Century of Endeavour
Chapter 5.3: Physics in Industry
(c) Roy Johnston 1999
(comments to
rjtechne@iol.ie)
April 16 1970
The work of Dr John O'Connor, head of the Physics Department of
St Luke's Hospital, Dublin, does not apparently qualify for inclusion
in the Royal Irish Academy Research Register(1). Yet he is providing
an important service, having a research component in it, dependent on
on a detailed knowledge of an advanced technology. The physics of
radiations is not an area that can be left to the junior technician.
The work is by no means routine, though it has a routine element (eg
the monitoring of film badges worn by personnel)....
There are nine hospital physicists in the Republic, two in St
Agatha's, Cork, one each in St Annes and Vincent's, Dublin, the
remainder being in St Luke's.
The latter therefore appears to be on the verge of viability as a
university-linked applied-physics research centre. There is, however,
no university-based medical physics interest in Ireland; in the UK
there are six full Departments; they tend to be linked to medical
schools rather than to physics departments.
If such a department were to exist in Ireland, it would be likely
to take an interest in the general development of physical
instrumentation techniques in a wide range of biological fields, as
distinct from radiations alone. Ramifications might include soil
physics and other agricultural applications, hitherto neglected.
With the rate of recruitment into the medical physics profession
at the present low level, a specialist medical physics school would
not be viable. An application-orientated school with outlets towards
medecine, industry and agriculture would however constitute a useful
training ground for physics graduates, who could then be thrown on the
market as innovators in various branches of economic life.
There is an increasing use of physical techniques, including
radiations, in industry: engineering (weld-testing, non-destructive
testing in general), food processing, textiles, paper and pulp
products etc. The demand is increasing for instrumentation which
controls the process while it is going on, rather than analysing the
product afterwards to see what went wrong.
Dr O'Connor provides an industrial-orientated
radiation-monitoring service, as a side-line. This is not at present
a heavy burden, though it is increasing. The IIRS is fully aware of
this, and routes enquiries to it when they come.
The main growth-area on the medical front is the use of isotopes,
both in diagnosis and therapy. The term 'isotope' is used for a
'labelled' atom which enters into the biological process in the normal
way, but reveals its presence by giving out radiations which can be
detected. Some only live a very short time, so that a nearby source
of supply is desirable.
There was a proposal for a research-reactor which was turned down
in the mid-fifties. One of the arguments made in favour was the need
for a local supply of short-lived isotopes. The cost of the
research-reactor would have exceeded the total invested in all
scientific research, so that there would have been an undue
concentration of effort into one centre. This situation might now be
worth re-examination.
June 6 1970
It is appropriate in this context(2) to refer to what might have
been a creative event as regards the generation of a national policy
on physics in Ireland, but wasn't. I refer to the AGM of the Irish
Branch of the Institute of Physics and Physical Society.
An address was given by Dr M R Gavin, the President of the
Institute.. This touched on many topics relevant to the historical
development, economics and sociology of physics in Britain. It would
have provided an excellent occasion for a good and possibly heated
discussion on the question 'Whither Physics in Ireland', thereby
helping to develop people's ideas towards accepting the need for a
policy. However, after a few polite words, the evening drew dismally
to a close.
Yet afterwards at the reception mutterings could be heard: why
were there no National Science Council grants for research in physics?
I suggest that these two phenomena are not unconnected.
If no forum exists in which Irish physics can develop a mind of
its own and a sense of purpose, then it is likely to remain a
cinderella. The IP and PS could constitute such a forum; this
certainly was in the minds of the founders of the Irish Branch in
1965. What has gone wrong?
The Agricultural Science Association has shown itself on occasion
to be a policy-formulating lobby. There is nothing disreputable in
this; it helps to keep public opinion informed. There is, indeed, a
case for giving recognition to all specialist lobbies by giving them
direct representation on the National Science Council.
Such a structure would draw out into the open the arguments for
the allocation of resources, just as occurs at national level in the
Dail. Such discussions would be a breath of fresh air, and could only
result in more recognition for science as a worthwhile national
investment.
Yet it will not occur unless it is demanded, and if the
discussions at the AGM of the IP and PS is anything to go on, any such
demand is unlikely to be led by the physicists.
July 22 1970
Last week I mentioned the 'brain-drain' effect: the pull of
young scientists towards what they regard as the 'glamour areas' where
the international giants are spending their research money. I can
illustrate this with an example drawn from the experience of the
Agricultural Institute.
The Soils Division, although based at Johnstown Castle, Wexford,
has an outstation at Kinsealy for its Soil Physics Department, under
Mr W Burke. This is based near Dublin so as to be close to the Land
Project(3), with which it collaborates; soil water is one of its main
areas of interest. Its attention has also been on the problem of how
to deal with the heavy clay drumlin soils in places such as Leitrim;
in this they work with the Ballinamore outstation.
The work of the soil physics department can be described as
classical multivariate agricultural experimentation, coupled with a
few relatively simple physical measurements. In this situation, how
does one hold a physicist?
They managed to hold one for a couple of years: Brian Murphy,
who was able to carve a niche developing techniques for measuring soil
water content based on the attenuation of fast neutrons by the
hydrogen of the water, coupled with gamma-ray absorbtion to measure
the density of the associated solids. He was also able to look at the
evaporation mechanism in the soil-water system.
Then one day a phone-call arrived from NASA with an offer of a
job measuring radiation absorbtion by model astronauts, in order to
assess space-flight hazards. Away he goes, initially on a year's
leave of absence, now for good. Since then there has been no
physicist in the soil physics department of our largest user of the
State science budget.
Anyone with an ounce of long-term perception will see that the
work Murphy was doing at Kinsealy was far more important than the work
he is doing now. Here maybe he suffered from loneliness and
frustration: maybe the apparatus was troublesome, his results not
reliable, technical back-up lacking; he must have felt insecure and
unwanted. But as a pioneer in a 'grey area' he had some standing, and
his potential was infinite. In NASA, on the other hand, he is a
marginal physicist working on a programme of fading 'glamour'(4),
among many others, in a situation of growing unemployment.
The prime element in the mismatch, perhaps, was the assumption
that in order for a physicist to be content, you have to surround him
or her with gamma-rays and neutrons. The euphoria palls when it is
realised that he or she has allowed themselves to be placed in a box
labelled 'the person who knows about the apparatus', in plain terms, a
technician.
In the agricultural field, as elsewhere, the science is in the
planning of the experiment, and in the interaction of this planning
with the developing techniques. The word 'experiment' in the
vocabulary of the agricultural graduate, however, means 'classical
multivariate statistical experiment', or 'multivariate regression'.
What amounts to a 'dead hand' from the camp of the classical
statisticians has prevented the physicist's concept of an experiment
from entering the picture: the building of a model such as to isolate
the essentials of the process from the extraneous disturbing factors.
The establishment of the classical statistical procedures in the
1900s was, of course, one of the great scientific abhievements of the
century. This arose out of the work of the first industry to employ
scientists, the breweries; the applications were in improving the
yields of malt and hops, improving the performance of yeasts, and in
industrial process control under batch conditions with simple
instrumentation. As a method of establishing relationships against a
background of random fluctuations, the classical multivariate
experiment is unequalled.
The trouble, however, is that by its very success it has tended
to become a routine, and even to become a substitute for thought. The
dead hand of success is not unknown elsewhere in science: Newton's
shadow held back the advance of science in the English academic
environment for over a century. So much does the 'dead hand' of
classical statistics dominate the agricultural scene, that a physicist
looking at the problem of planning an agricultural experiment will
fail to see, or if he does see will fail to be inspired by, the
science.
The agricultural physicist therefore tends to retire to the role
of instrument technician and leaves the planning of the experiment to
the agricultural scientists. It is, however, possible for someone
with energy to make the mental leap into a condition of preparedness
to fight as a scientist for a say in the planning of the experiment,
using physicists' insights to help search for illuminating analogies
that will help to build a precise model to get rid of some of the
variables in the 'classical multivariate' situation, thereby bringing
the process under more precise control.
This is the challenge that must be faced by the Working Group on
Physics, which has been set up by the Agricultural Institute. This
group consisted of Professors Nevin and Delaney (UCD and TCD) together
with Dr Penman of Rothamstead and Dr Childs of Cambridge. The latter
two have have built up basic and applied research groups in
agricultural physics wih world standing. It is to be hoped that from
this contact will develop some research projects of a nature such as
to pull at least some of Irish physics over towards the fundamentals
of biological systems, and complex systems in general, and away from
the tradition of shadowing the giant international projects in nuclear
physics and cosmology. I am not against the latter; they are an
excellent training-ground. But there is room for a move such as to
pull more of the people so trained intto useful applied work which
presents a real research challenge. Agriculture is rich in such
possibilities.
October 28 1970
...One of the objectives of this column is to try to develop an
understanding of the principles underlying scientific viability. How
do specialisation and dispersion interact?
Physics is perhaps the most remote and specialised of the
disciplines. It has allowed itself to become so because of the pull
of the fashionable areas of research which developed out of world war
II technology. Insofar as applid physics is done, it can largely be
claimed by the engineering science depatments. There is a clean break
between applied physics as done by engineers and physics as done by
physics departments. This is an unhealthy and inbred situation for
physics, and contributes to the relative unemployability of the
physicist as an industrially useful person.
In a centre such as Cork, where everything is close-knit, it may
perhaps be easier to build a bridge over this cultural gap than in the
case of Dublin, where physics is numerically stronger and it is
possible for the physics community to sustain itself without
cross-linking into other disciplines.
Professor EF Fahy, who heads the UCC Physics Department, is
currently on the point of moving his department into the new science
block. He has got what looks like a generous grant, though this will
be mainly taken up with teaching equipment for undergraduates. There
are, however, some research-projects going on. With Dr C O'Sullivan
he has a research project on cosmic-ray mu-mesons, although this
should be regarded as a student-orientated excercise for the purpose
of demonstrating classical techniques. At a time when focussed beams
of mu-mesons are available with the CERN(5) equipment at Geneva, and
when cosmic-ray shower events are studied with complex systems
involving acres of apparatus, there seems to be little point in
attempting to find out anything new about this particle with
techniques on the scale practicable in Cork.
Those who have stayed in this field since its big burst of
activity in the 50s, and who have not been associated with one of the
major world centres, have in many cases been driving up blind alleys,
chasing elusive phenomena which evaporate on production of better
statistics(6). The Cork mu-meson project, if taken seriously, runs
this risk.
Dr JJ Lennon has a basic training in physics but did a PhD in
electricaal engineering in Liverpool. He is using microwave
techniques for looking at the fundamentals of low electron-densities
in gases, by making accurate measurements of refractive index....
Dr FA Deeney is working on the Mossbauer effect. This, like the
laser at optical frequencies, is a device for getting gamma-rays of
very precise frequency.....
