The mechanisms of the SAMS experiment flown on Nimbus 7 with particular reference to the 2 axis scanning mirror

The stratospheric and mesospheric sounder (SAMS) experiment on Nimbus 7 includes a 2 axis scanning mirror and 7 pressure modulator cells. The SAMS experiment is a limb sounding instrument to measure the temperature profile and minor constituents of the atmosphere. The limb scan requires small mirror steps over a 3 deg range, while the scan in azimuth is in larger steps over a 15 deg range. The mirror is plane, 20 cm in diameter, and of zero expansion glass-ceramic. It is supported on two tilt tables, fitted one on the other, with the axes at right angles. The angle of tilt is adjusted by means of recirculating ball screws which are ion plated with lead for lubrication and driven by stepper motors. The seven gas filled cells are each pressure modulated by a 3 cm diameter, 0.3 cm stroke piston which is supported by diaphragm springs and driven electromagnetically at the system's mechanical resonant frequency. The mean pressure of the filling gas, which is the atmospheric constituent being measured, is changed by varying the temperature of a suitable molecular sieve

A Gravitational Explanation for Quantum Mechanics

It is shown that certain structures in classical General Relativity can give rise to non-classical logic, normally associated with Quantum Mechanics. A 4-geon model of an elementary particle is proposed which is asymptotically flat, particle-like and has a non-trivial causal structure. The usual Cauchy data are no longer sufficient to determine a unique evolution. The measurement apparatus itself can impose non-redundant boundary conditions. Measurements of such an object would fail to satisfy the distributive law of classical physics. This model reconciles General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics without the need for Quantum Gravity. The equations of Quantum Mechanics are unmodified but it is not universal; classical particles and waves could exist and there is no graviton.Comment: 10 pages Latex2e, talk given at the 5th UK Conference on Conceptual and Philosophical Problems in Physics held in Oxford, 10th-14th September 199

Warriors, heroes and companions: negotiating masculinity in Viking-Age England

Detailed analysis of the construction of gender identities has transformed our understanding of many aspects of early medieval society, yet the study of the Vikings in Britain has largely remained immune to this branch of scholarship. In responding to this lacuna, this paper examines the gendered dimension of the funerary record of the Scandinavians in England in the ninth and tenth centuries, and suggests that the emphasis on masculine display, in both the burial and the sculptural record, is not merely a quirk of survival, but rather it has much to reveal about the negotiation of lordship in the context of conquest and settlement