to researchers involved in the ILC “is an unprecedented step which makes it impossible for universities to plan sensibly”.

Some good news

Today’s announcement brings some good news for physicists working on the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The STFC had originally planned to cut UK funding of this experiment by 25%, but has been persuaded by PPAN to reduce the cuts to 5% the first year and 10% in the two subsequent years.

Nick Brook of Bristol University, who has worked on the LHCb experiment for more than 10 years, said that he is “relatively pleased” by the decision, but pointed out that PPAN had chosen to ignore a panel recommendation that the 5% and 10% cuts would still cause significant damage to the UK’s LHCb programme. Brook fears that the cuts could lead to a reduction in the number of UK physicists working on the experiment, just as it is about to begin later this year. In the worst case, Brook says that the UK researchers may have to renege on commitments it has already made to the project.

A parliamentary report on the debacle apportioned some of the blame to the way STFC was created in April 2007 by merging the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (which awarded research grants) with the CCLRC (which managed scientific facilities). Mason said “change often brings controversy”, adding “we have had a healthy debate over the past six months”.

The debate looks set to continue until at least September, when an external review of the STFC will report, along with a separate government-appointed review of UK physics in general.

On a lake in southern Germany

lindau.jpg
(Photograph courtesy of Edda Praefcke)

By João Medeiros

Part of my job as Features Editor on Physics World is to dig up great ideas for possible feature articles. That’s one reason why I am spending this week on an island in Lake Constance in southern Germany at the 58th meeting of Nobel Laureates at Lindau.

The meeting, which is held every year, gives top young students the chance to hear, talk to and debate with leading researchers from a particular field of endeavour. This year’s meeting is dedicated to physics and there are some 25 Nobel-prize-winning physicists here as well as over 550 students.

Yesterday we were treated to a fascinating debate about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, featuring Nobel laureates David Gross, Martinus Veltman, George Smoot, Gerhard ‘t Hooft and Carlo Rubbia, along with LHC accelerator supremo Lyn Evans and CERN chief scientific officer Jos Engelen.

Chairing the session was my predecessor in the Physics World features hot-seat Matthew Chalmers, who is now forging a career as a freelance science journalist.

Some speakers, like Smoot and Gross, preferred to talk about the hope that the LHC will yield a cornucopia of new physics , prominently of Higgs bosons and supersymmetric particles. Others, like Veltman and Rubbia, took a more cautious stance as to what might be discovered.

The experiment itself is a complex beast and will take years before the experimentalists understand it completely. The computing challenge is also gargantuan: the proton-proton collisions will yield some 109 events per second, of which only 200 can be saved into a disk.

This means there is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of the thousands of young researchers working in the bowels of the LHC to make sure that the interesting events are the ones that get saved into the computing grid.

As Rubbia told the meeting: “The discussion about the Higgs is not the right discussion at the moment. This is a very complex machine, and presumably, it will take years before we understand it properly. One should let the physicists do their work instead of pressuring the scientists for results.”

I hope to tell you more about what’s been happening here on Lake Constance later this week. Meanwhile, back to those Nobel laureates…

Seeking an African Einstein

A new postgraduate centre for maths and computer science has opened in the Nigerian capital of Abuja as part of an ambitious plan to find the “next Einstein” in Africa. The centre is providing advanced training to graduate students from across Africa in maths and related fields. It wants to attract the best young African scientists and nurture their talents as problem-solvers and teachers.

The new Nigerian centre is modelled on — and has close ties with — the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Cape Town, South Africa, which was set up in 2003 by the Cambridge University cosmologist Neil Turok. In recognition of the close ties with AIMS, the new centre is called AIMS (Abuja).

The plan is to set up another 15 AIMS-type centres across Africa over the next five years. Each centre will be run as a partnership with AIMS and AIMS (Abuja), plus one or more local universities. The centres will host students from across Africa but focus on particular branches of mathematical science.

New centres are planned for countries including Ghana, Madagascar, Sudan and Uganda — and they will join the African Mathematical Institutes Network (AMI-Net), which was created in 2005.

One wish to change the world

Turok, who was born in South Africa, wants to raise an endowment of $150m, which would allow 50 graduates to be supported at each of the 15 centres over the next five years. He has so far raised $2.7m after giving a talk earlier this year at the annual TED (technology, entertainment and design) conference in California, where he was one of three people to win a $100 000 TED prize. Each winner is obliged to give a talk that includes their “one wish to change the world”, which for Turok was for the next Einstein to come from Africa.

