The Sheffield Solar Farm aims to provide representative data about photovoltaic power output from test installations in the UK. It will help provide objective data on how efficient domestic Photovoltaic power might be in the UK, and so help to form policy, and provide a sensible body of knowledge for members of the general public interested in ‘doing their bit’ for the environment.

The website project is in three stages – to make public the results from the solar panels in real time, which we have now achieved. This is to be followed by displaying data from test installations using new photovoltaic materials, to allow comparison in real performance under a range of conditions. This is important because photovoltaic panels are rated at 1000 W/m² solar power input – wheras the UK more commonly only manages a few hundred W/m² sunlight. Unfortunately photovoltaic panel response is not linnear, so less sunlight input can mean a lot less electrical power output, as a consequence the array you’ve planned may not provide the power you are expecting! In the third stage people from around the UK will be invited to submit their own photovoltaic data, so providing a real measure of how panels perform ‘in the wild’ e.g. after being outside for a few years… This is the kind of data that many householders will need before making a commitment to the expense of an installation themeselves.

The site (Sheffield Solar Farm) has a small graphic display showing what solar power is currently available, and what the electrical power output from the panels is on every page. The display is in Flash, but driven by an XML datafile generated on demand from the database. The alternative for people who do not have Flash is a static bar chart graphic that reflects the situation at the time the page was loaded.

In addition, there are graphs of solar power available and electrical power output, which currently display data for the last 24hrs. We evaluated two graphical packages for the project:

Flot is a nice Javascript based plotting system, that takes data in a list and spits out a pretty graph to order. It is not able to offer x and y axis labels, however…

jpGraph is a fully featured graphical package running in PHP. It takes a while to get it as pretty as Flot, but it is very flexible, and includes x and y axis labels. The ability to label axes neatly and correctly was a deciding factor in this instance, as the site is being developed by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, they wanted their graphs to be as clear as possible!

As general notes for the two packages, jpGraph places considerably more load on the server than Flot, as the graph is prepared as a graphic file for insertion into the page. This also means that the actual data is hidden from the visitor’s web-client.

The website is built in WordPress, where we adapted the latest Twenty_Ten templates to create our first production HTML5 website. We are still evaluating the new standard (which will not be fully released for many years – so we are not a long way behind the times!), and I think it fair to say that its reception is mixed. In many ways it is a regression, permitting the sloppy code that XHTML was intended to eradicate. At present the new graphical capabilities are not reliably realised in user’s browsers, however, so the trumpeted advantages of the new standard (which seem to centre around ‘Flash bashing’) are yet to emerge.

The Sheffield Solar Farm will be visited by Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, on the 20th August 2010.

Sheffield Solar Farm

CAVEAT: The folowing does NOT work with PowerPoint on Macs, more notes at the foot of this post…

We create a lot of FLASH content for people, and while we don’t use PowerPoint, often our clients do, and would like to get the movies we’ve created into their presentation. The subject embedding FLASH (.swf) files in PowerPoint has been covered on numerous blogs, but often not very clearly, and not taking into account different versions of PPT!

After a bit of searching we found working instructions on sameshow. These seem to be written for a modern version of PPT, but if you have an older version, you can get the ‘Developer Tab’ up as a floating toolbar by:

View | Toolbars | Control Toolbox

The hammer icon seems to be a relict from the past indicating more controls – anyway, click this and you will get the Shockwave Flash option (amongst several tens of others). Then:

Draw a box on the PowerPoint slide and right click for properties. You need to add/change two important parameters here:

1. EmbedMovie needs to be set to TRUE
2. Movie needs the location of the .swf file you want to play

I find the easiest way to find a file in Windows is to stick it in a root drive (e.g. C:) so you just have to type in c:\filename.swf to get it. Two other things to remember:

1. Remove the file from the root afterwards, to prevent this getting cluttered
2. Remember to EMBED the movie, or it will NOT work if you take the PPT to a different computer (if you do 1 above and you have not embedded the file, it will stop working immediatly, so you don’t have to wait until you are speaking at your conference to find out that your talk is b*ggered)

A full method with screenshots is available on the sameshow website:

How to insert Flash into PowerPoint

Hope your talk goes well!

Running Flash in PPT for Macs

In short – this is no longer possible. Previously we could export a Flash movie as Quicktime with a Flash track – giving reproduction of both the appearance and functionality of the original Flash movie (as long as only simple code was used in the movie). From QuickTime 7.3, however, Apple has withdrawn support for Flash altogether (Current Quicktime version 7.6.x).

