Letters
Nothing tentative
about it
Professor
John Altringham
School
of Biology
I’d like to
make a small but significant correction to the article
on our SRIF bid for a biodiversity and conservation research
centre in the Yorkshire Dales. The Yorkshire Dales National
Park Authority did not give a tentative welcome to the
project. At a full, formal meeting of the Authority it
received unanimous and enthusiastic backing. English Nature
and the Environment Agency were also very positive about
the project.
Regrettably,
NGOs and government agencies rarely have the financial
freedom and speed of response needed for opportunities
such as SRIF.
Sun doesn’t
shine on minority habit
John Spence
Electronics
Workshop, School of Chemistry
As a member
of the currently most oppressed minority group in this
country, financially by the state and socially by our
places of work and by our fellow workers, I wish to ask
David Fairer to consider again his plea or plan. Is it
not enough that we are obliged to withstand the inclemency
of our weather whenever we have the rare moment of leisure
to indulge our habit? He suggests that we may now have
to walk through the rain, sleet, etc. of the British summer
to the boundaries of the campus. Where will this oppression
end? Are we to be segregated, forced into ghettos, or
perhaps into camps away from public view?
Smoking ban
from big brother
Dr Haiko Muller
School
of Computing
I note that
‘Big Brother’ has decided (Reporter 465) that the University,
unlike the country, is now a smokeless zone. I trust this
is mentioned in all overseas promotions.
Why bats don’t
need dictionaries
Professor
Brian Hoyle
Director,
Institute of Integrated Information Systems
Thanks for
the semantic interest shown by Dr Baczkowski (Reporter
465) in the overview of work of various Leeds ultrasound
research interest group members, and others, featured
in Reporter 464.
Semantics apart,
our ultrasound systems are ‘non-invasive’ in the sense
that they ‘observe’ from outside the process, usually
a great advantage. Although there is ‘radiation’, it’s
simply a sound wave, whereas common usage of radiation
implies an ionising form. Of course, prolonged exposure
to any form of localised energy source may be damaging
in the limit (as indicated in long exposure, closely coupled,
high energy ultrasound tests). For modern clinical purposes,
readers can be assured that ultrasound systems are used
only where there is an indicated diagnostic benefit, and
then only for very short periods.
Our work on
airborne ultrasound systems, such as our ‘spatial imager’,
uses tiny pulsed transmitters working in air; their drive
power is far less than typical for an audio loudspeaker.
It’s likely,
by the way, that the visual display unit that we typically
use to prepare our words, through mechanical vibrations
in sympathy with the 50-100kHz line output frequency,
bathes us all in ultrasound for much of the day!
As demonstrated
by my colleague Dean Waters, bats do seem to live in (low
intensity) ‘surround ultrasound’ without problems. They
do use this energy form with great sophistication to explore
their world. And they also manage without dictionaries!
Cloth requires
a little mending
Professor
Stephen Burkinshaw
School
of Textiles and Design
I wanted to
thank the Reporter for the excellent article on the ULITA
Heritage Lottery fund success.
I have only
one small comment concerning the article: the merger with
Bretton Hall has led to the creation of a ‘School of Textiles
and Design’ rather than a ‘Department of Textile and Design’
as stated in the article.
Once again,
many thanks for your efforts on our behalf.
Giving credit
where credit is due
Professor
Animesh Jha
Department
of Materials
Reporter 464
covered the award of two SMART prizes to a University
spin-off company, Optiglass Devices Ltd, based on research
carried out in the Department of Materials. The credit
was given only to myself and to the company director,
Dick Gale. The Reporter failed to acknowledge the teamwork
involved in the research, or the fact that the awards
were jointly won by Drs M Naftaly, S Shen, and myself.
I and my research team would also like to acknowledge
the immense technical support given by Mr. Mo Javed. Sadly,
the photo in the printed Reporter only showed myself and
Dick Gale, although a photo of the whole team is available
on the web.
