The run is well under way now. We’re well under way, and we have the first batch of data under our belts. There were, as always, a few early teething troubles and glitches on the first day – sticky motors and loose wires – but nothing ingenuity and gaffer tape couldn’t fix!

Our first target was some of the blue material that I showed you the other day. We identified some target x-ray energies, and looked at what light was emitted when the sample was irradiated. To give you a taster, here’s something hot-off-the-press! X-rays characteristic of silicon gave some very nice results, and have helped us identify the blue as Egyptian Blue (this is known to be a copper silicate).

Blue-painted Roman plaster at Daresbury in false colour. The blue background is an optical microscope image, and the coloured spots show light emitted in the strip of paint which the x-rays hit. To give a sense of scale, the picture is about 4mm across.

In the picture, the green spots show where we had bluey-green light emitted by silicon dioxide – common sand! The red spots though correspond to chunks of blue material, and are where light in the far red and just beyond the red end of the spectrum (the “near infra-red”) is emitted. We now know that the blue contains silicon; more hard evidence for Egyptian Blue. This is rather rough and ready data, and over the next few weeks we will see this being refined into something that can be properly published. That’s another story, but for now let’s enjoy a rather pretty picture!

I promised to introduce you to some other people who do their research here. Here’s one of them, with the apparatus he’s using to look at fundamental structures of organic molecules. There is a tradition of international co-operation here, and Andrew Yencha from the University of New York at Albany has been working for many years with George King (Manchester University) and Michelle Siggel-King (Daresbury) on a wide range of topics.

Andrew Yencha from New York – Daresbury is an internationally recognised facility!

Hopefully I can catch up with some more people for my next post.

Things are really getting busy now – the equipment is working more or less smoothly, and we’ve refined our plan in the light of our discoveries, so there’s plenty to get on with in the next few days. I’ll make my next post early next week, and that’ll be the last from Daresbury. Where we go from there will be the next chapter in this story.

Until next time…

Paul.

About the author

In late 2007, Paul Hatherly joined Physics and Astronomy at the Open University as a key member of the HEFCE-funded Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PCETL).

Blogging about

Ethics Bites

Some people believe there is a significant moral difference between deliberately killing someone and performing an action that you know will result in another's death. These people subscribe to what is known as the Doctrine of Double Effect, a principle drawing a distinction between intentionally doing something undesirable and doing something where you foresee an undesirable consequence, but don’t wish this consequence. The name 'Double Effect' comes from the fact that the action in question is thought to have two effects: a good one (intended) and a bad one (merely foreseen).

It may sound esoteric, but this principle has many vitally important applications: for example in medical cases. A doctor may justify administering a lethal pain-killing drug that predictably hastens a patient's death on the grounds that she aims to lessen the patient's pain rather than kill him. 

Critics of this view, including strict utilitarians, will say that if the predictable consequences are the same, the moral worth of the actions must be the same. If you know your actions will result in a death, what difference can it make if you intend this death, rather than merely foresee it? Some of those who subscribe to the Doctrine of Double Effect do so because they are members of a religion that has an absolute prohibition on intentional killing; from outside these religions the double effect doctrine can look like a convenient kind of conscience-saving rationalization. 

Through a series of ingenious, if highly implausible, thought experiments involving out-of-control trolleys, innocent people tied to railway tracks (and, in one case, a fat man pushed over a bridge), Michael Otsuka defends the Doctrine. In this weeks’ Ethics Bites, he claims that our intuitions about these cases support the Doctrine. 

I'm not completely convinced he's right. Perhaps what we need to do is abandon our intuitions, rather than stick to the Doctrine.

Further Reading

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on The Principle of Double Effect
• Causing Death and Saving Lives by Jonathan Glover, published by Penguin

About the author

Nigel Warburton is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University. His podcasts, Philosophy: The Classics and Philosophy Bites, have proved surprisingly popular, regularly topping the iTunes podcast chart. Ethics Bites is his third podcast.

We’re here, and ready to get going at Daresbury Laboratory. Before I tell you about the place, let me introduce you to the team. Maria Gallagher is a Visiting Fellow at the Open University, and has joined me in previous runs at Daresbury. She's a veteran at this game, and has come equipped with the coffee! Nicola Freebody is a Project Student at the University of Reading, and is a Daresbury "novice" - she'll get the night shifts!!! And very importantly, Nigel Poolton from Aberystwyth University, who designed the key piece of apparatus we'll be using, and will be making sure we don't break it!

The Roman Wall Plaster Team with a small part of the machine. Top – Nigel Poolton. Bottom – Maria Gallagher (left) and Nicola Freebody (right).

