Royal Institute Christmas Lectures

[Fab Foodie]

Indeed. Typo it is .

Can one make Liquid Nitrogen at home? Build oneself an appropriate fridge as it were? Stirling Engines do this for small quantities. But "playful" quantities are such fun

I used to work on a site with a 100 Tonne per day Liquid Oxygen plant. Hugely power-hungry stuff, I'd be very surprised if you could make it in the average home very effectively.

 

[vernon]

[QUOTE 1275562"]
Brian Cox was doing a documentary about the Solar System at the same time. I think he's charming, informative and engaging. Good science advocate, a professor and he's not a geek!

Reckon he should be hired for one of these RI sessions.


[/quote]

Brian Cox is a great advocate for science. He used to do presentations for the Pupil Researcher Initiative organised by Sheffield Hallam University. His feet are firmly on the ground and he captivated his audiences especially the girls. At least two of my ex-pupils were propelled into high flying science careers by their exposure to the Pupil Researcher initiative.

A group of my ex-pupils gave a presentation in the Royal Institution on a science based topic. It was the culmination of a series of public understanding of science activities hosted by a range of universities. My kids got to meet the then science minister Lord Sainsbury, Nobel Laureate Harry Kroto, astronaut Helen Sharman, Baroness Greenfield and Brian Cox amongst others who freely gave up their time to be part of the audience, present their own talks and judge poster sessions.

Such initiatives seemed to have withered on the vine as a consequence of the new science curriculum and the widespread adoption of OCR Nationals. If the Government wants to increase the uptake amongst school kids it really need to re-examine the neutered content of science education and look at funding enrichment opportunities.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I had a contact at a local university and a well mapped out route through his department that avoided the professor's office and the security check point.

Health and safety officers would have had a fit had they known I was driving a huge spherical flask of the stuff around in my car. I took the precaution of winding the windows down to avoid suffocation though

Oh what fun. I did have access to Liq N2 at work but I'm on a "career break" at the moment. We only ever used a flask full at any one time for cooling infrared detectors. The H&S folks were always "wear gloves" but with the small quantities the likely hood of the gloves trapping the Liquid inside was more of a hazard IMHO. I never wore gloves. If you splash some it just bounces off - safe as houses.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I used to work on a site with a 100 Tonne per day Liquid Oxygen plant. Hugely power-hungry stuff, I'd be very surprised if you could make it in the average home very effectively.

Yep - I think so, power hungry indeed. If I could generate a Thermos flask full that would be enough to play with. Pipe dream probably tho'.

Mind you - 100 Tonne of Liq O2. What one could do with that