Matthew Bluteau, PhD, MBCS

Discover the mysteries of nuclear physics. From the atom and its nucleus to the valley of stability and radioactivity, these complex concepts are explained clearly and simply with the help of clear designs and illustrations. You'll soon hold the keys to understanding how nuclear physics is used and what dangers and benefits it brings.

Super Smart Science series takes highly complex physics concepts and explains them in clear and straight-forward ways through the use of everyday relatable… Show more

Discover the mysteries of nuclear physics. From the atom and its nucleus to the valley of stability and radioactivity, these complex concepts are explained clearly and simply with the help of clear designs and illustrations. You'll soon hold the keys to understanding how nuclear physics is used and what dangers and benefits it brings.

Super Smart Science series takes highly complex physics concepts and explains them in clear and straight-forward ways through the use of everyday relatable examples.

Perfect for science-mad kids aged 11 and up and those with the curiosity to delve deeper into the world of science.

Written by and in consultation with experts in the field of physics.

Release date 14 January 2021. Show less

Total radiated line power coefficients for ions of medium to heavy weight elements, called PLT coefficients in the atomic data and analysis structure, have been improved by algorithmically optimising the selection of configuration sets that underpin the calculation to include the most important radiating transitions driven by both the ground and metastable configurations and to establish and limit the error of truncation. The optimised calculations typically differ from
Pütterich by 20%–30%… Show more

Total radiated line power coefficients for ions of medium to heavy weight elements, called PLT coefficients in the atomic data and analysis structure, have been improved by algorithmically optimising the selection of configuration sets that underpin the calculation to include the most important radiating transitions driven by both the ground and metastable configurations and to establish and limit the error of truncation. The optimised calculations typically differ from
Pütterich by 20%–30% with truncation error ≲ 5% . Further appraisal of error due to atomic level bundling, atomic structure and collision strength calculation methods has been carried out. It is
shown that bundling to configurations is accurate to ≲ 10% for all ions except those with closed-shell ground configurations which give errors up to a factor 2–3. For near neutral, closed-shell ions, plane-wave Born collision strength calculations, which omit spin-change, give substantial error in comparison with distorted-wave calculations of PLT. For highly charged ions, spin-system breakdown reduces the error in the PLT markedly, typically ≲ 10% . The error
introduced by the atomic structure codes used here, autostructure and the Cowan code, is probably limited to ≲ 30% . Show less

With construction of ITER progressing and existing tokamaks carrying-out ITER-relevant experiments, accurate fundamental and derived atomic data for numerous ionization stages of tungsten (W) is required to assess the potential effect of this species upon fusion plasmas. The results of fully relativistic, partially radiation damped, Dirac R-matrix electron-impact excitation calculations for the W44+ ion are presented. These calculations use a configuration interaction
and close-coupling… Show more

With construction of ITER progressing and existing tokamaks carrying-out ITER-relevant experiments, accurate fundamental and derived atomic data for numerous ionization stages of tungsten (W) is required to assess the potential effect of this species upon fusion plasmas. The results of fully relativistic, partially radiation damped, Dirac R-matrix electron-impact excitation calculations for the W44+ ion are presented. These calculations use a configuration interaction
and close-coupling expansion that opens-up the 3d-subshell; this does not appear to have been considered before in a collision calculation. As a result, it is possible to investigate the arrays, [3d 10 4s 2 –3d 9 4s 2 4f] and [3d 10 4s 2 –3d 9 4s4p4d], which are predicted to contain transitions of diagnostic importance for the soft x-ray region. Our R-matrix collision data are compared with previous R-matrix results by Ballance and Griffin as well as our own relativistically corrected, Breit–Pauli distorted wave and plane-wave Born calculations. All relevant data are applied to the collisional-radiative modelling of atomic populations, for further comparison. This reveals the paramount nature of the 3d-subshell transitions from the perspectives of radiated power loss and detailed spectroscopy. Show less