So, on to the Daresbury machine, the SRS, itself. What's so special about this, and why do we have to drag ourselves away from our homes? Well, the SRS is one of a few machines in the world which exploits the phenomenon of synchrotron radiation. A good analogy to synchrotron radiation might be to think about a car going round a corner at high speed - the tyres squeal! In a synchrotron radiation machine, electrons (negatively charged components of atoms) are accelerated close to the speed of light in a circular vacuum tube, and kept moving in a circular path by strong magnets. Now, when the high speed electrons are forced to turn by the magnets, they “squeal”, but not in sound, but light. This light is synchrotron radiation. Why is this special? Light comes in many forms - optical, from a light bulb, lower energy infra-red, from heat lamps (also used in surveillance) and higher energy ultraviolet, in tanning lamps (and from the Sun!). But light goes further! If you go to lower energy than infra-red, you come to microwaves and radio, and, interestingly for us, if you go to higher energy than ultraviolet, you end up with x-rays and gamma rays. Normally, for each type of light, you would need a different lamp or source. Uniquely, synchrotron radiation has all energies of light in it, which is why people build these machines, and why so many people want to use them for so many purposes.

We now need to connect this advanced light source to our Roman material. What we will be doing is shining x-rays of particular energies on to our Roman paint. The energy from the x-rays will be dumped into the material of the paint, and eventually come out as visible light which we can easily detect. As we change the x-ray energy, we home in on particular types of atom in the paint, and as we look at the colours of light emitted, we learn about how the atoms are arranged in the material. So we don’t just learn about what is present, but how it is combined with other atoms. More than that, the apparatus designed by Nigel Poolton images the material through a microscope, so uniquely we can get all the information we need at different points on the surface - important, as we may have a mix of different paints - especially if the painters were ripping off their customers!

Better get on now, and get everything ready to roll! In my next post, we should have some first results, and I can show you some pictures. I will also introduce you to a few of the other researchers here, and tell you a little of their work.

Bye for now,

Paul.

About the author

In late 2007, Paul Hatherly joined Physics and Astronomy at the Open University as a key member of the HEFCE-funded Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PCETL).

Today, I’ll start with a story. A little under 2000 years ago, some citizens of the Roman town of Calleva had a house built, and decorated the interior. After some time, the house was demolished, and new buildings put on the rubble of the old. Eventually, the Roman Empire fell, and Calleva, its citizens and its buildings vanished and were almost forgotten.

Where is Calleva? On a map of modern day Hampshire, look in the north of the county near Basingstoke. You will find a small village called Silchester, which has a secret. Nearby this quintessentially English village is a vast wall surrounding a series of fields. The wall appears to be very old, and indeed, it is – it dates from the Roman period, and surrounds the remains of Calleva. There’s no town there now – unlike many Roman settlements such as Chester, and indeed London, but this is its great value. Without a history of development, the record of this Roman town is pristine and intact beneath the turf.

We now jump to the late 20^th Century, and to a team of archaeologists from the University of Reading excavating the Calleva site. Amongst their many discoveries, is a vast collection of plaster fragments which were once part of a wall in the Roman citizens’ house we met at the beginning. Interestingly, many of the fragments still have the paint attached and, although the damage is too much to allow any pictures to be reconstructed, the presence of the paint holds its own story. Of special interest, blue and green paints are present. Why are these special? Well, the Romans held these colours in high esteem. Some of the materials used to make these colours were rare or expensive (for example, Egyptian Blue was especially prized), and therefore reflected status – and the Romans loved status! The archaeologists now had a question. Were the citizens of Calleva using the best the Empire could provide, or were they using cheaper local products to “ape” the great imperial centre? Answers here would tell us a lot about the social, economic and political environment of this part of the Roman Empire.

A fragment of blue-painted wall plaster from Calleva, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) across – the real McCoy or something cheap? Or is the answer more complex?

But how to answer the archaeologists’ question? With my research interest in Heritage Science, it wasn’t long before I got wind of the problem, and started talking with the archaeologists. I quickly realised that I could use some methods in physical science, which had originally been developed for semiconductor and material science to resolve the issue, so I wrote a request to carry out a series of experiments on the paints. Who to? To the Synchrotron Radiation Source, one of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) major research laboratories located at Daresbury near, wait for it, Warrington! This was about one year ago now, because my request to use this facility had to be reviewed scientifically and technically, and this takes time. So, on returning from our summer holiday, I found a letter on my desk informing me my request had been granted – but this is not the end of the story. Many other scientists, from physicists and biologists to geologists and materials scientists had also applied, and had their experiments approved, so I had to wait my turn, and my turn is next week!

We are now in the Final Countdown before our experiment, so the last week has been frantic – as team leader (yes, this will be a team effort), it is my job to make sure all paperwork (safety forms, team briefings, booking accommodation – we’re away from home for a week) gets done. Oh yes, and finalising a plan for the week so we make the best use of our time.

So, there’s a partial answer to the question in my first post – A research team from the Open University will be investigating Roman paints on wall plasters at a major UK research facility near Warrington.

