C1379/22/01 TR6-16

Interviewed for 'A Changing Planet', a sub-project of An Oral History of British Science.

Documentation: Summary; transcript; copies of digital photographs

Summary:

• Track 6 [1:51:08] [Session two: 2nd July, 2010] gradual infilling of tunnel through icefall on AB. Mentions 16 mm film of icefall; showing of film at recent commemorative meeting in Norway. [04:58] typographical error on page 7 in advance copy of ‘Physical Properties of Crystals’. [08:22] Constance Tipper, engineering laboratory in CL; lack of women in science, especially engineering; CP Snow’s ‘Central Register’; interview with CP Snow. [12:10] Difficulty making friends until university. Mentions effect of first girlfriend, Audrey Blakey. Beginnings of relationship with Audrey, including preparation of list of topics to support conversation on first evening together; development of relationship through teas, walks and society meetings. Mentions Audrey’s marriage to don in Selwyn College. meeting Audrey’s husband. [19:40] HJ’s lectures on probability; Mrs Jeffreys’ lectures on quantum mechanics; Mrs Houghton (co-head of third-year practical class); crystallographers: Helen McGaw, Audrey Douglas. [22:54] Links between femininity and crystallography; status of Kathleen Lonsdale as inspiring pioneer. [26:56] Crowe setting up CL’s first electron microscope; borrowing wire from the Superintendant in charge of stores, Mr Lincoln. Mentions CL’s written statement on apparatus. Description of CL equipment. close relations between scientists and their apparatus in the post-war period. Mentions lack of knowledge of social background of technicians; tendency for technicians not to share tea and buns with scientists. [32:53] Description of dress of male and female scientists in CL. Mentions technician’s white coats. Filing end of a brass rod in student workshop and in main workshop; making own silver chloride for postgraduate research; making apparatus, including ‘cork borer’. Mentions LB not working on experiments during WW2; role of technicians in supporting staff, not students. CL’s workshop. [39:27] Experiments on deformation of uranium in CL. Mentions never signing Official Secrets Act. Use of CL’s ‘cyclotron’ in WW2 ‘Tube Alloys’ project (codename for early atomic bomb research). [42:43] friend John Butler’s [JB] route to Cambridge through BBC programme ‘The Brains Trust’. Mentions JB’s degree, collection of novels, JB’s literary society ‘The Contemporary’. Detailed story of Wittgenstein’s visits to JB’s college room. Mentions talks by Bertrand Russell in JB’s room and for CUSIA. [52:25] distinctions between arts and science students at KC; own view of science and philosophy as unopposed; relative political engagement of arts/science students. [55:21] Mentions Switzerland as centre of nineteenth century glaciology. Descriptive nature of most early glaciology. Mentions Sebastian Finsterwalder as early mathematical glaciologist. Gerald Seligman [GS], founder of Glaciological Society [GS] (later International Glaciological Society). Survey of number of equations in papers published by GS, showing peak in early 1950s caused by JN. Reaction of other glaciologists to JN’s new mathematical approach; decisions made in submitting papers of different kinds to ‘Journal of Glaciology’ and the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society’. [1:01:04]
• Track 6 [cont. from 1:01:04] Bob Sharp’s [BS] (California Institute of Technology) [CT] positive reaction to JN’s mathematical glaciology. Mentions centres of glaciology in the US (United States of America) enthusiastic about mathematical glaciology: CT, UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), Washington State University [WSU], University of British Columbia [UBC], Vancouver. Mentions Yale University geologist’s. [1:04:11] Influential, positive response of Cambridge geographers to mathematical glaciology; work of Swiss and French glaciologists; significance of conceiving of ice as plastic rather than viscous material. [1:06:26] Mentions geologist Professor Hollingworth’s aversion to mathematical glaciology. Mentions Peter Haggett, geographer. [1:09:10] descriptive stage of glaciology; role of physics in moving other sciences on; application of computing to geomorphology in absence of mathematical explanation. Detailed view of proper approach to expression of physical phenomena mathematically using simplified model and numerical techniques. attempting to solve diffusion equation forwards using ‘computers’ in engineering department, CL. Description of risk of mathematical instability if ‘time step’ in computer models is set too large. [1:20:08] move from three year Demonstrator post at DMP to BL, New Jersey. Comments on salary; Astor Foundation grant. WS’s research group at BL, working on ‘semi-conductors’; Thornton Read’s (in WS’s group) and Alan Cottrell’s different books on ‘dislocations’. own work on ‘dislocations’ in single aluminium crystals at BL; approval of WL group for JN’s proposal to write book ‘Physical Properties of Crystals: Their Representation by Tensors and Matrices’ (1957). Culture of research freedom at BL. [1:28:13] work on ‘continuous distributions of dislocations’; meeting with CD West in New York hotel to discuss similar work on sapphire; theoretical work on three-dimensional curvature involving calculation of relations between ‘dislocation density tensor’ and ‘curvature tensor’. Description of use of ‘tensor’ to describe three dimensional object mathematically. Sense of limits of own mathematical understanding, concerning curved three-dimensional space with torsion. [1:40:43] applying formula connecting slope, thickness, shear stress to Greenland ice sheet [GIS] using map and various assumptions, finding thickness suggesting base below sea level; publication of findings in Nature, reported in Time magazine; discovery of error in calculated thickness. [1:45:16] role of fieldwork in mathematical glaciology, including experience of crevassing, measurements of curvature using stakes, effect of field experience on authority among geologists (not applied mathematicians); choice of GIS for applied mathematics discussed above, due to existence of seismic depth measurement. Mentions status of GIS as accessible ‘mini Antarctic’.
