In EurekaUK - a new report from Universities UK - one can read about the top 100 (in their opinion) research results produced in U.K. universities over the last 50 years. While I'm sure people will take issue with some of the details, I do think this is an interesting exercise, and one that I would guess surprises many members of the public who are sometimes unaware of the importance of university research. One thing new to me is that the first whole hip replacements were performed in my home town of Wigan in 1961! I won't reproduce the whole list here, although I encourage you to take a look - it really is fascinating. But I will list those results that I thought contained a lot of physics and astronomy. The sectioning is from the article.
Section one: Healthy babies and birth controlScans during pregnancy: seeing babies through sound Ian Donald invented the use of ultrasound for unborn babies at the University of Glasgow 40 years ago. Section two. Healthier and longer livesUltrasound to detect weakened bones In the 1980s Chris Langton at Hull University was the first to develop an early detection system for osteoporosis utilising "ultrasonic" waves. Magnetic Resonance Imaging In 1976 Peter Mansfield at Nottingham University was the first to publish a successful MRI scan of a living human body part - a finger. Seeing the light: inside the human body: keyhole surgery and the endoscope Harold Hopkins showed in 1954 how a bundle of tiny pin-like glass fibres allowed light and images to be transmitted along them even when they were curved- fibre optics. Section four: Discoveries for the digital ageFibre optics: lighting up the world In the 1950s the "founding father of fibre optics" Narinder Kapany and Harold Hopkins at Imperial College London demonstrated that light could bend, given the right encouragement. Generating information for CDs, DVDs and the internet The internet, CDs and DVDs have all been made possible through a technology called strained quantum-well lasers, first proposed by Alf Adams at Surrey University. Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) George Gray and his colleagues at Hull University first created the first stable liquid crystals for use in LCDs. Holograms Dennis Gabor at Imperial College London, invented the method of producing holograms. The scanning electron microscope The scanning electron microscope allows researchers to peek inside materials, right down to the level of their most basic building blocks, atoms, and by so doing, to design materials that have the right properties to fit many different purposes. Glass, photocopiers and solar panels Nevill Mott researched into how materials conduct electricity and absorb light. Section five: Planes, trains and automobilesSeeing atomic scale defects in metals In 1956 Peter Hirsch and his collaborators at Oxford University observed for the first time the motion of tiny dislocations in the atomic structure of metals. Magnetically levitated trains In the 1950s Eric Laithwaite at Imperial College London designed the world's first magnetically levitating train. Section nine: Space explorationWe are all made of stardust In 1957 Fred Hoyle and three fellow scientists at Cambridge University proposed a startling theory: the elements were created in the oldest chemical factories in the universe: stars. The discovery of Pulsars In 1965 postgraduate student Jocelyn Bell joined Anthony Hewish in the astronomy department of Cambridge University to look for quasars, certain types of galaxies. Big bangs and singularities Stephen Hawking as a graduate student at Cambridge University, working with the theoretical physicist, Roger Penrose at Oxford University in the 1960's proved that singularities exist. Black holes are common in space Research by Ken Pounds and his team at Leicester University helped to provide the best evidence so far that black holes are common in the universe. Seeing a postage stamp on the moon Martin Ryle, an astronomer at Cambridge University, knew that the development of more powerful telescopes would hold the key to many unanswered space questions. Sensing the weather In the 1970s Fred Taylor at the University of Oxford pioneered a technique that would be applied across the entire solar system called infrared remote sensing.
In our current climate of hostility to basic research, it is more important than ever to be able to point to the remarkable intellectual and practical returns that our universities generate from the public investment, and this list certainly helps with that task. While I am, of course, extremely proud of the work that has come out of my home country's universities, I am equally proud of those results for which U.S. universities can take credit. If I think about a similar list for the U.S., there are truly great physics results, like the discovery of asymptotic freedom (Gross, Politzer and Wilczek; Nobel Prize 2004), the creation of Bose-Einstein condensates (Cornell, Ketterle and Weiman; Nobel Prize 2001), the detection of anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (Smoot and the COBE team, 1992), to mention just a few random examples. However, I'm sure there are equally high-impact results in the other fields listed in the U.K. report, about which I am far less knowledgeable. It would be interesting to hear what our opinionated CV readers think the analogous list for the U.S. might contain. What would a EurekaUS report look like?
