Forskarskolan

Every year high school students in Stockholm can apply to a two-week science summer school where they work in research groups at Stockholm University. In 2011 I supervised six students in the Quantum Chemistry group, where we assigned projects on properties of molecules and chemical reactions.

We also demonstrated physics with some fun little experiments, like applying voltage to gherkins to make them glow like streetlights and making icecream with liquid nitrogen. The students also got a chance to visit a particle accelerator and to see the telescope on the roof of the physics building — the largest operating optical telescope in Sweden.

I had been told the students would be motivated — they were giving up two weeks of summer to be there, and places were very competitive — but still I was impressed by how well the students worked and how quickly they picked up ideas. It was a fun two weeks.

Read more about the summer school on the SU website (in Swedish) and watch a film made about the 2011 school.

Celebrate Science

I was invited to help with our AtMol group’s show at the second annual Celebrate Science fair, held on Palace Green in Durham during local schools’ half term holidays. The festival attracted over 3,500 people over 3 days. On our stand we talked to children and parents about temperature, laser cooling and atomic clocks — and showed them a real atom cooling experiment we’d brought along.

Read more on the AtMol outreach page and on the Durham Celebrate Science page.

Slide Decks

A Bit of Quantum Mechanics

A presentation I gave to the students of forskarskolan as an introduction to the ideas of the quantised nature of atoms and light, with a little history.