A Century of Quantum Mechanics
In October 2011 we celebrated the centenary of the Solvay conferences that played a unique and important role in the development of twentieth century physics, most notably in the quantum revolution whose birth overlapped the initiation of these meeti....
More details | Watch nowA linear collider at CERN – from IOP
The boss of CERN wants the next big experiment in particle physics after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to be built at the Geneva lab. Speaking in an interview with physicsworld.com, Rolf-Dieter Heuer said that CERN should host the experiment, which....
More details | Watch nowA Little Light Relief
Light, particularly sunlight, is believed to be good for our health. Many ancient civilisations even attributed it with mystical healing powers.Renowned for his entertaining lectures, Professor David Phillips, President of the RSC, uses his expertise....
More details | Watch nowA New Kilogram in 2018: The Biggest Revolution in Metrology Since the French Revolution
Metrology - the science of measurements - is responsible for the international uniformity and precision in standards. Today, the seven units for meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela of our international system of units (SI units....
More details | Watch nowA Quantum Gas
The quantum gas is an extreme state of an ensemble of atoms when their de Broglie wave length is of the same length as the size of the container. The ways of achieving this state are described and also how its temperature is defined.
More details | Watch nowAbolishing Time?
David Gross's Nobel Prize was for work on the 'strong' force which acts between quarks inside the atom. Now he works on string theory, hoping to understand how all the forces of nature could be united. He believes the next steps may involve throwing ....
More details | Watch nowAlexander Müller
K. Alexander Müller shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with J. Georg Bednorz in 1987 'for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials'. At the age of 9 Mller was given a radio (a single vacuum tube receiv....
More details | Watch nowAntimatter
What is antimatter? What does it tell us about the structure of our universe? Can we ever detect it?
More details | Watch nowaskFSU 1 : speed of light, tachyons, solar sails, and black holes
Joining Philip Schlenoff is Dr. Jeff Owens, from the Physics department at Florida State University, to answer some physics and astrophysics-related questions!
More details | Watch nowBig Bang – a tour of the Large Hadron Collider
Dr Brian Cox takes us on a tour of the Large Hadron Collider where the conditions moments after the Big Bang are to be recreated.
More details | Watch nowBlack holes, Wormholes and Time Travel
The idea of time travel makes great science fiction, but can it really be achieved? Paul Davies, Visiting Professor of Physics at Imperial College, describes wormholes in space and other ways that might allow travel into the past or future.
More details | Watch nowBusy, Busy – all day long we’re in a whirl
An unusual look at the effects that things rotating have on our everyday life.
More details | Watch nowCentre of mass
In finite objects, the total external force equals the total mass times the acceleration of a point called the centre of mass.
More details | Watch nowCentripetal force – how do we measure it?
A short video showing a simple classroom method of checking the way in which this force is related to mass, speed and radius.
More details | Watch nowCircular motion
Uniform circular motion: angular displacement and velocity are introduced and centripetal acceleration is determined.
More details | Watch nowCold Atomic Gases: the Intersection of Condensed Matter and Atomic Physics
During the past decade laser cooling and evaporative cooling of atoms have produced quantum degenerate gases both of bosons (Bose-Einstein condensates) and of fermions (gases with temperatures below the Fermi temperature). Such gases can provide ana....
More details | Watch nowColor Theory
For my project I am giving a brief history of color theory with emphasis on how science and color theory have interacted. I focus on aspects like primary colors, how color is perceived, and the artists who were at the forefront of color and design. I....
More details | Watch nowCommunicating with light
Most of the data we generate and receive (whether emails, tweets, videos or mobile calls) are now carried by optical fibres, which use light to transmit vast quantities of information over trans-oceanic distances. The use of hundreds of wavelengths ....
More details | Watch nowCommunication on Earth, using Cables and Satellites
A brief look at the Physics behind sending signals along cables and via geostationary satellites. An experiment to measure the speed of an electrical pulse in a cable is described and the Physics of the orbits of communcations satellites is develope....
More details | Watch nowCommunication with Space Probes and beyond
The main problems associated with communicating with distant space probes like Voyager 1 are investigated. The role played by diffraction in limiting the amount of power receivable on Earth is discussed. The further problems of reaching a nearby st....
