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Richard Bower

Professor in Physics, Durham University

A long time ago, Richard Bower grew up in a small Cornish village where the sky was dark and it was warm enough to sit outside and wonder where they came from. Today, he is Professor of Cosmology at Durham University. He works at the ICC, the Institute for Computational Cosmology, creating a virtual Universe with some of the world’s largest computers. This is clearly an almost impossible task, yet recently his simulations have taken a major step forward and are able to reproduce galaxies in the observed universe in remarkable detail.

Professor Bower’s interests span observational and theoretical studies of galaxy formation. His research time is shared between observational and theoretical cosmology. In particular, he works on the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. He is fascinated by the existence of galaxies and the ways in which they formed. Why is the night sky so full of stars? What has made the different types of galaxies so different from each other? He likes to speculate about what it would be like to live in a galaxy cluster.

After graduating with a First in Physics at Oxford, he completed his PhD thesis at the University of Durham and went on hold research positions in Munich and Edinburgh before returning to Durham as a lecturer. As well as teaching courses on Cosmology and Computing, he has lectured on topics as diverse as the Physics of Motorsport and, now, on Robert Grosseteste’s 13th century vision of the creation of the Universe, “De Luce”. Professor Bower leads the Intel Parallel Computing Centre at Durham, developing SWIFT, a revolutionary new approach to high-performance computing.

Time travel: a conversation between a scientist and a literature professor

May 23, 2017 12:38 pm UTC| Science

Literature professor Simon John James and physicist Richard Bower were both involved in the curating the exhibition, Time Machines the past, the future, and how stories take us there. Their conversations quickly revealed...

Economy

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The cost of living crisis is making it difficult for many people to pay their bills, including housing costs. Private sector rents have increased by an average 9% over the year to February 2024, and rising interest rates...

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Gas prices have relaxed, Europe has come out of the winter with record gas storage levels and a surfeit of liquefied natural gas is set to reach the shores of Europe over the coming years. Many commentators are hopeful...

Minimum wage for South African farm workers: study shows 2013 hike helped reduce poverty even though compliance was poor

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Gas is good until 2050 and beyond, under Albanese gas strategy

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South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed

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Politics

Donald Trump Allegedly Offers Oil Execs a Deal to Scrap EV Incentives for $1B Donation

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US Supreme Court upended decades of precedent in 2022 by allowing voters to vote with gerrymandered maps instead of fixing the congressional districts first

For the 2022 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use congressional districts that violated the law and diluted the voting power of Black citizens. A 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court in February...

Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections

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What early 2024 polls are revealing about voters of color and the GOP

By the end of winter 2024, the return of Donald Trump to the top of the GOP presidential ticket has revealed a surprising trend in the former presidents base of support: his increasing popularity among Black and Latino...

Science

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One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newtons law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those...

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

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IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

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The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

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Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

Technology

AI 'Godfather' Warns of Job Displacement, Advocates for Universal Basic Income

Renowned AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton warns of significant job losses due to AI, urging governments to adopt universal basic income as a countermeasure. Hinton Advocates for Universal Basic Income According to...

Shiba Inu: Top Analyst Identifies Coin as 'Potential Gold Mine'; Price Analysis Suggests 35% Upside

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Tesla Cybertruck Powers Houston Gas Station, Elon Musk Reacts to Saudi Prince’s Photo

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The release of the U.S. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report provided a wave of relief to the financial markets. This signaled a possible reduction in inflationary pressures. Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of...