• Track 7 [1:08:01] Description of living arrangements while working at BL. Landlords: Colonel and Mrs Canada; fellow tenants, including Ian Ross [IR]. Attempting to contact IR recently to assist student; learning to drive. Description of attic room. Mentions watching house opposite. [04:47] Feelings at leaving girlfriend Marjorie Wood [MW] behind to work in US. Mentions marriage of MW to test pilot while JN in US. Meeting MW at May Ball in Cambridge; development of early relationship. Description of MW. time spent together. discussing decision to go to US with LB, explaining dilemma of arrangement with BL and feelings for MW. Mentions own marriage, a year later (1953), to Georgiana Wiebenson [GW]. correspondence with MW in US; MW’s view of long distance relationship; MW’s work on metal stresses at aircraft factory, Gloucester; proposal to MW; MW’s husband, test pilot for Jaguar fighter plane at Gloucester factory. [14:00] meeting GW involving Church dance and day in New York. Nearly meeting Einstein and obtaining Einstein manuscript (later presented to Physics Department, University of Bristol) through art lessons. Mentions own paintings still owned, produced at this time. Friends made in US. [22:28] summer travel across US; lectures including one at invitation of BS, CT. Mentions BS’s encouragement of JN’s work, including 1959 invitation to promote mathematical glaciology in US through lectures. reasons for going to US; reasons for returning after one year, including wish to see MW. Mentions Nevill Mott’s letter asking JN to join Physics Department [PD], University of Bristol [UOB] to work, with Jack Mitchell, on silver chloride/bromide crystals. lack of success in this work; decision to continue work on ‘Physical Properties of Crystals: Their Representation by Tensors and Matrices’ (1957), unpaid. applying for lectureships at Queens University, Belfast and UOB. Informality of applications/appointments. Appointment as lecturer, PD, UOB, 1953. [33:21] Long story of development of relationship with GW, through meetings with GW and her family in Stratford and Paris, holiday with GW in France, GW’s stay at parents’ Hove home and marriage in King’s College chapel, December 1953. Wedding guests, including LB; wedding food. honeymoon. [45:26] HH Wills Physics Laboratory [WPL], UOB, including origin, staff, extensions. Description of ‘old building’ of WPL; design of ‘new building’ 1965. equipment including; workshop (now site of archaeological dig). Description of own laboratory space in hut on outside roof, including equipment; polarising microscope and mode of use. [55:28] Description of ‘new building’. selecting own room in ‘new building’. Heating problems. [58:53] Mentions WPL librarian: Miss Littleton; staff photographs. Lack of memories of female scientists in WPL in 1950s and 1960s. [1:00:12] role of GW on AB fieldwork, 1955 and 1956; supply of tinned food; making of bannock. George de Boer [GDB] throwing cocoa, mixed with cement, at cook. [1:05:28] GDB’s contribution to AB fieldwork, 1955. use of hand drills to make holes in ice, sharpened by BW.
