The Cutting Edge
From July 21st Until August 29th
Science Oxford brings you despatches from the frontiers of scientific research.
With the best exhibits from this year's Royal Society Summer Exhibition...
See the world through the eyes of an atom:
by the University of Nottingham and the University of Oxford
Carbon is a miraculous substance. It is the essential building block for all living things and is vital to many of our most advanced technologies. Come and experience wonder in carbon land, and see how we can now control carbon at the atomic scale to build almost unimaginably small structures: nanotubes and nanocages. Find out how these may be components for the most exotic technology ever conceived: the quantum computer.
Test the speed of your brain:
by the University of Cambridge
How fast do your eyes react to a sudden image or your fingers to an instruction to tap a target? The brain mechanisms of these reactions and the effect of neurological disease on these mechanisms are now well understood. Test your reaction times with simple equipment that could improve the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases such as Parkinson's.
Take a new look at the eye:
by Cardiff University, Science and Technology Facilities Council, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
By the time you have read this paragraph you will have blinked 3 or 4 times. So what causes a blink? One theory is that the temperature of our tears is key to the whole process. See for yourself how blinking is vital for eye health and good vision, and discover how blinking rates differ in an experimental 'staring' contest.
Explore planets from other star systems:
by The Open University, University of St Andrews, University of Hertfordshire, The Faulkes Telescope Project, The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Keely University and Queen's University Belfast
In just 12 years the number of planets identified outside our Solar System has risen from none to almost 300. Astronomers can't actually 'see' these planets. They predict they are there by observing the effects on light emitted by the star a planet orbits. Join the planet detectives as they monitor a worldwide network of telescopes.
and go back to the Big Bang:
by UK LHC research community and Science and Technology Facilities Council
Summer 2008 marks the beginning of a new era in physics as research kicks-off at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. By smashing particles together at 99.99% of the speed of light, this 'particle collider' can create conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang. Discover how experiments in the next ten years at the LHC will answer fundamental questions about life, the universe and everything.
Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. For more information, call 01865 728953 or e-mail events@scienceoxford.com.
See the world through the eyes of an atom:
by the University of Nottingham and the University of Oxford
Carbon is a miraculous substance. It is the essential building block for all living things and is vital to many of our most advanced technologies. Come and experience wonder in carbon land, and see how we can now control carbon at the atomic scale to build almost unimaginably small structures: nanotubes and nanocages. Find out how these may be components for the most exotic technology ever conceived: the quantum computer.
Test the speed of your brain:
by the University of Cambridge
How fast do your eyes react to a sudden image or your fingers to an instruction to tap a target? The brain mechanisms of these reactions and the effect of neurological disease on these mechanisms are now well understood. Test your reaction times with simple equipment that could improve the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases such as Parkinson's.
Take a new look at the eye:
by Cardiff University, Science and Technology Facilities Council, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
By the time you have read this paragraph you will have blinked 3 or 4 times. So what causes a blink? One theory is that the temperature of our tears is key to the whole process. See for yourself how blinking is vital for eye health and good vision, and discover how blinking rates differ in an experimental 'staring' contest.
Explore planets from other star systems:
by The Open University, University of St Andrews, University of Hertfordshire, The Faulkes Telescope Project, The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Keely University and Queen's University Belfast
In just 12 years the number of planets identified outside our Solar System has risen from none to almost 300. Astronomers can't actually 'see' these planets. They predict they are there by observing the effects on light emitted by the star a planet orbits. Join the planet detectives as they monitor a worldwide network of telescopes.
and go back to the Big Bang:
by UK LHC research community and Science and Technology Facilities Council
Summer 2008 marks the beginning of a new era in physics as research kicks-off at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. By smashing particles together at 99.99% of the speed of light, this 'particle collider' can create conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang. Discover how experiments in the next ten years at the LHC will answer fundamental questions about life, the universe and everything.
Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. For more information, call 01865 728953 or e-mail events@scienceoxford.com.
