Physics Flash Talks

Joe Hitchen, Oxford University Physics Department, describe the different stages of sea ice growth and the formation of hollow tubes of ice in the ocean known as brinicles. Every year, millions of square kilometres of the Arctic ocean freeze over as sea ice forms but this growth is controlled by processes on the scale of millimetres and centimetres. At this scale, sea ice is not a pure solid but a mixture of ice crystals and concentrated brine known as a "mushy layer". I will describe the different stages of sea ice growth and the formation of hollow tubes of ice in the ocean known as brinicles. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

In this talk Nazim Hussain, Oxford University, will provide an introduction to matter and antimatter and the interplay between them. As far as we can tell, our universe is filled with galaxies and planets (and people) all of which are made of matter. But, our universe could have been absolutely empty with nothing in it at all! In this talk, I will provide an introduction to matter and antimatter and the interplay between them. I shall also explain how the fact that we live in a universe filled with matter is one of the mysteries of modern physics, a puzzle that particle physicists are trying to resolve using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

The discovery of the Higgs boson last summer is widely regarded as one of the most important scientific discoveries of our time. This talk will take you on a quick journey describing why we were searching for this elusive particle, and the experimental challenges involved in finding it.

How does a quantum computer work? Why is a quantum computer so much better than a traditional computer? This talk will give you an insight into the strange features of the quantum world that we can exploit to develop a super fast quantum computer.

Magnetic particles can get frustrated in their interactions with other particles because of lattice geometry. Lots of new and exciting physics is involved in understanding how they deal with their frustration.

The Earth's climate is changing; but what are we doing about it? The frustration felt all around the world at the inability to agree a meaningful deal on global carbon dioxide emission leaves people looking for alternatives. Do we have the ability to manipulate our planet's climate to prevent the effects of global warming? If so how? What would be the consequences of attempting to do so? Understanding the physics of the Earth's climate is essential to answering these questions. Using the state-of-the-art computing power we are improving our knowledge of how the Earth works and of what any attempts to manipulate our climate would mean for the world we live in today...

David LLoyd describes how x-rays can be used for far more than identifying broken bones. From tracking the motion of electron to imaging the structure of viruses, he illustrates some examples of how researchers are using new x-ray sources to explore the microscopic world.

Since the discovery of the first extra-solar planet in the '90s, our perspective of the Universe has changed. Over the last two decades a whole host of exotic planet systems have been found, including analogues of famous science-fiction-worlds. Ruth Angus summarises some of the key discoveries in the field of extra-solar planets and discusses the likelihood of finding Earth II as the number of confirmed exoplanets approaches one-thousand. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/