Today, to mark the start of the ATOM Science Festival (March 15th – 26th), a science market took place on Abingdon Market Place. It featured interactive demonstrations from world-class local science companies, academic organisations, and local societies. The Town Crier announced the event around town.
The Rosalind Franklin Institute in Harwell had a model COVID-19 virus and a llama. An antibody so small it is called a nanobody derived from llamas is prized for its size and stability, and is being used to develop antiviral therapies.
The Abingdon Naturalists Society had been pond dipping earlier in the morning at Barton Fields and brought along a tank of aquatic life. Among the specimens were this newt and frog. The display demonstrated the rich biodiversity in a simple pond.
Inside Abingdon Museum, visitors could view fossils from the Oxfordshire collection, and people could buy a fossil collection for £15. All the fossils were genuine, except the dinosaur tooth.
Scientists from the Department of Materials at Oxford University demonstrated magnetic levitation using a superconductor. A cup filled with liquid nitrogen cooled a material below its critical temperature, transforming it into a superconductor. A small metal disc hovered below due to the Meissner effect, where the superconductor expels magnetic fields. They explained that future advances in superconducting materials could help contain the extremely hot plasma needed for fusion energy production, potentially replacing conventional magnets in facilities like those at Culham.
At the adjoining stall, scientists and technicians from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy displayed a plasma globe. They explained that there are four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Plasma is where a gas is energised to the point where electrons separate from their atoms, as occurs in lightning or in the sun. At the Culham reactor, they manipulate super-hot plasma, enabling hydrogen atoms to fuse and release energy, replicating the process that powers the sun.
In all, there were about fifteen stalls in the Market Square. Children enjoyed the hands-on exhibits. Some may be dreaming now of becoming scientists.
P.S. Tell me anything I got wrong with my explanations. I may not have understood the magnetic levitation.
