Response to UK Allocation of Science and Research Funding 2011/12 to 2014/15
Institute of Physics’ President Marshall Stoneham, commenting on this morning’s announcements of their delivery plans by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, said:
“This settlement recognises that UK science has the potential to provide a solid basis for the UK’s future economic growth. It is important for our science base to have a stable spending framework to enable researchers to plan for the next four years. Within constrained public finances, today’s announcements indicate that we have an encouraging footing for future progress.
“We welcome the emphasis on maintaining the number of research students and training future research leaders. The continuity of the supply of skilled people in physics is of paramount importance both for the strengthening of the research effort and for the UK economy.
“While we are pleased that Diamond will operate to its full capacity, it is disappointing that the resources available for world leading research facilities such as ISIS and the Central Laser Facility will only allow reduced operations, despite the potential they have to keep UK science ahead of the game.
“We are pleased however that the UK is maintaining its commitment to international subscriptions such as the LHC at CERN and ESO.”
Tags: CERN, funding physics, science funding, STFC
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Conceptual Time and Measurable Time
Most physicists today still conceptualize time as a part of the physical space in which material objects move, although time has never been observed and measured as a part of the space. An altogether different concept of time has been developed in recent decades, one which negates the existence of time. Yet this concept has no answer to the fundamental question: if there is no time, what is it that is measured with clocks? The here presented “measurable time” is the time that is, in every experiment, measured with clocks. Measurable time is the numerical order t1,t2…tn of material change i.e. motion that is being measured with clocks. The fundamental unit of numerical order t1,t2,…tn of material change is Planck time tp . Measurable time has no independent existence apart from the order of events by which we measure it. There is no time existing behind the numerical order of material change.