The cliché response to any mention of geology in everyday conversation is, “Rocks and stuff right? Boring!” Unfortunately and unjustly, this is the prejudice and barrier that Professor Iain Stewart must combat constantly as a presenter and academic of geology. Everyone including academics will recognize Prof. Stewart as “that telly presenter,” which even he, himself, will admit. He has popularized geology through various television programmes, such as the BBC’s Earth: The Power of the Planet… Show more

The cliché response to any mention of geology in everyday conversation is, “Rocks and stuff right? Boring!” Unfortunately and unjustly, this is the prejudice and barrier that Professor Iain Stewart must combat constantly as a presenter and academic of geology. Everyone including academics will recognize Prof. Stewart as “that telly presenter,” which even he, himself, will admit. He has popularized geology through various television programmes, such as the BBC’s Earth: The Power of the Planet (BAFTA nominated), The Climate Wars, and most recently Rise of the Continents, which comprised the main material for his current series of presentations. However, Prof. Stewart is also an active geologist, currently holding the title of Professor of Geoscience Communication at Plymouth University, and is an alumnus of the University of Strathclyde with a BSc in Geography and Geology, a degree that is no longer offered at this institution. He was back visiting his alma mater on 1 May 2014 to give a presentation as part of the Engage with Strathclyde week. Show less

The Glasgow Science Centre (GSC) is an enchanting venue, especially when wine and canapés are being served. Although they were a great starting point, the food and drink were not the main event at the GSC on the evening of the 14th March; Professor Sir Mark Walport was. Walport is the UK’s chief scientific advisor and was speaking in Glasgow to discuss the global threat of climate change.

Questions about who in the scientific com­munity should be conducting scientific out­ reach remain largely unanswered and little discussed; we propose that promoting the involvement of younger physics students from graduate and advanced undergraduate levels in such outreach could avoid placing another time commitment on already busy academics, improve the communication skills
for the next generation of physicists, and possibly improve the efficacy of the out­ reach by lessening the age gap… Show more

Questions about who in the scientific com­munity should be conducting scientific out­ reach remain largely unanswered and little discussed; we propose that promoting the involvement of younger physics students from graduate and advanced undergraduate levels in such outreach could avoid placing another time commitment on already busy academics, improve the communication skills
for the next generation of physicists, and possibly improve the efficacy of the out­ reach by lessening the age gap between the presenter and audience. Show less

A comparison of different analysis techniques used in the search for the SM Higgs boson in the H → W W (∗) → `ν`ν + 2-jets channel is conducted using the signal sensitivity, Ssig = Nsig / sqrt(Nbg), as the figure of merit. The two analysis techniques compared are the cut-based analysis that is currently employed by the ATLAS collaboration and the novel application of the Matrix Element Method, a multivariateanalysis (MVA) technique. Although the Matrix… Show more

A comparison of different analysis techniques used in the search for the SM Higgs boson in the H → W W (∗) → `ν`ν + 2-jets channel is conducted using the signal sensitivity, Ssig = Nsig / sqrt(Nbg), as the figure of merit. The two analysis techniques compared are the cut-based analysis that is currently employed by the ATLAS collaboration and the novel application of the Matrix Element Method, a multivariateanalysis (MVA) technique. Although the Matrix Element Method has offered improved sensitivity in other searches in the past, no improvement in signal sensitivity is observed in this study over the baseline cut-based analysis. The cut-based analysis produces a signal sensitivity Ssig = 405.25 ± 4:99%(stat.) while the Matrix Element Method yields a signal sensitivity Ssig = 402.57 ± 5:00%(stat.). However, it is believed that this null result is explained by the application of ab-tag veto, and in fact, further improvements by the HSG3 VBF MVA Group on the Matrix Element Analysis in this channel have yielded a 286% increase in signal sensitivity, verifying the ME Method is capable of improving a search for the Higgs boson. Show less