Partnerships for public awareness

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) awards grants annually to enable researchers to talk about their research to a general audience in order to promote public awareness of the science which is going on in the UK. More details can be found on the EPSRC Website .

I have funding to put on a series of demonstration lectures in the style of the Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution. I currently have three lectures available and will be developing a further three lectures over the next three years.
Some information about these is given below. If you are interested in having me visit your school or group please get in touch. You can find all my contact details here and a list of my lectures planned and past in the calendar .
 

Production of nylon

One of the demonstrations from this lecture. The production of nylon.

1: The cure of the bright lights 

Materials science, chemistry and technology are all featured in this lecture. Amalgam replacements for tooth repair are used to provide insights into which properties are important, what chemistry we can use in order to provide those properties and finally how technology is used to make the process more efficient. 

2:The light fantastic 

Why do we use lasers? Laser light has some special properties which more usual light sources do not. This presentation demonstrates the special properties of laser light and shows how these can be put to good use.
Interference fringes from a laser

Laser light interfering to form light and dark bands.
The Binomial Machine

How many heads do you get if you toss a coin eight times? This machine gives the result of 300 trials.

3: Lies, damned lies or statistics?

How good are we at intuitively judging probabilities? Should everyone be able to earn more than the average wage? Is it a scandal that half of all doctors/dentists/academics are below the national average? An excursion into statistics and probability which I hope will encourage critical consideration of the statistics with which we are bombarded every day.

4: Lights! Camera! Action!

Spectroscopy is a technique used to analyse many substances in order to determine the constituents. We do it unconsciously when we see colour. In order to do spectroscopy one needs a source of light, a means of recording what happens (a camera) and a substance to give some action! This presentation will show how spectroscopy works and how it is used.
The colours of white light

Visible light split into its component colours
Photochemical smog formation

Smog is forming in the right hand vessel where the orange peel is expeosed to an atmosphere containing ozone.

5: Gone with the wind.

We rely on the air around us and would like it to remain clean and breathable. This presentation looks at what affects structure of the atmosphere. It then examines some of the chemistry which goes on in the atmosphere in response to inputs from both natural and man-made sources.

6: Sensor sensibility 

Sensors are used in many situations to measure the amount of a substance which is present and allow the amount to be monitored over time. I am helping colleagues develop state of the art sensors which may have applications in food packaging. This presentation will look at what we require from sensors and how these state of the art sensors can provide it.
Holographic sensor

A holographic sensor shows how it indicates the difference between wet and dry
French Horn

A French Horn is used as an example in this presentation.

7: The sound of science 

This presentation looks at how sound is formed and some of the priciples of musical instruments. A number of home-made instruments are employed to demonstrate these during the presentation.