3 - Varsity

2 NEWSChief News Editors: Katherine Faulkner, Katy Lee and Camilla Templenews@varsity.co.ukFriday November 2 2007varsity.co.uk/newsIn BriefWorking against theclockA study by Cambridge Universityresearchers has found that turningthe clocks back each winterincreases Britain’s greenhousegas emissions and adds millions ofpounds to power bills. ElizabethGarnsey of the University’s Institutefor manufacturing, who authoredthe report, explained that35 per cent of the population areasleep when thesun rises inwinter andthereforemake nouse ofthe extradaylight.Shealso saidthat thed a r k e re v e n i n g scause domesticconsumersto use 2 per centmore electricity, generating millionsof tons of carbon dioxide.Dora St JohnHack attack on SRCFCambridge University’s student runComputing Facility was the victimof hackers on Monday. The SRCF’sserver hosts the websites of mostof the University’s student societiesand also provides personal web spacefor students. The attack resulted inhundreds of such sites being inaccessibleuntil Wednesday. KristianGlass, an administrator for SRCF,explained that the attacker had managedto obtain the passwords of all ofthe SRCF accounts. Fortunately thevolunteers who run SRCF were ableto rebuild the server quickly. “Webelieve nearly all user data to be intact,”said Glass.Karl Zammit-MaempelMan arrested for knifepossession outside FezA fight outside Fez nightclub endedin arrests this week after it emergedthat one of the participants was inpossession of a knife. A spokespersonfor Cambridge police said: “Analtercation took place outside theFez Nightclub at around 2am onWednesday. One 25 year old manwas arrested and bailed after beingcharged with the possession of an offensiveweapon”. The incident comesjust over a week after two stabbingsin Market Square left an 18 and a19 year old in a critical condition inAddenbrookes Hospital. Chief CambridgeshireConstable Julie Spencehas called for an extra £17.4 millionin funding for the county’s policeforce, which was declared to be failingon “front-line policing” in thisyear’s Home Office review.Jen Ledger-Lomas52 Trumpington StreetCambridge CB2 1RGFREE CHELSEA BUNWith every purchase over £2.00 in the shopORFREE MORNINGCOFFEE/TEA(9am-12pm)With any cake or pastry in the restauranton presentation of this voucherand proof of student statusScientists discover Big Bang relic» ‘Cold spot’ could help to prove that the universe has always existedHannah Price &Charlotte StrandvistProfessor Neil Turok addresses Cambridge University’s Scientific SocietyScientists from Cambridge Universityand Spain’s Institute of Physicsof Cantabria may have discovered acosmic defect that is a remnant fromthe Big Bang. The discovery couldprovide a remarkable insight intohow our universe evolved.The phenomenon is an unexplainedcold spot in the cosmic microwavebackground radiation that fills ouruniverse as an after-glow from theBig Bang. Scientists have now suggestedthat this particular spot maybe a defect in the vacuum of space,produced as the universe cooled afterthe Big Bang.Professor Neil Turok of the Departmentfor Applied Mathematicsand Theoretical Physics, who firstpredicted the existence of such defectsin the 1990s, told Varsity thatthe research may be able to help usanswer the question of where theuniverse came from. He denies thatthe universe came solely from theBig Bang. “If you start with nothing,you get nothing. A much more logicalapproach is that there has alwaysbeen a universe.”Addressing Cambridge UniversityScientific Society on Wednesday,Turok said he supported a cyclicmodel of the universe which “allowsviolent phenomena to take place thatlook like Big Bangs” but where theuniverse has always existed in someform. His ideas rely on a “technicallycomplicated but conceptually verysimple” theory called “M theory”,involving extra dimensions and anintricate structure of space. Verificationof the cold spot as a cosmic defectwould provide vital support forTurok’s theory as it would represent“a very powerful clue as to how Mtheory does fit nature”.Turok argues the most importantstep now is for the cold spot’s authenticityto be confirmed. “The defecttheory is very testable, but currentlyexperiments are not sensitiveenough to verify that this cold spotis definitely a defect.” He is cautiousDEBBIE SCANLANStudents celebrate Halloween in styleCambridge students get their gladrags on for a night of Halloweenmadness in some of the city’s favourite hauntsabout the chances of the defect beinggenuine because scientists have inthe past made false detections in similarareas. “If you ask a top theoreticalphysicist, ‘Have you ever made aprediction that was correct?’ 99.9 percent haven’t.”But he emphasises that this coldspot’s unusually large size increasesthe likelihood of it being a genuinecosmic defect. “If it’s true, I will getthe Nobel Prize. If not, at least I willAlex GlasnerCambridge University hasperformed badly in a nationwidequiz by NME music magazinepurporting to show which Britishuniversity has the most intelligentstudents.Cambridge came in eighteenthin the national ranking, whichfeatured questions ranging from“How many million Jaffa cakesare eaten per year?” and “Howmany languages are spoken in theworld?” to “What were Blur originallycalled?”King’s College London camefirst in the rankings, followed bya number of other institutionswithin the University of London.Oxford, however, came near thebottom, in 113 th place.There has been widespreadshock amongst Cambridge studentsat the result, and even accusationsthat the test was notfair. “General knowledge is not afair measure of intelligence,” saidSuzie Chidlaw, a student at GirtonCollege.Laura Leegood, another currentCambridge student, was alsoindignant about the result. “I amnot stupid,” she told Varsity. “Testme on philosophy, and I wouldn’tdo badly.”However, while Cambridge mayhold the cutting edge in many specialisedfields, it appears that itsstudents have less of an advantagewhen it comes to awareness ofTIM JOHNSbe encouraging the experimentalists,”he told the Scientific Society.Professor Turok apparently has abet on with Stephen Hawking aboutthe origin of the universe and whetherthe European Space Agency’sPlanck spacecraft will detect gravitationalwaves, which are ripples in thefabric of space-time. Turok is bettingthey will not while Hawking is bettingthat they will, in support of thestandard Big Bang model.Cambridge students‘not the brightest’popular culture. There were manystudents who had never heard ofNME, let alone the test.King’s College London was ecstaticwith the result. “Cambridgehas had its day,” said Qamar Hussein,who studies at the winninguniversity.“All the people Iknow could beat anyOxbridge student atany subject any day”“The courses are more competitivein London, where employeeswould rather scout for jobs. Allthe people I know could beat anyOxbridge student at any subjectany day.” He added: “London ismore chilled out; we don’t need towork as hard.”One Cambridge student saidthat a small town “with absolutelynothing going on in it could noteven try to compete in a test aboutpop culture”.However, another reacted morepositively to the result, pointingout: “At least Cambridge beat Oxfordin the test.”The NME editor blamed the“Cambridge bubble” for the University’sunderwhelming results.