How did I find physics?

I suppose my story starts with the most cliché influence a physicist could have. Star Trek. One afternoon my parents sat me down to watch the Voyage Home filled with whales and nuclear wessles and that was it. That evening I started watching Voyager (when it was back on BBC2 ) and thus began the three appointments a week I had with the crews of the Enterprise, Deep Space 9 and Voyager. Needless to say, I began to really think about whether there was life on other planets, what could nanotechnology do and what was real space travel like. Luckily my parents were more than happy to facilitate my interest in science and trips to the science museum, nuclear power stations, nuclear bunkers I suppose in many ways my continued fascination with space and all things nuclear spurred me on to do triple science at GCSE so I could (hopefully) study science in a bit more detail. 

However, when I started my GCSEs I'd had another 2 influences actting on my life; the internet and the Lord of the Rings. The combined effect was that I thought I wanted to go into computer science and specialise in computer generated graphics for games and films which was further fuelled by the contrast between my not so good physics teacher (I did a lot of sticking the syllabus into my book over those two years) and my fantastic IT teacher. However, things began to change when I saw a documentary on BBC4, Dr. Michio Kaku's Time (currently available on youtube here). Time was a revelation, it introduced me to the ideas of general relativity and told me that time travel and worm hole's might just be possible within the theoretical limits of the universe. What more would you need to hear to inspire a Whovian or Trekkie to give physics another look? Soon after Time aired I prepared for my end of year 10 exams, and suddenly realised from reading the text book the material I had been taught in physics classes was actually interesting. It described how things moved and how we powered our homes along with so many other things. And I wanted to explore and find out more. I wanted to know how nuclear fission worked, I wanted to know why cells keep us alive, I wanted to know more about the atom. So it became obvious, I needed to do A-level physics. Don't get me wrong I still loved IT and originally thought I'd do A-level computing too, but in the end I was guided into further maths with promises of improved chances of entry to Computer Science at university.

I'm happy to say it was the right choice. At college I had 2 fantastic physics teachers who not only made sure we learnt the material, but also gave us the feeling of how wonderful it was to use physics to describe the world. But I still had my eye on what I wanted to do after university. Should I do engineering, should I do computer science or should I do physics? The more I read, the more I realised that doing physics wouldn't box me in like computer science or engineering might, it would leave my options open. I don't know exactly when I decided, but I came to the conclusion that physics was the subject for me. It was during my UCAS prep that I really began to fall in love with physics. I read 'In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat' by John Gribbin, I attempted to read 'The Road to Reality' by Roger Penrose which was mostly over my head but introduced me to some really cool concepts in cosmology and I devoured QED by Richard Feynman. These books showed me that you didn't have to look into deep space to find the extraordinary; the extraordinary was around us every day. We live in a crazy quantum world filled with beauty and contradiction and I needed to understand it. 

The rest, as they say, is history. I applied to universities with strong focusses on quantum technologies and nanotechnology, got my degree and as I write this, I'm sitting at a desk in the experimental quantum information office. It was a long road to get here, but I found my way in time. I suppose it’s true that inspiration can be found in the strangest of places, so always keep an open mind and you never know where you may end up!

Weekly Round-Up 21st April 2014

It may be a bank holiday, but its still a Monday, so its time for a bank holiday round-up of things that have caught my eye over the past week.

1. Europe's Sentinel Satellite Has Begun to Produce Images
   
   The European Space Agency's first satellite of the Sentinel project has beamed its first pictures back to earth. This marks the start of the project to provide detailed Earth observation of things as diverse as sea ice, oil spills and forests across the world. It's extremely exciting to see the ESA heading up this project and I hope it is a huge success.
2. Stem Cell Misconduct
   On a less inspiring note it has been reported that Haruko Obokata, the author of a seemingly ground breaking paper showing an easy method to make adult stem cells behave more like 'true' stem cells, has been found guilty of misconduct by her home institution. Obokata maintains that the underlying science of the paper is still sound, but at time of writing no external researcher has replicated the results of the paper.
3. The LHC Finds a New Form of Matter
   On a more positive note on 9th April CERN announced that the LHCb experiment had found a new form of matter, the Z(4430) particle. Z(4430), which has been predicted, observed and disputed, has been measured by the LHC in a paper available on the archive here (warning, not for the faint hearted!). The race is now on to determine is Z(4430) is the previously predicted tetraquark, a postulated particle formed of 4 quarks (where quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons).
4. Kepler Finds New Earth-like Planet
   Finally, we have some great news! NASAs space telescope Kepler has spied a new planet around the size of Earth orbiting a star in the Goldilocks region, described as an earth cousin. This means the planet is not too hot or not too cold, so it could have water present on the surface. While the orbit of the planet doesn't automatically mean that we will find life there it's the first recorded Earth cousin and hopefully we'll find an earth twin sometime soon.