There appears to be evolving a sort of informal strategy whereby
between the various centres in Ireland a complete range of techniques
for probing the fundamentals of the solid state can be assembled.....
It would be pleasing to be able to say that this was a planned
co-operative experimental strategy, but none such exists.. There
does, however, exist an informal web of contacts with mutual respect,
which would make it easy for a co-operative strategy to evolve if the
conditions were right.
The underlying philosophy of such a strategy should perhaps be
based on a conscious rejection of fashionable fields abroad in
frontier-physics (in which Ireland lacks the resources to compete),
and conscious groping across the interdisciplinary boundaries in the
Irish context.
According to Professor Fahy, co-operation with the Electrical
Engineers is at the friendly talk level, but no actual joint
applied-physics project has evolved. The basis exists, but the
barrier appears to be how to carve out spheres of influence in the
joint project area, and how to establish ownership of the pieces when
it breaks up. This barrier appears to be both administrative and
psychological......
A possible solution is the establishment in some centres of
distinct Departments of Applied Physics, occupying the space between
physics and engineering, and with organic links in each direction. If
this were to be done, the present isolation of physics might begin to
be broken down.
December 16 1970
...When writing about oceanography in Galway I touched on
possible bridges into physics. The following is an outline of the
current state of physics in Galway.
Professor O Brolchain, who heads the department, is a veteran of
the atmospheric physics field, having worked with J J Nolan in UCD in
the 1930s. He was also involved in the early cosmic-ray work, at the
time when this was still at the level of measuring atmospheric
ionisation under natural conditions(7).
I have already mentioned the continuation of the atmospheric
physics thread in Galway, via Dr Tom O'Connor, as a possible link with
oceanography(8).
In the background of this field is Aodhagan O Rodaigh, who is
attempting to throw light on the fundamentals of the 'nucleation'
process, whereby drops of liquid condense from a gas, or crystals of
solid form in a liquid or in a supercooled gas.
Much money has been spent in the US on rather crude
experimentation on a large scale, involving the 'seeding' of clouds
with sodium iodide crystals in order to bring down the rain. There is
a profit-orientated 'rainmaking' industry in the mid-west, of which
the scientific basis has not been well established. The choice of
sodium iodide depends on the happy accident that the dimensions of the
crystal lattic happen to match those of ice.
The feeling now is that not enough is known about the basic
processes at work; let us try and work with pure systems other than
water, see if we can get to understand them, and then come back to
look at water afresh. This work is necessary if weather control is
ever to become a reality....
One of the coming techniques in atmospheric physics is the use of
laser probes. Michael Sexton, of Cork Electrical Engineering
Department, is interested in this, and has been in touch with the
Galway people(9).
Dr Declan Larkin's main current interest is solid state electron
physics, which has led to an interest in microwave technology and the
technology of very low temperatures. Galway now has a liquid helium
plant capable of producing four litres per hour. They are able to get
85% recovery. The production could be doubled and this rate is
considered adequate for the needs of the whole of Ireland for the
forseeable future. Liquid helium is an interesting subject for
research in its own right, as well as being an essential for work at
low temperatures. Physics of solids at the molecular level is
dominated by temperature effects and in order to find anything
significant it is necessary to work as near as possible to 'absolute
zero' where all thermal motion stops.
Dr Frank Imbusch is working on the physics of the atomic
phenomena which underlie lasers, rather than on the laser itself as a
device. Dr Imbusch has worked at Stanford, California and has managed
to maintain a creditable web of international contacts..... A typical
paper produced in this field might record a collaboration between the
Bell Telephone Laboratories, Stanford, Galway and Oxford. The work
might cover the details of the interaction of light with bound
electrons in a magnetic field at low temperatures; its technological
significance would be known to those concerned with the development of
lasers and related optical equipment. Technology locally available as
a result of this work includes systems for the accurate cutting and
grinding of crystals and preparation of optical surfaces on exotic
materials, vacuum technology, microwaves and various non-standard
electronic systems built within the laboratory.
Technicians are the main bottleneck. Because high-vacuum or
low-temperature plumbing is a rather exacting craft, you can't leave
it to a craftsman. There are no adequately-trained engineering
technicians, so the physicist has to do the job himself....
January 27 1971
I was able to attend part of the annual conference of the Irish
Physics Students' Association (IPSA) which occurred in Coleraine on
January 4-6. This annual event is organised by the students
themselves; it has received some support from the university physics
staffs but this, with some honourable exceptions, can be placed
somewhere on a spectrum ranging from 'condescending' to 'grudging'.
As the only annual get-together at which Irish physicists have an
opportunity to talk about their work, it deserves to succeed. That
the initiative has come from the students is one measure of the
failure of the established career physicists in Ireland to give a
lead....
....The IPSA conference, in contrast to the events organised by
the Institute of Physics and Physical Society (Irish Branch) (IPPSIB),
with its three days of living together has the makings of a real
conference in which peoples' ideas can genuinely interact. The recent
one suffered from a slight lack of conference know-how, as might be
expected, as the leadership was provided by students, with enthusiasm
but without experience... the provision of ice-breaking events
without fixed seating.... paying some attention to seating
arrangements at meals....the minor but important arts of the competent
host were lacking. This is not to blame the organisers for making a
mess of the job: on balance they did a good job. What I want to
stress is the lack of involvement in the planning of the more senior
members of the profession who might have been expected to provide the
conference experience.
There is a clear case for a senior version of the IPSA (an IPA,
say) which would run an annual event at which Irish physicists would
talk about their work, where co-operative projects might take shape
and where techniques locally available might become known about. The
existence of such a body in parallel with IPSA would strengthen the
latter by providing a centre of continuity of experience. The two
conferences might even be run together as one event, having both
information-exchange and educational value. Indeed, the IPSA has
assumed such a combined role, in the absence on an IPA, as can be seen
from examining its programme.
Professor Tredgold of NUU gave some long-term models of world
population in relation to world resources. He drew some analogies
with animal population dynamics, and suggested that the mainstream of
physics research ought to be directed towards the fundamentals of
resource conservation: what do we do when all the oil is burnt?
Professor Dan Bradley of QUB described his work on tuneable dye
lasers: he has developed a very precise optical analytical
instrument, with considerable market potential....
...There appears to be a law taking shape to the effect that the
problem-orientated people are in the dispersed areas while the
techhnique-orientated people are in the metropolis. The trouble is
that Dublin, Belfast and Cork all think of themselves as being
metropolitan, whereas in fact, as far as physics is concerned, they
are all provincial. Coleraine and Galway have got the message, and
have become problem-orientated....
...the case of Dr Fagan of UCD, who described work on the use of
Cerenkov radiation for detecting gamma-rays from pulsars, can be said
to fit in with this law, as the approach is along the lines that 'we
are good at detecting Cerenkov radiation, thanks to the tradition
brought in from the cosmic-ray field by Professor Neill Porter; what
else can we use it for?'(10).
So far we have had Irish physicists talking about their own work.
The rest of the conference was outside contributions: colour
perception...how the Earth works (continental drift etc; exciting
stuff for students)....Mars....surface physics.....
At the time of the foundation of the Irish Branch of IP and PS
there was talk of the political problem of getting Irish physicists
into one all-Ireland body. That this is a non-problem is shown by the
existence of IPSA. There is already practical co-operation between
Coleraine and Galway (in the matter of the supply of liquid helium)
and between Coleraine and the Agricultural Institute in the matter of
mathematical models of ecological systems (the liver-fluke
life-cycle).
There is no reason why Irish physicists should not work with
other scientists to apply new knowledge to socially desirable ends,
putting leverage on the three governments they have to deal with.
Stratagems for playing one off against the other can be devised, with
a little imagination....discreetly, without making a noise about it
such as arouse irrelevant political passions.
For example, to save Lough Neagh from ecological death, as well
as being a problem of interest to physicists, is the concern of world
science.... The Great Lakes in America and Lake Geneva are in similar
danger. It is thus an Irish national problem that transcends
political divisions.
There already is a research project on Lough Neagh, involving Dr
McFadyen of NUU. The latter has a background in soil zoology, is
aware of the potential of mathematical and physical techniques, and
has been inerested in the energy balance in soils. The move into the
study of fresh-water systems and pollution problems is a natural one
for him. His interests should be shared by those agricultural
scientists who worry about how much fertiliser is taken up and how
much runs off. There is scope here for a collaboration with a physics
component.
...It is on the fringes of such events as the IPSA conference
that one picks up this kind of cross-fertilisation potential....
February 10 1971
...The time has come to examine the social effects of the
discoveries which emanate from these specialist vanguard
groups.....the first wave of concern came with the nuclear bomb; the
second is coming with the biological time-bomb implicit in current
work on molecular biology which is increasingly enabling heridity to
be tampered with.
Increasing numbers of scientists are asking themselves whether we
do not already know enough about the frontiers....and that we should
be using what we know to the benefit of society......a sense of social
responsibility is developing.
This sense of social responsibility seems to have more chance of
developing in the outer, more dispersed places, where there are not
enough specialists to form a 'critical mass' of their own, and they
must cross the boundaries and develop interdisciplinary work, or else
cease to exist as researchers of significance.
Let me return to Belfast and Coleraine as an illustration of this
concentration-dispersion law.
Professor R H Tredgold, in Coleraine, before coming there had
been a 'solid state' man in a well-developed mainstream area. On
coming to Coleraine he switched his attention to a new area: energy
storage systems, in view of the need for mobile storage of electrical
energy after the exhaustion of fossil fuels.... Although there are 19
physicists on the staff of NUU, it would clearly be unsound to
concentrate them all, or most of them, into a single research area in
order to get a 'critical mass' situation. Better to select a number
of research areas, each on its own sub-critical, but with the
potential for cross-linking with chemists and engineers. Electrical
energy storage is just such a research area....
..The other extreme of the concentration-dispersion spectrum (in
the Northern Ireland microcosm) is Professor Dan Bradley's group in
Queens University which has developed the tuneable dye laser along
with a technique for producing picosecond pulses. This is fast enough
to 'freeze' the basic vibrations of matter: you no longer have to go
to absolute zero to do an experriment involving atoms at rest.
Lavish financing is available within the British system for
fields such as this, which are on the fringe of military technology.
There are however many applications for laser equipment of this kind
in biological research, eg in the understanding of the fundamentals of
photosynthesis(11). Professor Bradley is in the process of setting up
a firm to make this equipment in Belfast for the world laboratory
market....
May 5 1971
I commend to the Irish branch of the Institute of Physics (IPIB)
the idea that at their AGM tomorrow....they should consider whether in
future years this event should not be combined with an all-Ireland
conference, rather than a visiting lecturer.
Dr C C Butler FRS, the Director of the Nuffield Foundation, will
have interesting things to say on 'future developments in
undergraduate physics courses.. They will, however, be based on the
British experience and are unlikely to bear much relationship to the
type of teaching that is necessary to match the output of Irish
schools to the needs of Irish industry.....