• Track 8 [26:44] VL’s approach to research; commitment to idea of ‘rotational slip’; ability to enthuse others. [03:36] Student Leonora Berkeley, who led students in fieldwork. Mentions expedition photographer: Judith Thomas; student George Ellison who organised subsequent fieldwork in Iceland; involvement of UOB students. Mixed gender expedition camp; effect on male students of female students. Mentions effect of military uniform on undergraduates in UOC Training Corps. [10:26] extended visit to CT, 1959. Description of CT staff club. Mentions paper on surging glaciers. differential equation concerning ‘frequency response’ of a glacier, including attention to seasonal changes in snowfall and melting, by introducing a ‘harmonic driving force’; unstable nature of glacier snouts revealed by solving of this equation. Mentions first paper on response of glaciers to seasonal changes. CT colleague Barclay Kamb’s [BK] work on crystal structures of ice. [17:12] BS’s interest in JN giving American glaciology ‘a shot in the arm’. Visits to glaciological field parties at: University of British Columbia; Troy Pewe at Fairbanks, Alaska; Tuso Wilson, Toronto; Ottawa. Brief story of being shown by TW globe marked-up with plate boundaries. Mentions lectures. [20:00] Mentions BS’s enthusiasm for development of JN’s mathematical glaciology in US. geological field trip led by BS. Visits to field parties listed above. Seeing ‘patterned ground’ at Point Barrow, Alaska. Mathematical explanation of ‘patterned ground’. Attending church with Eskimos.
• Track 9 [21:33] Description of Eskimo settlement. Undulations along route of Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Description of ‘kinematic waves’ within glaciers, distinct from sine waves or surface undulations. Whitham and Lighthill’s work on traffic flow as mathematical theory of ‘waves’ as moving disturbances; correspondence between this work and the flooding of the Nile. [06:46] Late 1950s, early 1960s interest in response of ice sheets and glaciers to annual and seasonal climate changes. Mentions recent prominence of such work in glaciology. Detailed work relating past records of glacier snout movement (advance and retreat) to rates of accumulation, through mathematical algorithms. predicting advance of snout of glacier for copper mining company. Mentions numbers needed for ‘model’ predicting snout movement from snowfall, and snowfall from snout movement. [12:14] use of Meier’s measurements of South Cascade Glacier to test the mathematical model; published record of Swiss glaciers, linked to local concern about the advance and retreat of particular glaciers; lack of contemporary discussion of ‘climate change’; contemporary interest in climate history; beginnings of acceptance of relations between ice ages and astronomical changes, including Milankovitch cycles. Mentions use of these astronomical changes in current climate change models. [17:43] Professor Gordon Manley’s work in early 1960s on compilation of temperature records.
• Track 10 [1:50:31] Mentions birth of children: Hilary (1957), Stephen (1960), Carolyn (1963). Minimal effect on working life of children; appraisal of self as father; very positive appraisal of wife Georgiana as mother. Mentions enjoyment of playing with children. Beach holidays, Gower Peninsula, Wales. Mentions in-laws’ home on Pacific coast. [03:32] interest in materiality of beach scenery: presence of physical phenomena in sea, effect of successive wave actions on beach material, ‘singing sand’; interest in geometry and symmetry in living objects; interest in explaining visual phenomena. [08:55] Children’s lack of interest in own work. local girl’s visit to Bristol Zoo, expressing assumption of academic fathers’ absence from home. Mentions talking to family about work. Showing slideshow of polar travels to family recently. Wife’s support for own work; wife’s different interests. [12:35] discussion of physics at WPL coffee/tea times; friends sharing interest in everyday physical phenomena: Sir Michael Berry, John Hannay, David Gibbs. [17:22] interest in gardening developed after move to Bristol. Interest in shapes and forms of plants. Mentions interest in D’Arcy Thompson’s book ‘On Growth and Form’; discussions with UOB botanist Professor Anthony Walsby. [21:48] Long story of visit to US Army’s ‘Camp Century’ [CC], GIS, 1961, including pioneering ice core work at CC. Description of Eskimo graves; Eskimo seal fishing. Seeing interior structure of GIS in tunnel at Camp Tuto, Greenland; travel in to CC in ‘big swing’ convoy. [32:15] Description on method