Now that's out of the way lets talk about the weekend. As I'm sure you were all aware (even if it was a last minute realisation and panic!) it was father's day on Sunday, so we headed to the Winchester Science Centre to run a SEPnet stand. We were joined by members of the University of Surrey, Portsmouth and many other local universities, to run a variety of different activities aimed at all ages.
Our stand was mainly demonstrating fun things to try at home using balloons to make drinks cans move, making a CD hovercraft amongst others. This was great for getting children to start seeing how things like static electricity work although it was often a challenge to explain without giving the whole degree level understanding. If you've been to the science centre before you'll know there are hundreds of exhibits to look and play with so we had fun messing around with the wind turbine parachute men, and seeing who could achieve near jedi powers with the mind controlled ball game.
Throughout the day there were presentations given by lectures from local universities. I sat in one of them given by Dr Brian Wink. He is a professor of psychology at Southampton Solent University, and was giving a talk titled Science, Art and Illusion. This looked at how artists are able to create depth in their pictures to trick the brain into thinking it seeing a 3D image. He also discussed optical illusions and why it is that the brain is tricked into believing what it sees. Using the techniques to understand the brain, the mystery of the Mona Lisa smile was revealed.
Other talks throughout the day were looking at how science can be used to improve performance in sport both through perception and technology. These presentations were put on at no extra charge as part of University Week. As well as SEPnet, there were stands downstairs from other universities including Southampton, Southampton Solent, Reading, and Bournemouth. There were some showing their research, asking for participation in studies, or demonstrating what it is they have found. Aimed at younger children (although that didn't stop me having a go at everything) there were also activities like painting fossils, making soap, doing some origami, as well as a chemistry practical to make your own bouncy ball out of PVA glue.
All in all it was a good day out, I always enjoy engaging with the public and hopefully some people will have come away having learnt something new.
Well that's all for now, and we'll keep you posted if anything comes about. I just have to decide what to do with all this soap...
Ben Stray
