Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
UK astronaut Tim Peake to go to International Space Station
The UK astronaut Tim Peake has been given a date to fly to the International Space Station (ISS).
The European Space Agency (Esa) says it will release details of his mission on Monday. It will not be before 2015.
Peake, who was a major and a helicopter pilot in the British Army Air Corps, has been in training for an expedition to the ISS since 2009.
To get there, he will have to ride a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Tasks once in orbit will include helping to maintain the 27,000km/h platform and carrying out science experiments in Esa's Columbus laboratory module, which is attached to the front of the 400-tonne complex.
Forty-one-year-old Peake hails from Chichester, and is so far the only Briton ever to be accepted into the European Astronaut Corps.
His mission will make him the first UK national to live and work in space, and to fly the Union flag, on a British-government-funded programme (the UK is Esa's third largest contributor).
All previous UK-born astronauts that have gone into orbit have done so either through the US space agency (Nasa) as American citizens or on private ventures organised with the assistance of the Russian space agency.
"Major Tim" Peake has a degree in flight dynamics and is a qualified test pilot.
When he was selected for astronaut training he was working with the Anglo-Italian helicopter company AgustaWestland.
Helen Sharman was the first Briton to go into space in 1991 on Project Juno, a cooperative project between a number of UK companies and the Soviet government. She spent a week at the Mir space station.
The most experienced British-born astronaut is Nasa's Michael Foale. He has accumulated 374 days in orbit, completing long-duration missions to both the ISS and Mir.
Major Tim's assignment is made as British space activity is experiencing a big renaissance.
The space industry in the UK is growing fast, employing tens of thousands of workers and contributing some £9bn in value to the national economy.
The government has also lifted substantially its subscription to Esa, and the agency has responded by opening its first technical base in the country.
Ecsat (European Centre for Space Applications and Telecoms) is sited on the Harwell science campus in Oxfordshire.
There is sure to be huge interest in Major Tim's adventure.
The recently returned ISS commander, Canadian Chris Hadfield, attracted a big following for his tweets, videos and songs from the platform. His rendition of David Bowie's A Space Oddity has become a YouTube hit.
It would be hoped that Major Tim could achieve something of the same impact.
Culture wars: why attack heritage?
The events of 10 May 1933 - when German students gathered in Berlin and elsewhere to destroy more than 20,000 volumes of work considered 'Un-German' - represented not just a physical attack on the books but an ideological strike by the Nazi regime.
As works by Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Sigmund Freud and even Albert Einstein were among those condemned to the bonfires, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declared: "The era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end..."
Yet the actions of those present were not original. Throughout history, culture has been subject to attack.
As Czech historian Milan Hubl once said: "The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history.
"Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.
"The world around it will forget even faster."
But the outrage felt, combined with the military might of those opposing it, meant the Third Reich was unsuccessful in its bid to quash all cultures bar its own through whatever means it saw fit.
"Cultural cleansing is often an aspect of ethnic cleansing or genocide," says author and heritage consultant Robert Bevan.
"It's not just about murdering a group, but about removing their right to be in a place, their touchstones and evidence of the history of their occupation. It is enforcing a sense of group not belonging."
Although the Nazis were unable to completely execute their plan, there are others who have been far more successful.
Built and nurtured by the Abbasid dynasty in the 8th and 9th centuries, Baghdad's Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) contained more than 18,000 volumes of translated classical works from all around the world. It was an intellectual powerhouse attracting the brightest Islamic scholars.
In 1258, when Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu spearheaded the Siege of Baghdad, this library was among those targeted and destroyed. The Mongol leader had called on the caliph to surrender but when met with refusal, his anger saw no bounds.
It is said that the waters of the Tigris River were stained black because of the ink flowing from the manuscripts thrown into it, and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers who followed.
The fall of Baghdad set Islamic science studies back many years.
When Iraq's cultural heritage faced attack again in modern times, there was international law in place to protect cultural interests around the world.
Unesco is among several bodies set up to protect heritage, while the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict specifically sets out what is and is not acceptable.
"There has been a realisation, now conveyed through legal instruments, that cultural heritage is extremely important," says Roni Amelan from Unesco.
"It's not just important to the group that is the custodian of it, but we have to have a commitment to the cultural heritage belonging to all of us."
Ahead of the first Gulf War (1990-1991), allowance was made to protect key sites. "The Pentagon set up a top level international advisory body which identified pre-historic, historic and Christian sites. Every effort was made to secure them," says cultural heritage expert Patrick Boylan.
But US defence strategists "misjudged" the whole situation ahead of the 2003 Iraq War. Boylan says those in charge of US defence strategies expected the Iraqis to welcome their invasion of Baghdad and disposal of Saddam Hussein - and ignored heritage and military planning experts.
That was compounded when US and Polish forces set up base on the ancient site of Babylon in 2003, once home to one of the 'Seven Wonders of the World'. The area had already been damaged by Saddam Hussein's attempts to build on the site as a way of "associating himself with the kings of the fabled past".
It was not a deliberate attempt to extinguish culture but the US acknowledged it needed to help fix the mess it had helped create.
But when something is considered to be of high value to the international community, it can, at times, make it even more of target.
The 20th Century saw a significant increase in deliberate attacks on symbols of cultural identity, says Boylan, "often mixed up with the rise of nationalism".
In 2001, the Taliban shocked the world by deliberately blowing up the giant sandstone Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan.
At the time the Taliban said the statues, built in the 6th Century, when Bamiyan was a holy Buddhist site, represented idolatry and did not fit in with its version of Islam. The group said: "It's not a big issue. The statues are objects only made of mud or stone."