of establishing settlement at CC devised by Henri Bader, CRREL (Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory); water cooled nuclear reactor powering CC. Mentions slide of self at controls of latter. Relations between primary military and secondary scientific aims of CC; military and political function of US South Pole station. Return from CC. Mentions Camp Thule; reservations about own association with military establishment. Scientific work at CC, including boring of hole through GIS. [39:44] teaching physics at PD, UOB; staff meeting discussions of syllabus. Mentions own focus on ‘pencil and paper’ physics, rather than experimental work in early 1960s; distinction between own work and that of ‘theoretical physics’. Appointment of Michael Walford [MW] as lecturer, PD, UOB in 1966; MW’s role in setting up laboratory for experimental work. Mentions wish to test theoretical work on sliding of glaciers on rock beds in experiment. Liz Morris (JN’s first research student in ice physics) asking JN to approve request for hand tools for laboratory. Comments on pioneering establishment of third year undergraduate experimental projects. Description of projects on formation of ice in bird baths and on reflections of light from sheets of metal (‘caustics’). Theoretical solution to bird bath problem. [49:42]
• Track 10 [cont. from 49:42] Comments on female ‘computers’ in Queens Building, Engineering Laboratory UOB, using ‘Brunsviga’ hand calculators. one such computer, Christine Faithful, complaining that glaciology calculations were going awry, alerting JN to mathematical instability. Use of slide-rules and logarithmic tables; difficulty of long theodolite measurements. arrival at Engineering Department of first computer: IBM1620, 1960, managed by Professor Mike Rogers [MR]. Mentions size of IBM1620. Description of process of programming IBM1620 using punched cards. Arrival of IBM1620. Description of use of ‘compiler’; output on printer; process of verifying input. Mentions programming language: FORTRAN. writing first program run on the IBM1620, on flow of ice in various valley cross-sections. Initial lack of success; later success in ‘solving’ equations; results published in JOG and given to World Data Centres. [58:02] Description of program inputted. simplifying and splitting program to cope with limited capacity of IBM1620. [1:00:14] Mentions unsuccessful running of program early 1960s; successful attempt by 1964 resulting in three papers, 1965. use of computer algorithm in work on relations between changing climate and glacier snout movement. Mentions UOB Ferranti computer; use of IBM computer centre, Yale University. Use of valves in early computers; memory based on rings where two series of parallel wires crossed. [1:03:56] suitability of the Ferranti computer’s long paper output for glaciological calculation. Own view of ‘computing’ as calculating. use of computer on trolley in DP, UOB. Mentions introduction of hand calculators later. Vice Chancellor using HP (Hewlett-Packard) hand calculator to check actuarial predictions. Mentions work on UOB ‘Computer Committee’, including shared mainframe computer with Bath University, mid 1980s. Mention’s Assistant Registrar’s survey of potential of computers in each department. [1:10:16] finding computerised glaciology in the early 1970s ‘artificial’. Description and discussion of difference between physicists’ use of algebra, and a computer’s use of numbers and ‘logical operators’ only. ‘four colour problem’ solved by computer; recent use of computer program ‘Mathematica’ allowing computers to use algebra; role of checking in algebra; past problem of valve’s blowing during computations. [1:20:22] use of computers to create glacier ‘models’. Finding Kolumban Hutter’s work on theoretical glaciology ‘too’ theoretical; view of specifically British style of ‘patchwork’ physics. [1:25:06] Description of Charles Frank’s [CF] work on the Earth’s ‘mantle’. Long story of development of own work on location of water in ice at melting point, involving collaboration with CF. Relations of this work to plate tectonics. Use by UOC scientists of car industry computer program to establish similar processes in mantle magma flow. Mention’s Dan McKenzie’s account, missing work on ice. [1:38:21] Description of use of UOB computer to find shape of water between ice crystals; drawing of shapes with graph plotter. research student Heidy Mader viewing angles of ice crystal boundaries in ice specimens in walk-in fridge. Calculating how long ice swan had stood at Japanese conference from size of ‘veins’.
