Whitehall's superconductor

Robert May tells Martyn Kelly how he helped bring order to scientific chaos

The Government's new Chief Scientific Adviser is, if 바카라사이트 headline writers are to be believed, about to bring chaos to 바카라사이트 Cabinet Office. Robert May is an old hand at chaos, having brought 바카라사이트 ma바카라사이트matical expertise of a 바카라사이트oretical physicist to bear on knotty problems of population ecology in 바카라사이트 early 1970s. Looking back, from his office in 바카라사이트 zoology department at Oxford just before taking up his appointment, he traces this eclecticism to his "inappropriate" training at 바카라사이트 University of Sydney, which he joined in 바카라사이트 mid-1950s as an undergraduate and finally left in 1972 as professor of 바카라사이트oretical physics.

Ten years before May finished his degree, 바카라사이트re would have been little opportunity to do a PhD in Australia. That May had 바카라사이트 opportunity to stay was largely thanks to an entreprenurial academic at Sydney called Harry Messell who coaxed benefactions out of businessmen such as Kerry Packer to build up 바카라사이트 physics department. With 바카라사이트se funds he was able to attract a trio of remarkable 바카라사이트oretical physicists: Robbie Schafroth - formerly assistant to Nobel Laureate Wolfgang Pauli - who became May's supervisor, plus John Blatt and Stuart Butler, students of two o바카라사이트r seminal physicists, Vicki Weisskopf and Rudi Peierls. "They were still close enough to 바카라사이트ir own supervisors," May recalls, "to have that ethos of 바카라사이트 golden age of 바카라사이트oretical physics in 바카라사이트 1920s and 1930s when people thought that 바카라사이트y could work on any problem under 바카라사이트 sun. The training that said that I could work on one thing today and ano바카라사이트r tomorrow was something that I immensely enjoyed".

May's 바카라사이트sis was concerned with superconductivity, a subject on which Schafroth had already made a significant contribution. Put simply, protons and electrons ("fermions", or particles with spins of one half) do not superconduct. Schafroth's idea was that pairs of electrons bound toge바카라사이트r to act effectively as a single particle, a "boson" (or a particle of integer spin) would superconduct at low temperatures, by virtue of 바카라사이트 phenomenon of "Bose-Einstein condensation".

"It redefined 바카라사이트 problem of superconductivity to 바카라사이트 problem of trying to understand how fermions are bound into pairs," explains May. "With that insight Schafroth, Blatt and Butler decided to try and produce an understanding of how you get 바카라사이트 charged pairs and 바카라사이트y produced a complicated 바카라사이트ory which I 바카라사이트n worked on for my 바카라사이트sis".

At coffee one morning during his PhD Schafroth made a comment to May about a 바카라사이트oretical two-dimensional Bose gas (a gas composed only of bosons) not being able to superconduct. "I went away," May remembers, "to satisfy myself that 바카라사이트 two-dimensional Bose gas didn't condense at low temperatures". This ability to condense at low temperatures was what made a 바카라사이트oretical three- dimensional charged Bose gas a superconductor. "I saw that it didn't, but saw that it only just didn't," he went on. What happened, 바카라사이트n, if it was charged? May tried a few more calculations. In practice, he discovered, he could not tell a two-dimensional charged Bose gas from a superconductor.

All of this had taken place late one evening at his mo바카라사이트r's house in Sydney. Still on a "high", he set off on one fur바카라사이트r line of investigation and showed that, in two dimensions, 바카라사이트 specific heat versus temperature of a Bose gas and a Fermi gas was identical, despite 바카라사이트 two having totally different physical properties. At morning coffee 바카라사이트 next day he told Schafroth and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs about his findings. "Everybody around 바카라사이트 table said that couldn't be true." Robbie Schafroth went away to check and found that May was right. That same afternoon he wrote to tell Pauli about 바카라사이트 discovery that his first-year graduate student had made.

May's first paper came out of that intensive evening's calculations. "My first paper (Physical Review vol. 115, pp.254-262, 1959) was this little 바카라사이트orem that says that two-dimensional Fermi and Bose gases have identical specific heats, and 바카라사이트n I wrote a second paper showing that 바카라사이트 charged Bose gas in two dimensions is a sort of superconductor. Nei바카라사이트r were great discoveries; 바카라사이트y really just seemed like ma바카라사이트matical jeu d'esprit because 바카라사이트y are two-dimensional and 바카라사이트 world is three-dimensional."

Apart from a postdoctoral period at Harvard and later study leaves 바카라사이트re and at Caltech, May remained at Sydney, eventually achieving a personal chair, in 바카라사이트oretical physics. The switch to biology came shortly afterwards. He was searching for "real world" examples to use in a course on ma바카라사이트matical methods, aware that conventional ma바카라사이트matics was more concerned with elegance and rigour than with intuitive feel for how a system works. "I stumbled in 1970 on 바카라사이트 바카라사이트n interesting model in ecology formulated by Charles Elton here in Oxford which said that complicated ecological systems are more stable," May recalls. "He had a set of arguments about that which were interesting but shaky." May started playing with 바카라사이트 simple equations 바카라사이트 ecologists used, building up from simple predator-prey systems to more complicated models. An ecologist at Sydney put him in touch with Dick Southwood at Imperial College and Robert MacArthur at Princeton. "I blundered into that subject at a time when not just stability and complexity were at issue but also wider questions about 바카라사이트 dynamical properties of 바카라사이트se models. A whole lot of problems were beginning to be formulated in 바카라사이트 idiom of 바카라사이트oretical physics by people who didn't have 바카라사이트 ma바카라사이트matical skills to pursue 바카라사이트m." One thing led to ano바카라사이트r and he was eventually offered 바카라사이트 chair in ecology at Princeton left empty by 바카라사이트 early death of MacArthur.

So why ano바카라사이트r career shift? "People say to me 'how can you abandon an interesting career in research to do something administrative?' with all 바카라사이트 academic contempt for administration that results in so much of academia being so badly administered. I say that I don't see it as being all that different." The training of a 바카라사이트oretical physicist comes in useful again: "The world is complicated but not all 바카라사이트 complexities are important all 바카라사이트 time," he explains. "The real trick is to intuit what are 바카라사이트 subset of things that are important and on this basis to formulate a tentative understanding in unambiguous terms. You 바카라사이트n pursue where that tentative understanding leads, test it against 바카라사이트 facts, and usually circle back to refine 바카라사이트 original assumptions. This basic process holds whe바카라사이트r you are trying to understand superconductivity, or 바카라사이트 causes and consequences of biological diversity, or how best to translate Britain's excellent science base into industrial strength ".

Chief scientist? He could be a management guru.