The hacking of Hitler's Blackberry

BBC's Code-Breakers: Bletchley Park's lost heroes (broadcast yesterday & on BBC Iplayer).
Excellent documentary on how the code-breakers cracked the Lorenz cipher which used radio broadcasts to send encrypted information between units of the German war-time forces in a similar fashion to encrypted traffic on the modern-day internet. The veil of secrecy upon how this done that hid Alan Turing's contributions (until recently) to code-breaking also hid the achievements of the two heroes of this story; A mathematician called Bill Tutte and a GPO engineer called Tommy Flowers.

The big break came when a 4000 character message was re-transmitted with the same key. Linguistically-talented code-breakers were able to get insights into the code but not enough to routinely break the code.
It was then passed to Tutte, who, in a classic mathematicians approach, looked for patterns which enabled him to deduce the number of spokes on the wheels of the Lorenz machine.
Information gained from this discovery enabled the allies to warn the Russians about an assault on the lines (The battle of Kursk) which was as the Russians called it 'the turning of the tide' on this front.

This methodology still required a lot of manual effort and whilst an electro-mechanical device (nick-named 'Heath Robinson') was devised it needed to be faster and more reliable. The stage was set for 'Colossus' devised by Tutte which was the world's first semi-programmable electronic computer (Pre-dating Eniac)and was about five times faster than it's predecessor. This helped with breaking the code but still relied upon people for the latter stages.
Colossus made major contributions to the success of the D-day invasion and enabled the allies to get into Hitler's head. His responses to military situations were not like normal military commanders and so the Allies had to think like Hitler.
There are two major ironies to this story:
1) The Nazis distrusted people and placed their trust in the machines and the idea that they could not be compromised - a warning for today's society maybe?
2) Bletchley had many key people who would not have been used by the Nazis (Jews, gays (like Turing) and intellectuals who tended to isolate themselves from mainstream society) - a strong pointer to the benefits of Diversity. Another example was the key role of the army of women employed to listen to and accurately transcribe the intercepted (and encrypted) German transmissions i.e. the data gatherers for the mathematicians.

It is noticeable that both men were examples of the benefits of the scholarship system which enabled them to make significant contributions to society despite their unprivileged backgrounds.
Both Tutte and Flowers were restricted about communicating their war-time roles in peace-time.
Bill Tutte made significant contributions to Graph Theory and some of his work assisted in the proof of the four-colour theorem (used to determine positioning of mobile phone transmitters) and later became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
All in all, I found this to be an excellent programme.

Science Communication course - Day 2

This started with info on what Teachers wanted from scientists i.e. the Contemporary Science angle.
Next, we had a bit of a scavenger hunt in the Resources room (See photo from Day1) - this was a place where I could seriously get my geek on with lots of books and props for science education...
We then had a session with an alumni of the course who gave us his experiences of the second part of the course (Presenting to a Teachers' conference) and some good advice.
Next up was a session about the FreshScience project. We also had a go at an typical exam question and were invited to try taking one of our datasets and reworking it to make it accessible to pupils and teachers for practice at data analysis (Might see if we can do this with the Marmite data from the Taste & Flavour events).
We then had a session on the Learning Hub where we will be getting tasks to perform as CPD in the gap between the two parts of the course. This will hopefully help us to polish up our 45-minute activities at the Teachers' conference. To quote Alfred E. Neumann from Mad magazine - "Wot - me worry?" (Yes!).

Science Communication course (Day 1)

Survived day 1 (just about!).
We started with an ice-breaker activity and then we had a session on how science is taught in UK.
Next a media session (interview, headlines and written piece) where we all got a good mauling (Must remember to sit up straight and avoid words like quantify :-) ).
Then a lab practical to do hands on science demos e.g. Van der graaf generators, model eyes,combustion in water bottles like this (but definitely not like this), enzymes (pectinase), sound in tubes & wine glasses etc... This stressed the importance of doing a good performance.
Then we had a session on how scientists can help in science education (lots of different roles).
Followed by a "Good practice marketplace" which gave us all a chance to relate our outreach experiences.
This took us past the 8pm mark - so I'm tired but on the whole am happy I came on this course.
Just got to get through day 2 now :-)

One scientist on the course (Natalie) showed us a youtube video that she has done. It's good at showing how science is applied to a problem (Studying ocean currents) and on the value of video pod-casts..

