In 1752, Benjamin Franklin attempted to catch lightning in a bottle with a kite, a key, and a Leyden jar. Whilst it wasn’t his purpose with these experiments, he would have been able to experience first-hand the difficulties in storing electrical energy in a jar. 270 years later, and researchers are attempting a similar but […]
Science Communication in Media Smart devices and technologies surround us more than we are aware. From face recognition smartphones to consumer preference cookies, we produce data at every technological interaction. To give one example, operating the engines for a two-jet plane on a 24h journey can produce as much data as Facebook does in one […]
Holography is a technique used to generate images that look like 3D objects. These images (also called holograms) give a perception of depth through interaction of waves of light beams. Over the years people have used holography in numerous fields, from making art and museum exhibits to environments of augmented reality (AR). In our project […]
Plasmonic nanomaterials have the unique ability to sustain collective oscillations of electrons when they interact with light. This property can be utilised in many different applications ranging from sensing to photothermal cancer treatment. Traditionally, Au and Ag have been the dominant plasmonic metals studied in this field, and there is a reason for that. Au […]
In my PhD, I make multispectral cameras for detecting early cancer and pre-cancerous disease in Barrett’s Oesophagus. Barrett’s Oesophagus is a largely benign condition impacting up to 1 in 15 people. Barrett’s occurs when repeated stomach acid reflux causes the usually smooth lining of the lower food-pipe becomes bumpy with protruding columnar cells, similar to […]
Since its invention in the 1600s, the microscope has enabled scientists to study biological systems previously invisible to understand structure and function. Fluorescence microscopy is a non-invasive and gentle technique that involves ‘tagging’ biological molecules of interest with fluorescent dyes (ranging from fluorescent proteins to chemically designed organic dyes) and measuring fluorescence emission. However, there […]
Microbes are the hidden heroes of our Earth, populating the dirt, the oceans, our skin, and more. Some microbes specialize in breaking things down, like the bacteria that cause food to decay over time. Others specialize in building- creating the fundamental building blocks of life. A special class of these are capable of taking nothing […]
The world around us shines with light of all different colours — some visible, some invisible to the human eye. Light is an oscillation in the electromagnetic field, and the length-scale of that oscillation determines the light’s wavelength, which, in turn, determines how that light behaves or how it can be used. So-called mid-infrared wavelengths […]
Over the past century, the invention of antennas has revolutionised the way our society works. From giant telescopes that allow us to observe the universe of many light-years ago, to the simple TV devices or cellular phones, we are now able to communicate with objects that are physically very far away from us. Antennas are […]
Remember the famous Stefan–Boltzmann law and Arrhenius equation in high school chemistry classes? Yes! Based on the fundamental principles of physical chemistry coupled with good foresight, Swedish Nobel Laureate Svante Arrhenius predicted the effects of climate change way ahead of his time in 1896. He proposed that a doubling of anthropogenic CO2 emissions would elevate […]