TUNE

16Nov09

Its Tesla Coils playing the Super Mario theme song. I need say no more.

Courtesy of Gizmodo.

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Tags: awesome science, lightning, Super Mario, Tesla Coil

Life, the universe and… physics

20Oct09

Last night I was a little bit terrified but very excited to host Life, the Universe and… Physics, which took place in 93 feet east, a bar/club on Brick Lane in East London.  Widely known as a bit of a trendy hangout, me and the Science London crew were a little surprised that they agreed to host a science cafe, stargazing and science rap performance.

As we were kindly supported by the Institute of Physics for the event, we stuck to the physics theme throughout. During the science cafe at the start of the evening our speakers Colin, Manda, Leah and Lewis told us a bit about their areas of research, which spanned the universe to include the Cassini mission to Saturn, distant galaxies and the possibilities for extraterrestrial life.

The crowd really got into the questions and we had a great discussion about dark energy, the future of the universe, whether we will colonise space, and the definition of a ’spherical bastard’ (apparently a person that, whatever direction you look at them from, is still a bastard).

After a short break, we were treated to the scientific hip hop delights of Jon Chase, aka MC Oort Kuiper. Here’s his YouTube hit, Astrobiology. People in the club knew the words. Amazing.

But why bother with an event like this in a space where science rarely treads? Science London is about getting science out there alongside art, performance and music as part of what ‘culture’ is. While many of the 100 or so people that came along were probably already interested in science, there were also a load who had no idea what was happening, but stayed and took an interest anyway. That’s why we do it

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Friday fact

16Oct09

An ostrich egg takes over an hour to hard boil. FACT

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Tags: friday fact, ostrich egg

Friday fact

02Oct09

An average bottle of champagne produces about 100 million bubbles. FACT

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Tags: champagne bubbles, friday fact

Generation Y – again

25Sep09

I have blogged about generation theory before… I was lucky enough yesterday to hear Paul Redmond (coiner of the term ‘helicopter parents‘) speak about Generation Y, employablility and the credit crunch yesterday at an Aimhigher Greater Merseyside event in Liverpool.  Thought I’d share his video crunchonomics:

Makes me glad I made up my own job…

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Tags: crunchonomics, generation Y, phil redmond

Carpet Continuum

25Sep09

I volunteer for the Institute of Physics Physics Communicators Group.  We had our inaugural meeting this month and I got to facilitate a session called Beyond the lecture: where next for physics communication?

To capture everyone’s ideas, we wrote them on post it notes and because there were way too many to fit on a flipchart we laid them all out on the floor, sorting them from activities where we had loads of experience to those where we had absolutely no clue.  The result was this wonderful CARPET CONTINUUM:

done

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

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Tags: carpet continuum, institute of physics, physics, science communication

Page 3 physics

18Aug09

Been alerted to this today

I don’t believe I missed it at the time!  I trust Keeley is following the repair of the electromagnets with interest.  Courtesy of Alex Connor

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Tags: page 3 girl, physics, the sun

Friday fact

10Jul09

In one hour more energy in the form of sunlight falls on the earth than what is used by the entire population in one year. FACT

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Air penguins

19Jun09

I was at the physics department at Imperial College London today, and one of the postgrads there told me about these awesome robot air penguins.

I want one!

Apparently they have been designed to move through air the same way real penguins move through water.  The group that created them, Festo, engineer robotic muscles for a range of applications.

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Tags: air penguin, robot

Himalayan adventure

02Jun09

I have been without internet access all week, running a training workshop with colleague and friend Sarah Jenkins in Mukteshwar, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas in India.  The workshop was with the Indian and Sri Lankan Climate Champions, a group I have written about here before.  They are young people aged 17-22 who are raising awareness and taking action on climate change in their communities.

Home sweet home

India is fascinating, which is just as well given we spent a total of 22 hours on a bus to and from Delhi and the conference centre.  The traffic was mental – here’s a photo of Sarah and I in a tuk tuk that we asked to take us to our hotel but he actually took us to his mates shop. 

If you steal my camera I'm taking your auto

The workshop went well, we had included lots of improvements since the first workshop we ran in Edinburgh in February.  The five champions from India and Sri Lanka that had been in Edinburgh also attended and it was great to catch up with them and hear about how their projects are going.  The Indian and Sri Lankan Champions were super-intelligent and the speed at which they grasped the tasks we set them was a bit scary – there was little room for slackness on our part!

We had a great session on web 2.0 with the charismatic Kiruba Shankar.  I made a note of all his tips on blogging so, er, hopefully there might be some improvement here over the next few months…  There was many a random moment on the trip and often the cultural differences were brought into sharp focus by our unwitting Britishness.  As recommended in the Kiruba school of blogging, here’s a bullet pointed list:

• Sharing a bed with my colleague.  Although at least we didn’t have to camp.  Much giggling ensued, we were like 14-year-olds on a sleepover.
• When facilitating, I was very confused by the Indian head shake/nod mannerism.  Does it mean yes?  Or no? Asking repeatedly didn’t seem to clarify matters, so I concluded it meant ‘leave us alone to get on with this’
• The monikers ‘Laura ma’am’ and ‘Sarah ma’am’ stuck.  We kept referring to each other as ma’am to the amusement of the champions.  We even purchased ma’am shawls.
• Nobody wanted to go outside
• Of the two bus drivers, it was assumed that the older bus driver was a better driver and nobody wanted to travel on the younger driver’s bus.  Both drivers were actually insane.  All the champions called the older driver ‘uncle’.  We nicknamed the younger one ‘nephew’.  It was only funny to us
• Our bathroom contained adsorbent towels.  Just the thing after a cold shower.
• The campsite was run on sustainable technologies, which was admirable.  Although sometimes the lights and taps switched themselves on for no reason.
• One day there was a storm and it hailed.  Nobody had seen hail before.
• When we visited the red fort in Delhi, we had to pay at the ‘foreigners queue’ kiosk, where the admission fee was 10x higher than for locals
• In Latey Bunga the villagers openly laughed when they saw Sarah’s white skin.  They were less sure about me, I’m mixed race so sort of look like I could come from anywhere.
• The food was fantastic!
• Our snacks of choice were Bingo crisps (funky masala flavour was the best) and Thums up cola

Thums up innit

I was struck by the sheer number of people living in India, and how closely together they lived.  The energy consumption needed to satisfy the developing economy and society is huge.  The national grid must be overloaded like crazy – here is a photo of some power cables I took in Delhi:

Wires

Littering is also a problem and the Indian champions explained how big a task it was to change the culture to one that greatly valued the environment.  We visited an organic farm that grew herbs for teas and essential oils in the Himalayas; even there used sweet wrappers were everywhere.  The Indian and Sri Lankan champions certainly have a difficult task ahead,  but I strongly believe that if any group can make a real change, it is them.

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Tags: climate champions, climate change, himalayas, latey bunga, thums up