Students reject revamped physics degree
In a series of interviews with a wide cross-section of students who remained in the physics programme, Booth and Ingerman discovered that many students could not adequately explain the links between t...
UK physics gets new funding boost
The JIF scheme is funded by the UK government and the Wellcome Trust, the world’s largest biomedical research charity. It was set up after several reports found that a shortage of state-of-the-a...
UN promotes space science for developing nations
During the 1990s the UN and ESA organized a series of workshops to promote the development of small telescopes in countries such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Colombia and Jordan. Over 800 astronomer...
Taking a fresh look at maths and physics
The standard story about the development of physics as a separate discipline runs more or less as follows. After the Newtonian revolution of the 17th century, natural science divided into two parts: m...
Read article: New hope for physics education
New hope for physics education
Physics teaching is being transformed in the UK and the Institute of Physics is leading the way with a forward-looking initiative designed to revitalize the subject and attract more students
The classroom needs you
Towards the end of the last century many physicists feared that their work was done and that the end of physics was in sight. In 1894, for instance, Albert Michelson said that “it seems probable...
Foreign scientists lead US science
An earlier report from the National Research Council has already expressed concern that the US may not retain its leadership in science and technology. The report speculated that the supply of foreign...
Universities are like businesses – it’s official
Stanley and colleagues looked at five different measures of research activity in universities: the annual expenditure on R&D, the number of papers published each year, the number of patents awarde...
UK university launches science fiction degree
“Most people in the UK receive their science education through science fiction so it makes sense to study the link between science fiction and science fact,” says Brake. The three year deg...
Café society gets scientific
French cafés have long been a meeting point for intellectuals. In the 18th century Victor Hugo met fellow revolutionaries at the Procope in Paris, and in the 1950s groups of existentialists, incl...