The challenges now include bringing more African women into science and convincing policy-makers across the continent of the importance of developing a scientific elite Karl Voltaire, AIMS (Abuja)

Karl Voltaire, chief executive of AIMS (Abuja), told physicsworld.com that the new centre already has 50 students from across the continent and that classes began on Monday. “[Setting up AIMS (Abuja)] has been an exhilarating experience, frustrating at times, but well worth the effort of bringing students from across the continent to a place where they can learn with top faculty from all over the world,” he said. “The challenges now include bringing more African women into science and convincing policy-makers across the continent of the importance of developing a scientific elite.”

AIMS (Abuja) is based at the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), which also opens this month. Focusing on engineering, materials science, computing as well as petroleum and natural-gas engineering, it has been funded by the World Bank and the Nigerian government. The plan is for AUST to eventually have up to 5000 students.

Survey of distant galaxies sets limit on cosmic strings

Physicists in the US and Singapore are the first to use light from distant galaxies to perform a systematic search for cosmic strings — massive structures that may have been created just after the Big Bang. Although the team has found no evidence of cosmic strings in the small patch of sky they surveyed, they have been able to set an upper limit on the mass per unit length of the strings. The team is now working to improve their results by looking at larger patches of the sky.

Cosmic strings are extremely long and dense structures that many physicists believe were created about 10-35 s after the Big Bang. At this time the universe became cool enough for the electrostrong force to begin to separate out into the strong and electroweak forces. This “symmetry breaking” process marked a phase transition in the state of the universe — something akin liquid water freezing to ice.

Just as crystal defects occur when water freezes, some cosmologists believe that defects in the fabric of the universe in the form of cosmic strings emerged during this phase transition. These extremely massive 1D objects could endure to this day — and studying them could provide important information about the early universe and how stars and galaxies evolved from the primordial fireball.

Lack of evidence

The only problem is that no-one has managed to find any compelling evidence for the existence of cosmic stings. The best that researchers have done so far is to put an upper limit on the density of cosmic strings. So far, this has been done by looking for their effects on the cosmic microwave background (CMB); searching for gravitational waves created when a cosmic string cracks like a whip; and looking for evidence of gravitational lensing, whereby light from a distant galaxy is bent by the strong gravitational field of a cosmic string, making a single galaxy appear as a pair of galaxies to an observer on Earth.

Now, however, a team of researchers in the US and Singapore has performed the first systematic search of a section of the sky to look for evidence of gravitational lensing by cosmic strings. The team used a survey of about 300 square arcminutes of the sky — about one millionth of the universe — obtained by the Hubble space telescope.

The survey contains about 78,000 galaxies, and the team used a computer algorithm to sift through all these images to look for nearby pairs of galaxies that may actually be a single galaxy seen through the gravitational lens of a cosmic string (Phys Rev D 77 123509).

Jodi Christiansen and colleagues at California Polytechnic State University, the University of California, Berkeley and the National University of Singapore began by cataloging the position, shape and brightness of all 78,000 individual galaxies above a certain brightness threshold. The team then searched the catalogue for “pairs” of galaxies of similar size and brightness that were separated by less than 15 arcseconds, finding about 6600 pairs that satisfied these criteria.

Background level

Computer simulations of how a cosmic string would bend the light from distant galaxies suggested that lensed galaxy pairs would be separated by 6 arcseconds or less. As a result, Christiansen and colleagues assumed that the pairs separated by 7–15 arcminutes give a measure of the background level of pairs that appeared by chance, rather than as a result of cosmic-string-induced gravitational lensing.

While the analysis failed to find a significant excess of pairs that could be attributed to the presence of cosmic strings, the team was able to put an upper limit on the mass of cosmic strings — they must be less than about 2% of the total mass of the universe. In terms of a mass per unit length for individual cosmic strings, the upper limit is about 10-7 in dimensionless units.

This is better than a limit (about 10-6) imposed by a recent search by team-member and Nobel prize-winner George Smoot, who looked for temperature fluctuations in the CMB that could be caused by cosmic strings. However, it is not as precise as limits derived from an analysis of the CMB power spectrum and the search for gravitational waves produced by cosmic strings (about 10-8).

However, Christiansen points out that the power-spectrum and gravitational-wave searches are dependent upon several assumptions regarding how cosmic strings move through the universe, which makes them potentially more difficult to interpret that gravitational lens results.

One drawback with the current survey is that it only covers a very small patch of the universe. Christiansen says that the team is now working to improve precision of the technique by using a more recent survey of the sky called COSMOS, which looks at a much larger patch of the sky measuring two square degrees.

Building for the future

When I left university in 1975 having completed a degree in applied physics, embarking on a long-term career was pretty much the last thing on my mind. Exhausted by exams, and with the summer of 1975 shaping up to be a real scorcher, the prospect of beaches, sunshine and sailing seemed much more attractive. So I took a few months off — think of it as a delayed gap year.

