A girl in a physics world. : Week 2: Summer Placement, Royal Society and Tokamak Energy

This week was one of the best week's for me since I was part of the UK's most prestigious science events! I was lucky enough to convey fusion to the public and schools at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. As mentioned in a previous post, Dr. Melanie Windridge kindly allowed me to take part - I was SUPER excited!

Day 1

On the first day I was slightly nervous about talking to adults of the general public about Tokamak Energy - I only met Tokamak Energy last week! The heels were on and the people started coming in for the Twilight Science event (an event that showcased the exhibits for adults only before the schools came in later on in the week) and then the butterflies started! After talking to the first few people I realised I had nothing to worry about, I had some knowledge that I wanted to share and all I was doing was sharing it and answering any questions that came my way in the best way possible. The public was super friendly and I thrived on spreading my knowledge to the public! I was amazed by the sheer amount of people that came and how excited they were about fusion! Four hours later the bell was rung and the Twilight Science event came to an end (heels were not a good idea - came home with swollen feet!). I went home with a slight smile on my face as I was so humbled by the experience and the fact that I was lucky enough to speak to the public about the subject I love - Physics! I couldn't wait for the rest of the week!!

Royal Society

Tokamak Energy stand

Day 2 & 3

Day 2 was my first day explaining fusion to school children: it was so lovely to see young students excited about fusion and I even got compliments which was so humbling! I was very surprised to hear so many girls were interested in Physics and were taking it for A level. I received my favourite quote of the day: 'I LOVE Physics!' - this was great to hear!

At the end of Day 3 Tokamak Energy started their world record attempt of holding a plasma for 24 hours!

Lovely views in Picaddilly Circus - just outside Royal Society

Day 4 - Breaking the world record!

After an eventful day of speaking to the public and schools about fusion and Tokamak Energy, they broke the world record!! Here's a video I took capturing the moment:

The plasma continued to live for a further few hours and reached a whopping 29 hours! Tokamak Energy completely smashed the record! (I overheard that the previous record was five hours).

Freebies!

Cool medal from Monopole Quest (a quest for searching for a natural monopole based at Imperial College and collaborating with other universities)

Smart material - my favourite freebie from Engineering Atoms (collaboration with Rolls Royce and Cambridge University)

Monopole Quest

It's Quantum Light

Vanishing Glaciers of Everest - they actually had a glacier from Everest at their stand and I got to touch it!

Day 5 - Show and Tell event

Alongside talking to the public about fusion, Dr. Windridge gave me the honour of speaking at the Show and Tell event; an event that where a few exhibitors would talk about their stand to the public in the marque whilst they were having lunch. Melanie suggested that I do the 'magnet down a tube' demo in order to help with explanations. Two other exhibitors were also apart of the Show and Tell event and I was last up. After hearing their flawless speeches (well, at least flawless to me!), I was petrified of standing in front of 20+ people! Whilst they were talking I was going through my speech in my head, my palms were getting clammy and then the second speaker finished! I was next! I stood up and took over the microphone and then I managed to get my first few sentences out which were something like this: 'Hello everyone. I'm sure you'll agree that there is some great science going on at the Royal Society and I hope you've had a great day so far! In addition to the great science we have already heard, I hope to add to that and tell you about Tokamak Energy. ...'

I then began talking about the Sun and how fusion is the process that powers it, I related this to what Tokamak Energy aim to do, essentially create a miniature Sun on the Earth and contain it in a magnetic bottle. I then asked for some volunteers up, they were two school students (which made me feel more at ease as I am familiar with working with students at my Science Club). I gave one of the students a plastic tube and the other a copper tube. I showed everyone how powerful the magnets were by placing a magnetic on top and beneath my hand. As soon as I spanned across the room to show everyone the magnets I just registered how many people there were! I wasn't familiar with the setting and I had never used a microphone for a talk ever! My hands then began to shake and my words came out faster and faster. I tried to keep the nerves down but the shaking wouldn't subside. I then allowed the girls to have a magnet race and of course, the plastic tube won and the copper tube lost. I then explained that the phenomena they were witnessing was electromagnetic induction (where changing magnetic fields generate currents in the copper tube due to free electrons and those currents create magnetic fields. The two magnetic fields repel each other and that's why the magnet slowed down). I then related this back to tokamak's and thanked the volunteers. Although my speech was finished, I still had the question and answer session - I had a week to learn everything I could about Tokamak Energy so my knowledge was limited and I was dreading the questions. After a few questions I stumbled across a question I didn't know the answer to, but luckily Melanie was there to the rescue and supported me with the final few questions. All in all, I was grateful that Melanie gave me this opportunity as it was a great learning curve and showed me that although I love science communication I still have a long way before I can be a confident live speaker. But it is experiences like these, where I can push myself that help me to learn and progress, so thank you Melanie!

DNA door handles at the Royal Society - science in every detail.

Day 6 - last day :(

It was the start of the #SummerScience weekend and there were huge queues of people outside the Royal Society! It was lovely to see the public support and enthusiasm for science! As soon as I got there I was talking to people one after the other with barely a moment for breath let alone water! It was absolutely amazing to see the #FasterFusion stand full of people - we literally blocked the way for people to move from room to room! I received so many compliments which was lovely:

'You explained that really well.'

'You're very sweet and I think fusion is amazing and I want it to happen faster!'

'You're very good at communicating science, I want you at my stand!'

'I love physics now!' (Although this was probably because of fusion rather than my explanation)

It's comments like these that boost my confidence and make me want to continue and never give up! I hope to become a confident speaker one day and win the battle with my nerves!

I was also asked my a school teacher to talk to her students who had their own stand at the Royal Society #CosmicRayDetectives. I was amazed by how much these year 12 girls new about cosmic ray detection and they even built a cosmic ray detector that could fit on your coffee table! They teamed up with Birmingham University and were comparing their data to data they received from the university. They definitely had something AMAZING to put on their UCAS personal statements! I spoke about Physics and how it could lead them into any career path they wanted and my experiences and how much I love the subject. I also spoke about potential competitions they could enter with their project including the National Science and Engineering Competition. And I told them about the numerous events for students that Exscitec offered. Why not apply!

Meeting Lamisah and Saeeda, yr 12 students working on the Cosmic Ray Detectives project with the University of Birmingham

Show and Tell with #CosmicRayDetectives

The lovely team at Tokamak Energy treated me to dinner and it was lovely to see that ordinary individuals just like myself were discovering new things and working on cutting edge science - it really showed me that I could do it too! It was great to meet the wonderful people behind Tokamak Energy, many shared their career paths with me and have definitely inspired me to follow in their footsteps.

To finish this post, I just want to say:

Try something new, give a challenge a go and listen to constructive criticism. This way you can continue to rise and the only way is up. :) And no matter what challenges you face, never give up - you can do this!