• Question: what is the most coolest thing you've do in your lab

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      Asked by Turkeydoo to Elizabeth, James, Martin, Martin, Rob on 11 Mar 2015.
      • Photo: James Coombs OBrien

        James Coombs OBrien answered on 11 Mar 2015:

        I get to freeze materials with liquid nitrogen (-196 degree centigrade) and then smash them with a hammer, which is great fun. Apart from being fun and making a right mess it is actually a useful technique. I do this so I can see inside the materials without having to cut them, which can change how they look using a microscope. It also helps me release stress :).

        Another cool thing I’ve done is reacted sodium with water. Sodium is part if a group if elements called the alkali metals which all react violently with water. Its so cool to watch, it fizzes and dances about on the surface of the water releasing a lot of smoke.

        Thanks for your question!

      • Photo: Martin Ward

        Martin Ward answered on 12 Mar 2015:

        I think the coolest thing I have done is where I had two laser beams that were used to trap a particle, another laser beam that was used to light up the particles so that we could see them and then use another laser to hit the particle that we trapped.

        The different lasers had to be different colours so there was a lovely mixture of bright, intense colours as well as the lab looked like something from a sci-fi movie at the time!

      • Photo: Elizabeth Cooper

        Elizabeth Cooper answered on 13 Mar 2015:

        I like burning magnesium. This gives off a birght light which is quite fun. Have a look on my profile for a picture of this!

        Another cool thing is making crystals. If you drive off enough water from a solution (like a salt solution) then crystals start to form.If you put the beaker in ice the crystals grow really quick.

      • Photo: Robert Woolfson

        Robert Woolfson answered on 16 Mar 2015:

        In my lab? Probably when I get to use x-rays to figure out what the molecules I make actually look like.

        In science? I got to go work at a nuclear reactor for a week to study the magnetism of one of my molecules. It was in Grenoble in France which was amazing and the work itself was really cool.

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