Week 1: Summer Placement

This week, I started my placement with Professor Roland Smith in the Plasma Physics Department at Imperial College. Professor Smith, is the head of the Plasma Group at Imperial College and has allowed me to work with him on an amazing Outreach project funded by the Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Network grant. The IFE Network propose to increase the collaboration between fusion research groups and communicate the work being done with the public through Outreach activities. As part of my placement I shall be building another pop-o-matic, a balloon-popping laser that has featured in some of my previous posts. I got the privilege of demonstrating the pop-o-matic at the Imperial Festival and the visitors loved it! It has also been featured on BBC Breakfast, the Royal Society and at the Royal Institution.

Day 1

I met the research group managed by Professor Smith in a group meeting. It was odd, firstly because I was the youngest but secondly because I was the only girl - this is what I fight to change through Outreach events that I participate in and the weekly Science Club that I run at my old school. But it was great at the same time because the researchers were super friendly and it was nice to have an insight into what everyone was working on - most of the terminology was new to me, but hopefully I'll learn it soon enough. I had met a few of the researchers from my placement with the Plasma Group last year (see one of my previous blog posts for more about my work last year) so I felt quite at ease on the first day when I saw familiar faces.

Day 2 - Visit  Tokamak Energy
This was one of the BEST experiences I've ever had! I had the privilege of seeing the amazing tokamaks at Tokamak Energy and met the incredible brains behind their advancements! The labs were so much more hi-tech than I thought and the machines were just works of art! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

All images above are courtesy of Tokamak Energy. 

See the previous blog post for further information about Tokamak Energy and check out their website here.

Not only did I get to see some tokamak's but I also got to see the stand that shall be displayed at the Royal Society next week! Please do come along and visit Tokamak Energy at the Royal Society next week - you'll be able to control a real experiment that is based in Milton Park, Didcot which will look like this:

Stand that shall be displayed at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition next week - I LOVE it!

You'll also be able to meet the amazing people behind Tokamak Energy, have a magnet race and lots more! While I was there I was trained to explain fusion and the work of Tokamak Energy to the public - I'm so excited to share my enthusiasm for fusion and Tokamak Energy with you next week - hope to see you there!

Some pictures as well as a video of my wonderful journey to Tokamak Energy:

Didcot Parkway Station

Didcot Parkway Station

Didcot Parkway Station

Day 3 - Science Club
After attending an event organised by the Institute of Physics (IOP) at Imperial College, I ran my Science Club. The IOP event focussed on getting us into teaching - it was nice to communicate with real teachers and members of the IOP. Teaching can be a very rewarding career as you have such an influence on young lives - I would love to act as a female role model of physics for the younger generation in the hope to increase the number of females in Physics.

Gummy worms and huge bubbles were the main experiments carried out in the Science Club. The gummy worms are made using sodium alginate and calcium chloride. Sodium alginate can be found in seaweed and even used as a thickening agent in ice-cream! It is quite a gloopy substance and has a yellowy colour. It is a polymer which can be cross-linked to make longer chains with the addition of calcium chloride - thus, when the sodium alginate is pippeted into a beaker of calcium chloride the calcium acts as a cross link that joins the chains of the sodium alginate to make 'gummy worms'! It's a very fun experiment that shows cross-linking instantly. 

The Imperial College Open Day was also today, here are some pictures I took in passing:

The huge bubbles demo was influenced by a man I saw making huge bubbles outside the Science Museum near my university and I wanted to recreate it. So, I did with an old t-shirt - you cut the hem of the t-shirt and then tie it to some poles just like this in a sort of smiley mouth shape:

Then just get a bucket, put some bubble solution (or just washing up liquid and water - and if you have some glycerol add that too to make a stronger bubble) in it and use your make-shift huge-bubble maker in it and try and make some HUGE bubbles! I would recommend doing this outside as it can get quite messy!

Happy science-ing! :) 


Day 4 - Laser training
I completed an online Laser Safety Training Course that ended with a short test. I learnt so many new things - particularly how lasers can cause serious damage to your eyes. There are different classes of laser:

Class 1 - eye safe
Class 2 - can cause minor injury to eyes
Class 3 - will causemajor injury to eyes but diffuse reflections (reflections of the laser from rough surfaces like walls) won't necessarily cause injury if at a certain distance and not viewing it for a long time.
Class 4 - can start a fire and would burn out your retina for sure! Even diffuse reflections cause injury.

But as a safety precaution for those of you, who have bought a laser pointer online or are going to buy one the please be careful with them. I have heard of many horrible encounters with laser pointers bought online which were much more intense than what was displayed online. Numerous people have suffered from terrible eye injuries as a result of this - so please be aware of the consequences that can occur from buying laser pointers online.

Those of you who came to the Imperial Festival back in May, may have seen the cool demos I showed with laser pointers - you can show total internal reflection at home, see my previous blog post here for this and more.



Day 5 - Meeting with Prof. Smith
After a meeting with Professor Smith I was given a briefing on what I would be up to in the next eight weeks, this included designing and improving a new pop-o-matic (a balloon-popping laser) which shall be used in future Outreach events.

We want to add strength to the perspex casing in order to prevent any breakages when it is transported. Ideas were also bounced between myself and Nick Dover, the creator of the first pop-o-matic. We thought about:
- adding handles to make it easier to transport
- making two version: a smaller one and a larger one (so that the smaller one could be transported on the tube)
- adding hinges to the bottom and top lids
- adding an aluminium rim to the bottom and top of the cylinder for added strength
- creating a slit for the insertion of the balloon which does not go all the way to the end (as displayed in my drawing below)
- maybe making the system into two parts so that the optics are easily cleaned and do not get dirty from nebulisers or balloons
- maybe add a window so that the optics are easy to reach for cleaning
- make the system more compact by cutting out the need for a collimator

Sketch from my supervisor

My sketch of improvements that may be made to pop-o-matic

Here is the current pop-o-matic

These are just ideas for the minute and so I do expect to face some engineering challenges but I am excited to get started! The end result is in the above image and this is what I am aiming for but slightly modified for ease of transport and use. 

It's been a great week overall and am looking forward to showcasing the amazing work of Tokamak Energy next week at the Royal Society Summer Science Exihibition - hope to see you there!