Paul Guinnessy

Counting the true cost of energy

With the Earths population set to grow from six to nine billion people over the next 50 years, the demand for new energy sources is going to increase enormously Improvements in the standard of living in developing countries such as India and China, where the energy use per head is less than one-tenth of that in the US, will increase the demand for energy – and the impact on the environment – still further.

UK physics gains funding boost

Ten physics projects have been awarded money in the second round of the Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF), a £750m scheme to upgrade research facilities in UK universities. A similar number of projects in physics-related areas were also successful. The fund, which is designed to help the universities remain at the forefront of international research, is supported by the UK government and the Wellcome Trust, the worlds largest biomedical research charity.

Higner Education: Sci-fi to be studied in UK degree

The University of Glamorgan in Wales is to start a degree course in science and science fiction. Mark Brake, the physicist who is director of the course, hopes that the new degree will encourage more people to follow careers related to science and technology. Between 50 and 100 students will start the course in September.

Space Science: NASA sets sights on Mercury and comet

The US space agency NASA has announced new missions to Mercury and the comet Tempel 1 as part of its Discovery programme. The Deep Impact mission to Tempel I amounts to a rescue operation for the Champollion mission to the comet, which was cancelled in early July due to budgetary problems at NASA. Both missions were expected to cost

Patents, patience and quantum ideas

240m (about £ 150m). However, Champollion was being funded from NASAs New Millennium budget, where competition for funds is stiffer than in the Discovery programme. The Messenger mission to Mercury will cost

Space Science: ESA looks up

286m.

Europe: EU appoints physicist

Quantum information is one of the hottest research topics in physics today. Theorists and experimenters across the globe are devising new ways to exploit the quantum properties of light and matter in novel forms of computation and communication. Although a real quantum computer is still decades away, so-called quantum cryptography has already been demonstrated across commercial optical-fibre networks and is very close to real-world applications.

Internet: Think before you surf

Europe has become too dependent on the US for technology, according to a new report from the European Space Agency (ESA). Its long-term space-policy Committee proposes that ESA should increase spending on a wide range of areas, including a new reusable launcher to replace the Ariane rocket, a European global positioning system, and new space defence capabilities. The committee also recommends that ESA should fund physics experiments on the International Space Station and give higher priority to looking for Earth-like planets around other stars.

Industry: US workers win productivity battle

A physicist has been nominated as the European Unions next commissioner for research. Philippe Busquin, a 58-year-old socialist from Belgium, has been nominated by Romano Prodi, the new president of the European Commission. Busquin will be in charge of the EUs fifth framework programme for research and development, a four-year project worth Euro l5bn. He should be confirmed as commissioner by the European parliament next month.

CERN shortens LEP extension

Unfettered access to the World Wide Web in UK universities could come to an end as a result of the introduction of charges for Internet access. Since the end of July, universities have had to pay UKERNA – the body that runs JANET, the UKs academic network – two pence for every megabyte of information that they download from North America. The bills could be as high as £100 000 a year for some of the UKs largest universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College, London.