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Someone said at the beginning of this interesting discussion that the programme was all men and NASA. This owes much to the perception within the (non-specialist) media, especially in the USA, that NASA is the only game in town when it comes to space activity. This has them tearing their hair out over at ESA, for example. It would be devious to suggest that programme makers over emphasise NASA's work because that gives them an excuse for long distance jollies while reporting on local activity requires not much more than a ticket on Eurostar. It does not help that NASA itself has been known to grab all the glory for what was in effect a supporting role with European ventures. Now, it seems, the same phenomenon afflicts media perception of what goes on in space weather research. The good bit is that while the USA has noisily splashed billions on quixotic ventures, Europe, including the Brits, has quietly got on with making a bundle from space stuff and doing things that are actually useful. It probably isn't sexy enough for the BBC to hang around Silicon Roundabout. Too far to the east of them. But one of the "anchors" of this made up hot spot is Inmarsat, a reasonably successful space business. (Nice analysis of their latest financial figures in the Financial Times this week.) MK -----Original Message----- From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Hapgood Sent: 2012-March-07 23:13 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Horizon - solar storms Hi Francis, I was equally underwhelmed by the Horizon programme. The more so because I and colleagues had provided advice to them. But I'm afraid you are out-of-touch in claiming that space weather research of real relevance is not done in the UK. For example, we are leading work on CME tracking, on radiation belt, plasmasphere and upper atmosphere models, on the impact of GIC on power grids, on how to mitigate impact of scintillation on GNSS. The National Risk Register now includes space weather - and input from UK researchers was critical to that. We are now getting much encouragement from UK Government, from NERC and STFC to further build up space weather research - also from Brussels via the FP7 programme. This is a good time to do space weather research - we now have the links with policy-makers that can enable research that delivers real impact on space weather problems. Mike ********************************************************************** Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html You may also change your settings and subscribe/unsubscribe to psci-com from the web site. 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To contact the Psci-com list owner, please send an email to: [log in to unmask] ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html You may also change your settings and subscribe/unsubscribe to psci-com from the web site. Psci-com is part of the National Academic Mailing List Service, known as 'JISCMail'. It adheres to the JISCMail Acceptable Use Policy: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/acceptableuse.html and to the JISCMail guidelines for etiquette: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/etiquette.html Email commands: 1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example, send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following message: set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens] 2. 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