Energy policy cannot be divorced from energy technology, and alternatively fuelled vehicles with consequent cleaner air for cities is one example. Others include more efficient electricity generation with embedded generation and more efficient combined-cycle gas turbines, and a climate-change levy on fuel bills replaced by a carbon levy. I believe that electricity from CO2-free nuclear plants and from renewable non-polluting sources should not have any levy.
The huge potential for physics and physicists to get more involved in energy technology and in lobbying for a sensible energy policy that can deliver results is a future opportunity that should be grasped. It is up to physicists to give the lead where others feel unsure of the way ahead.
Comprehension check
Answer the following questions:
1. What is one of the most vital set of problems facing physicists and mankind itself?
2. Why should physicists be at the forefront of the debate on energy use and climate change?
3. What does the author think about government targets for reducing carbon dioxide?
4. Will renewable energy meet these targets?
5. France has invested heavily in nuclear plants, hasn’t she? What is the result of this?
6. Does the research into nuclear fusion need the support of the entire physics community? Why?
7. Are there other types of renewable energy that could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels?
8. Energy policy cannot be divorced from energy technology, can it?
Discussion point
1. Comment on the article using the following prompts:
first of all, as I see it, personally I feel, secondly, I’m not sure about…
2. Make separate the issues:
- you agree with A. Jackson.
- you disagree with him.
SECTION 2
UNIT 1
MAGNETISM UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Vocabbox
noun collocations
§ nanometre-scale features
§ novel materials
§ inherently small volumes
§ magnetic bilayers
§ exchange bias
§ hysteresis loop
§ spatial resolution
verb collocations
§ to be confined to
§ relate to
§ image
§ to be inferred from
§ line up
§ advance
§ tunnel
§ reveal
Pre-reading task
Before you read approve or disapprove the thought that “the nation that controls magnetism will control the universe”.
Reading
Read the text. Divide it into logical parts. What is the purpose of each part?
In 1935 the fictional detective Dick Tracy predicted that “the nation that controls magnetism will control the universe”. In accordance with these prophetic words, the field of magnetism has experienced an incredible expansion in both basic and applied research over the past 15 years. Much of this interest has been motivated by a number of factors: the ever-increasing demand for miniaturization; the ability to make manometre-scale features; the desire for novel materials that exhibit properties not encountered naturally; and by applications such as magnetic sensors, memories and recording heads.
Materials in which the atoms are confined to one or two dimensions have a range of interesting physical properties and applications, especially when they are in contact with other materials. To understand complex magnetic materials in detail, we need to understand the behaviour of surfaces and interfaces as a function of their electrical and magnetic properties.
The most important issues relate to the magnetic structure at these surfaces, the unavoidable effects of structural and chemical roughness, and the changes in the magnetic properties when the atoms are confined to one or two dimensions. The presence of so-called proximity effects due to the magnetic layer touching other materials, and competing phenomena like superconductivity, also need to be understood.
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