On Saturday 15 June, Royal Holloway hosted its Science Festival. In Physics, we had an exceptionally busy day with hundreds of families joining us in our laboratory, where they interacted with a variety of experiments, from hair-raising Van der Graaf generators demonstrating electrostatics to 3D printers, theremins, and more. We were very lucky to have 20 of our students (postgraduate and undergraduate) to help guide students – explaining concepts and also giving an insight into life as a scientist!
In our teaching lab, Professor Andrew Casey led a series of enlightening low-temperature experiments, 'Fun with Liquid Nitrogen' (where students got to smash sprouts with a hammer) and 'Resistance is Futile: Rise of the Superconductors' (where we learned that our understanding the quantum nature of superconductivity has led to the development of the world’s most sensitive detectors).
Upstairs, Dr Adriana Dias and Lucie Robbins gave students a tour of our astrodome. Despite the typically British weather preventing us from opening the dome and getting any views of the Sun, we were undeterred. Adriana and Lucie used archival data, showing our images taken of the 2004 Venus transit, ensuring that the educational experience was not compromised.
Finally, Dr Greg Ashton gave a public lecture on 'Colliding black holes and what they can tell us about quantum gravity.' In the talk, Greg discussed how gravitational waves have provided a new way to probe black holes. This was well attended and finished with a bin of exploding balls courtesy of Professor Andrew Casey (you’ll have to see the talk in the future to understand what this had to do with black holes!).
Overall, the day was a great success, and we enjoyed ourselves. If you would like to join in the future, look out for the next Science Festival in 2025.
