Science Challenge Awards at the Ritz
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Feature Sport Last issue of term Easter feast Varsity coverage page 10 page page 5 29 Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year e student newspaper of Imperial College No. 1,377 • Friday • 16 March 2007 • ffelixelix felixonline.co.uk Science Challenge The Union is awards at the Ritz going green (at long last) Union Council passes a comprehensive environmental policy, including limitations on clubs’ air travel and waste reduction Andy Sykes policy recommends that these are Water use reduction Editor-in-chief switched for harder-wearing reusu- Low flow rate heads will be installed able plastic skiffs. The Union will into all Beit Hall showers, and the A new environmental policy has also see the return of real cutlery new toilets being installed into the been passed by Union Council in (including metal utensils and ce- main building will have infra-red the wake of Green Week; the policy ramic plates) rather than the low- activated taps, and water-efficient had more than 1,300 signatories quality plastic cutlery currently urinals. supporting its aims. This is around used. The last time this idea was A “grey water” scheme was pro- the same number of people who tried, a good deal of this cutlery posed by the policy, which would voted in this year’s sabbatical elec- vanished, presumably the work of use rainwater from guttering to act tions, and more than the number of light-fingered students. as toilet flush water, but this has people who voted for John Collins More recycling provision is proved somewhat controversial last year. promised, as well as a composting due to the potential high cost of im- The policy commits the Union scheme for food waste from cater- plementing this scheme (according to reducing its environmental im- ing. Maybe the Union can use this to the Union’s architects). pact in a number of areas; these to improve the sickly grass in the include waste reduction, water Quad. Continued on page 2 use, carbon emissions from Union services and premises, energy, and transportation. Overall aims The policy sets out a number of con- crete aims: reduction of waste sent to landfill by the Union by 50% by 2010; reduction of water consump- tion by use of water conservation devices (for example, in toilets); and a 60% reduction in carbon emission by 2009, with carbon-neutral status being achieved by 2012. Waste reduction The winners of the RCSU Science Challenge were announced at the Council was told that the Union RCSU Centenary Party at the Ritz last Friday. The overall winner, produces a great deal of unneces- Naaman Tammuz, wrote an essay entitled “Brain New World”, sary waste. For example, plastic which considered the impact of brain-to-computer interfaces disposable skiffs are used every night in the Union, resulting in a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 large amount of plastic waste. The A packed Council debates the new environmental policy 2 felix Friday 16 March 2007 NEWS [email protected] Beit redevelopment RCSU Science plans to be changed Challenge awards The winners of the Science Chal- son, who discussed the impact of lenge were announced on Friday quantum computing on society. Tomo Robert at the Ritz. The party, put on by the Present at the ceremony were Editor-in-waiting RCSU, sold out in record time, and Raj Persaud, psychiatrist presenter many unfortunate folks could be of Radio 4’s All In The Mind, along- At a lengthy Council meeting on seen on the Facebook event page side the other celebrity judges (in- Wednesday night, the paper re- begging for tickets to no avail. cluding Simon Singh, author of The ported on in last week’s Felix was The Challenge was to write an es- Code Book). passed, meaning the plans for say predicting the most important The RCSU’s official mascot, the the Beit redevelopment will be technology of the next 100 years; 1916 fire engine known as “Jezebel” changed. the overall winner was Naaman was also present for ferrying the The original redevelopment plans Tammuz, with his essay about fu- great and good to the Ritz. for the building called for the sabb ture brain-computer interfaces. Mr Tammuz took home £2500, a offices to be moved from the first The competition was also open new Apple MacBook, and won a day floor up to the fourth floor, leaving to local schools. The winner of the shadowing Dr Roger Highfield, sci- the space free for use as a coffee school category was Mark Nichol- ence editor of the Daily Telegraph. bar and lounge area. This, however, has met with dis- approval from the Union’s clubs and societies, who feel that there is more than enough space already provided for coffee bars within the campus already. What the new space in the Union might look like The paper proposed moving the sabb offices to be adjacent to the newly created Student Activities a large number of signatories, clubs can use. The Union has suf- Centre in the new mezzanine level similar to the environmental policy. fered a shortage of space available of the gym, creating a “one stop However, Council took issue with for the 200+ clubs and societies to shop” for students. The first floor calling the space a “dance studio”, use, and this should go some way to space would then be converted into arguing that there were not enough allievating the pressue on the book- a 22m x 9m “dance studio”, com- members of dance-related clubs for ing system. plete with mirrored walls and a it to be exclusive to them. The Union is due to meet with sprung floor. This was amended to calling the architects, who should prepare the The paper had already attracted area a “flexible club space” that all plans for the new area. Environmental policy passed at Council Continued from front page be subsided to areas within “Zone on a case-by-case basis in order to 1” (defined as around reachable exempt them under exceptional The most controversial of all the within 6 hours using train services) circumstances; for example, if the measures in the policy is the re- and will be subsidised only 16% for destination is unreachable except duction of the Union’s dependence areas within “Zone 2” (within 12 by air travel. on air travel. Tours are an integral hours of train travel). Clubs will be subsidised the cost of part of many clubs, and the vast Mark Flower, RCC Chair, raised a train journey, the aim being to re- majority of the destinations are concerns over train operators re- duce the Union’s carbon emissions in Europe, which are reached by fusing to carry large and bulky resulting from use of air travel. Ms budget airlines. equipment (using canoes as an Peel pointed out that, although this These flights have in the past example). Adele Peel, the policy’s may inconvenience clubs, a change been subsidised by the Union to re- main proposer, accepted an amend- in attitude is necessary in order to duce the burden on clubs. The new ment that would allow the Clubs & successfully combat carbon contri- Top left: “King Jad” on his throne. Top right: the setting for the party. policy is that clubs will no longer Societies Board to review each tour butions leading to global warming. Bottom: the RCSU Exec toast a successful year felix 1,377 Friday 16.03.06 Perceptions of science Sunshyyyyyne “If our scientists and society can “The story itself is unprecedented hand-in-hand nurture science, in its topic: our Sun is reaching the addressing as a priority the chal- end of its life, and a scientific ex- lenges and controversial moral, pedition is sent to the centre of the ethical and social issues, then the Solar System in order to deliver a vision of science can undergo a payload that will – theoretically transformation.” – reignite the star.” PAGE 5 PAGE 20 Chechen President Global wearing “Ramzan Kadyrov, who turned the “I think the brightly coloured nu- legal presidential age of 30 last rave "trend" is interesting. but I month is a strong leader, and has have yet to see anyone wearing it widespread support in Moscow.” without looking like a coked-up Eu- PAGE 7 ropean douchebag.” PAGE 21 Innuendo? Patrick Wolf I however reassure you of my con- “After two albums of moping and in- Idiot fidence that, in foreplay to our cen- trospection, Patrick Wolf has finally “Abandon your artificial constraints tennial celebrations next year, we figured out how to write pop songs and contrived design decisions will climax to some fantastically and it turns out he's pretty fucking and join the true gaming revolution palpable results good at it.” – the PC.” I IS AN EWOK PAGE 9 PAGE 12 PAGE 25 Friday 16 March 2007 felix 3 NEWS [email protected] Rector renews call for £10,000 fees Sir Richard speaks to the Guardian: “The cost of an education at Imperial is not low and no-one should pretend that it is.” Alex Kendall more than Biology at Oxford, which teaching – not exactly News Editor has hardly any experimental work. the most highly-paid job. The price would not be set in The universities need The Rector, Sir Richard Sykes, has stone though; universities could the money, and the Gov- kept up his call for the widely con- charge what they like per year up to ernment says it will not do- troversial £10,000-a-year student £10,000. Rich universities could af- nate more than £3bn a year fees in a recent interview with The ford to charge less and so increase towards funding higher educa- Guardian.