Above a still from the movie depicting the directed diffusion of polymer molecules across a surface energy gradient

The movie was prepared by CookandKaye website design, working directly from preprints of the authors’ scientific manuscript. The movie was released to coincide with the paper’s publication and extensive publicity by the Unviersity of Sheffield (see for example Step Forward For Nanotechnology: Controlled Movement Of Molecules in Science Daily)

The interactive movie uses a stylised polymer chain to depict the actual movement inferred by the research workers from a wide range of nanoscale analytical techniques. Visitors to the site can click through the stages showing adsorption of hte polymer to a hydrophobic surface, followed by directed diffusion towards the hydrophilic surface, and finally desorption back into aqueous solution. At each stage the polymer experiences a different degree of constraint upon its movement, which was reflected in the motion of the stylised chain in the movie. To investigate the final movie, please visit the link below to Dr Mark Geoghegan’s website:

Directed diffusion across a surface energy gradient

Reference: P. Burgos, Z. Zhang, R. Golestanian, G. J. Leggett, and M. Geoghegan “Directed single molecule diffusion triggered by surface energy gradients” ACS Nano 3 3235-43 (2009).

Over the summer we have been busy developing a system for managing COSHH information for the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield. This has been a particularly interesting and complex project. The requirement was to permit students and research workers at the department to prepare and submit proposals for working with chemicals, as required under UK/EC COSHH legislation.

To help ensure the system was easy to use, it was coded to allow access for the administrative staff from very early in the developmental process. As a result the client was able to provide feedback into the design and implementation at every important stage:

The COSHH form interface the information going into a COSHH form is exceptionally complex, covering the nature of the procedure, the chemicals involved, hazards and proposed mitigation. To be intelligible, however, the user needs to see the entire form at a glance. To do this a master form was built, that displayed key data, and this linked to total of nearly 20 sub-forms where the user could change parameters whilst being able to view existing selections in the master form.

Above: Screenshot of the COSHH form, with a sub-form inset showing radio-buttons allowing the user to select the type of containment required for their procedure.

The chemical search interface building a simple and useful chemical search interface is a problem of itself. Users must be able to find the chemicals they are proposing to use, and this must be linked with the relevant health and safety information so that they can prepare an informed safety assessment. We developed a system based on chemical names and CAS numbers (the latter to help prevent duplication of chemicals on the database). Chemical searches can be performed by CAS number, name, name fragments or names starting with. In addition, at the request of the client we extended this to show a ‘most likely’ selection of chemicals at the top of any search results. The latter was important as there are many chemicals starting sodium – and if you are searching for sodium itself you don’t want to browse through all of them to find it!

The user interface was secured by IP address and login, as it is neccesary to identify users uniquely. Several levels of user were included, from clerical staff (with look up privileges to permit them to check that any chemical ordered had been subject to a COSHH assessment) to administrators, who had final say as to whether or not the assessment was acceptable on behalf of the department.

Completed COSHH assessments for each user were listed in their home section of the site. Additionally, each user could see assessments prepared by members of their group, or search for any assessment on the system by chemical or assessment number. This greatly simplifies the process of preparing a COSHH form, as existing forms can be imported to the user’s work-space and used as the basis for their own work. A simple security feature enables users to hide chemical information if required.

Safe working in an emergency it is important to be able to get access to COSHH information, so a brief output providing the salient safety information is available publically (protected by IP address) so rescue staff within the department can access the required information without having to login to the system.

Integration with existing information chemical and user data were imported from the existing system, and cleaned before insertion into the new web-based interface. Cleaning included checks for valid CAS registry numbers and valid user email accounts.

The administration interface is easy to forget given all of the rest going on – for a system of this complexity, however, the admin interface must be competent. The one we developed is capable of managing users, chemicals and COSHH information, as well as keeping tabs on how old the information is, and whether or not it is due for review!

With so much going on in the system, it was a great relief to find that users had few problems getting to grips with it. “The new users have had no complaints and the users who were familiar with the old system have had nothing but good things to say about the new one.” (Elaine Frary, COSHH administrator, University of Sheffield Department of Chemistry).

The new Polymer Centre research map has been built on an existing staff CMS that stores keywords and a précis of information about staff research interests. To create the map the keywords were first grouped into superordinate terms – for example the keywords ‘Rheology’ and ‘Optical properties’ falls under the generic class of ‘Polymer Analysis’ (or just Analysis).

To make the system as flexible as possible, the link between keywords and superordinate terms is done through a ‘plug board’ programming interface. In this, each keyword is assigned to a number of generic categories through selecting check boxes – easy!

The results are stored in a MySQL database, and this is used to power the research map itself. On first sight the map provides a coarse list of the superordinate terms – polymer analysis, characterisation and so on. On selecting one of these terms the list expands to show the relevant keywords. The keywords can in turn be expanded to display the names of research staff engaged in the work of interest.

