Doors Open Day

Corn starch and water. Image: Dr Michiel Hermes.

Over 300 people visited the School as part of Doors Open Day on Saturday 27th September. This annual event allows visitors to see behind the scenes at venues across Edinburgh.

At the James Clerk Maxwell Building, visitors were able to visit the laboratories of the Soft Matter Physics group of the Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems and talk to some of the researchers.

In the foyer, there were demonstration experiments illustrating the unique properties of complex fluids and the research taking place in the group on the physics of bacteria.

The most popular experiments were a large vat of corn starch which visitors were invited to punch, illustrating the shear thickening nature of the material. Visitors could also make their own complex fluid, slime, which can bounce as a solid but flow like a liquid. Over 3 litres of slime were made during the day.