Obligatory photos of the venue (National Science Learning Centre in York) and their Resources room (Cue the kid in a sweet shop effect - so many cool props to demonstrate science & maths):

Ask for Evidence

Just quick post to draw your attention to:

Sense About Science - Ask for Evidence Campaign

Every day we are bombarded with scientific and medical claims: on advertising material, product websites, advice columns, campaign statements, celebrity health fads and policy announcements. But how do we know which of these are based on evidence? Even where there is some regulation, in advertising or trading standards, claims that are not based on good evidence keep reappearing. Sense About Science has launched a national campaign to change this. Ask for Evidence aims to get everybody asking advertisers, companies, government bodies and other organisations to set out the evidence they have for the claims they make.  If more of us – consumers, patients and voters - ask for the evidence, those making claims will expect to be held to account. To make this a success the campaign needs to reach as many people as possible. Ask for Evidence is supported by leading scientists, entertainers and community leaders, and many scientific and civic groups. Find out more and join them in supporting the campaign at www.senseaboutscience.org/a4e.

Ready, steady...

Getting ready for a Science Communication course at National Science Learning Centre.
Doing the equivalent of patting pockets for keys when going out:
- Pen portrait of me - check
- Examples of data/area of work - check
- Notes about science outreach activities that I've been involved with and how they went
plus some examples - check
- Train tickets researched & booked - check
- Reminding my sons to be good and obey Mum (and not drive her mad) whilst dad is away -che... Actually I'd better remember to do that one... :-)
Above sounds a bit like the Mastercard advert (just needs the priceless bit)- bound to have forgotten something else.
Course is funded by Wellcome Trust & Research Councils-UK. I'm getting nervous and excited at the same time - Am expecting this to be good and hope that it will make me a better STEM ambassador...

Taste & Flavour outreach activity

Along with four colleagues (a veritable Science A-Team!), I was involved in an outreach activity at the University of East Anglia today.
Two frenetic 25-min sessions involving about 30 pupils as an activity for the Local Education Authority.
We re-jigged the taste and flavour activity to suit the venue and time pressures.
The children seemed to enjoy exploring the activities (including dying their tongues with blue food colouring!).
We asked them to think about why we have the ability to taste foods, see how taste-buds are laid out on the tongue and explored why people react to tastes differently.
Dave, Tris & I have all done this activity before, Mel & Kenzi (as far as I know) hadn't but kudos to them they did an excellent job interacting with the children.

Information for teachers who might wish to run this activity at their schools (including Risk Assessments) is available at the second hyperlink (above).

British Society for the History of Mathematics Essay competition

BSHM Undergraduate Essay Prize

The British Society for the History of Mathematics is pleased to invite submissions for its 2011-12 undergraduate essay prize. The essay, which may be on any topic within the history of mathematics, should be between 2000-2500 words. The prize is open to any person who is enrolled as an undergraduate in a UK or Irish university during the academic year 2011-12. The value of the prize will be £100, plus one year free membership of the Society.
Essays in submission for the prize should be sent via e mail attachment to Dr Mark McCartney at m.mccartney@ulster.ac.uk.
Applicants should also give details of their place and year of study and the title of the degree programme on which they are enrolled.
The deadline for receipt of submissions is 1st May 2012
A poster is available - please print and display this if you are in a position to advertise this Prize to undergraduates.

European Commission - e-book on Women in Science

Teachers and parents may find this link useful to encourage girls into science as well as being an interesting read. This e-book is available as a pdf and in mp3 audio book format.

For much of human history, women were officially excluded from the scientific realm. However, in spite of their invisibility in the history narrative, this did not mean that science was exclusively a man’s world. Many women, throughout the centuries, have managed to overcome their marginalisation and excel in their chosen field, making vital contributions to the sum of human knowledge.

With this book we would like to celebrate European women scientists throughout the ages. The book tells the compelling stories of some of the heroines of European science – some sung but many unsung – and, through their narratives, it enriches and completes the history of scientific knowledge by highlighting its female face.

Janez Potočnik, Commissioner for Science and Research