Welcome to my WWW home. If you want to email me, click here. Click for a photo.
My paper-mail address is:
School of Physics & Astronomy
The
Kings Buildings
I am in room 2620 of the JCMB (room 20 on corridor 6 of the 2nd floor).
If you arrive by taxi, ask the driver to enter the KB site by ‘entrance 4’ and take you ‘all the way round to the front of the JCMB’ (red path on accompanying map); if they drop you at the nearer (‘computing’) entrance (blue dot on the map), walk following the green path.
If you are walking or arrive by bus (stop at the purple square), follow the light blue path on the map.
My work telephone number is +44 (0)131 650 5297 (exclude ‘0’ from abroad)
Here you will find:
· Latest news and upcoming events
· My Biography
· My research interests in physics and associated publications
· My
research interests in philosophy, history and
theology and associated
publications
·
My recent sermons
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Latest news, downloads and upcoming events
I contributed a chapter to a
forthcoming book edited by R. J. Berry, Real Scientists, Real
Faith: 17 Leading Scientists Reveal the Harmony Between Their Science and Their
Faith, that is due to be published by Monarch Books on
Another book chapter on
living with risk, entitled Growing scientific citizens in a high-tech world,
is due to appear in Growing Citizens edited by
I gave a talk to Hampshire heads of science in
February entitled ‘You only have to known Ohm’s law, but you’ve got to know it
bloody well!’. Click here to download the
power point file. (Warning: the file is large, about 7 megabytes, because of
the large number of images.)
My sermons are now available at the bottom
of this page.
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A very brief biography
Born:
Education:
1968-1979 St. Paul’s co-educational
college,
1979-1981 Rugby School
1981-1984 Peterhouse, Cambridge University
1984-1988 St.
John’s College and Cavendish Laboratory,
Career:
1986-1988 Research Fellow, St. Edmund’s College,
1989 Lecturer, Portsmouth Polytechnic
1990-1997 Lecturer, School of Physics, The University of Edinburgh
1997-1999 Senior Lecturer, The
1999-now Professor of
Condensed Matter Physics, The
Awards and Distinctions:
1996 Nuffield Foundation Science Research Fellowship
2004 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
2007-2011 Engineering and Physics Sciences Research Council Senior Research Fellow
For a more detailed curriculum vitae, click here.
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I work in soft condensed matter physics and in biological physics.
My science publications are listed here – most of the papers are linked directly to publishers’ download sites, allowing you to get the pdf directly if your institution subscribes to the journal. If you have difficulty, email me and tell me which number on the list you require.
Soft condensed matter physics studies liquids, called ‘complex fluids’, which contains entities with sizes intermediate between small molecules (e.g. H2O) and macroscopic objects (e.g. the beaker holding the liquid): colloidal suspensions, polymers and aggregates of surfactants (soap-like molecules). These ‘mesoscopic’ entities are dominated by thermal fluctuations (= Brownian motion). Their presence confers a host of fascinating (and highly applicable) properties to complex fluids. For instance, their response to mechanical stress is intermediate between that of the ideal solid (‘elastic’ response) and the ideal (simple) liquid (‘viscous’ response): complex fluids are ‘viscoelastic’. A good example is ‘non-drip paint’ (a complex mixture of colloids and polymers). Under the high shear stresses generated by a paint brush, it behaves like a liquid; once the painting motion stops, gravity causes a small enough stress that the paint behaves like a solid, and stays on the wall.
I mainly work on colloids - suspension of solid particles in liquids. My main interest is to use very well-characterised suspensions to throw light on phenomena that are ubiquitous throughout condensed matter physics, such as crystal nucleation. A very brief introduction to this research philosophy, sometimes dubbed ‘colloids as big atoms’, is given here. In the past I have studied equilibrium phase transitions and phase transition kinetics. A movie (taken by Dr. Falk Renth) showing a colloidal suspension separating into coexisting colloidal gas (top), liquid (middle) and crystal (bottom: iridescence caused by Bragg reflections) phases can be seen here. Now I concentrate on long-lived metastable states (glasses and gels) in the same suspensions, especially how they flow in simple and complex geometries. A very brief introduction to colloidal glasses is given here.