More details | Watch nowConcert Hall Acoustics
Physics' students Rosie & Carine explain the physics behind concert hall acoustics.
More details | Watch nowControlling Photons in a Box and Exploring the Quantum to Classical Boundary
The founders of quantum theory assumed in 'thought experiments' that they were manipulating isolated quantum systems, obeying the counterintuitive laws which they had just discovered. Technological advances have recently turned these virtual experi....
More details | Watch nowCosmic Rays: the Most Energetic Particles in the Universe
Astrophysical objects are able to accelerate atomic nuclei to energies 10^7 times more than man made accelerators such as LHC. _Particles arrive at earth from space with energies as great as 50 joules, a macroscopic energy in a microscopic particle.....
More details | Watch nowCosmic X-ray sources
Riccardo Giacconi , USA was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2002 for 'for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources.
More details | Watch nowCrater Formation in Sand
A description and demonstration of the way in which craters formed by dropping objects into sand can be linked to some elementary physics
More details | Watch nowCreating Artificial Magnetic Fields to Act on Neutral Atoms
Cold, quantum degenerate gases of neutral atoms have proved to be useful in simulating the behavior of quantum systems like electrons in solids. For example, cold atoms moving in optical lattices (periodic potentials created by interfering laser be....
More details | Watch nowDark Matter, Dark Energy
Smoot's Nobel Prize was awarded for his analysis of that whisper from the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background radiation. Today he hopes CERN's data will again transform our understanding of the universe. Young scientists Bilge Demirkoz and Benj....
More details | Watch nowDensity Functional Theory: three non-technical explanations
What do six brides have to do with Density-Functional Theory? Discover it in this lecture, in which the essential ideas behind DFT are explained in three different non-technical ways. After this practical lecture, you will be able to understand the m....
More details | Watch nowDiffraction and Fourier Transforms
Direct Cluster Nuclear Transfer Reactions
Studies of direct cluster nuclear transfer reactions to give information about angular momentum values in excited states of nuclei.
More details | Watch nowDiscovery of Superconducting Tunneling
I had the great fortune to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics for using electron tunneling to measure the energy gap in superconductors. In this talk I will recollect some of the events that led to this discovery and hopefully I will be able to convey....
More details | Watch nowDiscovery of the Higgs Particle
Recently the Higgs particle has been discovered at CERN. This particle was theoretically predicted. The historical development of field theory, leading to this prediction will be discussed.
More details | Watch nowEinstein’s legacy as scientist and icon
What might 'new Einsteins' achieve in the 21st century? Science offers more intellectual challenges than ever, but is a less individualistic enterprise. Technology offers imense opportunities, but poses threats and ethical dilemmas. Can scientists re....
More details | Watch nowElectrical Generator
This short video shows one of the demonstrations for the Physics SEPNet exhibition - "Who will keep the lights on?" which travelled around the southern UK from February 2009. We describe and explain the electrical generator demonstration which Jona....
More details | Watch nowElectron Waves Unveil The Microcosmos
Since the time of Faraday lines of force in space have been 'observed' by sprinkling iron filings around magnet. The lecturer explains how, with modern techniques we can 'see' lines of force inside a solid magnet. The studies reveal a fascinating dyn....
More details | Watch nowEnergy and power
The total work done on an object equals the increase in its kinetic energy. For conservative forces, we can define potential energy.
More details | Watch nowEvery picture tells a story
We will look at the role of pictures and images in the development of science. From the first graphs and illustrated books to Molscript, the influence of the first pictures of spiral galaxies on Van Gogh's 'Starry Night', to the artistic resonances o....
More details | Watch nowFibre and Sunlight
Fine tuning the frequencies of light gave John Hall a Nobel Prize, and helped transform the fields of precision measurement and information transmission. Iris Choi and Andrei Ghicov are young scientists excited by the ways physics can change our worl....
More details | Watch nowFive Decades of Lasers, Six Decades of Progress, and a Proposed Space Experiment to test Einstein’s Assumptions
Even though this is the 51st year of the Laser, progress in its control and application in precision measurements is still accelerating. The Optical Frequency Comb technology exploded in 1999-2000 from the synthesis of advances in independent field....
