Soho Radio

January 14th, 2017

I can't believe I'm saying this but I've just been on the radio for my first ever radio interview with Soho Radio! I was invited to the Science Mixtape show which airs every Saturday at 10am and lasts for an hour. It aims to find out more about the science and musical taste of an expert guest. So, I not only got to talk about fusion, MAGPIE (the experiment I am working on) and women in physics but also got to choose 6 of my favourite songs to air on the radio! 

Song list (for anyone that wanted to know):
Kygo ft. Maty Noyes - Stay
Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You
Sean Paul ft. Dua Lipa - No Lie
Nicky Jam - Hasta El Emanecer
Ne-Yo - Closer
Christopher & Matoma - Take Me Back

So I woke up this morning at 5 am, brought my notepad with me with all my notes and made my way to uni - probably the earliest I've been into uni ever! I went down to the lab to get my demo, a baloon-popping-laser called the POP-O-MATIC, all ready for the show! I got into an Uber with the Pop-O-Matic (obviously got weird looks from the driver as I was carrying this huge and probably suspicious science equipment) and made my way to Soho Radio HQ. When I walked into the studio the first thing I noticed was the amazing cacti collection near the front of the room - it was pretty epic! 

Kyle Major, one of the presenters of Science Mixtape, was waiting for me in the studio which was full of radio equipment - microphones, headphones and all! I started to set up the Pop-O-Matic and almost immediately I found out that it wasn't working - I was so disappointed! I had checked it before I left university and it was working fine so I guess it must of got knocked in transit - what a shame! It's such a cool demo and I really wanted it to work but I suppose that is the nature of science - sometimes your experiments just don't do what you want them to do. Oh well :(

After that, I went through a sound check, put my radio headphones on (where I could hear my own voice - weird!) and before I knew it we were LIVE ON AIR!!!! I was so nervous! All I could think about was that my friends and family were all listening in. This was my first time on the radio so I didn't really know what to expect and I didn't want to mess up. 

The hour flew by and in no time at all it was over. We touched upon so many different topics and we even squeezed in some recent science articles too. During the song breaks I was trying so hard not to laugh because I was finding it so hard to believe that I was actually on the radio! All in all, it was great fun and I loved it SO much - so much so that I wanted to do it all over again!

You can check out some of my live videos from the day on Facebook and Twitter. 

Here are some pictures from the day:

Pop-O-Matic (balloon-popping laser demo)

Soho Radio HQ/Studios

Pre-radio interview nerves showing through here (Photo courtesy of Yasmin, Soho Radio)

Mid-radio interview vibes (Photo courtesy of Yasmin, Soho Radio)

Post-radio interview smiles - that's a wrap!

Soho Radio (loving the neon lights - that's a plasma!)

Check out the Soho Radio Instagram page and Facebook page for a video of my failed demo :( 

Check out the video below of the Pop-O-Matic in action and how it should have worked on the radio show:

You can check out the podcast version of the show online here and here. Hope you enjoy it! :)

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I'd like to thank Luke Robert Mason for introducing me to Matilda Hay, Science Mixtape presenter, and making my time on Soho Radio a reality. A huge thank you to Kyle Major and Yasmin for making me feel relaxed during the show! Thanks Soho Radio for having me - I'd love to do it again!

My last few weeks at SLAC

. . . The last few weeks at SLAC . . .

I've been meaning to write this blog post for a while and have only just got the chance to write it. It's been a hectic few months as I've transitioned into my last year of my MSci Physics degree at Imperial College. And I can't believe I have gotten this far! But anyway, more info about my AMAZING MSci project will be up in my next blog post .. so watch this space! :)

But for now let's go back to a few months ago, when I was completing my internship at SLAC!

The final few weeks at SLAC were jam-packed with lots of science! And I certainly didn't want to leave! I was having the BEST TIME EVER!!

Just as a quick reminder, my project at SLAC focussed heavily on the construction of a laser system that will form part of the development stage of the new upgrade to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) known as LCLS II. Not only did I get the chance to work on this SPECTACULAR laser system but I also got to name it!! Because this laser system is extremely powerful and can start a fire I named it IGNIS which is the Latin word for fire.

IGNIS
For the laser scientists + general science fans out there here's the spec for IGNIS:

Average power: 100 W
Wavelengths: 800 nm (+ 1500 nm)
Pulse duration: 15 fs
Pulse energy: ~1 mJ
100 kHz
OPCPA laser system

What's special about IGNIS?

IGNIS is a rare type of laser system because it's a HIGH REPETITION RATE, HIGH PULSE ENERGY and HIGH AVERAGE POWER laser system. All these qualities are rarely seen in a single laser system so I was very fortunate to work on it.

Whilst I was there, I was building the laser enclosure for IGNIS and helping to move equipment from the old lab into the new lab. I also did a bit of plumbing too which was definitely a new skill I learnt! 

The completed enclosure for IGNIS

Shiny new laser enclosure for IGNIS

Huge spanner for some plumbing for the cooling system for IGNIS

The Herriott Cell

The most exciting part though, was when I got to work with a Herriott cell. A Herriott cell consists of two spherical, concave mirrors where one of the mirrors has an off-axis hole - the mirrors I was using were made of gold! So they were super expensive! Laser light enters through the hole and bounces between the two mirrors multiple times and then exits via the same hole under what is known as the RE-ENTRANT CONDITION. This condition states that the number of passes the light makes in the system multiplied by the angle between successive reflections is equal to a whole number multiple of 2π (360 °). For you maths fans out there we can describe this in the form of an equation:

Nθ = 2Mπ,

where N is a whole number (integer) and is related to the number of passes the light makes in the system,  θ is the angle between successive reflections and M is a whole number.