Those who delude themselves that there is a need to foster
'physics' in the abstract should consider the degree to which the
development of physics as a discipline has been influenced by the
needs and availability of military technology...
The all-Ireland conference idea has been canvassed by Frank
Imbusch and others in Galway. But why the need for a new body to do
it, when the IPIB is at hand?
If the IPIB had sent an observer to the Institute of Biochemistry
conference in Belfast on April 7-8, they would have observed a model
event for them to copy. The numbers are comparable and the structure
similar (Irish branch of a British parent-body).
Two days of research-papers by students from all corners of
Ireland, some excellent; dinner, social evening with songs. The
central event was a review-lecture by Professor G W Kenner of
Liverpool on the development of mass-spectrography as a technique in
biochemistry. One theme of the lecture was the explanation of the
slow rate of development: the equipment is temperamental and easily
goes out of order.
I visited the QUB Medical Biology centre, where they have £300,000
worth of various types of advanced (and no doubt temperamental)
physical instrumentation, and not a physicist in the place. No wonder
they have reliability problems. A mass-spectrometer is not like a
voltmeter. Its maintenance and creative development in a novel
environment is a task for a physicist, with equal standing in the
research team.
Physicists have the opportunity of evolving their discipline in
the direction of complexity, of systems, if they choose to direct
their attention outwards into other areas where physical
instrumentation is enabling breakthroughs to occur. They can go in
and be accepted as scientists; they need not allow themselves to be
pushed into a technician position.
I have floated this idea among both physicists and biochemists
and have met in both cases with blank rejection. I am confident that
this view will ultimately change.
An expeditionary force launched from Irish physics, according to
a strategic plan, into other areas of Irish science would be
infinitely more creative than the present dribble of individuals into
specialist work abroad.
Some achieve distinction. I note that P G Carolan (UCD,QUB) has
been credited in the Times with the invention of a new method of
monitoring magnetic fields in the presence of plasma, using a laser
beam (a QUB speciality). This work is at the centre of an important
frontier: that which looks towards nuclear fusion as a pollution-free
power source. Carolan writes stating that he is Irish, not British,
as claimed in the Times.
Irish physics has a responsibility to open up opportunities for
physicists in Ireland. It can do this if it draws on the biochemists'
experience, both as regards structure and content. Perhaps then the
Carolans will consider trickling back, to enrich Irish science with
their experience.
June 16 1971
...On May 5 I noted briefly a new instrument for measuring
blood-clotting developed in UCD; the ideas behind it had been
outlined by Dr J J Kelly the previous November at a meeting of the
Institution of Chemical Engineers....
In the light of the above, an earlier event which I had passed
over at the time has assumed significance. I refer to a lecture in
TCD on October 22 last by J McKie, of the Western Regional Health
Board, Glasgow. This was under the auspices of the Irish branch of
the Institute of Physics, and was entitled 'Medecine: a Fallow,
Fertile Field for Physicists'.
Mt McKie's lecture was a challenge to the physicist, interested
in medical physics, to break out of the mould of radio-therapy. He
expressed opposition to the idea of a primary degree in medical
physics; this if it were to evolve from current practice would tend
to set the mould more firmly. A hard-core training in basic physics
enables a graduate to approach the outside world with the ability to
organise to comprehend systems hitherto unknown. The idea of 'the
model of the system' is so basic in physics as almost to have escaped
recognition. To extend this approach into the domain of biology,
sociology, economics etc is a natural road for the development of the
physicists' thinking. In these other fields, this type of approach
seems novel, but it is rapidly gaining recognition under such labels
as 'systems engineering', 'operations research', 'management science'
or whatever.
My McKie developed this philosophy in the medical field,
suggesting that the medical-engineering link, while creative, tended
to stop short at the production of complex gadgetry. The
medicine-physics link, on the other hand, produced what he called 'the
simplicity of true insight'.
He gave an example of what he meant. There are various bladder
conditions in which the flow of urine is impaired. Basic research was
done on the hydrodynamics of flow in a model system, with the solution
of certain non-linear differential equations. It emerged from this
that a certain constriction in the urethra, which had been recognised
by the medicals previously, and had occasionally given rise to an
alleged need for surgery, was an effect and not a cause. In other
words, it came naturally out of the physical laws of the system that
there should be a constriction at this point, and the real cause of
the trouble had to be sought elsewhere.
Mr McKie gave a further example in which an explanation was found
for the apparently erratic bahaviour of a red-cell count after
injection of an anti-body, in terms of the behaviour of a
control-system having non-linear elements.
Much of this work took place under the leadership of Dr Kirk, who
had gone into this field from nuclear physics in Glasgow. The Glasgow
medical physics laboratory is the largest in the UK, has 60 graduates
and serves 108 hospitals. Scale this down by a factor of 10 and we
have the basis for a small but viable specialist medical physics unit
in Ireland, in which physicists might get a chance to establish
themselves as creative interactors with the medical world in fields
other than radiotherapy.
***
Another example of the type of modelling of a complex situation
that is 'meat and drink' to the physicist was described on April 15 by
Professor A H Cook, of Edinburgh, again at an Institute of Physics
event.
Professor Cook spoke of the Earth and its structure. Simple
hydrostatic models of a spinning sphere suggest that the departure
from exact sphericity should be 1/299 of the radius. In fact the
departure is 1/298.255, and it is uneven, so that we have the benefit
of differentiation between sea and land. Science is therefore
challenged to find a cause for this small but significant departure
from 'perfection'.
Professor Cook proceeded to develop the ideas and experimental
evidence which underlie the currently accepted model of the Earth's
structure: convective cells in the mantle, continental drift, the
splitting apart of Iceland at two cm per annum, etc.
This is an example of basic physics at its most exciting.....due
the the fact that with the available refinements of technique (lasers,
satellites etc) relative motions of the order of cms per annum can
actually be measured. The geophysicists models have ceased to be
theoretical excercises; they have come to life and started to
interact with a new level of experimentation.
What use is all this? We can't stop Iceland from splitting in
two, nor can we stop the next San Francisco earthquake. Those who
look for a payoff from basic science in what it actually discovers
have missed the point. Pure science is the crucible in which the
young scientist is tempered. People who come successfully through
this crucible are capable of making theoretical models of complex
situations which are capable of increasing our insight into the
outside world; the latter can be anything you like: a disease, a
factory, an economy, an organism, a war....
Of the people who pass through this crucible, only a small
fraction remain behind to keep the reaction going. These are the
'pure scientists'. Their essential role is catalytic. Sometimes they
misunderstand their role: they think it is to produce more catalysts
in bulk.
The present crisis in employment of scientists is due to this
cause. This year over 1000 PhDs in physics applied for 36 vacancies
in the US. Lord Bowden, in the New Scientist of May 20, has an
article on a similar theme. The same issue of the New Scientist
follows with six profiles of 'dropouts' who went and did something
different, having taken a science degree. This is clearly he way
forward, and it is time that those in charge of university science
realised that their function is to catalyse the conversion of raw
material into finished product, while producing only enough
catalyst-material to keep the reaction going.
The finished produce may be defined as a scientist, provided he
or she understands and has real experience of the interaction between
theory and experiment; such people usually have the ability to
generalise this into any complex problem-area.
February 9 1972
I attended Professor ETS Walton's reminiscences of the
Cavendish Laboratory, on the occasion of the repeat performance in
TCD, having missed the IPSA presentation at Cork....
It is salutary for the rising generation to be given a glimpse of
what life was like before large-scale investment in science by the
State became fashionable. For example, it was unusual for a young
graduate who aspired to do research to have had any practical
experience of laboratory work. The first year as research student
would be spent serving an apprenticeship. For those who could show
that they could put together an experiment with bits of glass and
wire, and make it work, there was hope. People learned from each
other the lore of the vacuum pump and the electrical connection. When
the experiment was over, the screws, bits of wood, glass and wire were
carefully sorted for subsequent re-use(12).
A laboratory headed by a succession of scientists of the calibre
of Maxwell, Rayleigh, Thompson and Rutherford has a formidable
tradition. ....Any laboratory annual photograph of the 20s and 30s
shows the faces of an extraordinary number of world-figures of the
forties and fifties, with their names in the textbooks.
It is due to the strength of the Cavendish tradition that there
is such a strong element of nuclear physics in nearly all academic
physics today. It has been said that the work of Newton in the
mid-17th century (the fount of the Cambridge tradition) overshadowed
all subsequent work, for as much as two centuries, becoming like a
'dead hand' until the 'modern physics' of the turn of the last century
broke through. One can perhaps detect an analogy in the way that the
modern Cavendish tradition has dominated the 20th century to date. It
is possible for a tradition to be 'too good', damaging the
possibilities in other fields by the attraction of its excellence.
The original Cavendish, after whom the laboratory was named, was
the first to weigh the earth (by comparing its gravitational
attraction against that of a large sphere of lead, using a torsion
balance). He was also in the tradition of 18th century
gentleman-eccentrics. He wore clothes of antique fashion, and could
not abide the presence of women, communicating with his housekeeper in
writing.
May 17 1972
The Irish Branch of the Institute of Physics held its first-ever
national conference at Carrickmacross on March 25-26, constituting
another example of the trend away from the series of evening meetings
throughout the winter, and towards a conscious focussing of the effort
into a single more solid, integrated and memorable occasion.
The Saturday afternoon session consisted of a series of reports,
one from each centre in Ireland where physics is done: Dr M F Quinn
spoke on dye lasers in Kevin St, Dr J Lennon (Cork) spoke on radiation
effects in gases; Dr A Thompson (DIAS) spoke on cosmic-ray heavy
primaries and methods of detection; Dr V J BcBrierty spoke on the
physics of polymers; Dr D Kennedy (NUU) spoke on the physical
properties of biological membranes. Dr Tom O'Connor spoke about his
plans for atmospheric physics in UCG: this was pure sales talk which
outlined convincingly the scope of the physics possible based on pure
air from the Atlantic as a resource. Upper-atmosphere physics based
on rocket-probes was outlined by B Bates of QUB.
This assembly of ideas was interesting in that it displayed a
wide range of experimental philosophies. Each 'island' was responding
in a different way to its local environment....
Thus Dr Lennon's philosophy might be summarised 'we have some
vacuum and microwave equipment, what can we do with it?' He has,
rather ingeniously, contrived to measure in the laboratory gas
dielectric effects which might be of use to people working on the
physics of the upper atmosphere. (Lay readers can 'connect' if they
have ever wondered what caused the aurora borealis.).....
Dr M F Quinn, now in Kevin St, had been working in QUB with
Bradley on dye lasers. He took his interest with him when he went to
Kevin St(13). I remain to be convinced that this procedure is
viable....