More details | Watch nowForce or (potential) energy
Classical dynamics uses the concept of force for its solution. On the other hand force in quantum dynamics has no meaning and the concept of potential energy is used instead. The question is, "which one of the concepts is more fundamental?".
More details | Watch nowFrom Millisecond to Attosecond Laser Pulses
A historical overview is presented of the experimental development of ever shorter laser pulses from 1960 to the present. Already in the early sixties nanosecond pulses were achieved and the entry into the picosecond domain was reached in the late s....
More details | Watch nowFrom Spinwaves to Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) and Beyond
Standing spinwaves and surface waves in layered magnetic structures can be used for the detection and quantitative evaluation of interlayer exchange coupling (IEC). Using this method antiferromagnetic IEC has been found in Fe/Cr/Fe layered structure....
More details | Watch nowFrontiers of Physics
David discusses a few of the questions facing fundamental physics that might be answered before the 100th Lindau meeting in 2050.
More details | Watch nowFuture Accelerators for Astro-Particle Physics
One of the most remarkable results of astro-particle Physics has been the success of the Standard Model, recently culminated in the discovery of the Higgs particle (Ho). However, the Ho is observable only in few channels at the LHC, in the presence o....
More details | Watch nowGeometrical optics
On scales much bigger than the wavelength, rays explain the behaviour of interfaces, mirrors, lenses, optical instruments, including telescopes and microscopes.
More details | Watch nowGerardus ‘t Hooft
Gerardus 't Hooft, the Netherlands shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1999 with Martinus J.F. Veltman, the Netherlands 'for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics'. He came from a family of intellectuals. His great....
More details | Watch nowGoing round in circles – how do we do it?
A presentation showing both the ideas about centripetal force and a simple classroom method of checking the way in which this force is related to mass, speed and radius.
More details | Watch nowGraphene
A magnetic tunnel junction is a device with two magnets separated by a very thin non-magnetic barrier. The two magnets can be aligned parallel or antiparallel. The electrical resistance of this devices depends on the alignment. This video illustrates....
More details | Watch nowGravity
The inverse square law explains planetary motion - and apples falling. Newton's law, measuring G, calculating orbits.
More details | Watch nowHerbert Kroemer
In 2000 Herbert Kroemer, who was born in Germany, and works at UCSB in the USA shared half of the Nobel Prize for Physics with Zhores I. Alferov ( Russia ) 'for basic work on information and communication technology' and in particular 'for developing....
More details | Watch nowHigh-Resolution Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy at Florida State University
Studies of nuclear stability using gamma-ray spectroscopy. Use in security scanning; PET scans;
More details | Watch nowHow can we see atoms ?
How does a transistor work?
A short video explaining how transistors work. At the heart of our high-tech society with radios, mobile phones, computers and space exploration are tiny electronic components called transistors. They have revolutionised electronics and in the pr....
More details | Watch nowHow X-rays cracked the structure of DNA
An elegantly simple optical diffraction demonstration with an inexpensive laser pointer is used to show the way in which x-rays can reveal the structure of crystals, and in particular, the double helix structure of DNA.
More details | Watch nowHuman Sound
Sound is produced in the larynx; filtering it in the vocal tract produces formants and phonemes. The acoustics, mechanics and some neurobiology of hearing. Pitch perception.
More details | Watch nowHunting for Higgs – Why Build the Large Hadron Collider?
This short documentary explains why the Large Hadron Collider was built and what scientists are using the collider to look for.
More details | Watch nowhyperfine interactions
30-minute lecture about the physics of hyperfine interactions, and about how to calculate hyperfine interactions by the WIEN2k DFT code
More details | Watch nowImproving your Memory
Interference and consonance
Superposing waves with different frequencies gives beats and Tartini tones. Removing beats gives consonance. Tuning consonances gives temperament.
More details | Watch nowIsaac Newton and Gravitation
A look at what was known when Newton started to develop his theory of gravitation and how he used these ideas and data to make his great forward step
More details | Watch nowIvar Giaever
Ivar Giaever won the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his investigations of tunneling in semiconductors and superconductors. Giaever worked on metal thin films and tunneling and took a Solid State physics course. Although he knew nothing about Superconductivi....
More details | Watch nowLaser Spectroscopy of Hydrogen
The simple Balmer spectrum of atomic hydrogen has provided the Rosetta stone for deciphering the strange laws of quantum physics during the early 20th century. Four decades ago, Doppler-free laser spectroscopy opened a new chapter in the exploratio....
