Discussing the exciting science of superconductors in front of a packed room at the Royal Society's Kohn Centre
PQM academic Gunnar Möller and STEM outreach officer Megan Bell gave a demonstration of exciting low-temperature physics at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition on 3rd July 2024. Speaking in front of a packed room at the Royal Society’s Kohn centre, the show left many of the attendees with a first-hand experience of the stiffness of the superconducting wave function in a high temperature superconducting material.
To put things into context, Gunnar introduced the field of condensed matter physics, phase transitions and the science collective effects of quantum materials. Megan followed up demonstrating some of those concepts hands on, showing off the liquid-gas phase transition taking place in balloons after being dipped into liquid nitrogen and freezing a cucumber for show effect.
As a glorious finale to the show, we got to show our superconducting train model levitating on top – or remaining suspended below – a magnetic track made of simple permanent magnets. There were lots of questions during the talk and afterwards, and it would appear that the audience did enjoy the proceedings greatly.
If you would like to catch up on the event, do check out the Royal Society’s recording, here.
Megan showing off a frozen balloon
Gunnar demonstrating a superconducting train model levitating over a magnetic track