NEWSLETTER APRIL 2026

UK Cuts Physics Funding

The headline for this piece on the BBC website is Higgs boson breakthrough was UK triumph but British Physics faces catastrophic cuts published on 18 March 2026.

The article deplored the fact that the UK government was prioritising applied science over ‘blue sky research’ and ‘moving money away from particle physics and astronomy’.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ articles/czr0zmzzp84o

The comments section on this article shows a division of opinion.

Given that the Higgs Boson
breakthrough has had no tangible benefit, not even in their own terms of ‘understanding the universe’ – explaining the mass of particles by another particle just leads to an infinite regress or circular thinking.

I cover this in more detail in April’s podcast.

Sources of Energy

Given the volatility of oil and gas supply, nuclear reactors are being discussed as a partial solution to providing cheap electricity. There is a useful talk on IAI by M. V. Ramana of the University of British Columbia on why this is not a good idea.

https://iai.tv/video/nuclear-is-not-the-solution-m-v-ramana

Also my understanding of the various projects for nuclear fusion is that although breakthroughs have been made on reaching high temperatures eg the Chinese ‘artificial sun’ and Eric Lerner’s plasma physics fusion, neither have achieved a net output of energy.

The more exciting project is CorPower Ocean which is
supported by the EU and plans to develop wave power.

https://corpowerocean.com

There are also a number of UK companies developing this source of energy too including Pelamis Wave Power.

https://www.emec.org.uk/about-us/wave-clients/pelamis-wave-power/

This was researched at Edinburgh University in the 1970s and 80s by Professor Stephen Salter who is considered the ‘Father of Wave Energy’ and who engineered the ‘Edinburgh Duck’ for harnessing wave power. His funding was cut by PM Thatcher who preferred nuclear solutions. Salter continued his research privately.

There was a letter to The Times on 27 March 2026 by Rear Admiral Rob Stevens:

‘Britain has about 50% of Europe’s tidal resources, all within our territorial waters and flowing at different times. It is predictable and inexhaustible… Government data shows that tidal stream support remains a tiny fraction of that provided to offshore wind – well under 1%. With stronger support, its costs could fall to parity within five years. Operational projects in Scotland have already generated more than 70 GWh, while costs are falling by around 17% a year. The constraint is not technical, but political short-termism. It is time to act.’

This sounds like a rational way forward for countries with tides.

E Book Store

The new E Book Store has been added to the website and the titles include a volume of Selected Papers by Fermi, Pauli, Hubble, Einstein, Schrödinger and Turing; my own book on Black Body Radiation and The UVC Disambiguation is also available and is a follow up to the earlier podcast The Ultra-Violet Catastrophe or a Storm in a Teacup.

Podcasts 2026

A newsletter and podcast will be published each month in 2026.

These podcasts will be subscription based and can be accessed through the following links.

January
Fantasy Physics: The Non-existent Neutrino available now

February
The Vacuum Energy Catastrophe and the Big Bang
available now

March
Why Intelligence is Non-Computable available now

April
The God Particle or a Deus ex Machina available now

May
Fractals