• Track 11 [52:17] travel to Antarctica with NSF (National Science Foundation), 1968. Organisation of McMurdo Station mess, accommodation. [12:33] geologist waiting for flight to field site; own visits to drilling into ice sheet at Byrd Station; visit to Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s hut and penguin rookery; visit to South Pole. Description of South Pole Station. advising on site for new station at South Pole; descent into water supply hole. frost crystals inside tunnel. Witnessing experiment investigating Earth’s magnetic field; having tooth x-rayed at South Pole. [28:37] visit to the Wright Dry Valley. Description of glaciers ending in cliff snouts. Working with field party from Ohio State University on Meserve Glacier [MG]; collecting sample for isotope dating. [35:29] helping on project on seismic sounding of rock strata of dry valley. [38:33] change in name of BGS to IGS, opposed by GS. Mentions Vivian Fuchs first President, IGS; [40:33] original headquarters of BGS: GS’s home, Kent; new premises in SPRI (Scott Polar Research Institute), Cambridge. Influence on BGS/IGS of Secretary, Hilda Richardson [HR]; establishment of Annals of Glaciology [AOG] for conference proceedings. Mentions JG’s role in JOG and AOG. Qualities/role of HR. Detailed HR’s involvement in the Soroptimists organisation. HR’s husband. Mention’s HR’s background as UOC geography student; attendance on one Austerdalsbreen expedition; lack of own ‘family’. [48:27] IGS’s comment on US proposal to dispose of radioactive waste at bottom of Antarctic Ice Sheet; plans for ‘Philberth probe’ [FB] deposited in Vatican library. Mentions meeting designer of FB.
• Track 12 [1:28:10] [Session three: 3rd August 2010] reasons for appointment of Judith Thomas, official photographer, AE. Mentions failed cine-film of expedition. [1:30] Mentions lack of contact with Hubert Lamb. [2:20] superiority of technology used in US glaciology; reasons for US keenness on new theoretical glaciology; tendency for glaciology to fall within geography departments in Europe and geology departments in US; superiority of British mapping. [7:45] impression that British and US attitudes to data sharing were similar, linked to post-IGY ‘data centres’. Story involving lack of access to US nuclear submarine sea ice data, while similar British HMS Dreadnought data was disclosed. [11:00] RS funding of visits to glaciers in 1949 (MP, EO, Professor Hollingsworth) and 1950 (JG and JN). 1950 visit to Swiss Alps with JG and MP, including sights, experiences and personal interaction. [16:03] reasons for RS’s support for EO and MP’s research in glaciology. Mentions MP’s wartime work on plans for floating ice aircraft carrier (Project Habakkuk). [19:11] own and JG’s motivations for work on ice; connections between previous work and attempt to find ‘slip planes’ on 1950 visit. [21:08] work as consultant on University of Seattle AIDJEX (Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment) project, funded by NSF, directed by Norbert Untersteiner [NU], involving prediction of movement of arctic sea ice. Different approaches and language of meteorologists and oceanographers; similarities between objects of study of meteorologists and oceanographers. Description of final experiment in Beaufort Sea, involving station ‘Big Bear’, camps on ice floes, Navy data buoys linked to satellites, aerial observation. Output of AIDJEX, including computer numerical model. [33:23] End of AIDJEX. Big Bear splitting in two. [35:05] flight on remote sensing aircraft on earlier joint US/Russian BESEX (Bering Sea Experiment). [41:32] systematic flight over Big Bear , from US Army base at Anchorage, on AIDJEX project. [44:55] Mentions BESEX took place around time of separate AIDJEX. reasons for US and Russian collaboration on BESEX, in Cold War context. Mentions NU’s valuing of collaboration with Russian scientists; NU’s planning of ‘Nansen Drift project’ involving ‘clandestine’ cooperation. [46:32] Mentions status as observer on BESEX and AIDJEX flights. Mixing cocktails for AIDJEX scientists. [48:15] lack of military involvement in AIDJEX; practical motivation for AIDJEX; military motivation for camps on ice floes. military unit camped on ice floe attempting to counter ‘pressure ridge’ with bulldozers. Mentions Camp Century as military experiment; US Thule Air Base [TAB], Greenland. [53:03] Description of TAB, visited 1961. Mentions radar observations sites for detection of missiles, including DEW (Distant Early Warning Line); masts at TAB. Description of Camp Century, including subterranean living quarters, drilling rig. [56:30] Description of drilling, removal of ice cores. Mentions layer affected by Pacific hydrogen bomb; analysis of cores especially at CRREL. [59:23]
• Track 12 [cont. from 59:23] Detailed description of work with Alan Thorndike on mathematical ‘mappings’ of ‘vector fields’, especially ‘singularities’ called ‘folds’ and ‘cusps’. [1:05:50] contacting British Meteorological Office and suggesting potential use of these ‘mappings’ in verifying predicted against observed weather. Discussion of ‘mapping’ ‘singularities’. [1:09:22] development of work into three-dimensional ‘mappings’. Mentions publication of ‘catastrophe theory’ [CT]. [1:10:22] origin of ‘radio-echo sounding’ [RES] linked to penetration of ice by aircraft altimeters. RES pioneer at SPRI (Scott Polar Research Institute), Stan Evans [SE]; use of RES to find thickness of Antarctic ice sheet. Mentions urging Director of SPRI, Gordon Robin [GR] to use RES equipment from aircraft. SPRI thickness maps produced by RES in systematic, criss-crossing flights. [1:13:45] development in early 1970s of own interest in use of RES to measure velocity of ice sheet, through discovery that the ‘tail’ of returned echo was sensitive to position of transmitter/receiver relative to rock bed. Description of laboratory equipment designed by JN and MW involving scaled down [1/3000] representation of ice sheet over which is passed emitter and receiver of ultrasonic sound waves (analogue for radio waves), received waves ‘read’ by oscilloscope. Mentions Polaroid photographs from oscilloscope taken by students. Further description and discussion of use of shape of waves in returning pulse to determine distance a surface echo sounder has been moved by ice, relative to the rock bed. [1:19:42] field test on Fleming Glacier: MW using RES to find velocity and Charles Swithinbank [CS] using theodolite surveying to find same. Finding error in CS’s calculations before IGS meeting. Continued work by Chris Doake, SPRI on use of RES in glacier velocity work. [1:25:56] further description of glacier model referred to above, made using ‘Dexion’ frame, with crumpled foil for rock bed.