The rest of the world did not agree. The Taliban later defended its actions, saying it had been outraged by offers of money to protect the statues while Afghanistan was in dire need of humanitarian aid.
The Taliban said the group's scholars had made their decision after telling UN relief officials: "If you are destroying our future with economic sanctions, you can't care about our heritage."
"Often an attack on monuments is an attack on group identity and culture. It is as if the larger conflict is posited between two cultural elements. They try to destroy these iconic identities, " Vince Michael of the Global Heritage Fund says.
But as well as those who will attempt to destroy art, there will be those who will risk their lives in order to protect it.
n 1944, diplomat Sir Harold Nicholson said works of "major artistic value" had to be treated in a special way: "It is to my mind absolutely desirable that such works should be preserved from destruction, even if their preservation entails the sacrifice of human lives."
As Islamist militants fled the historic Malian city of Timbuktu earlier this year, they set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless manuscripts containing thoughts on religion, law, literature and science. The caretakers of these ancient documents resorted to a tradition that has worked for centuries - taking them to family homes and storing them safely - no matter the risk.
And much like the guardians of Mali, there were those who opposed the Nazis' accumulation of cultural heritage - whether the intended destination was the planned Museum of an Extinct Race, or the book burning pyres or even the concentration camps where those who differed from the perceived Third Reich ideal were sent.
They risked their lives to ensure that the past was not destroyed.
Among them is Anne Frank and her attempt to document what it was like for a young Jewish girl to have to face persecution during WWII. Her diary is considered to be one of the most important records of an attack on cultural heritage.
And although she died before it was published, her thoughts remain poignant:
"There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again."
Eurovision Song Contest won by Denmark
Denmark has triumphed at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Swedish city of Malmo.
Emmelie de Forest, 20, had been the overwhelming favourite among the 26 entries, with her song Only Teardrops. Azerbaijan finished second.
The UK's Bonnie Tyler came 19th, an improvement on last year when Engelbert Humperdinck came second from last.
There was disappointment for Ireland's Ryan Dolan as he finished in last place with just five points.
De Forest won with 281 points and Azerbaijan's Farid Mammadov finished 47 points behind, followed by Ukraine in third and Norway in fourth.
Denmark, which will now have the job of hosting the 59th contest next year, had previously won in 1963 and 2000.
'It's amazing'
De Forest sang her up-tempo tune barefoot, saying before she performed: "It makes me feel closer to the ground, the earth and makes me feel more relaxed."
De Forest described the experience as "overwhelming" at a news conference following the contest
At the post-event news conference, she told reporters: "It has been quite stressful but it's also a wonderful thing that has happened to me. It's amazing.
"It was crazy when they put the butterfly [of the winning country's flag] on the dress. I didn't understand we had won at that point."
She added: "Of course I believed in the song, but that's the exciting thing about Eurovision you don't know what's going to happen. So I was surprised and shocked when it happened."
Ukraine act Zlata Ognevich was carried on stage by Ukrainian-born Igor Vovkovinskiy, who, standing at 7ft 8in, is the tallest man in the US
TV viewers across Europe were treated to the mix of high-energy pop and power ballads that have become synonymous with the contest, as well as some outlandish stage performances.
One of the more eccentric acts was Romania's Cezar, who mixed his operatic voice with a disco beat. He managed a respectable 13th position.
Glasgow scientists create single-pixel camera for 3D images
Scientists in Glasgow have discovered a low-cost way to create 3D images.
Their system uses detectors which have a single pixel to sense light instead of the millions of pixels used in the imaging sensors of digital cameras.
The detectors can "see" frequencies beyond visible light, which researchers say could open up new uses for 3D imaging in medicine and geography.
They said the single-pixel detectors cost "a few pounds" compared to current systems, which cost "thousands".
It is hoped that the system's ability to senses wavelengths far beyond the capability of digital cameras and its low cost, could make it a valuable tool for a wide range of industries.
Researchers said possible uses could range from locating oil to helping doctors find tumours.
Crossword patterns
Prof Miles Padgett led the team at University of Glasgow's School of Physics and Astronomy, which developed the technique.
He said: "Single-pixel detectors in four different locations are used to detect light from a data projector, which illuminates objects with a rapidly-shifting sequence of black-and-white patterns similar to crossword puzzles.
"When more of the white squares of these patterns overlap with the object, the intensity of the light reflected back to the detectors is higher.
"A series of projected patterns and the reflected intensities are used in a computer algorithm to produce a 2D image."
He said a 3D image was then created by combining images from the four detectors using a well-known technique called "shape from shade".
This 3D computational imaging, or ghost imaging produces detailed images of objects in just a few seconds.
Conventional 3D imaging systems uses multiple digital camera sensors to produce a 3D image from 2D information.
Careful calibration is required to ensure the multi-megapixel images align correctly.
Beyond the visible
Prof Padgett said: "Our single-pixel system creates images with a similar degree of accuracy without the need for such detailed calibration."
Lead author on the paper Baoqing Sun said: "It might seem a bit counter-intuitive to think that more information can be captured from a detector which uses just a single pixel rather than the multi-megapixel detectors found in conventional digital cameras.
"However, digital camera sensors have a very limited sensitivity beyond the spectrum of visible light, whereas a single-pixel detector can easily be made to capture information far beyond the visible, reaching wavelengths from X-ray to TeraHertz."
The team's paper, 3D Computational Imaging with Single-Pixel Detectors, is published in the journal, Science.
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