What's the point of a Herriott cell?
A Herriot cell allows light to bounce back and forth between the mirrors many times which means that when the light enters it will be a while til it comes out again, or at least a while in light timescales! So when a Herriott cell is added to a laser system it introduces what we call an optical time delay. Say, we have a pulse of light that enters the Herriott cell and a pulse of light that doesn't go through the cell we will see that the pulse of light from the Herriott cell arrives later than the pulse that didn't go through the cell. This is helpful in laser systems when you want two pulses of light from different paths to arrive at the same time. We can adjust the distance between the mirrors of the Herriott cell, the angle of the incident laser beam (and the diameter of the mirror) in order to adjust the optical time delay and make sure the pulses arrive together at the same time. This is exactly the reason why I was testing out the Herriott cell, I wanted to know if it could offer the optical time delay required in the IGNIS laser system ... and I found that it could! So the Herriott cell will be making up part of IGNIS! :)

The gold mirrors for the Herriott cell

The laser bounces multiple times between the mirrors along an ellipse on the mirror

Poster session

In the last week of my time at SLAC I was able to showcase my work at an intern poster session, where the Director of LCLS, Mike Dunne, would judge our posters and offer prizes for the best one. It was great to meet the other interns and see what cool stuff they were working on. I also got to meet Mike Dunne, who was the first person I spoke to at Imperial College about doing an internship at SLAC and so it was great to met him in America where he could see all the cool things I was up to.

Poster session fun! :)

My poster and video at the intern poster session

Photoshoot
Those of you that know me, know that I cannot complete an internship without having a lab photoshoot at the end of it! So here are some pics from all over SLAC! (Yes, I did take a tour around the whole of SLAC (which is HUGE) just for the photoshoot ... what can I say, I love a good photoshoot *smirks*)

Outside the LCLS Office building

I got to see the LINAC at SLAC - it was sooo cool! The tunnel looked like it went on forever!

A bit of weekend working in the Cali sun (Visitor's Building at SLAC)

LINAC

LINAC

I got to visit some of the experimental hutches at LCLS - they were awesome!

Just outside the Far Experimental Hall of LCLS 

American trucks are HUGE!

Outside the Far Experimental Hall, LCLS

  

I LOVE all the colour matching at LCLS!

The X-ray Correlation Spectroscopy hutch at LCLS

Coherent X-ray Imaging hutch at LCLS

Coherent X-ray Imaging hutch at LCLS - the pipe that runs through the room is the x-ray beam

Matter in Extreme Conditions hutch at LCLS

Matter in Extreme Conditions hutch at LCLS

 

Matter in Extreme Conditions hutch at LCLS

Electric truck at SLAC - cute!

 

The Californian sky is so beautiful!

XRT, LCLS

First international intern at SLAC!
As if it wasn't a blessing enough to be able to work at LCLS at SLAC, it was even more of a blessing to find out that I was the first ever international intern at SLAC ever! I couldn't believe that I was the first one! And not only that, recently at university I've been hearing about how I've paved the way for other undergrads at my uni to go over to SLAC and they've come up to me for advice and I cannot wait to see them venture out to SLAC and have the time of their lives just like I did! I cannot describe how honoured I feel to have paved the way for other undergrads to follow in my footsteps and carry out an internship at SLAC! Hopefully many more can have the amazing experience I had when I was out there! :)

Because I was the first international intern at SLAC I was asked to be featured on the SLAC website and of course I said yes! I was interviewed by Michael Ross about my time at SLAC, how I got the internship and what my future plans were. The article was accompanied by a photoshoot (yay! :) ) by Chris Smith. Check out the article here.

Me and my Herriott cell

AFTER WORK IT'S TIME FOR A BIT OF FUN . . . 

Here are some cool things I got up to in my final weeks in California:

French toast! Mmmmm...

Looking out for whales and baby seals

Beautiful scenery in California - just breathtaking!

Ford GT40 at SLAC Car Show

SLAC Car Show

SLAC Car Show

SLAC Car Show

SLAC Car Show

Stanford Dish

Stanford Dish

The view from the top of the Stanford Dish trail - you can see San Francisco!

Stanford Dish Trail

Five-star Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel - it was lush!

Poolside BBQ

Poolside BBQ

Monster Truck at Sonoma County Fair - probably the most American thing I did out there!

I got to see cute animals at the Sonoma County Fair too!

Butterfly House at Sonoma County Fair

Got to participate in the Escape Room which was a cool game that we played where we had to escape out of a room in half an hour and we did it with 10 seconds to spare! Woop! Woop!

My last (full) day in California ended with a BEAUTIFUL sunset - just perfection

Got to unleash my adventurous side with a bit of go-karting on my last day.

. . . Final words . . .

Overall, the internship at SLAC was the BEST experience I have had to date! It was an incredible opportunity and I cannot honestly believe that I was able to do this and work at this AMAZING national facility that is home to the largest linear accelerator in the world! Just. UNBELIEVABLE.

I learnt SO much, met incredible people and had my first experience away from home and it was my first time in America too! So all in all, it was FANTABULOUS! Cannot even put into words how amazing this opportunity was and I want to say a huge thank you to all those that helped me get to SLAC and have this amazing opportunity. Thank you very much Mike Dunne, Alan Fry, Joe Robinson and Katalin Mecseki and Franz Tavella for making my internship at SLAC possible.
A huge thank you goes to all those that made my time at SLAC and California the best thing ever: Sid Patankar, Maegan Gonzales, Riccardo Veraldi, Ernesto Paiser, Omar Quijano, Matthew Windeler, Israt Alam.

If there is one thing I've learnt from this trip is that your dreams can never be too big, never give up and always fight for what makes your heart sing.

Believe in yourself and anything can happen! I believe in you!