My main research tool is advanced optical microscopy, especially fast confocal microscopy
that allows us to track thousands of particles more or less ‘in real time’, and
‘optical tweezers’, which permits the ‘hands-free’ trapping and manipulation of
colloids using highly-focussed laser beams. A movie
(courtesy of Dr.
Click to find further details of the soft matter physics research
in the
Biological physics applies the insights and techniques of physics to the study of living systems and their components. In particular, I am interested in using soft matter and statistical physics to understand the solution behaviour and self assembly of biomacromolecules, especially proteins, DNA and lipids, e.g. how proteins crystallise or aggregate, the way DNA stretches under flow, or how mixed lipid vesicles phase separate. Details of a volume of NATO ASI proceedings introducing this area of research can be found here.
I also study the collective behaviour and evolution of bacteria. A good example of collective behaviour is ‘biofilm’ formation: the way bacteria colonises surfaces. Here is a reconstruction of the early stage of biofilm formation by a nitrogen fixing bacteria, Sinorhizobium meliloti, from confocal images (courtesy of Iain Robinson and Gary Dorken).
Click to go to the home page of LiPhE (pronounced ‘Life’, = Life Physics @ Ed) to find an overview of the School’s research in this area.
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Philosophy, history and theology research
My publications
in these areas are listed here: in most cases,
the manuscript (though not the published) version is available.
I am interested in the history and philosophy of science, and in the relation between science and Christian theology. Some current projects are:
· Visual representations in science – Right now I am working on the pictorial representation of vectors in 19th century natural philosophy texts. My interest was aroused after speaking at a symposium sponsored by the Visual Arts Research Institute, Edinburgh (VARIE).
·
Philosophical issues at the
interface between physics and biology
– This is a collaborative project with Tom McLeish and Greg Radick
at
· Science and religion in poetry – Many poets have reflected on the relation between faith and (scientific) reason, from Lucretius through John Donne to R. S. Thomas. Amazingly, this poetic source of insight hardly features in the current (burgeoning) literature on ‘science and religion’. I am working on an anthology with comments and notes. If you have any suggestion of what poems to include, do email me.
·
Science and the hiddenness
of God – A scientific understanding
of the world can be elaborated without any reference to divine
activities. I want to reflect on the theological implications of this fact. A
very brief statement of how my thinking is developing is given here. (This piece is
part of the resources
for churches provided by the Faraday
Institute for Science & Religion.)
· A tale of the ‘three hermeneutics’ – I believe that hermeneutics, the art of
interpretation, offers a key to understanding the relation between the arts and
the sciences and between theology and science. The tale I want to tell is that
of the human attempt to read the book of God’s words (the Bible), the
book of God’s acts (history) and the book of God’s works
(creation). (See, for example, numerous passages linking these three in Isaiah
chapters 40-66.) A preliminary piece outlining some of my ideas, originally
written at the request of a group of Glasgow University M.A. students seeking
to reappraise the value of the humanities (their site is here), can be
found here.
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Sermons preached at St. Peter’s (Scottish
Episcopal Church), Lutton Place, Edinburgh
·
Giving voice to creation – a Christian
vocation in science (
[Texts: Genesis 2:15-25,
Psalm 19, Romans 8:18-25, Mark 5:25-34]
·
The work of our hands - Harvest
celebration for today (
[Texts:
Deuteronomy 16:9-17, (Psalm 127), (Isaiah 28:23-29), Matthew 6:7-15]
·
The church in waiting – The Nunc
dimmittis for today (
[Texts: Luke 2:22-40; Galatians 4:4-7]
[Texts:
Jonah 3.1-5, 10; Mark 1.14-20]
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