The growth areas, I feel, are atmospheric physics (this could in
UCG link up with the marine group....) and polymers. Dr McBrierty is
developing this area with NSC support.. The precise nature of the
industrial link needs to be worked out; there is apparently little
understanding in the Irish plastics industry that it is science-based;
they tend to work by recipe and not to want to know about the
underlying science. This bridge may perhaps get built with the aid of
the Quality Control Association.
Dr Kennedy in NUU has started looking at the basic physics of the
transfer of sodium and potassium across the walls of an axon. This is
part of a nerve-cell; it occurs conveniently large in the case of the
squid. This is potentially a fruitful interdisciplinary field; so
far however Dr Kennedy is poking around on his own and has not yet
developed enough feel for the problem to be able to contribute
significantly to biological research. This sort of work however
should have no difficulty in thriving in a university environment.
On the Sunday morning we were treated to a virtuoso performance
by Professor Cornelius Lanczos, of DIAS: he held forth on the history
of the interaction of theory and experiment, holding the audience
spellbound. It must have been a rare and valued chance for, say, a
young student from Dundalk RTC to get a chance to sit at the feet of
one of the 'grand old men' of physics whom we are privileged to have
among us. No-one could listen to Professor Lanczos and remain
unconvinced that science has an aesthetic.
The Sunday afternoon session consisted of four papers on Physics
and the Economy: Dr McCarville (IDA), Professor Bradley (QUB), C P
O'Toole (IIRS) and Dr Imbusch (UCG).
This gave rise to a wide-ranging discussion, chaired by Professor
Carroll (UCD). The gulf of absolute mutual non-comprehension which
exists between physics and industry in Ireland was inspected from all
sides. No conclusion was reached, and a working group was set up
which included C P O'Toole, Eamonn Lalor (UCD), Ciaran Ryan (DIAS), Dr
McCarville, Dr McBrierty and some others, including the present
writer. This was instructed to produce a proposition for the AGM of
the Branch (May 25) which could be used subsequently as a basis for
discussion with the National Science Council.....
May 31 1972
The Kevin St physics people have been quick to point out that
their laser work is, in fact, application-orientated. One idea is the
use of the laser in flash photolysis; in other words, long exposure
to light can be simulated by brief exposure to very intense light.
This has applications in dye evaluation, and so is of interest to the
textile industry. Laser alignment systems are in use in the
construction industry.
I get the impression, however, that we are still in a situation
of having a soluttion in search of a problem....
According to Dr F J Kelly, who is currently working with the
National Science Council (on secondment from its Canadian
counterpart), 70% of innovations arise out of recognised needs and
only 20% out of seeking applications for discoveries.
The channel into the 'problem area' from the Colleges of
Technology could be direct (by the staff going out and looking for the
problems) or indirect (via the IIRS). According to Professor Allen,
of MIT, who has made a very significant study of communications in
Irish science and technology, the link between IIRS and the Colleges
is weak.
The rules of the Vocational Education Committee see to it that
the direct link into industry also remains weak. The staff have no
consultancy time. With the best intentions in the world, physics
research in the Colleges of Technology is likely to remain
academic-minded (even though, in theory, 'applied') for as long as it
is constrained by these rules. I am unlikely to be persuaded
otherwise by consideration of the titles of the two most recent
seminars: Dr McBride on 'the observation of weak spectra' and Dr
McKeith on 'interference spectroscopy and space physics' (May 23 and
May 30).
It is, however, excellent that we have here the makings of a
strong centre for applied physics with some goodwill towards industry.
The problem is how to organise that the bridge gets built. The key
here is consultancy time for the College staff, so that they can nose
around in the IIRS initially, and ultimately in industry. Over now to
the VECs. The same problem exists in the Regional Colleges.. They
have young staffs, on average fairly fresh from an academic
environment, some however with recent industrial experience. Unless
they get their industrial experience reinforced, in five years they
will be a millstone round our necks, a group of aging teachers looking
towards their pensions, and blocking the promotions of their
successors. If, on the other hand, they get out to do local
consultancy work, they will find themselves getting into stimulating
part-time projects, with increasing industrial involvement, making way
for a younger generation, and making industry aware of technology....
February 14 1973
...I must mention a seminar organised by the IPIB on January 22,
addressed by Professor Raffle of Loughborough...
The theme was what might be called 'other physics'; ie that
which is not in the glamour areas (nuclear, astro, space etc). Other
fields such as material mechanics, plasma, opto-electronics,
atmospheric physics etc are in the process of takeover by the
engineers. Raffle is counter-attacking, and is building up an
industrial consultancy team.
They have developed in Loughborough a sandwich course, with an
initial basic theoretical unit, followed by a one-year break for
industrial experience, followed by options tending towards physics or
engineering-type degrees. Raffle's point is that you end up as a
better engineer if you take your physics a bit further.
The closest parallel to this structure in Ireland is to be found
in Limerick. It is of interest that there is currently a Loughborough
student doing his 'industrial experience' stage in the IIRS. This
type of relationship has never managed to get established with any of
the Dublin colleges.
The Loughborough physics department gets about 25% of its income
from consultancy. This is about the norm for the Loughborough
engineering departments (transport, chemical, mechanical, electrical).
I wonder how many Irish university physics departments could say this?
June 13 1973
Last Wednesday at Maynooth there was a symposium attended by all
physicists in Ireland who are interested in the physics of the
atmosphere. Now that smog and pollution have become political issues,
physicists in this field have found themselves catapulted into the
limelight, as a more environment-conscious world turns against the
once-fashionable nuclear and space fields.
This particular symposium reported on some rather basic work:
Professor McGreevy (Maynooth) on 'the chemical composition of aerosol
particles by electron microscopy morphological analysis'; Dr A O
Rodaigh (UCG) on 'nucleation of the solid phase in a cloud of
supercooled cyclohexane droplets'; John O'Dea (UCG) on 'Aitken nuclei
as indicators of air pollution'.
The UCD group was very much in the tradition of J J and P J Nolan
(who pioneered this field in the 30s): Dr T P Burke on 'mobility
measurements of the gaseous small ions by a time of flight method';
Michael Byrne on 'investigations on the charge asymmetry of droplets
produced by disruption of liquid jets'; Patrick Frain on
'improvements in the technique of measuring small-ion diffusion
coefficients and mobilities'; finally Dr J P McLaughlin on 'aspects
of the interaction of the radioactive gas radon aand its daughters
with aerosols'.
This event constitutes further evidence of the way that Irish
physicists, having only in the last two years come to recognise the
value of an annual conference, have begun to explore in depth relevant
areas where they can actually help and influence each others' work.
At Maynooth two quite different approaches to the same problem
met and cross-fertilised: the UCD preoccupation with electrical
charge effects, strongly linked to the nuclear physics tradition and
its measurement techniques on the one hand; on the other hand the UCG
and Maynooth people rooted in the 'solid state' tradition.
According to Dr McLaughlin(14), who organised the symposium,
there are plans for a further one in October. This will be directed
at seeking out ways of using the basic pool of knowledge that we have
got in such a way as to enable the practical problems of air pollution
to be tackled effectively; instrumentation, control systems,
legislation etc are of little or no use unless devised with basic
understanding of the processes at work.....
March 6 1974
The North-Western Scientific Council recently was host to Dr
Siddhartha Sen, of TCD Mathematics Department, who lectured on recent
developments in theoretical and experimental high-energy nuclear
physics.
The current theory of sub-nuclear structure involves entities
called 'quarks' (a name lifted from 'Finnegans Wake). The search for
experimental evidence of their existence has gone on since they were
postulated in 1963 by Gell-Mann, mostly using the major
particle-accelerators of the world.....
According to Dr Sen, basic research into the nature of matter is
a cultural pursuit, from which however useful inventions such as
improvements in the technology of solid-state devices, or
computer-based control systems, may 'spin off'. Echoes from Dr Sen's
audience suggest that this is viewed with some scepticism; my
informant could think of a good few less exoteric and expensive
cultural pursuits.
I detect here what could develop an unhealthy questioning of the
importance of basic research at the frontiers of knowledge. Possibly
Dr Sen was not its most effective salesman; he spoke across too wide
a cultural gap.
I myself in the late fifties, in association with an experiment
carried out at the big European particle accelerator at Geneva (CERN),
got some experience that is only now becoming relevant at the
engineering level: the use of an 'on-line' minicomputer to analyse
instrument readings 'in real time'. The technology would now be
regarded as primitive, but it was there (we developed it in the Dublin
Institute of Advanced Studies) and it worked.
Technology of frontier-physics seems to trickle into engineering
with about a ten-year lag. The use of super-conductors for power
transmission is now beginning to be talked about seriously by the
electrical engineers. This principle (which avoids completely some
ohmic losses for the expenditure of some energy on refrigeration) has
been in use for the high-energy physicists' electromagnets since the
early sixties.
It would perhaps have been more relevant if the Sligo people had
looked for some inputs from those concerned with the technology of
frontier-physics experimentation. There are some such in Dublin.
May 8 1974
One of the outcomes of the IPIB meeting in Newcastle Co Down on
March 30.....was the formation of a specialist group on materials
science.
This, while initially being composed of academic physicists (with
the exception of CP O'Toole of IIRS), constitutes a group to which
engineering scientists, industrial physicists and scientific-minded
engineers are likely to be attracted.
The group proposes to hold an annual one-day meeting, and to
co-ordinate its activities with like groups set up by the chemists and
engineers....a welcome move towards an interdisciplinary aapproach to
materials science.
It is also proposed to compile a register of those working in
materials science and the resources which they have available.....
November 22 1974
The first meeting of the Materials Science Group of IPIB took
place early last month in TCD. It was an inventory-type event; the
participants had never met as a materials group and it was of interest
to see who was doing what.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the proceedings was
dominated by NUU and IIRS, and that the contributions of these bodies
were some distance apart on the spectrum.
On the one hand the IIRS people reported on their work in the
fields of high temperature materials, ceramics, glasses, asbestos
fibres, metals and alloys. The NUU people, on the other hand, devoted
their time to surfaces and their electrical properties; seven of them
read papers.
The QUB people presented three papers covering microwave
semiconductor devices, Raman scattering in alkali halide crystals, and
acousto-optical effects in solids, with relevance to laser beam
deflection.
The TCD people were present in some force in the audience, but
contributed no paper, as they are in the throes of reorganisation,
Professor Brian Henderson having succeeded Professor ETS Walton in the
Chair. We can expect to see an interest in materials developing in
TCD, as Professor Henderson is a 'solid state' man, having spent a
period at Harwell trying to understand the properties of materials
under intensive neutron bombardment.
In the ensuing discussions various ideas emerged for
bridge-building.
Regrettably, I do not see much future for the group as it stands.
There is more to materials science than physics. Corrosion, for
example, is an enormous and costly problem-area, on the borderline of
physics and chemistry. Polyymer technology is another area where
there is a considerable industry requiring competent quality and
process control. The principal Regional College looking towards this
area is Athlone, and they sent an observer to the meeting, presumably
hoping to find back-up contacts, but went away disappointed, as no
polymer science was discussed.
I think the next step for this group is to organise specialist
bridge-building excercises, possibly around the two problem-areas I
have named (corrosion and polymers). It will then live up to its name
of being a 'materials science' group, and will open up a line of
communication to current problems of technology. The individual
physicists in the Group would then have to decide whether they want to
turn their attention to the problems as they exist, or to continue to
aspire to work at the frontier of science, in which case their
relevant conferences will usually be abroad. There is a need to
strike a balance between these two activities, and for the groups who
look in these two quite distinct directions to contrive to remain
talking to each other.
November 29 1974
Dr C R Hill, of the Royal Cancer Hospital, London, spoke at a
meeting of the Irish Branch of the Institute of Physics on November 25
in the College of Technology, Kevin St. The lecture was repeated at
Queens University Belfast the next day. The subject was 'Applying
Physics to Cancer'.
Dr Hill managed to steer the discussion away from its traditional
area (for physicists) of ionising radiations as therapy, although he
did mention in passing the potential for the use of pi-mesons for very
precise interior doses.
(Pi-mesons are rather expensive by-products of high-energy
nuclear physics research. They occur in a handful of major world
research centres, such as Rutherford Laboratory, Harwell, or CERN,
Geneva. They are tailor-made for cancer work, in that the penetrate
the tissue with minimal disturbance and then deposit most of their
energy near where they come to rest, which location can be determined
with precision once you know their initial momentum. Some
particle-accelerators specifically designed to produce therapeutic
pi-mesons are planned in the United States.)
More immediately relevant, however, was the use of X-rays and
ultrasonics for diagnostic work. Dr Hill outlined a process where, by
using an electrostatic system, rather like a Xerox machine, it was
possible to 'differentiate' an X-ray picture, bringing up small
changes in intensity, to the extent that the vascular system could be
made to stand out, in stereo.
He also showed how, by taking X-ray photographs at various angles
and feeding the results into a computer , it was possible (by solving
a series of linear equations, which a computer can do rather well) to
construct a precise map of the intensity of energy deposited at any
point in the soft tissue. He showed a brain-tumour located by these
means, which was detectable by no other.
Finally, on ultrasonics, he brought out the difference of
approach to the diagnostic problem as between physicists and
engineers. Hitherto developments had been dominated by the
interaction between medicals and engineers; peoples' ideas had tended
to be dominated by the radar analogue: echoes from objects. This
approach lacked subtlety and threw away good information. What was
needed was a physicists' approach, measuring scattering from an
extended structured medium. Measurements of energy of scattered
ultrasound at various angles enabled characteristic structures for
healthy and diseased tissue to be identified, giving a much more
delicate probe to the diagnostician than was available when the system
was radar-based.
This confirms my impression that there is a gulf between
physicists and engineers in Britain, as well as here..... It seems to
be a phenomenon that engineers and physicists talk separately to
medicals, but genuine tripartite collaboration rarely takes place. Dr
Hill appears to be the exception.
The composition of the meeting reflected this; there were
physicists present, but no medicals or engineers. No doubt some
desultory efforts were made to inform both groups, but I feel that
organisers of meetings of this type underestimate seriously the amount
of political spade-work they have to do, at the level of VIP lunches,
socialising appropriately etc, if they are to get the various groups
genuinely to look across the boundaries of the ruts they inhabit.
The meeting on laser surgery(15) which I reported on November 18
suffered from the same weakness. It was under the auspices of the
Biomedical Engineers, and because it was to do with lasers, a few
physicists turned up, mostly those who were in Kevin St where the
meeting took place. I noted only one surgeon. This meeting, I
suggest, should have taken place in the College of Surgeons, under the
joint auspices of the Institute of Physics, the Biomedical Engineers
and the appropriate surgeons' organisation. It would then, perhaps,
have drawn the high-power audience it deserved, and provided an
opportunity for subsequent bridge-building with a view to getting the
appropriate amount of cash to flow.
I must now return to another Institute of Physics event: the
'Materials Science' seminar I touched upon last week. New information
to hand suggests organisational weakness analogous to that pinpointed
above.
The event was dominated by the New University of Ulster and the
Institute of Industrial Research and Standards, from the opposite ends
of the materials science spectrum. The presence of UCC and UCG people
was nominal, and no papers were read by TCD or UCD people. This I
took to be a reflection of reality.
I am now inclined to think that it was a distorted reflection,
and will give the NUU people the impression that there are few people
in the Republic worth talking to. It would have been fairer if each
institution had been offered the chance of an appropriate review-paper
by an appropriate spokesman.
The overall picture of who was doing what would then have
emerged: the bridge being built towards the chemists through the work
of Dr McBrierty in TCD on polymer structures, the TCD Auger
spectroscopy work and ultra-high vacuum techniques, and so on.
Trinity College could become a relevant centre of expertise if ever
the electronic industry gets as far as manufacturing integrated
circuits on silicon chips in Ireland. Dr A H Gregg is a veteran
worker in this field; he attends such international events as he can
on a College budget, and has a practical eye for a patentable device.
He regrets profoundly that the patent for the high-frequency
sputtering process (which is replacing vacuum evaporation as the
standard technique for placing metallic films on non-conductors)
wasn't taken out by the College, when he had the priority over a
decade ago(16). Devices based on this principle are now relatively
big business. Yet Dr Gregg didn't know about the TCD Materials
Science meeting, because it happens he isn't a member of the Institute
of Physics....
February 25 1975
The state of Materials Science in Ireland is rapidly changing.
Five years ago outside the IIRS it was virtually non-existent; now
however the academic research people are waking up to its importance,
although without much sign of strategic thinking, let it be said. The
facts behind this statement are complex; it is perhaps possible to
summarise them.
Some time ago the Institute of Physics (Irish Branch) organised a
seminar in TCD at which they set up a 'specialist group in materials
science'. This was attended mostly by physicists, and consisted of a
set of specialist papers scattered over a wide area, with some
concentration towards electrical effects on surfaces under high
vacuum. The handful of chemists and physical chemists who were there
felt rather frozen out; some good work going on in TCD, including
surface work and polymer work, got overlooked, and the group decided
provisionally to hold a further meeting in QUB, concentrating
deliberately in the area where they had concentrated by chance in the
first meeting.
This, I felt, represented the British academic tradition of
over-specialised exoticism at its worst: a kind of provincial
'we-too' syndrome.
There is a law becoming recognised in science which says 'when
remote from major world specialist centres, develop cross-links into
other specialist disciplines'. Some of the people who attended the
TCD meeting, fortunately, appear to be aware of this law(17), and have
been working away to reverse this false start.
Evidence of this is the emergence of the more modestly-named
'Materials Group Committee' of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland,
chaired by Dr Evan Petty (Head of Materials and Industrial
Engineering, NIHE, Limerick) and with Dr M K Halpin (IIRS minerals and
inorganic chemicals section) as secretary. It includes seven
academics and five industrial scientists.
This is a group which looks as if it could become influential in
steering some basic materials work into the academic system, and
whetting the appetites of some of the academics for working in
interesting problem-areas which cost money (like corrosion and
adhesion), or present opportunities for cost-cutting, like synthetic
composite materials.
In the meantime, the physicists appear to be having second
thoughts, and their Materials Science group is now arranging to meet
on April 19 at Rosses Point, on the fringe of the Annual Convention of
the Irish Branch of the Institute of Physics. It will be chaired by
Professor Frank Imbusch of UCG, who, incidentally, is also on the
Chemists' group committee. It is of interest to note that Professor
Imbusch, Dr Petty and Dr Halpin were all at the TCD Materials Science
meeting.
Finally I note that the TCD physicists have begun to build a
bridge into the materials applications area with an article in the
February Technology Ireland (V J McBrierty and Brian Henderson) on the
contribution of nuclear magnetic resonance techniques to
non-destructive testing in industry. This technique is of
considerable use for quality control in polymer processing plants,
including changes in physical properties taking place during the
extrusion process. Other industrial application areas include rubber,
transistors, nuclear reactor materials; there is also scope in the
medical field (malignant tumours) and in the food industry (fat,
moisture). The McBrierty-Henderson article is not easy reading, but
hopefully it will alert the process engineers to some esoteric
physical techniques of practical use.....
April 22 1975
An audience of some 45 people, broadly representative of the
Dublin universities and colleges of technology, as well as some of the
Regional Colleges, State-sponsored bodies and electronics firms,
participated in a seminar on April 14 given by Dr David Walton (Icthus
Instruments ltd) organised by the TCD Industrial Liaison Office(18).
Dr Walton graduated in 1968 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he
subsequently did his doctorate; he joined the staff of the TCD
Physics Department in 1971.
During the vacations he used to return to Newcastle, where
together with Ken Wood, an ex-colleague then working as an electronic
engineer with Marconi, they hatched a scheme to start their own
company. They took the plunge in 1974 and in April of that year Dr
Walton resigned from his TCD post and went to work full-time for
Icthus Instruments.
...On the basis of experience of logical testing procedures for
digital electronic equipment, where the traditional oscilloscope is
still used in a rather primitive and inconvenient manner, they
developed a digital logic probe, with measurement of time intervals
and test signal generator, all in one box.
They found they were able to sell the instrument on its
specification even before a prototype was built and working. They are
now in the position that they are running into cash flow problems due
to rate of expansion of production to meet an exploding order-book.
(This is a classical small-business pitfall, due to the lead-time in
ordering supplies and lag in payments; if your expansion rate is
above a certain level, you will never have a positive cash flow!)
The initial price (£1500) was set by guess-work. Dr Walton
now feels it should have been higher; it would have been if more
quantitative market research had been done. It is important to
remember that with a novel piece of equipment there is no necessary
connection between the price and the cost of production; this will
only establish itself once the competition gets going.
The Icthus company policy is to stay small (at the size that the
work-force all know each other) and to stay one step ahead of the
giants by flexible thinking. They do not intend to get into
mass-production; if the market were to merit this they would licence
out.
Their sales policy is 'decide who needs one, then go straight in
and sell...' 'How can we help you?' rather than 'Can we help
you?'....'get a yes or no, don't carry a list of probables'....'go to
places where they will order quickly'....
They have avoided deals with finance-houses, as these tend to
take the shirt off your back if you are successful. The best help
they got was from the UK Department of Trade and Industry, which gave
them a pre-production order for some instruments which they are
placing on trial, with option to purchase from the DIT, in firms and
institutions of Icthus' choice.
This indeed is an enlightened policy; the type of aid available
from the IDA (equipment grants etc) would be quite irrelevant to the
Icthus type of operation, which depends mostly on highly skilled
labour(19).
