Creating a stir during physics potions workshops

Wizard apprentices try out their magic at the Midlothian Science Festival.

‘A night at wizarding school’ welcomed young and adult wizard apprentices to Newbattle Abbey College, Dalkeith in October as part of the Midlothian Science Festival. 

Visitors had the chance to make baby boggarts (slime), emulsions (potions requiring oil and water to mix), test our their skills in divination (through surface tension effects), experience the constrictive power of the devil’s snare (using cornflour and water) and leave their thoughts in the pensieve (illustrating the visually dynamic currents in rheoscopic fluids). 

These activities helped visitors get a flavour of the work which potion masters (also known as soft matter physicists) undertaken in their labs. 

Potion masters wish to thank the Midlothian Science Festival, the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, the Optima CDT and the Institute of Physics for organisational support.

Photo credits: Lee Live Photography