• Track 13 [1:13:57] Use of Meccano by MW in WPL, UOB. [2:00] series of South Pole [SP] astronomical observations. Description of RES ‘slot aerial’ designed by MW. Failed attempt to test RES velocity measurements at SP, 1973. [8:16] Mentions RES equipment with slot aerial left at SP. [8:53] link between use of laboratory model of ice sheet/RES equipment [described in track 12] and development of interest in optics, involving recognition that number of oscilloscope wave crests increased by one following a collapse and recovery of amplitude. Connection between this observation and concept of ‘dislocations’, discussed previously in terms of crystals. discussing idea of ‘wave dislocations’ with colleagues, including CF; sketching ‘wave dislocations’ in space, not time. [13:35] writing mathematical formula describing ‘wave dislocations’. ‘perfection’ of mathematical description of ‘wave dislocations’, in contrast to ‘disordered core’ of crystal ‘dislocations’. 1974 paper on ‘singularity theory’ in waves, co-written with Michael Berry [MB]. Mentions MB’s interest in statistical description of radio waves scattered from glacier bed. [17:08] Description of meaning of ‘singularities’ in mathematics as ‘special places’; meaning of ‘singularities’ in relation to waves (amplitude zero and phase indeterminate). Analogy with the ‘amphidromic point’ in maps of ocean tides. [20:41] differences between ‘vector waves’ and ‘scalar waves’; equivalence between ‘lines of circular polarisation’ (basic singularities in vector waves) and ‘dislocations’ (basic singularities in scalar waves). [24:07] Detailed own interest in imperfections (‘singularities’) in nature, through various examples: crystals, ‘vacancies’ (missing atoms), ‘amphidromic points’, spiders webs, cracked glass, ‘wave dislocations’. [29:42] Jo Hajnal’s [JH] investigation of microwave ‘dislocations’, including detailed description of use of ‘optically modulated scatterer’ [OMS] to measure wave phase and amplitude at any point in interfering wave field produced by three horns. National Physical Laboratory [NPL] prize for OMS. [40:23] Discussion of use of OMS to find ‘singularities’ in interfering microwaves. [42:15] discussion of ‘wave dislocation’ work with family. Mentions interest of others in effects of mobile phones on health. Development of OMS by use of ‘reciprocity theorem’. [45:17] mathematician René Thom’s [RT] book ‘Structural Stability and Morphogenesis’ (1972), including low quality photographs of ‘singularities’ in light called ‘caustics’. producing better quality photographs of ‘caustics’. Mentions previous treatment of ‘caustics’ in optics. RT’s identification of five basic kinds of ‘singularities’. Mentions mathematician Vladimir Arnold’s [VA] identification of many more ‘singularities’; Christopher Zeeman’s and Ian Stewart’s (University of Warwick) work on ‘singularities’ (referred to as ‘catastrophes’). [53:14] investigating ‘caustics’ involving three lines meeting, apparently not identified by RT, but visible on swimming pool floor. Mentions discussion with MB; David Hockney painting. Description of ‘lollipop’ lens made as analogue for swimming pool surface. Seeing and informing MB of double lines with bright point, solving ‘triple junction’ problem, linked to giraffe patterns. Discussion of working on Saturday. [59:28]
• Track 13 [cont. from 59:28] Viewing ‘caustics’ on sea bed on Mediterranean holidays; photographing caustics on side of yachts in Corsica. [1:02:54] Inspiration to create ‘caustics’ in drops of water: reflections from sodium lights in rain on spectacles during walk down Clifton Park road. Mentions paper in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Particular conditions of walk in rain, allowing ‘caustics’ to appear; perception of these physiologically. [1:09:17] Mentions white boats near to restaurant in Corsica. Description of light effects of sun on sea waves, derived from high speed photography in Sardinia and laboratory study. Mentions relations to astronomical observation of distant stars.
