Writing practice

I have recently finished my PhD in Controlled Quantum Dynamics after about 4.5 years of work. The final part of this process was to write a book of approximately 200 pages about my research. To be honest I really hated every minute of writing my thesis. This is partly because it is purely office work rather than lab work (which I prefer) and partly because I didn't really enjoy the act of writing, especially in the very proscribed scientific style. I have therefore decided that I should spend some time each week practising my writing with a short blog post that I work on for < 30 minutes. This is purely for my own benefit, and I don't imagine anyone will read these, but I am making them public in order to keep me honest in terms of grammar and writing style.

It seems natural that I should write my first entry on the topic that prompted me to write this in the first place: my PhD research.

I work in the Ion Trapping Group in the Physics Department of Imperial College London. As the name suggests, our work involves the trapping of atomic ions. These are atoms with either too many or too few electrons orbiting the nucleus, such that there is a net electronic charge. It is the fact that these ions are charged that makes it easier to grab hold of them, using the Coulomb interaction (the interaction that means that like charges repel each other and opposite charges attract). In order to confine these ions we create a copper electrode structure (it's about 2cm in diameter, inside a larger vacuum chamber) and apply voltages to it so that the ions are stuck in the middle of the trap along one direction. We then add a big magnet to stop the ions leaking out in the other directions. These types of trap are used for lots of different things: to trap charged anti-matter particles (because the particles are held using electromagnetic forces, they never actually touch anything, otherwise they would annihilate), testing the fundamental behaviour of atoms, and to do work in the field of 'quantum information'.

Our ion trap. The orange bits are electrodes and the purple (?) bits are laser beams. You can also see the light we collect from the ions, which is the faint purple bit coming out sideways from the ion.

What did I do with my ions during my PhD? My main aim was to try and perform a kind of 'laser cooling' that had not been demonstrated in this kind of trap before. This type of cooling is called resolved-sideband cooling, and it allows you to cool the ions very close to absolute zero, 0 Kelvin. The way that laser cooling generally works is that you generate your laser-ion interaction in such a way that the ion absorbs more light when it is travelling towards the laser than when it is moving away. Each time the ion absorbs some light it feels a push, so if you tune things right, then the ion will slow down. Imagine that you are on a swing with someone pushing you. Usually they give you a push when you are at the highest point of your swing, which increases the size of your swing. If instead they gave you a small shove as you moved towards them, you would stop pretty quickly. The principle is the same here, and we bring the ion close to rest in a few milliseconds.

A single ion, viewed on a camera

Once you have one or two cold ions their quantum mechanical properties become visible and you can start to do some interesting experiments. My 30 minutes is up, so maybe I will write about these experiments next time. Or maybe Crystal Palace.

Just Help Yourself

I was walking home from the High Street, after completing my errands of:

• Sending a Chemical Engineering book to someone off Amazon,
• Going into Natwest to tell them that I will still be a student for the next four years,
• Donating some of the items from my room that no one in their right mind would pay for (I was nervous going into the charity shop that they would reject my items, meaning I would have to beat an embarrassing retreat; so much so that I forgot to hand over some of the items in my bag and had to go into Marie Curie as well).

Just after I passed the fire station I saw a box of evergreen-looking twigs, sitting on the edge of a front garden wall. As I got closer I saw the accompanying sign, which read:

ROSEMARY
Please Help Yourself
To ROSEMARY
Cuttings

This struck me as a very neighbourly thing to do, and made me feel very happy about the world. I can only aim to one day be as generous as the rosemary lady of Belmont Road.

I hope all Nina of you that reads this will endeavour to share your rosemary cuttings with the world over the coming days and weeks, metaphorically speaking.

It's a frightening world out there, in the hall.

I just went to hang my coat up on the hook in the hall. As I walked back towards my room, my house-mate came out of the kitchen door behind me. I'm now concerned that because of the way the hall is arranged, the most realistic place I could have been walking from was the kitchen/living room. Having just walked out of that door, she would be all to aware of the fact that I had not been in there. She must think I was loitering in the hall, and may even believe that I was eavesdropping on her (she came home crying earlier, and the resulting lover's tiff still hangs over the house).

She said 'hello' in a friendly way, but was she just trying to mask her contempt for the apparently nosey cunt she lives with?

Graham's Theatrical Review (First of a Series)

Hot Flush at Opera House, Manchester


Starring:
Lesley Joseph as Myra
Hilary O’Neil as Sylvia
Anne Smith as Helen
Ruth Keeling as Jessica
Matt Slack as all of the men in their lives... plus a few others!


Graham's Theatrical Review:
Repugnant on every level. 0.1/10

Best and worst of the schuster building toilets

I'm talking during the day. I'm talking number two. Where is the magic going to happen? Let us go on a journey around the University of Manchester Physics Department as we take a look at the bog-standard, starting with the worst:

Ground floor: In its favour, the cubicles are reasonably spacious. This is the only positive I can think of, though. There is a weird layout, it gets extremely busy between ten-minutes-to and the hour due to its proximity to the lecture theatres, and it is a bit out of the way for the rest of the building. Avoid.

First floor: Prime location, being he nearest toilet to not only the library and the computer cluster, but also the first floor lab. This is very much not in it's favour given the task at hand. Plenty of through traffic and dodgy cubicle locks make a visit here an extremely anxious experience.

Fourth floor disabled: The fact it is disabled works both for and against it. This toilet is in effect an oversized cubicle with its own washbasin and all manner of bells and whistles, such as an alarm in case of emergency and handles for sitting and standing. It's not all fun and games though, and there are dire risks involved. Are there any disabled staff or students in the department? I can't say I've noticed, but there's no way to be sure. How can one concentrate when there is such risk of a Larry David-esque confrontation? Another negative is the fact that having a cubicle door that leads straight out into the lift area can lead to a sense of exposure.

Second, Third and Fifth Floors: These are grouped together because of their day dependence. Each of these floors houses a laboratory, meaning that on a given day of the week, any of these could be a no go area. Tuesdays and Thursdays on the fifth floor are best avoided. The third can be slightly unpredictable with its computer and electronics labs. The second floor is my favourite of the three, and I have never experienced any trouble there, even on days when second year students should be in the nuclear lab.

Basement: The connoisseur's choice. The subtle, intriguing positioning with regard to the lifts could threaten to make this an acquired taste, but its décor, well-stocked roll supplies and tranquillity mean that should be first choice for anyone in its vicinity.

N.B. I can't remember what the toilets are like on the 6th or 7th floors, or if they even have any. I have no business going all the way up there. 7th is probably a decent shout actually, but the stairs up there are a bit of a pain. I'll bear it in mind for next time though.