And finally, as a follow up to floppy disc drives playing Tainted Love, I give you The Doctor Who Theme on 8 Floppy Drives. Enjoy!

Odds and Ends

Unfortunately, it’s a short-ish post from me today as things have been a bit on the hectic side. I don't have a big Easter holiday on the horizon so it's PhD business as usual for me! At the moment I have lots of different things that are demanding my time and attention which, while important, don’t do much to advance my project on the surface.

Firstly, conference season is on the way, so abstracts (short summaries of your work) need to be written, posters produced, presentations practised and travel arrangements made. I've been lucky enough to have an abstract accepted as a talk at a conference this summer and while I'm not writing my presentation for it just yet, it’s in Italy, so  there are lots of things for me to sort out before I even get started. I need to register for the conference before the price goes up (check), make sure I have my travel documents in order (nope), book flights (nope), transfers (nope) and a hotel (nope). All easier said than done when you have to claim everything back on expenses.

I'm also preparing a presentation to give to my physics research group in Leeds. I'm actually quite nervous about it as I've not had to present to a physics audience before. So, that means I'm well practised in skimming over the detail of the mechanisms that under pin my work and I know that this is what the other physicists will be really interested in. Even if it doesn't work out it’ll give me a trail run for the future, but if possible I’d much rather not crash and burn.

As much as I try not to, part of my brain is tied up playing the waiting game, something which I'm not very good at. I've currently got a paper on submission to a journal and I've submitted an abstract for another conference. When it comes to the abstract I should know before the end of the month if it has been accepted, but it could be a while before I hear anything back from the journal. Apparently 3 months is considered a quick turn around and I'm just reaching a month in, so I've got a while to wait yet. The worst thing about it is the uncertainty, there's no standard information system for journals so they can tell you as much or as little as they want about how your submission is progressing. I know I should just let it go and not think about it, but it’s really hard not to look for news when I'm checking my e-mail on a morning.

Finally, alongside these 'side' bits there is some ‘real’ work for me to do. I'm currently coding a program to help me process data more quickly than my current manual methods. I'm really enjoying this bit as I'm learning to use python and although it can be frustrating at times I really like coding and I get a real sense of achievement out of it.

It seems that sometimes in a PhD you have to be a bit of a juggler, keeping lots of balls in the air whilst on a unicycle (at least that's what it feels like). On the upside, it looks like I should be able to confidently say I have ‘good time management’ and ‘multitasking skills’ on my CV at the end of it all!

My advice on how to keep everything going? Don't think about it too much, make to-do lists for each week (I find I don't stick to daily ones) and ask for help sooner rather than later!

Link Round-up 7th April 2014

Here's my this weeks round-up of things on the net that have caught my eye:

1. The world's first trial of human suspended animation has been green lit in the US.
   It seems like science fiction my soon become science fact as the FDA approve the first human trials of cryopreservation. In the trial 10 patients with serious knife or gunshot wounds will be placed in suspended animation, hanging between life and death, in an attempt to create more time for doctors to save their lives. This incredible technology has been previously trialled successfully in pigs and, if successful, could revolutionise surgical treatment. 
2. The Guardian highlights some famous 'secret scientists'.
   It's a little known fact that scientists can been seen in all areas of public life as directors, sports people, actors and musicians. This article in the guardian highlights some famous faces with strong scientific acumen who left the lab for pastures new.
3. NASA releases a video of a recent solar flare.
   Scientists at NASA have captured a solar flare in ultraviolet light on the 2nd April. It's been re-colourised and uploaded to youtube so everyone can watch this incredible phenomenon.

And finally, it's a week of new beginnings as Game of Thrones returns, filming on Star Wars Episode VII has begun and the second series of The Musketeers goes into production for BBC 1 today. But what should you do while waiting a full year to get season 4 of Game of Thrones on DVD (come on HBO, a year? no wonder its the most pirated show ever)? Or to help beat the no Musketeer's blues? Watch Radio 1's Game of Moans and Wolverine the Musical of course. Then go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier, because its awesome!