I’m going to relax this weekend and charge my batteries. My next post will be from Daresbury early next week where I will tell you some more about this facility and introduce you to the team.

Cheers for now,

Paul.

About the author

In late 2007, Paul Hatherly joined Physics and Astronomy at the Open University as a key member of the HEFCE-funded Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PCETL).

Blogging about

Ethics Bites

Once upon a time, there was only one way to conceive a baby. Now, there are various possibilities. Turkey basters, sperm donors, in vitro fertilization – these are now all familiar practices. When I interviewed Mary Warnock, who has thought deeply about the ethical issues that arise in this area, I was struck not only by the clarity of her thinking on this complex matter, but also by the weight she gave to some people's desire to have a biologically related child. Also impressive was her sense of the State's requirement of fairness, in dispensing the means to increasing fertility.

The Yuk factor is mentioned at the end of the interview. This is a topic that crops up in several Ethics Bites. It is the unthinking reaction to processes that some people believe to be both 'unnatural' and disgusting - we all feel it about some things. Philosophers, however, are unlikely to be satisfied with the 'yuk' response as a final word. The question is, is this feeling of repulsion a superficial instinct, or is it really warranted?

Further reading

• Making Babies: Is There A Right to Have Children? by Mary Warnock, published by Oxford University Press
• An Intelligent Person's Guide to Ethics by Mary Warnock, published by Duckworth

About the author

Nigel Warburton is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University. His podcasts, Philosophy: The Classics and Philosophy Bites, have proved surprisingly popular, regularly topping the iTunes podcast chart. Ethics Bites is his third podcast.

Here’s one for you! What the connection between interior design in Roman Hampshire, The Open University and Warrington?

My name is Paul Hatherly, and I’m in Physics and Astronomy at the OU and along with my teaching in many areas of experimental science, I am building a research programme in the fascinating area of Heritage Science. What is this? Well, there’s no single definition, but for our purposes, it’s applying and developing methods in physical science to questions of art, archaeology and conservation. For example, you are probably aware of the idea of carbon dating, where scientists count the small number of (naturally) radioactive carbon atoms in an artefact to determine the age. There are also geophysics techniques which, by revealing sub-surface features, can help archaeologists dig in the right place. But there’s more than that. How can we tell what an artefact is made of? How can we tell how it was made in the first place? Where did the materials come from? Can we do all this without damaging or destroying the artefact? The questions are endless. But finding out about an artefact doesn’t end the story. Conservation and preservation for future generations to enjoy and study is vital, and Heritage Science has an input here too. Can we be sure that a conservation method successful now won’t, over decades, destroy the artefact or, maybe worse, so affect the artefact that studying it is worthless? Heritage Science is already helping in this area in, for example, helping the long-term conservation of the ships the Mary Rose and the Vasa.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be telling you about some of my work in Heritage Science, and hopefully finding a few answers to the question we started with. In the course of this quest, I’ll be taking you on a journey to some of the most advanced science facilities in the country and meeting the vital people who keep it all running. We will see how a physics technique developed to study nanostructures in semiconductors can be used to try and sort out what Roman painters and decorators were up to in Britain almost 2000 years ago, and perhaps get inside the minds of the artisans and their customers in a way not possible before.

Right now though, I’m approaching the end (or is it the beginning?) of a process started almost a year ago; a process from an original idea, selling that idea in the right quarters, carrying through the idea and ultimately telling the world of our discoveries. I’ll tell you more about this in my next post later this week, and I’ll explain the Warrington connection.

Until then…

Paul.

About the author

In late 2007, Paul Hatherly joined Physics and Astronomy at the Open University as a key member of the HEFCE-funded Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PCETL).

Blogging about

Ethics Bites

Peter Singer is a philosopher in the classical mode. What I mean by this is that he lives his philosophy. For him philosophical problems aren't games; they aren’t like a series of chess puzzles - they can and should change how we behave. He is also an extremely clear writer and thinker. I remember reading his book Practical Ethics when I was an undergraduate and being deeply impressed by it, partly because it was one of relatively few philosophy books that I felt I'd really understood  - another that, at the time, had a similar effect on me was Jonathan Glover's excellent Causing Death and Saving Lives. Indeed, between them, Peter Singer and Jonathan Glover were largely responsible for the renewal of interest in applied ethics that began in the 1970s and has gathered pace ever since. Whether you agree with his positions or not, Singer is undoubtedly one of the most influential philosophers alive today. I'm delighted that an interview with Peter Singer launches Ethics Bites.