• Track 14 [38:21] Description of work on ‘pattern of dislocations’ of ‘diffraction pattern’ of each light ‘caustic’ (‘catastrophe’), including need for ‘vector’ rather than ‘scalar’ theory. Mentions relevance of ‘quantum uncertainty’. [4:10] Mentions work by T Pearcey on ‘Pearcey Pattern’ in ‘mathematical laboratory’, UOC, 1946. Sir George Airy’s ‘Airy Function’; ‘Handbook of Mathematical Functions’, including entries in recent edition. [6:54] Description of analogue computer used by TP to solve differential equations in 1946. Warren Cairn’s work on ‘torque amplifier’ in Meccano replica of analogue computer; John Findlay’s contemporary representation of radio echoes from ionosphere, involving unacknowledged dislocations. [9:59] role of Meccano replica of computer. Description of process of ‘integrating a function’ in mathematics, using analogue computer, including possible output. [12:46] Long story of visit to Moscow with wife Georgiana in 1969, organised through glaciologist Petr Shumsky. [20:51] Mentions Russian glaciological conference [mid 1970s]. History and status of Russian-Jewish ‘Refusniks’, including tradition of Sunday seminars organised by Victor Brailovsky. 1981 visit to speak at a ‘refusnik’ Sunday seminar, outskirts of Moscow, with John Ziman [JZ]. Evidence of Soviet restrictions on links with the ‘West’. visits to homes of Soviet scientists. Mentions giving lecture at Geography Institute, Moscow. [32:35] clandestine handover of own optics off-prints in Moscow park. Mentions hotel near Kremlin. [34:30] difficult bus journey to meet Russian scientist; Metro journey to second ‘refusnik’ seminar, 1986.
• Track 15 [1:58:56] Metro journey to 1986 ‘Refusnik’ seminar, including Professor Harold Baum entertaining waiting audience with ‘Biochemists Songbook’. Description of 1986 ‘Refusnik’ seminar. [2:51] effect of contact between Russian and ‘Western’ science; treatment of Jewish scientists by Nazi Germany and Cold War Russia. [4:13] own role in London group ‘Scientists for the Release of Soviet Refusniks’, including writing of letters on behalf of imprisoned scientists. [5:21] Mentions death of mother, late 1940s; father’s death, 1970s; father’s move to Oxford from Hove; frequent visits to Oxford; brother’s home in Oxford; father’s visits to Bristol. Spanish holiday with wife and father; previous holiday with father, southern France. [9:12] father’s view of JN’s career. [9:37] effect on self of mother’s death; regret at intellectual distance between self and mother; father’s considerable grief at mother’s death. [12:51] relations with brother Peter; brother’s career in soil chemistry. Mentions brother’s recent death; own amendments to second edition of brother’s co-written textbook, ‘Solute Movement in the Rhizosphere’. Mentions own and brother’s FRS. [17:52] IGS discussion of proposal by US university to deposit radioactive material under Antarctic ice sheet. [21:11] history of Swiss interest in advance/retreat of own glaciers; work on standardization of measurements of glacier variation by International Commission on Snow and Ice [ICSI]; lack of interest in climate change, 1960s and 1970s; own work on indirect relations between snowfall and retreat/advance of glaciers. Description of advancing Norwegian glacier seen recently. [27:38] ICSI compilation of inventory of existing glaciers, including use of ERTS satellite images. [29:35] Mentions prediction of movement of Berenden Glacier in relation to copper mine. [30:32] work on ‘glacier outburst’ floods from Vatnajökull ice cap, southern Iceland. IGS visit to erupting Hekla volcano, Iceland, 1970. [35:15] Description of process of filling and emptying of Lake Grimsvotn, damned by weight of Vatnajökull ice cap. work on quantitative theory of process. Discussion of use of equations describing flow through pipes; reasons for particular timing of starting and stopping of ‘glacier outburst’ floods. Helgi Bjornsson’s work at UOB on surveys of the ‘glacier outburst’ floods. Mentions application to other outburst events. [46:29] origin and nature of interest in this work. Mentions paper by Sigurdur Thorarinsson. [50:12] relations between dimensions of glaciers, instability and likelihood of ‘glacier outburst’ floods. [52:31] origin of work on the polar caps of Mars, from 1999. Mentions meetings of space scientists, geomorphologists and glaciologists in places allowing relevant field trips. Mentions three papers, 2000. Description of work of Bill Durham [BD] on creep/mechanical strength of solid carbon dioxide [CO2]. meeting BD leading to mathematical description of ‘weakness’ of theoretical CO2 polar cap. Description of favoured theory: ice cap covered with superficial CO2. [1:02:04] Discussion of invisibility of ice part of Mars’ polar caps. right handed spiral rifts on northern ice cap. [1:04:23]
