60 second science: Fusion energy with Professor Steven Cowley

Posted by Martyn J Bull on February 27, 2013
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The most successful fusion machines on the planet are the JET and MAST tokamaks at Culham Laboratory in Oxfordshire.

Professor Steven Cowley from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy is the winner of the 2012 Glazebrook Medal awarded by the Institute of Physics for his leadership of the UK’s fusion energy programme and his major contributions to plasma and fusion science.

Transcript

What’s going on in the centre of all stars is small nuclei of atoms are bing joined together to make bigger ones. It’s a process we’d like to harness to power the Earth.

The fusion reaction that we do in JET is a reaction between two isotopes of hydrogen. JET  is a very large device. I mean, if you stand next to it you are dwarfed by its scale. But in order to get to the stage where we can actually burn a plasma, fully self-sustaining fusion, we have to go to the next stage which is ITER. ITER is twice the size of JET. Really an enormous device.

This award of the Glazebrook medal is an award for Culham. I’m very lucky to have an extraordinarily clever, strong, motivated, skillful set of people.

We’ll be there at the finishing line. We’ll be there when fusion is actually a power source that people get some of their electricity from.

About the film

Filmed on location at:

Director: Martyn Bull
Producer: Thomas Delfs
Camera: Mark Whatmore
Editors: Liam Angell, Mike Willbourne
Cast: Professor Steve Cowley

Production company: insitu
Client: Institute of Physics

Camera: RED Epic, Canon 550D

Solar visualisation: NASA/ESA Helioviewer project
NGC3314 overlapping galaxies: NASA, ESA, the hubble heritage team (STScI/AURA) – ESA/Hubble collaboration, and W. Keel (University of Alabama)
Superbubble in the large magellanic cloud: NASA/CXC/U.Mich/S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-m
ITER images and video: The ITER Organisation

Further reading

60 second science: Butterflies and metamaterials with Professor Roy Sambles

Posted by Martyn J Bull on February 25, 2013
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Inspired by intricate microscopic structures giving vivid colours in butterfly wings, Roy Sambles has created ‘metamaterials’ to manipulate light, microwaves and radio waves in unusual ways.

Professor Sambles from the University of Exeter is the winner of the 2012 Faraday Medal awarded by the Institute of Physics for pioneering research in experimental physics.

Roy Sambles uses the intricate nanostructures found in butterfly wings that scatter light, to build structures that will scatter microwaves in the same way.

Roy Sambles uses the intricate nanostructures found in butterfly wings that scatter light, to build structures that will scatter microwaves in the same way.

Transcript

If you look at nature there are some stunning colour effects. Rainbows are amazing things. Stunningly bright, vivid butterflies from South America. Dragonflies, how do they achieve those gorgeous greens? We just need to know!

We found that within the wingscale, which is more or less fingernail material, the butterfly had created a variety of different vivid colour effects.

By unravelling the butterflies, we found a whole raft of new metamaterial type structures. If you structure matter on a fine enough scale, it doesn’t respond in a simple way like a bucket of water. It has new properties.

The medal came as a total surprise to me, I have to say. With a large number of very able PhD students down the years, I’ve been fortunate and privileged. To receive the award, in a sense, on their behalf is, yes, immensely pleasing.

I go around from place to place talking about physics and I find that from 3 year olds to 93 year olds they are still fascinated. How does it all work? That’s it, isn’t it? How does it all work?

About the film

Filmed on location at:

Director: Martyn Bull
Producer: Thomas Delfs
Camera: Mark Whatmore
Editors: Liam Angell, Mike Willbourne
Cast: Professor Roy Sambles

Production company: insitu
Client: Institute of Physics

Camera: RED Epic, Canon 550D

Further reading

60 second science: Engineering measurement innovation with Sir David McMurtry and John Deer

Posted by Martyn J Bull on February 22, 2013
Posted in: Films, Science & technology. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

From humble beginnings as mechanical apprentices, Sir David and John met in the library at Rolls-Royce. Together they founded Renishaw, now one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of precision measurement equipment.

Sir David McMurtry and John Deer are joint winners of the Swan Medal awarded by the Institute of Physics celebrating physics in business.

John Deer and Sir David McMurtry discussing production with employees at the Renishaw New Mills site.

John Deer and Sir David McMurtry discuss production with employees at the Renishaw New Mills site.

Transcript

Sir David: I was determined I was going to go into a career in the aircraft industry.

John: I did an engineering apprenticeship.

Sir David: I applied for a job in what is now Rolls-Royce. I was deputy chief designer and that was the time we started Renishaw.

John: David’s strength is that he’s a great innovator as well as a designer.

Sir David: John’s strength is always commercial nouse.

Sir David: The areas of science which we are active in is metrology which is the science of measurement

John: We were going to be selling to big companies who had absolutely failed to solve the problem of manufacturing a sensor capable of being used on their machines. We had no problem whatsoever in introducing the product to these major companies in America, Japan, Italy and the UK.

John: This reward really is for the company and that’s what makes me really proud.

Sir David: It puts the company in the spotlight.

About the film

Filmed on location at:

  • Renishaw, New Mills, Wooton-Under-Edge, Goucestershire, UK.
  • Renishaw, Woodchester, Gloucestershire, UK. September 2012.

Director: Martyn Bull
Producer: Thomas Delfs
Camera: Mark Whatmore
Editors: Liam Angell, Mike Willbourne
Cast: Sir David McMurtry, John Deer

Production company: insitu
Client: Institute of Physics

Camera: RED Epic, Canon 550D

Further reading