Public talk: Fusion Power - the era of burning plasmas

Speaker: Professor Steven Cowley, Director of Culham Laboratory.

Date & Time: 7pm, Tuesday 4th of May, 2010

Location: Pevensey 1, theatre 1A7, University of Sussex

In a decade, the international fusion experiment ITER will start operating in the south of France. This historic experiment will generate up to 500 megawatts of fusion power and provide a proof of principle for fusion energy. Fusion has the potential to provide a large fraction of our energy for millions of years. In this talk, Steven will describe the scientific progress in fusion, from Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington's prophetic predictions in 1920 to the remarkable results that have lead to ITER, and the challenging problems that must be solved to make fusion power a commercial option.

Travel: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/aboutus/findus

Contact:s.j.m.peeters@sussex.ac.uk or 01273 678128

All go at the Large Hadron Collider!

There has been two important bits of news about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the worlds largest experiment which is devoted to the study of particle physics.

First up, the Experimental Particle Physics team here at the University of Sussex have now officially become part of the LHC team! The full story can be seen on the University News pages.

And secondly, scientists have successfully inserted protons into the collider (although no collisions have taken place as yet). The full story of that can be seen on the BBC News.

Outreach Launch Party

On the 14th of July, 2009, over 50 teachers from around the region came to visit the University of Sussex, to see the launch of outreach offerings from the department of Physics & Astronomy.

Activities included:

• a tour of the research facilities
• demonstrations of hands-on workshops for schools kids
• watching radiation passing through cloud chambers
• GCSE revision experiments
• our new roof-top robotic observatory
• solar telescope demonstrations
• plus the chance to talk to members of the department, both staff and students

The event was a tremendous success, and everyone enjoyed themselves! We also got lots of valuable feedback from visitors, and ideas to put into our program for next year.

We'd like to thanks all those who made the effort to come and visit, and we really value your thoughts and ideas. And we look forward to seeing you all again at some point in the future, either here on campus, or at your school.

Under-graduate students Nick and Darren (left), and lecturer Jon Loveday (right), all from the Physics & Astronomy department of the University of Sussex, show off the selection of telescopes available for visiting schools to use.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Physics & Astronomy Outreach blog, here at the University of Sussex!

This blog will contain...

• Previews & reminders of up-and-coming events
• Reviews of past events
• Latest news in Physics & Astronomy - with special relevance to teaching, and the University of Sussex.

We hope you will enjoy reading the blog, and if you do have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know at physicsoutreach@sussex.ac.uk