Icthus has also made use of 'factoring houses' which do invoice
discounting. These maintain records of credit ratings of various
firms, pay on the nail against production of invoice, and collect at
their leisure, carrying the risk of the bad debt. The amount of the
discount is acceptable in the case of a rapidly expanding firm with a
liquidity problem.
The main reason for setting up in Britain was to be near the
market.. A small firm with high-technology product setting up in
Ireland, based on science-graduate entrepreneurs, would need its main
State support in the form of support for the marketing operation,
which would involve considerable time abroad for high-grade
staff.....existing State support for equipment, buildings and training
is only relevant where a large-volume product is involved.....
So even if David Walton and Ken Wood had originated in Ireland,
and had roots here, they would still have been subject to forces
encouraging them to set up in Britain rather than in a budding Irish
electronics centre such as Dundalk. There is food here for thought.
April 29 1975
People banking on a continual long-term rise in the price of
copper should think again. The following glimpses into the future
show that alternatives to copper as a carrier of communications and
power are round the corner.
On April 3 the Irish Branch of the Institute of Electrical
Engineers ran a seminar on 'Lasers'; the speaker was D F Lovelace of
the Standard Telecommunications Laboratories, Harlow, Essex. Instead
of a quasi-academic fireworks display, as is often the case with such
events, we got a fascinating glimpse into the use of gadolinium
arsenide lasers in communications technology.
These devices are, basically, transistors, in which electrical
power can be converted directly into modulated light by a laser effect
in the junction region. This light emerges from a line-source,
without the spectacular directive properties of the traditional laser,
but it can be trapped and fed into an optical fibre ('light-pipe').
It is here that we are in the copper-replacement business.
Optical fibre technology has developed to the extent that you can feed
light into a fibre and only lose 10 decibels per kilometre. You can
modulate up to 1GHz, and tranmit for as far as you like with a
repeater every 2km. So we have a complete optical 'wired'
communications system which is comparable in performance to the best
modern conductive system.
***
At the annual meeting of the Irish Branch of the Institute of
Physics, at Sligo on April 20, some similar innovatory concepts were
outlined by Professor G G Roberts of the New University of Ulster.
Professor Roberts leads a group consisting of physicists and
organic chemists who are working on organic polymers with curious
electrical properties. This type of interdisciplinary team is
favoured by the NUU structure, which is based on broad schools rather
than specialist departments.
This work originated around the problem of how to do a colour
Xerox. This involves particles suspended in a colloid which become
photo-conducting and migrate under electrical forces. He produced a
creditable colour print to show that it was possible; to make the
process economic would require further work, in collaboration with
engineers.
Professor Roberts went on to list the development areas open to
these combined physicist-chemist teams: conductive glasses,
photographic processes involving conducting polymers (eg one can
photograph a diagram and develop in such a way as to produce a printed
circuit directly), display devices, electrolytic cells, catalysis,
energy storage devices etc.
As a 'throw-away line' he mentioned that in the Bell Laboratories
they had set up a team with the task of finding an organic solid as
good as copper, and had come up with something that was short by a
factor of ten. People aware of the values of typical organic
conductivities will realise what a major jump this is.... In NUU they
are able to produce an organic solid which is a factor of 100 short of
copper in conductivity. This is of use as an 'anti-static' textile
material.
Professor Roberts' way of implementing the university-industry
link is to lead a joint bi-located team in NUU and ICI, spending 25
days per annum on ICI ground. ICI also finances a number of
fellowships in NUU. This type of structure, which is common in
Britain, is new to Ireland, especially in its interdisciplinary
aspect.. The traditional ICI fellowships, which have been around for
some time, are more appropriate for basic work in chemistry
departments.
This pattern for university-industry linkage should, I feel, be
looked at more closely in Ireland......the scale threshold for
profitable investment in R and D has up to now seemed remote, for most
Irish firms. The State can help it to come closer.
May 6 1975
Last week's feature on replacement of copper as a conductor leads
naturally to a mention of a discovery made at the IBM laboratories at
San Jose, California....
Polysulphur nitride displays metallic-type conduction at room
temperature. It occurs in crystals about a centimetre in length.
Cooling to near absolute zero (0.25 degrees K) brings about a
superconducting state.
Efforts have been made to develop materials which are
superconducting at more easily manageable temperatures. Some
rare-earth compounds are superconducting up to 23 degrees K.
Theoretical attempts have been made in Stanford University,
California, to push up this limit, using a tailor-made molecule based
on a long carbon chain. Up to now, however, the behaviour of organic
conductors has been the reverse of superconducting: below a certain
temperature they suddenly become insulators. Whence the importance of
the newly-discovered properties of polysulphur nitride.
This work was done by a joint university-industry team; note the
parallel with the NUU/ICI link referred to last week.
October 14 1975
I have received the provisional programme for the international
conference on Physics in Industry, which is to take place in Dublin on
March 9-13 of next year.
This is sponsored by the International Union of Pure and Applied
Physics (IUPAP); the Irish aspects of the organisation are being
handled by the National Committee for Physics of the Royal Irish
Academy.
It is the first of its kind, and as such is somewhat
experimental. The Chairman of the Programme Committee is Professor H
B G Casimir; some three years ago I reported a lecture which he gave
in Dublin(20) in which he outlined the dialectics of scientific
discovery versus technological innovation. He was at that time the
head of the Philips Laboratories at Eindhoven, Holland.
Professor Casimir started life as a theoretical physicist. His
Dublin lecture was under the auspices of the Institute of Advanced
Studies. I remember at the time reading into this a statement of
intent on the part of the Irish 'physics establishment' to start
looking towards applications work. This conference represents a
partial fulfilment of this intention, insofar as the Irish physicists
lobbied for it on the international network. I understand also that
the IUPAP 'establishment' also has the whole applied physics area on
its collective conscience, never having previously taken any interest
in it, despite its title.
There is a socially responsible trend developing in the various
international bodies (especially those under United Nations auspices,
as is IUPAP) towards locating conferences so as to help things along
in the less-developed countries. (Ireland is, of course, in this
category, despite the pretensions of those who wanted us to become
full members of the EEC.) The General Secretary of IUPAP is a French
Canadian of Irish origin, Larkin Kirwan. These factors all
contributed to a Dublin venue for the 1976 conference.
The programme committee (which has 17 distinguished members
ranging from the USA to the USSR) includes the following from Ireland:
M J Cranley, Director of the IIRS and a physicist by training who has
worked in X-ray crystallography with Kathleen Lonsdale in London, CP
O'Toole, head of the IIRS physics department, and M C Sexton, of the
UCC Electrical Engineering Department, who is currently working in
plasma physics with EEC support.
It also includes Fergus O Foghludha (who worked in UCD with
Professor TE Nevin in the early fifties; he then went off to the US
where he took a medical degree and specialised in medical physics) and
D J Bradley, of QUB dye-laser fame.
The programme covers materials, environment, computers,
communications, thermonuclear fusion, medecine, surface phenomena,
exotic energy sources etc. There is a slot for agriculture which is
not yet filled.
My first foray into the field of 'scientific criticism'(21) in or
about 1966 was when I reviewed the Agricultural Institute's annual
research reports for 'Development'(22). I pointed out the existence
of a gap between physics and agriculture on that occasion, and on a
number of occasions subsequently. The soil/air/water/nutrient/plant
system was then, and still is, physically interesting; it should
repay study by more refined techniques than are available to the
traditional agricultural scientists. Yet the cultural gap between
traditional physics in Ireland, and those in agriculture who seek
solutions with engineering-type techniques to problems in the area
labelled 'soil physics', has to date remained unbridgeable.
I myself made an attempt to bridge the gap in 1960, when I made
my first career-change (basic physics into industry). I got hold of
some Rothamstead soil physics review articles, and tried to interest
the (then embryonic) Agricultural Institute in them, without success.
There were then, and still are, blind areas on both sides. So I am
not surprised that there is still an empty slot for physics in
agriculture in the conference programme. It will be interesting to
see how it gets filled, if what it is filled with is relevant, and if
anyone in Ireland is prepared to take note of it.
This conference should be attended by scientists and engineers
connected with any industry where scientific technology is
important.....
October 21 1975
The inaugural meeting of the Materials Science Group of the
Institute fo Physics (Irish Branch) was held in Trinity College on
September 1974. Although the meeting was judged to have been a
success by its organisers, the need to relate to the needs of
industrial technology was admitted. The major themes of the second
such conference, held in Queens University Belfast on September 19-20,
were the science and technology of semiconductors, and materials
science in engineering.
Keynote lectures were given by Dr P C Newman, of Plessey ltd, and
Professor Crosland of QUB. A wide-ranging collection of contributed
papers was presented, on topics such as the physical basis of clothing
comfort, NMR in polymers, organic laser media, semiconductor
materials, microwave devices and superconductors.
The formal lecture programme was supplemented by exhibitions, in
both the Physics Department and the Ashby Institute, where there was
displayed an impressive collection of classical apparatus used by
Faraday and Kelvin, which contrasted with modern techniques used in
materials research (including laser-Raman and surface Auger
spectroscopy, optical thin films etc), and with modern industrial
processes (eg friction welding, structural component design and
semiconductor fabrication).
The organising committee, Professors Lissberger, Imbusch, Roberts
and Dr Duncan are to be complimented on the quality of both the
lecture programme and the exhibitions. The only disappointing feature
was the small number of representatives of industry, research
organisations and educational establishments in the Republic.
January 27 1976
On October 14 last year I gave advance notice of the coming
international conference on Physics in Industry, organised by the
Royal Irish Academy under the auspices of IUPAP.
I have now seen a nearly complete draft of the programme, and I
find it difficult to repress a sense of excitement. This promises to
be the most important international scientific event ever to take
place in Ireland. I do not say this lightly. International
conferences have in the past come and gone, usually staying within
their discipline and 'level of application', leaving behind scarcely a
ripple on the surface of the Irish academic and industrial
'establishment'.
This conference, in contrast, sets out quasi-consciously to 'rock
the boat' and to draw to the attention of the allocators of finance in
Ireland that there are opportunities in high-technology industry for
realising an economic return for our investment in third-level
education, the fruits of which we have for decades been scattering to
the four winds without a thought.
Some of our emigrant scientists will be returning to participate,
or to read papers on the fruits of their researches abroad, and,
hopefully, to stir the consciences of the politicians and
administrators who erected the barriers to, or failed to to take up
the opportunities for, the development of physics in Ireland up to
now.
I note particularly Denis Keefe, from Princeton, who is reading a
paper entitled 'Rock-excavation by pulsed electron beams'. Keefe was
in UCD in the fifties; he was involved with a major team effort which
included also the Institute of Advanced Studies and the universities
of Bristol, Milan and other centres of expertise in the physics of
high-energy particles. The policy of UCD then towards its junior
staff was such as to make a move to the US by people of the calibre of
Keefe practically inevitable. Clearly he has stuck consistently to
his original field, and is now on the verge of moving with it into an
applications area which in the fifties would have been regarded as
science-fiction.