Links

• Utilitarian.net: Peter Singer  - very useful links to many online resources
• Wikipedia entry on Peter Singer with many links

Further Reading

• Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, published by Pimilico
• Practical Ethics by Peter Singer, published by Cambridge University Press
• A Companion to Ethics edited by Peter Singer, published by Blackwell
• How Are We To Live? Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest by Peter Singer, published by Oxford University Press
• The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer with Jim Mason , published by Random House
• Singer and His Critics  edited by Dale Jamieson, published by Blackwell
• Animal Rights and Wrongs by Roger Scruton, published by Continuum

About the author

Nigel Warburton is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University. His podcasts, Philosophy: The Classics and Philosophy Bites, have proved surprisingly popular, regularly topping the iTunes podcast chart. Ethics Bites is his third podcast.

Blogging about

Ethics Bites

Philosophy thrives on conversation. Socrates, the quintessential philosopher, spent most of his time debating with the Athenians he met, pushing them to elaborate on what they thought they understood. It was from his persistent questioning that Philosophy, as we know it, emerged.  Philosophical ideas don’t emerge in a vacuum: it is through dialogue and engagement with another’s thoughts that we develop our own. Socrates was reluctant to write his philosophy down because the written page can’t answer back and clarify meaning. One of the great benefits of talking about ideas is that it allows us to eliminate misunderstandings, and to make more precise what is at issue. But it is also true that some thinkers express their passion for ideas in their voice, their tone, their inflexion, as well as in their words. This can be truly inspirational.

Podcasting opens up new potential for Philosophy.  On a few, (inexcusably) rare occasions, radio and television have given the public access to some of the best thinkers of the day: notably with Bryan Magee’s landmark television series, the unfortunately named ‘Men of Ideas’ and ‘The Great Philosophers’.  But now podcasting makes possible the dissemination of audio (and even audio-visual) content all over the world, on demand, to anyone who has an online connection.

Recording Ethics Bites has been a real education for me. How many people have the chance to talk to a range of the top philosophers in the world on major issues that affect us all? I hope you enjoy listening to the results, whether or not you agree with what is said. My ideal listener is not a passive eavesdropper on other people’s conversations, but rather someone who is stimulated to develop their own thoughts on the topic under discussion. Ethics, after all, is not just for philosophers. We all have to decide how we will live, what we value, and why.

Nigel Warburton, presenter Ethics Bites.

About the author

Nigel Warburton is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University. His podcasts, Philosophy: The Classics and Philosophy Bites, have proved surprisingly popular, regularly topping the iTunes podcast chart. Ethics Bites is his third podcast.

As a Cambridge resident I’ve become hardened to the presence of film crews, which arrive each winter for carols from King’s, and at other times to garner footage for assorted tv dramas and Hollywood features. On Saturday, the city centre was the setting for a costume drama of a quite different sort, as a crowd of curious shoppers and tourists jostled with television cameras. The celebrity drawing them to the doors of Great St. Mary’s Church was Archbishop Rowan Williams, who was about to process to a nearby college as part of a memorial event for his recently deceased former teacher, Charlie Moule.

As a Judaism specialist, I’ve found Williams’ speech on religious and civil law, and the controversy it’s provoked, fascinating. Like Islam, Judaism has its own religious legal system, the halakhah, which guides and governs every aspect of life. And for years, the civil law has in various ways accommodated the needs of those Jews who wish to live a halakhic life. In January MPs debated (and rejected) a Daylight Saving Bill. One of the objections raised was the impact it would have on Orthodox observant Jews. Rules for the timing of daily prayer would mean that in wintertime people could face a difficult choice - pray at the correct time and be late for work, or get to the office on time, but disregard a central religious obligation.  

Interestingly, civil acknowledgement of religious law is not always about the ‘secular’ giving way to the ‘spiritual’. There is a halakhic principle that ‘the law of the land is law’ – that is, Jews should recognise and obey the law of the land in which they live. More specifically, when an Orthodox Jewish couple separate, they need two divorces – one civil, and the other, religious. Women cannot initiate the religious divorce, and where the husband is unwilling to do so, they become trapped or ‘chained’ wives. Because rabbis are teachers and interpreters of the halakhah – not legislators – it is often impossible for such women to be released, although it’s universally agreed that they should be. In 2002, Parliament passed the Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act, which allows a civil judge to withhold a civil divorce until the husband has provided his wife with a religious one. This move was much celebrated and much campaigned for. But in asking Parliament to help in this way, Orthodox Jews were also in the curious position of looking to the civil system for an answer to a problem that the divinely authoritative halakhah is seemingly unable to resolve.

Given the vagueries of press releases and the popular misconceptions surrounding sharia it seems that despite this healthy precedent of civil-religious co-existence, the present furore will continue for a few days more at least. Some of those in Saturday’s crowd certainly were there to heckle. But the embattled Archbishop may perhaps take comfort in the knowledge that others loitered in the mistaken hope (as one whispered rumour had it) of catching sight of a new episode of Dr. Who. Rowan Williams will soon be yesterday’s celebrity.