Since I’ve got to the blogosphere a little later than the others, I’ll briefly introduce myself. I am the outreach officer for the physics department which means I organise physics events for local schools and the community. This ranges from workshops in schools, to talks from our academics, to our Science Circus day for […]
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The best thing about making a television documentary is that you get to visit and gain access to locations you would either not be allowed to see or simply did not know about. In the past few years I have had the privilege of holding Newton’s first edition Principia Mathematica (and even checked out some […]
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Today was the day our MPhys students give their talks, saying what they did on their Research Years. All our MPhys students spend a year doing research near the end of their 4-year course. I learnt something from all 4 talks I attended, and I was very impressed. They had all done very good work […]
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Many people know that graphite and diamond are both pure carbon – the only difference is that the carbon atoms are arranged differently in the two types of crystals. In graphite the carbon atoms are arranged in sheets, which can slide past each other easily allowing graphite to be used in pencils, while in diamond […]
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The stereotype of the academic scientist is often an Einstein-like figure. A solitary genius with frizzy white hair wrestling with the secrets of the universe. Reality is a bit different. Most of the actual research in universities is done by PhD students and postdocs (people who have just done PhDs), and also by final year […]
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