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Tue, Dec 05, 2023 11:43 AM All times are UTC

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Ian Whittaker

Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University

I completed my PhD in 2010 looking at the interaction of the Sun with the upper atmosphere of Venus. Since then I have held six postdoctoral contracts, covering medical imaging, solar physics, the Earth's radiation belts, lightning in tropical cyclones, X-ray astronomy, and X-ray observations of the Earth's magnetopause.

I currently teach at Nottingham Trent University, where I am responsible for astrophysics lectures, laboratory supervision, tutorials and student projects. I am very strongly interested in space science outreach, encouraging students and the public to take an interest in how our planet interacts with the solar system.

Space Science Series

Earth has many objects in orbit but definitely only one Moon – despite what some people think

Nov 10, 2023 14:37 pm UTC| Science

Big Brother has always chosen its contestants for entertainment value rather than for intellectual debate. This was recently highlighted in a discussion started on the programme by dental therapist Chantelle, who suggested...

Space Science Series

Nasa's Psyche mission is set for launch – here's how it could unveil the interior secrets of planets

Oct 15, 2023 04:07 am UTC| Science

Its unlikely to be a bad omen, but Nasas mission Psyche is currently due to launch on Friday 13 October. Lifting off at 10.19 EDT on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, it faces a perilous journey and isnt scheduled for arrival...

Space Science Series

Chandrayaan-3: India hopes to land a rover on the Moon for the first time

Aug 22, 2023 04:20 am UTC| Science

On Wednesday August 23, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission Chandrayaan-3 will deploy its lander and rover to the surface of the Moon. As the name suggests, this is the third mission in a programme of...

Scientists have started steering lightning with lasers – here's how

Jan 24, 2023 07:36 am UTC| Science

Lightning may look beautiful but every year it kills thousands of people, does huge amounts of damage to buildings and infrastructure, and causes power outages. The only protection we have is lightning rods, which were...

Space Science Series

The UK is about to have its first space launch – but Cornwall is unlikely to become a new Cape Canaveral

Oct 19, 2022 08:52 am UTC| Science

Virgin Orbit, a US company which provides launch services for satellites, has announced that the first orbital space mission from the UK will blast off from Cornwall. The rocket, which will carry nine satellites, along...

Ax-1: why the private mission to the International Space Station is a game changer

Apr 05, 2022 11:57 am UTC| Science

Its not long since billionaires were competing to get to the edge of space. Now, the first set of private citizens are getting ready to take a SpaceX shuttle up to the International Space Station (ISS). Unlike the short...

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin: can they be more than 'space' joyrides for millionaires?

Jul 18, 2021 10:33 am UTC| Business

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and his team successfully flew to the edge of space on the Unity 22 mission aboard a Virgin Galactic plane on 12 July. The event was hailed as the start of space tourism, narrowly...

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Economy

Governments have been able to overrule the Reserve Bank for 80 years. Why stop now?

Pay close enough attention to parliament these next few days, and youre likely to witness something truly remarkable: politicians from both sides of politics uniting to remove the power of politicians to overrule the...

Western Pharma Shifts Focus from China to India Amid Rising Geopolitical Tensions

Western drugmakers are increasingly turning to alternative sources for drug production and clinical trials, shifting their attention away from Chinese contractors. According to industry experts and executives, this...

What the UK government's back to work plan covers – and why it is unlikely to boost people's job prospects

Ahead of the UK governments latest economic statement, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, and the secretary of state for work and pensions, Mel Stride, unveiled a new employment support package dubbed the back to work...

Matching state pension to the national living wage would help pensioners maintain their dignity

A question that is perennially asked by financial experts is: can the government (in other words, the taxpayer) afford to keep increasing pensions? But in my view, the real question should be: what is the purpose of the...

Every state is about to dole out federal funding for broadband internet – not every state is ready for the task

When the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed in late 2021, it included US$42.5 billion for broadband internet access as part of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. The program aims to ensure...

Politics

Alleged assassination plots in the U.S. and Canada signal a more assertive Indian foreign policy

A recent indictment from the United States Department of Justice has alleged an Indian security official was involved in attempting to assassinate a U.S. and Canadian citizen in New York. The alleged target, Gurpatwant...

Henry Kissinger was a global – and deeply flawed – foreign policy heavyweight

Declarations of the end of an era are made only in exceptional circumstances. Henry Kissingers death is one of them. Kissinger was born into a Jewish family in Germany, and fled to the US in 1938 after the Nazis seized...

The four challenges faced by Spain's new government

Pedro Sánchez investiture marks the beginning of the third consecutive parliamentary term led by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). After a fraught period of negotiations, Sánchez now leads a broad...

'Father of Reconciliation' Pat Dodson to quit parliament

Labor senator Pat Dodson, often dubbed the father of reconciliation, is quitting parliament due to ill health. Dodson, 75, told the Labor caucus on Tuesday he would resign as a senator for Western Australia, effective...

South Africa’s immigration proposals are based on false claims and poor logic – experts

The South African government recently issued a long-awaited policy statement called a White Paper outlining proposed changes to the countrys asylum and immigration system. More than 20 years after its first...

Science

Massive planet too big for its own sun pushes astronomers to rethink exoplanet formation

Imagine youre a farmer searching for eggs in the chicken coop but instead of a chicken egg, you find an ostrich egg, much larger than anything a chicken could lay. Thats a little how our team of astronomers felt when...

Do we live in a giant void? It could solve the puzzle of the universe's expansion

One of the biggest mysteries in cosmology is the rate at which the universe is expanding. This can be predicted using the standard model of cosmology, also known as Lambda-cold dark matter (ΛCDM). This model is...

MicroRNA is the master regulator of the genome − researchers are learning how to treat disease by harnessing the way it controls genes

The Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, and life less than a billion years after that. Although life as we know it is dependent on four major macromolecules DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids only one is thought to have been...

How do crystals form?

How do crystals form? Alyssa Marie, age 5, New Mexico Scientifically speaking, the term crystal refers to any solid that has an ordered chemical structure. This means that its parts are arranged in a precisely...

NASA's first successful recovery of asteroid samples may reveal information about the origins of the universe

The OSIRIS-REx mission is NASAs first mission to collect samples from an asteroid in this case 101955 Bennu and return to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification,...

Technology

AT&T Joins Forces with Ericsson for Open RAN, Ousting Nokia in US Telecom Boost

ATT Inc. is working on further advancing Open and Interoperable Radio Access Networks (RAN) in the United States. The company is planning to do this through its new partnership with Ericsson. The deal between ATT and...

Spotify Trims Workforce by 17%, Shares Surge Following Announcement

Spotify is terminating 17% of its workforce, which is equivalent to 1,500 jobs. This latest layoff is the third to hit the company this year. The Swedish music streaming provider revealed the new round of job cuts after...

Intel Triumphs in US Court: $2.18 Billion VLSI Verdict Overturned

A U.S. appeals court overturned a $2.18 billion patent-infringement award that patent owner VLSI Technology had won against Intel Corp. This ruling marks the reversal of one of the largest verdicts in the history of U.S....

UK's Ofcom Introduces Stricter Online Age Checks for Explicit Content

The new draft guidance from the United Kingdoms Ofcom reveals plans to implement stricter age verification measures for online pornographic content. To prevent children from accessing explicit sites, the watchdog suggests...

Montana's TikTok Ban Reversed: Judge Declares Unconstitutional, Stops January 2024 Enforcement

TikTok has been banned in Montana, and it was the first state in the United States to do so. A federal judge scrapped the order after saying it was an unconstitutional decision. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy...