sip SUMMER 2013 5/7/13 08:37 Page 1 SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT Parliamentary Links Day Science and Diversity sip SUMMER 2013 The Journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee www.scienceinparliament.org.uk sip SUMMER 2013 5/7/13 08:37 Page 2 sip SUMMER 2013 5/7/13 08:37 Page 3 “What goes up must come down”, and presumably the SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT converse is also true. So the FTSE went down, and is now back up. Gold went up and has recently declined. These numbers affect many, but not all of us. Of even greater impact in the longer term for all on the planet is the atmospheric CO2 concentration, and this is rising inexorably. sip We have little expectation that it will decline in the foreseeable The Journal of the Parliamentary and Scientific future. Andrew Miller MP Committee. The Committee is an Associate Parliamentary In May it finally broached the “psychological” 400ppm barrier. We Chairman, Parliamentary and Scientific Group of members of both Houses of know from analysis of air bubbles trapped in ice to expect Committee Parliament and British members of the average temperatures to rise by as much as 2ºC as a European Parliament, representatives of scientific and technical institutions, industrial consequence. It is predicted that this may happen as early as organisations and universities. 2035. The undesirable consequences have been widely publicised, as the need to reduce our dependence on burning fossil fuels, including the recently welcomed shale oil and gas. Increasing the efficiency of tidal and wind power, as well as photovoltaic, remain important scientific challenges. Alfred Russel Wallace, the centenary of whose death we are commemorating this year, would have been fascinated by this uncontrolled experiment in changing the environment, and then Science in Parliament has two main objectives: 1. to inform the scientific and industrial observing which of the fittest survive. communities of activities within Parliament of a scientific nature and of the progress of While mankind as a species will make it through, there will be relevant legislation; many who will suffer from increased drought conditions, and 2. to keep Members of Parliament abreast of scientific affairs. changes in seasonal temperatures and rainfall. We will undoubtedly need to step up our research into new crops able to cope with the new weather conditions. Fortunately, we have recently had public statements from both Owen Paterson (Defra) and David Willetts (Science), advocating that the UK (and indeed the rest of Europe) need to abandon their blanket opposition to the exploitation of GM crops. Where BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) leads Britain will eventually follow! CONTENTS WIND FARM NOISE ASSESSMENTS 2 SPEED 21 WATER PURITY: MICROBIAL ASPECTS, ESPECIALLY David Unwin and Richard Cox National Science and Engineering Week Seminar CRYPTOSPORIDIUM 42 Professor Rachel Chalmers UNDERGROUND COAL GASIFICATION 4 Addresses to the P&SC by Dr Michael de Podesta, Dr Michael B Green Dr Andrew Spence and Professor Alistair Fitt HOUSE OF COMMONS SELECT COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 44 PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY SHOW THEIR WORTH 6 AN OASIS IN THE DESERT 27 Dr Beth Taylor Dominic McAllister HOUSE OF LORDS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SELECT COMMITTEE 46 DO QUALITY, INNOVATION AND PERFORMANCE UK SCIENCE AND INNOVATION NETWORK IN USA COMPETE OR COMPLEMENT? 8 29 HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT SECTION 47 Professor Sa’ad Medhat and Dr Sarah Peers EQUIPPING THE YOUNG FOR LIFE IN WORK 31 ENGINEERING TOMORROW’S WORLD 10 Ian Morris PARLIAMENTARY OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 49 Professor David Delpy SKILLS 32 SELECTED DEBATES 51 HOW MUCH FOOD TESTING DO WE NEED? 10 Address to the P&SC by Dr Julian Braybrook Addresses to the P&SC by Dr Duncan Campbell, WATER PURITY 34 SCIENCE DIRECTORY 52 Elizabeth Moran and Dr Patrick Miller Addresses to the P&SC by Clive Harward, Kevin Prior and SCIENCE DIARY 60 100 YEARS OF THE BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY Professor Helen Jarvie Julie Hodgkinson 18 HOW WELL IS WATER? 