More details | Watch nowLeo Esaki
Leo Esaki is a Japanese physicist who shared half the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Ivar Giaever for the discovery of the phenomenon of electron tunneling. The second half of the prize was awarded to Brian David Josephson. He is known for his i....
More details | Watch nowLife in Space
Helen Sharman, the UK's first astronaut, gives a vibrant account of her personal experience of life in space using models and film to illustrate the key scientific concepts involved in spaceflight. Among other things she discusses the way Newton's Th....
More details | Watch nowLight Beam
Light is reflected off a flexible shiny surface fixed to the end of a plastic tube. When one speaks into the tubes sound vibrations pass down the tube and make the surface vibrate. The reflected light is therefore sent off from the surface in a con....
More details | Watch nowLight Quanta and Their Idiosyncrasies
Maxwell's electromagnetic theory (now 150 years old) seemed in its comprehensive way to be capable of answering all of the questions one might ever pose about the theory of light. But that spell was broken in 1900 by Planck's discovery that light bea....
More details | Watch nowLiquid Crystals
A review of the properties and behaviour of liquid crystals. Temperature effects.
More details | Watch nowLongboard data analysis
Longboard physics
A few (surprising?) thoughts on how the wheels on a longboard or skateboard actually move.
More details | Watch nowMagnetism and Electricity
This presentation reviews how magnets work and their uses in the world today. It also explains how magnets and electricity are related and what future inventions could come from using magnets.
More details | Watch nowMapping the Universe and Its History
Using our most advanced techniques and instruments we sift through study the cosmic microwave background as a relic of the early universe to understand the events surrounding the birth and subsequent development of the Universe. A precision inspect....
More details | Watch nowMartinus J.F. Veltman
Martinus J.F. Veltman, the Netherlands shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1999 with Gerardus 't Hooft the Netherlands 'for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics'. Not all areas of Holland were very advanced when V....
More details | Watch nowMasers and Lasers
Charles Hard Townes received the Nobel Prize for Phyiscs in 1964 'for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle' He was award half of the P....
More details | Watch nowMeasuring the speed of pulses
A short clip showing the experimental measurement of the speed of electrical pulses in a cable - a large fraction of the speed of light.
More details | Watch nowMeasuring the speed of sound
A presentation showing how to measure the speed of sound over a short distance on a laboratory table.
More details | Watch nowMeasuring the speed of sound – experimental details
A short clip showing the measurement of the speed of sound over short distances.
More details | Watch nowMillie Dresselhaus
Mildred Dresselhaus was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in a poor section of the Bronx. She was a Fullbright Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University (UK) in 1951-52 and obtained a PhD at the University of Chicago in 1958. Mill....
More details | Watch nowMobile Phone
Jonathan shows us with a cheap and simple homemade demonstration how your mobile telephone generates radio waves in order for you to use it to communicate. As you will see you can use this method to explore many aspects of your mobile phone!
More details | Watch nowMobile Phones – Safe?
A presentation discussing the science of mobile phones and associated radiation. Are mobile phones safe?
More details | Watch nowModel Synthesis for Ceramics: Superconductors, Magnets and Others
The discovery of superconductivity in hole doped La2CuO4 was motivated by the interest to find this phenomenon in an oxide. After the discovery near 35 K, copper oxides with transition temperatures of up to 131 K at normal pressure were found, i.e.....
More details | Watch nowModern Physics
A series of nine lectures from Leonard Susskind who is the Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics atStanford University, and Director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics.
More details | Watch nowMomentum
p=mv. If external forces are zero, momentum is conserved. In collisions, energy may be conserved (elastic) or not (inelastic).
More details | Watch nowMotion with constant acceleration (kinematics)
Kinematics quantifies motion without explaining the causes of it. Here we study accelerations that are zero, positive or negative.
More details | Watch nowMusic, architecture and acoustics in Renaissance Venice: Recreating lost soundscapes
During the Renaissance in Venice, composers such as the Gabrieli and Moneverdi created some of their greatest masterpieces for performance in the great churches on festive occasions. But what would the music have sounded like, given its complexity an....
More details | Watch now