The system therefore offers a simple visitor interface that can be quickly and intuitively navigated to find the information of interest. It offers a great advantage over an empty search box on one vital respect – it always offers the visitor a positive result! Not all sites have Google-like resources, and using a controlled language of keywords in this way allows us to guide a visitor to what we have, rather than their getting lots of failed searches.

While the research map offers visitors a neat tool for finding the information they want, it is also an engine to help ensure that search engines can tie our keywords to content on the Polymer Centre website. To do this, the meta content on each of the staff pages contains the same keywords they are associated with in the database.

In addition, however, the meta content of the research map itself is served dynamically. The page title, description and keywords are updated to reflect the level of the map that is being examined. Thus if you have opened a keyword, that keyword and the associated staff appear in the appropriate meta content sections of the research map page. As these sections are important to search engines in ascertaining the important content of a page, this design helps to ensure that the information the Polymer Centre carries about polymer research and near market activity is readily available on the world wide web.

- If you are interested in Polymer Research, why not try it out!

The Polymer Centre Research Map

This is a movie that shows diagrammatically how simple polar molecules in a fluid phase might respond to an electric field. In real instances each molecule would also have substantial translational velocities.

You can apply a field by clicking on the switch symbol. More information is available about the molecule when you move your mouse over the top left hand instance.

Yesterday I managed a day out to get to the Polymer IRC’s UK Polymer Showcase at York. As you’d expect, most of the presentations were about polymers and plastics research, but the Material World’s Quentin Cooper also gave a very entertaining guest presentation entitled Plastic and Past Stuck – Why Science Changes the World but Scientists’ Image Stays the Same. In this Quentin explored perceptions of science.

One of the most engaging parts of this was a look at the images children produce when asked to draw a scientist; inevitably the clichés of lab coat and glassware were overwhelming. The image here is my own effort from a number of years ago (but not, sadly, as a child in response to a scientifically conducted pole!). I guess the general premise is that people build stereotypes that overlook the essential humanity of the scientist. Science is a job that you can do, but it is also a way of looking at things? Getting answers to questions?

I had a great day out, so thanks and congratulations to Helen and the Polymer IRC team for organising this event…

The Material World

The Polymer IRC

Kinlochbervie is close to the most North Westerly part of the British mainland, and quite a long drive from anywhere! The scenery is spectacular, however, particularly the drive north of Ullapool, so it was a great privilege to get the chance to work there for a few weeks in 2002.

While I did do a bit of web work on the journey North,* my primary task was to provide scientific support for the Kinlochbervie wrecksite project. At this point it is perhaps germane to state that I was trained as a chemist, and had been researching new methods for conserving underwater archaeological finds at the University of St Andrews for the last decade. My interest in the web started with writing web pages for this project in 1997 (when the web was still quite young)…

By coincidence, the shipwreck at Kinlochbervie was also found in 1997, by members of RAF Lossiemouth Sub Aqua Club (SAC). Roy Hemmings from the club took the lead role in developing a project to study the wreck, and ensure it was properly protected. The previous year had seen a very high profile investigation from Channel 4′s Time Team (Kinlochbervie NW Scotland), during the course of which the finest collection of renaisance Majollica ever to be found in Scotland was recorded. This brief investigation raised questions about the stability of the site, and how well protected the remains were…

So, 2002 finds us on board Gemini Storm with a team of very experienced archaeological divers under the direction of Phil Robertson (now at Historic Scoltland). The slides and notes linked below are from my lecture on the project to the NAS annual conference in 2003:

Kinlochbervie Historic Wrecksite

* CookandKaye had started earlier that same year; as I recall I designed the banner for the Centre for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering on a storm tossed boat beating its way North from Kyle – Jo says I was very inconveniently wedged in the loo for the duration of the storm!

Catalysis in supercritical fluids offers potential operational and environmental benefits over conventional catalytic processes. This demonstration system developed by scientists at the University of St Andrews shows the hydrocarbonylation (addition of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to pentene to produce an aldehyde (hexanal).

The reactants are passed into the reaction chamber in supercritical (SC) carbon dioxide solution, where they dissolve in an ionic solvent containing the rhodium catalyst. The reactants bind to the catalyst and are converted to the product, which is released back into solution. The SC carbon dioxide dissolves the aldehyde, and is passed into a low pressure separator, where the aldehyde drops out of SC solution. The carbon dioxide and any unreacted starting materials are re-compressed back into the reactor.

Prof David Cole-Hamilton’s catalytic research group

This is a movie designed to teach one of the oldest laws in thermodynamics – and fundamental to science as a whole! Boyle’s Law describes mathematically the relationship between the pressure and volume of a fixed mass of gas. The movie includes an interactive animation that describes the law pictorially, examining the law’s predictions and compares them to the behaviour of a real gas (argon). The movie then goes on to evaluate the law in words and an equation, and finally a small number of questions are asked to check understanding.