• Track 15 [cont. from 1:04:23] Mentions papers published by JN with BD on ice caps; multiple authorship of papers in planetary physics and connected to CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research). [1:05:40] Description of process of studying a distant process/object, such as Mars’ ice caps, through logic, physics and mathematics. Mentions room in PD, UOB. process of thinking about problems constantly, including in domestic settings; importance of thinking away from the desk. [1:12:30] Mentions use of ball point pen and computer program ‘Mathematica’ at desk. [1:14:09] development of use of computers at UOB, from earliest in computer building, later use of computer room shared with students, to personal computer (PC) on own desk. [1:16:52] use of electric typewriters then word processors by secretaries; early literal cutting and pasting of documents with instructions to secretaries; being discovered secretly using secretary’s word processor to alter punctuation in own papers, 1980s; learning how to word process on first Apple Macintosh [Mac] computer bought; use of AIDJEX modem in 1970s; period of journals’ insistence on ‘camera ready copy’. [1:24:08] suitability of word processing for own style of written composition; consciousness of ordering in effective prose. use of computers for calculations, covering ‘Fortran’, True BASIC, MB’s use of Mathematica, own early impression of Mathematica’s inflexibility, recent exploration of Mathematica in period of relative immobility. [1:31:22] ability of Mathematica to perform algebra. [1:32:27] process of developing new subjects of research, through linking of apparently different processes. Description of application of ‘catastrophe theory’ in very varied fields by Christopher Zeeman. Mentions paper questioning sociological applications of ‘catastrophe theory’. reliable application of catastrophe theory in engineering and optics where there are measurable quantities. [1:41:38] Detailed own motivation for studying aspects of materiality of the world; philosophical implications of consistency and intelligibility of natural world. [1:47:35] development of interest in ‘singularities’/ ‘dislocations’/ ‘catastrophes’; role of accident in science, including theoretical physics; role of discussion with colleagues in development of new fields of interest. [1:51:09] conversation in coffee room, PD, UOB during visit of by Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm, leading to experimentation, MB’s ‘Berry Phase’ and JH’s work on ‘anholonomies’. [1:56:00] Description of everyday examples of ‘anholonomies’.
• Track 16 [36:00] Parts of track 16 are closed [between 04:20 - 04:37, 06:52 - 06:53, 11:29 - 13:25, and 15:01 - 15:21] relations with NPL through research assistant Graham Hygate [GH]. Mentions GH’s decision to leave NPL related to possible mismanagement. work of GH’s replacement at NPL. directing NPL experiments by telephone; experiments in ‘edge diffraction’; measurement of field of ‘patch antennas’ on aircraft; [18:21] use of OMS in classical physics experiments, including shining of wave on edge of metal plate, use in front of a ‘black screen’. Description of ‘black screen’ experiment using stealth, absorbing material obtained from Royal Radar Establishment [RRE], Malvern. JH’s contribution to theory. Mentions paper published with JH. Results of ‘black screen’ experiment. Countering problem of reflection of waves from laboratory walls through use of cardboard horn and hole through laboratory window and absorbing material from RRE. Difficulty in promoting commercial development of OMS; difficulty in use of OMS to determine behaviour of waves around mobile phones. [29:15] intentions concerning archiving of personal papers; experience of being interviewed for National Life Stories.