School of Physics & Astronomy

Scientific Talks & Demonstrations

Members of the department can visit schools and other groups across the country to present practical demonstrations of astronomy and physics using experimental apparatus and materials, such as liquid nitrogen, that are not usually available to these groups. We can also deliver talks regarding a wide range of topics at these locations, or within the department, some of which include:

Cosmology

  • The Violent Lives of Galaxies (Professor Meghan Gray)
  • Tens of Thousands of Galaxies at a Glance (Professor Meghan Gray)
  • Life, the Universe, and Everything (Professor Frazer Pearce)
  • Galaxies in 3D (Professor Alfonso Aragon-Salamanca)
  • The Cosmic Web (Professor Alfonso Aragon-Salamanca)
  • Galaxies – One Gigayear at a Time (Dr Julian Onions)
  • A Universe from Scratch (Dr Julian Onions)
  • Cosmology: What do we Really Know about the Universe? (Professor Anne Green)

Humans’ Place in Space

  • How to Solve Problems like a Physicist (Professor Meghan Gray)
  • Careers in Physics and Astronomy: Life, the Universe, and Everything (Professor Meghan Gray)
  • 21st Century Telescopes (Professor Mike Merrifield)
  • Crazy Interstellar Rockets (Dr Julian Onions)
  • Observing using the Isaac Newton Telescope: You Just Press the Button, right? (Dr Julian Onions)

Aliens and Other Worlds

  • The Far Side of the Moon: Is it Full of Aliens? (Dr Julian Onions)
  • Placing the Timelords on the Kardashev Scale (Professor Frazer Pearce)
  • SETI: Are we Alone? (Professor Frazer Pearce)
  • Adventures in the Goldilocks Zone: The Search for other Earths (Professor Frazer Pearce)

Black Holes, Dark Matter and Other Mysteries

  • Megadeath (Professor Frazer Pearce)
  • Dark Matter: An Observational Perspective (Dr Simon Dye)
  • The Search for Dark Matter (Professor Anne Green)
  • The Real Science behind Parallel Universes (Professor Tony Padilla)
  • Black Holes and Extra Dimensions (Professor Tony Padilla)
  • Cold Dark Matter: Is it Cold? Is it Dark? And is it Matter? (Dr Julian Onions)
  • Black Holes – Are they Really that Bad? (Dr Julian Onions)

Medical Physics

  • From Star Trek to MRI (Professor Penny Gowland)
  • Medical Physics: A Meeting of Worlds (Professor Penny Gowland)
  • How We Watch what your Brain Does (Dr Rebecca Dewey)

Quantum Physics

  • Quantum Technologies: Fact or Fiction (Professor Mark Fromhold)
  • The Wow! And Woo! Of Quantum Physics (Professor Philip Moriarty)
  • When The Uncertainty Principle goes to 11 (Professor Philip Moriarty)
  • 3D Printing with Atoms (Professor Philip Moriarty)
  • The Mystery of Quantum Gravity (Professor Tony Padilla)

Physics on Earth

  • Diamagnetic Levitation: A Real Spindizzy (Dr Richard Hill)
  • Global Warming (Professor Frazer Pearce)

The School of Physics and Astronomy also hosts the Midland Branch of the Institute of Physics, who deliver a number of physics-related lectures every year.

If you are interested in any of these opportunities, or would like to hear about some other topics in modern physics, please contact our Outreach Officer, Dr Emma Chapman, to organise an appropriate talk for your group.

School of Physics and Astronomy

The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham NG7 2RD

For all enquiries please visit:
www.nottingham.ac.uk/enquiry