National Physical Laboratory

Celebrating Science Protons for Breakfast

A 6-week course for people interested in science
and its impact on our lives.

Week 1 - Electricity


We are familiar with the word 'electricity'. What ideas does the word conjure up for you? Well probably not the idea that the electric force dominates every physical process we will ever experience in our lives. Mechanical forces of 'touching' and 'pushing' are actually electrical forces. Chemistry is the study of the electrical interactions of molecules. And of course light, our primary means of perception in the world, is inextricably linked to electricity.

This week we look first at some of the phenomena around us where a little close examination will reveal the intrinsically electrical nature of our world. After some experimentation and demonstrations we will look at the fundamental particles which carry electric charge and see how they fit into our model of the universe.


Downloads

Links

Electrical Machines

The Elements

Week 2 - Light


Light is our primary means of perception in the world, but few of us have a clear conception of what light actually is. To say we are 'familiar' with light is to understate its role in our formation of knowledge about the external world.

In this week we will use some simple devices to examine the spectrum of light emitted by some familiar sources of light. Building on this experience (which can be a bit surprising) we look at the relationship between light and atoms, which are the source of the light we see.


Downloads

Links

Related material

Week 3 - Heat


Heat is an idea familiar to us all: we are all born with a primitive sense of temperature and can recognise when we are too 'hot' or too 'cold'. But what is different about an object when it is hot and when it is cold?

This week we will extend our experience of hot and cold considerably, and see manifestations of the atomic nature of the matter which makes up the physical world around us.


Downloads

Related material

Week 4 - Global Warming


The consequences of what we refer to as 'global warming' are frightening, and the apparent causes of it are very familiar. But this is a technically difficult topic and it can be utterly alienating. However, difficult as it is, we will try to make things as clear as possible and address the following questions:

  • What determines the temperature of the Earth?
  • What is the role of the atmosphere in determining the temperature of the surface of the Earth?
  • Is global warming taking place?
  • Is increased atmospheric carbon dioxide really a problem?


Downloads

Links

Climate models

  • EdGCM (Educational Global Circulation Model written by NASA scientists and pretty impressive - runs on Mac or PC)
  • Climate Prediction (lots of information, plus the chance to run a climate model on your PC as a screensaver)
  • The Hadley Centre (Met Office Centre for Climate Modelling - world leader in its field)

Ice and glaciers

Background

Related material

Week 5 - Mobile Phone Health


Mobile phones are everywhere. Mobile phone base stations are everywhere. This is great because it means we can use mobile phones whenever we want. But mobile phones do not work by magic - they use microwaves, the same microwaves that we use to cook vegetables. So are the phones or the base stations affecting our brains when we use them? We will look at:

  • The physics of microwave cooking (both practically and theoretically)
  • How is the safety of mobile phones assessed?
  • Why won't someone make a phone which we are absolute certain is 'safe'?


Downloads

Reports and official websites

Other links and news stories

Week 6 - Nuclear Power


We all use and rely on nuclear power to generate the electricity we use in our homes. But, despite its pretty astonishing safety record, nuclear power is generally considered by the public to be a 'bad thing'. Here we will look briefly at:

  • A brief history of nuclear power
  • The dangers of nuclear power
  • Radioactive dosing in everyday life
  • Are the risks of nuclear power too great to be compensated for by any benefits?
  • If global warming is caused by carbon dioxide emissions, could nuclear power be the 'greenest' choice of energy?


Downloads

Links

  • Health Protection Agency (formerly the National Radiological Protection Board)
  • MIT Report (thorough academic report [181 pages] on economics and practicality of nuclear power and its contribution to tackling climate change)
  • Moments of Discovery (American Institute of Physics history website)
  • Wikipedia (the online collective encyclopedia - results are usually interesting, but treat data with caution because entries are not refereed: search on 'nuclear power')
  • BBC News story October 2005 (outlines options and provides nice links)

Nuclear

Fossil fuel and alternatives

Chernobyl