40 SUPPORTING EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION 20 Dr Dan Osborn Dr Mark Jones Science in Parliament Vol 70 No 3 Summer 2013 1 sip SUMMER 2013 5/7/13 08:37 Page 4 WIND FARM NOISE ASSESSMENTS: ETSU-R-97 and The Three Legged Stool remains unchanged but the size height of 1.2-1.5m above direction, for example in places of the turbines now being ground. The screening effect where the noise climate is installed has increased close to a façade can result in dominated by road traffic and so dramatically with hub heights of background noise around 3dB determined by wind direction 80m and rotors of 45m radius lower than at a free-field location and time of day. with correspondingly very whereas reflection of a specific Figure 1 shows an example different noise generation noise such as from a turbine of how ETSU suggests these profiles. can be 3dB higher, giving up to background data are to be a 6dB difference in the Wind turbine noise can be processed. The measured noise developer’s favour by using the masked by existing background is plotted against the average free-field location. David Unwin is a retired academic noise, so ETSU compares the wind speed over the same and Emeritus Professor in Geography, Birkbeck, University of predicted turbine noise at each Similarly, to prevent 10-minute time intervals. It is by London. at risk property with the derived contamination of the data by no means unusual for the background noise at these same wind induced noise, measured background noise at locations over a range of winds microphones should be any one wind speed to show a from around 2m/s (a light adequately shielded but in range of up to 20dB around the breeze) to 10-12m/s (a strong practice this is almost never average, equating to a possible breeze) at 10m above ground. If done. Wind induced noise is doubling or halving of the the turbine noise exceeds the impossible to identify in loudness. This entire data scatter background by 5dB then the measured noise data and will is then summarised by a ‘best property concerned is always work in the developer’s fit’ (average) curve and the considered to be at risk. The favour. All this measurement curve value at each whole entire assessment process is uncertainty is compounded by number wind speed is taken for complex, requiring an the recommended practice of comparison with the predicted Richard Cox is a retired electrical understanding of basic acoustics, taking data over a very limited turbine noise. engineer. meteorology and statistical time period of perhaps only two Both write in a private capacity. analysis. Clearly, it is important weeks giving an absurdly limited There is no science to guide that this process should be sample of the annual noise the choice of curve and almost based on secure and proven climate at each site. any curve that gives a statistically English planning law does science, yet the science or lack Furthermore, it is increasingly reasonable fit can be used. This not mandate any set separation of it behind the assessment being realised that many isn’t science or statistics, and distance between wind turbines process is increasingly coming assessments should be sometimes the result is just and dwellings, with the under fire from engineers and modified to account for wind plain silly 3. In Figure 1 the curve minimum separation set by use scientists from different fields 2. of a sixteen-year-old noise In essence the ETSU assessment methodology. In the methodology is a three legged mid-1990s the wind energy stool. The first leg is the industry persuaded the then DTI measurement of the to replace the usual regulatory background noise at various framework for industrial noise wind speeds, the second is the assessment (BS4142) with an predictions of the turbine noise, alternative called ETSU1 and the third is the comparative specifically and only for wind analysis of these data. For the turbines. Turbines being built first, rather than at the façade of during the mid-1990s were any at risk property, ETSU asks typically of 30-40m hub height for microphone measurement in with rotors of around 25m a nearby ‘free field’ location at a radius. Sixteen years on, ETSU Figure 1: A typical summary plot for wind farm background noise data 2 Science in Parliament Vol 70 No 3 Summer 2013 sip SUMMER 2013 5/7/13 08:37 Page 5 suggests that in still air at the shear that gives the predicted any analysis in the academic estimate that the ETSU dead of night in a very quiet 80m wind speed as some literature of the climatology and assessment methodology has a rural location there is a standard multiple of that geography of wind shear, but total uncertainty of around 9dB background noise of 32dB measured at, say, 10m. This our analysis of mast data at four in the headroom between when 20-25dB would be typical. ignores years of meteorological sites across the Midlands background and predicted More worryingly still, due to the experience. More recently wind suggests that what are normally turbine noise. averaging process, at most wind power developers have been considered to be high values are WHY THIS MATTERS speeds there is a wide range of measuring wind shear but are found to occur for roughly 10% measured values that can either applying shear corrections based of the time, usually during the Today, industrial wind double or halve the value that on average values, not worst evening and night time. ETSU’s turbines measuring in excess of will be carried forward into the case situations where high shear failure properly to factor this 125m to rotor tip are being sited comparison.