Discoveries, inventions and the power of curiosity

Thousands of visitors enjoyed hands-on activities, talks and exhibitions at the Festival of Physics, which was organised by the Institute of Physics at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh on the 4 & 5 November.

The School of Physics and Astronomy was honoured to be part of the weekend, with staff and students involved in a range of activities for children, teenagers and adults including:

• particle physics exhibitions - where visitors got the chance to discover how a particle accelerator works, and learn more about the unanswered questions relating to the missing antimatter, dark matter and dark energy in our Universe.
• learning about the Higgs Boson from Prof Victoria Martin, a former student of Prof Peter Higgs, as she explained how it was found and what its consequences might be for the fundamentals of our universe.
• discovering the properties of complex fluids at hands-on workshops, including a workshop on how physics can be used to affect the way chocolate looks, feels and tastes, and a workshop on gin, illustrating the mechanics of distillation, the influence of ice, and what actually happens when you shake a Martini.  I expect you didn’t know physics experiments could be so delicious!

If you would like to know more about particle or nuclear physics activities, enquiries [at] ph.ed.ac.uk (get in touch) with us.  For information on complex fluids activities, or if you are interested in offering the Physics of Gin or Physics of Chocolate workshops at your own events, please contact our J.C.Denis [at] ed.ac.uk (Ogden Science and ECFP Outreach Officer).