The calibre of this conference may be judged by the speakers who
will give the keynote papers. These include LM Branscombe
(vice-President and chief scientist of IBM), AG Chynoweth (Director
of the Materials Research laboratories, Bell Telephones), GA
Smolensky (Ioffe Physico-technical Institute, Leningrad) and JMA
Lenihan (Director, Glasgow University Department of Bio-engineering).
The conference is streamed, and participants will have the chance
to concentrate on the stream which interests them. The main divisions
are new technologies and materials, communications and
data-processing, biological applications, social aspects,
optics/electronics and acoustics.
The following selection of key papers from these main groupings
is made with a view to whetting the appetites of engineers in Ireland,
and stimulating that fraternity towards improving their lines of
communication with applied physics; also of physicists who seek to
find practical and marketable outlets for their skills. This is the
opportunity of a lifetime to pick the brains of the world, on our
doorstep. The organisers, with IUPAP blessing, have made it easy for
contacts and follow-ups to develop in Ireland by the enlightened
expedient of having a special reduced fee for local participants, £5
per diem, of £15 total.....
In the field of new technologies I note a review paper by I
Maleki (Polish National Academy) 'Applications of Ultrasonics to
Material Technology'; also M Schlesinger (University of Windsor,
Canada) on 'New photo-imaging processes for industrial use'.
Under 'Optics/electronics'.... SG Lipson (Technion, Haifa,
Israel) has a paper on 'dynamic correction of optical instruments'.
In 'social aspects' there are studies of employment patterns,
small industries, the university-industry interface. JE Ripper Filho
(University of Campinas, Brazil) has a review-paper 'Appled Physics in
a Developing Country'.
Under 'Energy', D Hurtley (University of Warwick, UK) has a paper
analysing the energy utilisation pattern in the conventional
automobile, as a basis for innovative energy-saving designs.
Under 'communications and data-processing' the field is dominated
by advanced computer technology and satellites; there is a suggestion
of an operations-research approach to system evaluation by dynamic
model-building.
In 'acoustics' the emphasis is on industrial and environmental
noise.
The biological section divides naturally into agriculture and
medecine. There are seven papers in the former section, including one
from the Agricultural Institute (title not yet available). The others
are from the UK, USA, Canada, Holland, Sweden. The techniques covered
include proton activation analysis. I understand that the
Agricultural Institute will be observing this conference closely, with
a view to gaining insights into the 'physics in agriculture' scene as
it exists abroad. To date this has been a blind area in Ireland, for
both physics and agricultural research. I can claim to have been
pointing this out at intervals over the past 16 years; I won't labour
the point as I went into it on October 14 last.
The medical section has a paper from Papua, New Guinea, on the
dispersion of solutes during blood flow, suggesting that an awareness
of the utility of physical techniques in medecine is not a preserve of
the developed countries.
***
This is an appropriate time to comment on the annual conference
of the Irish Physics Students' Association, which took place in Galway
on December 31-January 3 last. It was the eleventh in the series. An
excellent tradition has been established; it is taken seriously by
the principal researchers, who use it for review-papers, which they
present without condescension as shop-windows for their wares. The
conference was commented on favourably by M G Ebison, the education
officer of the Institute of Physics, London, who admitted that they
had nothing like it in Britain. Indeed, it could be said that his
after-dinner speech, a jeremiad about the decline of physics in
Britain, was out of tune with the youth and optimism of the occasion.
Highlight of the conference was Dr Tom Murphy, of the Dublin
Institute of Advanced Studies, who surveyed the field of geophysics,
covering the techniques which are currently in use for the discovery
of petroleum and metallic ores. In this economically important field,
Dr Murphy remains the principal repository of know-how in Ireland.
His work is a mine of information on which the oil and mining
companies have been assiduously drawing. The main impact of the paper
was to remind the students that there is still no provision for
systematic training for people to work in this field in the national
interest.
A small positive step in the basic work, an aerial magnetic
survey of the Republic, was planned for 1975 but was cancelled due to
financial pressures. There are clearly blocking agencies at work in
the Department of Transport and power, or possibly Finance, that are
preventing the development of a national geophysics capability, as an
element in the process of national control of resources.
Dr Murphy's paper can be taken as a signal to the students to
start agitating, with the necessary political pressure applied through
the Union of Students in Ireland, for proper attention to be paid to
geophysics. If a relatively small number of women can, withsome
petitions and a Mansion House meeting, get 10M pounds from a bankrupt
State for the 'equal pay' principle, I fail to see why the USI can't
get 0.5M for geophysics, if it marshalls its forces and presents the
economic arguments relating to the resources issue in the required
respectably conservative mode.
One final word on the IPSA conference as a cultural event. The
IPSA conference is a training-ground for future organisers of IUPAP
and other relevant international conferences. In the training-ground
should be embedded a realisation that a conference is a showcase for
national cculture. The IPSA students will find this when they go
abroad, in no uncertain terms. Yet the cultural level of the evening
music at the IPSA conference was the de-nationalised lowest common
denominator of Anglo-Saxon pop. Under some pressure from one
disgusted English participant, one Irish tune was grudgingly produced.
I do not want to cast aspersions on the organisers, who had to
work with the material to hand (ie the Galway City cultural
wilderness). May I however appeal to students not to reject the
national cultural heritage, but consciously to defend it, for the
excellent pragmatic reason that if it gets lost irrevocably (as it is
in serious danger of doing), fewer people will be interested in coming
to Ireland for conferences, for sabbatical years, or as entrepreneurs.
People come to places because they like them to be different and
interesting and culturally exciting. They do not only come to hear
papers on physics.
April 6 1976
I attended the Physics in Industry conference (March 9-16) which
I heralded in this feature on January 21. Readers will remember that
I promoted it with some enthusiasm, as an opportunity for engineers in
Ireland to get a preview of the frontiers of technology which will
become of practical interest in a decade or two. It should also have
been an opportunity for physicists in Ireland to see how the
technological frontiers of physical experimentation relate to the
development of productive technology in other countries, and for
strengthening the tenuous linkages between science and technology in
Ireland.
In neither case, I fear, was my optimism justified.
Although there was good material, of interest to
innovation-minded engineers, the number of members of that profession
who came to sample it could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Apart from a considerable fund of material in areas such as
ultrasonics which are of interest in non-destructive testing, there
were two contributions by UCD physicists which might have interested
them. One was the use of some radio-astronomy equipment to pick up
Indian TV live from a satellite, from the fringe of the directional
beam aimed at India. This is part of a monitoring programme which is
done in conjunction with RTE. In communications there is enough
rapport between physicists and engineers for the latter to know to go
to the former for a 'frontier job'.
More spectacular was the contribution of Denis Keefe, who was at
UCD in the Fifties and is now at Berkeley, California. Dr Keefe,
together with a team which included a mining engineer and an engineer
familiar with particle accelerators, had done a feasibility study for
a tunnelling machine which would be a factor of 10 or more faster than
the traditional 'drill and blast' system. This would be highly
relevant (say) for a Dublin underground railway system.
They studied a system consisting of an electron beam, carrying
current of the order of kiloamps, of energy 10 MeV. It is technically
feasible to produce such a beam with a linear accelerator, at the
present state of the art. The efficiency of conversion of mains input
to electrons at the rock face is of the order of 50%. They had done
some experiments with laboratory accelerators, and showed slides of
shattered rock-samples. The beam penetrates about a centimetre and
sets up acoustic shock waves.
In an engineered design, the linear accelerator would be carried
on railway wagons, and the shattered rock would be carried off by a
vacuum system. The whole system looks credible, and well worth
spending one or two millions on, if by its performance it would cut
the cost of what could be a 100M pound operation. It is a pity that
some mining engineers were not there to have their imaginations
stretched by a preview of what physicists can produce (sometimes) when
they are induced to turn their frontier technology towards solving
practical problems.
Why does this not happen more often? My reading of it is that
physicists have been through a period when money in the big centres
was easy to get, so they stayed at the frontier. Funds are drying up,
so that physicists are, so to speak, beginning to adapt to
quasi-wartime conditions(23). Perhaps we are entering a new creative
period for physics, evolving in the direction of practicality with the
weapons of 'big science'. The gap between them and the engineers is
narrowing, to the extent that they are beginning to shout across it,
although with frequent losses of signal against the background noise.
This conference was planned by IUPAP specifically to explore (a)
problems of relevance of physics in developing countries (b) problems
at the interface between physics and engineering. Ireland was a good
place to study both problems on a workshop basis. Yet no effort was
made by the organising committee to set up workshops in which leading
Irish physicists and engineers would have met with some of the world's
top experts, and spent time defining their problems and specifying
first-approximation solutions specific to the Irish context.
The experience of the 1972 Dublin conference of the International
Federation of Operations Research Societies (IFORS) was available;
the latter had established such a 'workshop' structure, with a very
positive effect on OR in Ireland subsequently. The organisers of the
IUPAP conference however obviously did not know to take this up,
despite the fact that many OR people in Dublin, and indeed on the
world network, are physicists by training(24).
The organising committee in Ireland (as distinct from the IUPAP
programme committee) was however composed entirely of academic
physicists, without significant industrial experience, to the extent
that it failed to realise that it needed to set up such workshop
procedures, and to work diplomatically on the Irish engineering
fraternity, drawing them in on the planning, so as to ensure a high
degree of support for the actual conference by its primary target
market.
There was material in this conference that engineers would pay 50
pounds per day to pick up at a short-course in the US or Britain, and
all on our doorstep for a fiver.
Clearly we are in the presence of a disastrous marketing crisis
in the dissemination of technological knowledge. The physicist in
Ireland doesn't realise that there is a market for advanced
technology, and the engineer in Ireland doesn't realise that he has
the producers of advanced technology living next door to him.....
You haven't heard the end of this particular argument.....
April 20 1976
On two recent occasions I have witnessed evidence that there is a
streak of naivite among technologists in Ireland, in their view of the
outside world.
The first was at the recent Physics in Industry conference.....
the general strategy (of which) was not only to build bridges between
the basic physics research frontier and industrial applications, but
also to look at the problem of relevance of physics research in
developing countries. I gave a preliminary critique on April 6,
promising more. Here is an instalment.
At the final session, which was supposed to be drawing together
the experience of the conference as regards the achievement of its
goals, one of the Irish participants gets up and makes a speech in the
form of a series of questions, asking the assembled company in effect
to propose solutions to our problems for us. Needless to say, he was
ignored, and the discussion rolled on with the momentum derived from
the accepted star-performers.
These questions could have been answered, had we set out to
implement an organised brain-picking operation, with a selected few of
the star-performers, meeting separately from the main conference in a
'workshop' channel. But to expect distilled relevant opinion to come
out of thin air, without having worked to get it, shows a degree of
inexperience. This is a consequence, perhaps, of the niggardly
attitude displayed by our administrators towards travel to
conferences, rather than any failings on the part of the individuals
concerned.
