Under threat: leaders of Nottingham University are proposing to cut almost 30% of staff in the physics department. (CC BY 2.0 Shamraze/Nuhaize) Almost 2000 scientists have signed an open letter criticising planned redundancies at the University of Nottingham in the UK. The signatories, which includes six Nobel laureates, call on the university to reverse its plan to reduce the number of staff members in the physics department from 71 to 51. News of the possible job losses emerged on 12 May, when 2700 Nottingham staff were sent letters saying they were at risk of redundancy as part of plans to slash more than 600 academic posts throughout the university. The university says it is making the move because it could otherwise run out of money within the next five years. Nottingham is a member of the “Russell Group ” of 24 leading, research-intensive universities in the UK, with its school of physics and astronomy ranking seventh out of 44 UK physics departments in the most recent REF assessment .…