The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy, and spacetime.

We describe the motivation and design details of the ‘Phase II’ upgrade of the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. The expansion doubles to 256 the number of antenna tiles deployed in the array. The new antenna tiles enhance the capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array in several key science areas. Seventy-two of the new tiles are deployed in a regular configuration near the existing array core. These new tiles enhance the surface brightness sensitivity of the array and will improve the ability of the Murchison Widefield Array to estimate the slope of the Epoch of Reionisation power spectrum by a factor of ∼3.5. The remaining 56 tiles are deployed on long baselines, doubling the maximum baseline of the array and improving the array u, v coverage. The improved imaging capabilities will provide an order of magnitude improvement in the noise floor of Murchison Widefield Array continuum images. The upgrade retains all of the features that have underpinned the Murchison Widefield Array’s success (large field of view, snapshot image quality, and pointing agility) and boosts the scientific potential with enhanced imaging capabilities and by enabling new calibration strategies.

We are developing a purely commensal survey experiment for fast (<5 s) transient radio sources. Short-timescale transients are associated with the most energetic and brightest single events in the Universe. Our objective is to cover the enormous volume of transients parameter space made available by ASKAP, with an unprecedented combination of sensitivity and field of view. Fast timescale transients open new vistas on the physics of high brightness temperature emission, extreme states of matter and the physics of strong gravitational fields. In addition, the detection of extragalactic objects affords us an entirely new and extremely sensitive probe on the huge reservoir of baryons present in the IGM. We outline here our approach to the considerable challenge involved in detecting fast transients, particularly the development of hardware fast enough to dedisperse and search the ASKAP data stream at or near real-time rates. Through CRAFT, ASKAP will provide the testbed of many of the key technologies and survey modes proposed for high time resolution science with the SKA.

With modern undulators generating light of an arbitrary polarization state, experiments exploiting this feature in the soft X-ray region are becoming increasingly widespread. Circularly polarized light in the soft X-ray region is of particular interest to investigate of magnetic metals such as Fe, Co and Ni, and the rare earths. A versatile multilayer polarimeter has been designed and developed to characterize the polarization state of the soft X-ray beam. A W/B4C multilayer transmission phase retarder and reflection analyser has been used for polarimetry measurements on the beamline (I06) at Diamond Light Source. The design details of the polarimeter and preliminary polarimetry results are presented.

Comparing pertussis epidemiology over time and between countries is confounded by differences in diagnostic and notification practices. Standardized serological methods applied to population-based samples enhance comparability. Population prevalence of different levels of pertussis toxin IgG (PT IgG) antibody, measured by standardized methods, were compared by age group and region of Australia between 1997/1998 and 2002. The proportion of 5- to 9-year-olds with presumptive recent pertussis infection (based on IgG levels ⩾62·5 ELISA units/ml) significantly decreased in 2002, consistent with notification data for the same period and improved uptake of booster vaccines following the schedule change from whole-cell to acellular vaccine. In contrast, recent presumptive infection significantly increased in adults aged 35–49 years. Population-based serosurveillance using standardized PT IgG antibody assays has the potential to aid interpretation of trends in pertussis incidence in relation to vaccine programmes and between countries.

Mood swings accompanying the motor fluctuations of patients with Parkinson's disease on chronic levodopa treatment frequently occur, but are poorly recognized. Occasionally, their functional impact may be greater than that caused by the motor disability itself.

In this study we have assessed the nature of, and relationship between, mood and motor fluctuations in nine Parkinsonian patients with ‘on—off’ motor swings. The results of an additional questionnaire survey confirm that ‘on–off’ mood swings occur in approximately two thirds of patients with Parkinson's disease experiencing motor fluctuations on dopaminergic treatment. Aetiological and therapeutic implications are discussed.

We present the preliminary results of a frequency analysis of 1457 fundamental mode RR Lyrae (RR0) stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) from MACHO Project photometry. We find the same classes of pulsational behavior as were found in our earlier survey of first overtone RR Lyrae (RR1) stars. Variables whose prewhitened power spectra contain one or two peaks close to the main frequency component in the original power spectra are commonly known as Blazhko-type variables. The present analysis shows the overall frequency of Blazhko-type stars in the total RR0 population analysed to date to be ≈ 10%. This is lower than the often cited Galactic field/globular rate of 20-30% (Szeidl, 1988).

The incidence rate of Blazhko-type variability in the LMC appears to be about three times higher in RR0 stars than in RR1 stars. This puts important constraints on possible models of the Blazhko effect.