The second event was less excusable. I did not manage to get to
much of the Natural Gas Utilisation conference, organised by the
Institute of Chemical Engineers, but I did hear one of the open
discussions..... Again, some naive Irishman stands up and asks some
questions regarding how to predict (eg) trends in nitrogen fertiliser
demand, and other relevant world market intelligence germane to the
natural gas business.
The hydrocarbon technologists being tougher and less
gentlemen-academics than the physicists, the riposte came quickly, in
the form of an offer to supply a consultant, and a listing of relevant
conferences in the recent past, coupled with the remark that no
Irishman had been seen at any of them. This is a clear signal to the
State agencies responsible for oil and gas development to 'get their
finger out', staff up with trained personnel, and get wired in to the
international network(25).
April 27 1976
The Rank Prize Fund constitutes an attempt to establish a
prestige award in applied science along the lines of the Nobel Prizes
in pure science. The fact that the former is not so well known as the
latter is an unfortunate reflection on the relatively low prestige
attached, at least in Britain, to the art of making devices which work
usefully. The inventor usually draws a salary, and the manufacturer,
to whom the patents have been assigned as part of the contract of
employment, makes the money.
In this prestige-desert it is pleasant to be able to congratulate
Dr Stanley Nielsen, Secretary of the National Science Council, on his
winning a share of the Rank Prize for Opto-electronics, for work done
at the Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern, in 1958....
The 1958 device consisted of a cadmium mercury telluride
semiconductor which could be used as a detector for infra-red
radiation at ordinary temperatures, with sensitivity and response-time
sufficiently good to permit a TV-type display.
Thermal images have many applications in industry and medecine;
in almost any system you can think of, the pattern of hot and cold
spots has diagnostic value. There are, of course, military
applications, in systems requiring night vision.
***
Anyone who has used gas chromatography for analysis will realise
that there are many occasions when it is not sufficient to observe a
pattern of peaks on a chart, you have to take steps to identify
positively each peak.
One obvious way to carry out this identification is by means of
infra-red spectroscopy. Sophisticated equipment has been developed in
the US which combines these two techniques 'in real time', using fast
Fourier transforms. This equipment gives an instant signal, but is
expensive.
Dr Val Rossiter, of the TCD Engineering Science Department(26)
has come up with an inexpensive device (on which he holds a
provisional patent) whereby the gas chromatograph peaks can be sampled
for subsequent off-line analysis in an infra-red spectrometer. The
new system brings combined IR/GC analysis within the scope of any
laboratory using GC and having access to conventional IR equipment,
without the need to invest in the expensive 'real-time' combined
system.
Dr Rossiter has formed his own company, Accuspec ltd, to
manufacture and market this device.....
December 14 1976
Sensationalism in announcing scientific discoveries is on the
whole to be deplored. It is also unethical to announce discoveries
without appropriate allocation of credits. The case of the new
'charmed' particle(27), which was discovered by an international team
led by Professor E H S Burhop, of University College, London, and
announced on November 2 in a joint press-release from UCL, Imperial
College and the Open University, exhibits evidence of both these sins,
at least as regards its handling by those responsible for feeding the
Irish media.
The collaboration involved a team drawn from three universities
in Britain, together with laboratories in Brussels, Rome, Geneva,
Dublin, Mulhouse and Strasbourg. The laboratory at CERN, the European
nuclear research centre was also involved; in this case however the
actual experiment was done using high-energy particles generated at
the Fermi Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, USA. The Dublin laboratory
referred to is the UCD Physics Department, and is directed by Dr Alex
Montwill.
The basic facts of the discovery have been described adequately
in layman's language by Dick Grogan on December 3, in the news
columns. The background, which did not emerge in the press reports,
includes the remarkable come-back of nuclear emulsion technique, which
enjoyed its heyday in the fifties, being superseded by the
bubble-chamber as the prime detector for high-energy nuclear events.
In this 'belle epoque', the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies
played a leading role in the development of the basic techniques of
measurement of particle velocity, momentum and mass.
To suggest that a tradition of nuclear research '...began in UCD
under Professor TE Nevin', without filling in the rest of the Dublin
background, is misleading, in view of the primary role played by the
Advanced Studies Group under Professor Cormac O Ceallaigh in that
epoch. In fact, O Ceallaigh was responsible for developing the key
nuclear emulsion techniques when working in Bristol on leave of
absence from UCC, whence he brought them back to Dublin when he took
up the Advanced Studies post in 1953.
The UCD group was subsequently built up with substantial
technical assistance from DIAS; both groups participated in the major
European collaborative work with nuclear emulsions in the fifties,
which helped to identify and characterise the rapidly expanding family
of sub-nuclear particles to which the recent 'charmed' particle is the
latest edition.
The group in UCD then declined, losing its key people to the US,
largely due, I suspect, to the system of temporary appointments which
then obtained in UCD. It is to the credit of Alex Montwill that it
was kept alive during the lean years, so that it has now been able to
re-assert its value where one of the properties of nuclear emulsion is
of prime importance, namely its ability to detect particles with very
short lifetimes.
The DIAS group has in recent years developed other techniques
altogether, and directed its attention towards the cosmic-ray 'heavy
primaries'. However I feel that the key seminal role of DIAS with
regard to high-energy nuclear physics in Dublin should not be
forgotten.....
NOTES
1. See Chapter 5.2 (Scientific and Technological Information) for the
critique of the Register to which this remark is relevant.
2. See Chapter 2.2 (Philosophy of Science) on this date for some
remarks on specialisation, convergence etc.
3. A land-reclamation scheme sponsored by the Department of
Agriculture.
4. I met an Irish physicist in 1980 who had gone to NASA with high
hopes in the 60s, and had subsequently been shed during its
retrenchment. He had ended up working as a building contractor.
5. Centre Europeen de Recherche Scientifique, a European high-energy
physics collaboration which pre-dates the EEC; Ireland has not yet
become a member, despite the role of the Dublin Institute of Advanced
Studies.
6. Professor CBA McCusker, who worked on extensive air-showers (ie
ultra-high energy cosmic ray events) in Dublin in the 50s,
subsequently went to Sydney, in the wake of Harry Messel, his
predecessorin the Institute of Advenced Studies. The latter had
managed to raise fairly lavish funding for cosmic-ray work in
Australia. It was widely reported in the press about this time
(October 1970) that McCusker had discovered a 'quark', a theoretically
possible object, named in a tradition derived from Lewis Carroll via
Finnegan's Wake (proving that physicists are cultured), three of which
may combine to make a proton. If this had turned out to be true, he
would by now have got the Nobel Prize. There is a tendency for
scientists who remain in the same field of basic research to seek
significant discoveries with increasing obsessiveness, so that they
tend to stake their reputation on a premature publication, which then
gets debunked.
7. The problem at that time was: why did the ionisation increase as
you went up, instead of decreasing, as it should if the energy-source
was the radioactivity of the earth. The discovery of the existence of
high-energy particles from outer space followed the invention of
devices for making their tracks visible, principally the Wilson cloud
chamber controlled by geiger-counters in coincidence, using electronic
logic circuits. This took place in the 30s, and is part of the
pre-history of the modern electronics industry.
8. See Chapter 4.6 (The Sea) shortly before this date.
9. The Sexton interest in laser probes has since evolved towards
plasma physics in the nuclear fusion context.
10. Dr M R Redfern, now at UCG, had previously been working in X-ray
astronomy in Britain. In 1982 at the IPIB meeting he expressed
interest in looking into possible medical uses for extra-low-level
X-ray techniques (photon-counting etc); this again illustrates the
'geographical dispersion leading to cross-disciplinary linkages' law.
11. Professor Bradley is currently (1982) collaborating with a
biochemist and a geneticist in a project in which a tuned laser is
used in molecular surgery, with possible implications in the
recombinant DNA field.
12. There is something delightfully Protestant and colonial about
this tradition. Rutherford was a New Zealander. The further you are
from your source of equipment, the more important is the creative use
of the junk-box.
13. Many Irish scientists have done good work abroad, and then on
returning home have tried to keep up the same line in isolation,
without strong local interaction with other members of a viable group.
Such work is nearly always sterile.
14. Being in Holy Orders, and subject to his Bishop, Dr McLaughlin
was obliged to relinquish his post at Maynooth in order to run a
parish.
15. See Chapter 3.5 (Bio-engineering) November 18.
16. There are no procedures in TCD, or in any Irish University, for
the institutional management of patents. Some colleges in Europe and
the US do this in an organised way, thereby earning revenue.
17. In this case I feel some credit can be claimed for the influence
of this column.
18. At that time occupied by the present writer.
19. The IDA does provide training grants, which can sometimes
exceptionally be used for graduate-type labour, but the Irish system
was then, and remains, not particularly encouraging to the
high-technology entrepreneur rooted in university research.
20. See Chapter 5.1 (DIAS) May 2 1973.
21. I distinguish 'scientific journalism' which reports discoveries
(sometimes in 'gee-whiz' mode) from 'scientific criticism'; the
latter tries to evaluate events reflectively, relating them to other
events and to the general technological, socio-economic and cultural
background. The role of the 'science critic' is parallel to that of
the music critic. The writer can, with some confidence, claim to have
invented the genre in the Irish context.
22. A precursor of Technology Ireland, initiated courageously in the
50s by Jim Gilbert as a commercial venture.
23. Some are, of course, being soaked up by military R&D.
Particle-beam weapons are beginning to be taken seriously. Physicists
are faced with a moral choice more than ever.
24. There is a credibility gap between those physicists who have
remained in physics, and those who have diversified towards operations
research etc. The former tend not to treat the latter as a source of
valid experience.
25. For more on this theme, see Chapter 3.2 (Process Engineering).
26. This is a type of project which ought to have originated in a
physics department. In TCD, because of the strength of the Cavendish
tradition (via Walton) in Physics, much work of an applied-physics
nature was done in the then Engineering Science Department (eg
dielectric constants of pure liquids at high pressures etc). Now that
TCD engineering has divided into the traditional engineering
specialities, there is room for applied physics to re-assert itself
from the physics side of the physics-engineering interface.
27. The key technical factors enabling the experiment to be done were
(a) the availability of beams of high-energy neutrinos at the big
accelerators (b) the use of spark-chambers to detect the products of
the (rare) neutrino-nucleus interactions in such a way as to enable
their location in the emulsion to be pinpointed, without the need for
extensive random scanning. This technique was subsequently refined by
associating emulsions with large liquid-hydrogen bubble-chambers. The
late Professor Burhop was the originator of the experimental strategy,
which was feasible thanks to the remarkable survival of the
international collaborative tradition in emulsion work, over a period
of two decades.
[To Irish Times Column Index]
[1970s Overview]
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Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999
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