Come the winter, however, with the beaches deserted and funds dispiritingly low, I looked in my local paper for something temporary to do while I considered how best to put my shiny new degree to good use. The Building Services Research and Information Association — a small research and development outfit in Bracknell — was looking for graduates to carry out laboratory experimentation into the comfort issues associated with buildings. Although the money was not great, the job was certainly interesting and would do fine as a stopgap. As it happened, the job was rather better than that and 33 years later I am chief executive of that research association, which is now the company known as BSIRA.

When I began my career, it was clear that while construction was a big industry (it now accounts for about 10% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product), on the whole it was not at the forefront of technology and did not have many graduates — especially those with a background in science or technology — working in it. This meant that I, as a physicist, suddenly found myself working with very senior people at major UK and international companies, as well as gaining immediate access to some of the best people in the industry through in the professional organizations such as the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineering. I was able to make a difference almost immediately.

For example, my first task was to develop a method for testing “whole house ventilation heat recovery devices”. This was quite complex, since it required the airflow volume, moisture content, temperature and electrical load to be measured in each of four positions simultaneously. A curiosity 30 years ago, this research is now essential as we work towards “zero carbon” homes. I was helped by having an employer that wanted junior employees to put their names to their work rather than hiding under their supervisors’ titles, and also by colleagues who were sociable, supportive and at the top of their game.

Diverse sector

The construction industry is involved in everything from motorways and bridges (civil construction) through to schools, hospitals, offices and homes (the built environment). Within these sectors there are designers (architects, structural engineers, building-services consultants and so on) and contractors, who actually put things together on-site. This latter group consists of the main contractors that erect the structures and specialist contractors that put in all the plant and equipment that make buildings comfortable and safe to live in. It is at the latter end of the spectrum that BSRIA works.

Founded in the mid-1950s by a group of companies that wanted to collaborate in research and development, BSRIA is one of about 50 research associations (RAs) in the UK that each deal with a particular market sector. For example, there are RAs for shoes, timber, drop forging and even (my second favourite) Scotch whisky. They are where industrial companies come together to do collaborative research, and over the years they have transformed from membership subscription-based organizations to wholly self-funded enterprises. Nevertheless, many research associations, including BSRIA, continue to operate a membership base and to facilitate collaborative efforts both in research and on a more political level.

In recent years the role of the built-environment engineer and contractor has changed radically. The escalating need to create buildings that produce very low or zero carbon-dioxide emissions has created new challenges that are taxing the very best brains. Indeed, we have to meet targets set by the UK government that all new houses built in the country will be “zero carbon” by 2016, with all non-domestic buildings following suit by 2019. You just have to look at your own home, with its heating, hot water and lighting needs, to appreciate just how difficult this is going to be to achieve if the occupants of these buildings are also going to be comfortable and healthy.

If this is problematic for new buildings, then it is even more difficult to achieve in existing buildings — and it is these that can make the real difference to carbon emissions. Roughly half of all carbon emissions come from buildings and their uses but only 1% of these buildings are newly constructed, while just 2% have some form of refurbishment each year. In other words, 97% of buildings have nothing done to them to improve their performance.

Building physics can do something about this by trying to understand the complex interactions of energy flows around structures. This involves resolving the influences of highly multivariate interactions and creating models that can eventually be used to build new structures. These tasks are well suited to people with a physics background, and there is a wonderful future ahead for bright and committed people who want to make a difference.

Path to success

BSRIA is not a large organization — it currently has 150 employees — and about half of the staff have numerate degrees, including mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering and physics. We work both with those who are at the sharp end of invention, such as universities and other research institutions, and those who prefer to be a little further away from the cutting edge. Construction companies and their clients, for example, are highly risk averse, so it is our role to take innovation and create proven, derisked processes that can be used with confidence by constructors. As a result, both the company and its individual staff have a high exposure in the trade press and at conferences, and they have a lot of contact with the policy-makers in government. It is this diversity of activity that has made mine such a rewarding job.

I have now been chief executive of BSRIA for 10 years, having worked up through a variety of posts within the company. I started as a supervised project engineer, then progressed to running a small section of five people, and later a group of four sections. I took up the role of technical director and joined the first board of directors following a restructuring of the business in 1989 before being appointed to the top job in 1998.

Since I joined, the firm’s horizons have widened considerably — for example, in March of this year I opened a new office in Beijing, which employs five local staff. China is likely to undertake nearly half of the entire world’s activity in construction within the next decade and its government is anxious to ensure that its carbon footprint does not rise at the same rate. With many overseas companies now working there, the opportunities for transferring expertise are significant, although this expansion also presents many cultural and economic challenges for the firm. It is this mix of technology and business that has made my career at BSRIA such a delightful experience. Despite having been with the organization for 33 years, it seems like only yesterday since the beaches started to empty and the rain stopped play.

Copyright © 2025 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors