The ATOM Science Festival was on the Market Place and under County Hall today with more than twenty stalls, many of them from local science organisations such as Immunocore from Milton Park.

Bright Sparks Science are based on Northcourt Road in Abingdon and run hands-on science activities for schools and special events.

Children were mixing vinegar and bicarbonate of soda (common kitchen chemicals) to launch rockets. After standing back, they watched as the rockets were propelled into the air.

Dr Jim Halliday was looking around and chatting with stall holders. He is the leader of Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council and also works for the Science and Technology Facilities Council at Harwell Campus.

The Owl Conservation Project had information about their work looking after owls and had a Tawny Owl with them. Tawny owls have declined in the UK in recent decades, but they are still the most common owl species in Britain.

At the Oxford Materials stall there were demonstrations of Type II superconductivity. A superconductor is a material that, when cooled below a certain temperature, looses all electrical resistance and strongly affects magnetic fields. A superconducting disc is cooled using liquid nitrogen, and when a magnet is placed nearby the magnetic field becomes locked in place by the superconductor. This makes the magnet float in a fixed position.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority had a stall showing how scientists are trying to generate energy from nuclear fusion. Visitors could try computer games where they attempted to start and control fusion reactions, learning how difficult it is to keep the plasma stable.

There was also a marble track to demonstrate how a divertor works. In a fusion reactor the plasma becomes extremely hot, and some particles must be safely removed to prevent damage to the reactor walls. The divertor controls the exit of the heated particles leaving the plasma.

The Abingdon Astronomical Society had two telescopes pointed at the Sun. Through one could be seen sun spots. Through the other solar flares.

It was interesting to learn about all this and more. The ATOM Festival continues with talks and tours, which can be found on their website https://www.atomfestival.org.uk/festival-programme/. This year’s Peagram Lecture will be given by Professor Brian Cox. I looked for a ticket about a month ago but found they were already sold out. I am told by the organisers there is no point going along in the hope of a ticket, but there are still tickets available for other talks and tours.

During Heritage Open Weekend there was an exhibition upstairs in Unit 25 Bury Street about 60 years of fusion research at Culham, near Abingdon. This is my simplified understanding …

In the early 1960s the UK Atomic Energy Authority put all its fusion research on the site at Culham. It opened in 1965 with scientists trying out different ideas to make fusion work.

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the Sun. It works by heating and forcing together atoms so they fuse into a heavier atoms, releasing energy. To make fusion happen on Earth, the fuel must be heated to extremely high temperatures so that it becomes a state of matter called plasma. Plasma is like a gas whose atoms have been split into charged particles. Because plasma is charged, it can be held and shaped by magnetic fields which keep it away from walls long enough for fusion to happen.

In the 1970s, experiments in the USSR showed that a doughnut-shaped magnetic machine called a tokamak could hold very hot plasma better than other designs. Culham scientists built equipment to test and check these results.

In the 1980s, Culham was chosen for Europe’s biggest fusion experiment: the Joint European Torus (JET). Work started in 1978 and the first plasma was formed in 1983.

In the 1990s, Culham scientists developed a more compact form of tokamak, called the spherical tokamak. Their test device, START, ran from 1991 to 1998, and showed that this shape gave better performance for a smaller size.

In the 2000s, Culham scientists built MAST (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) – a bigger spherical tokamak machine. That machine, and its later upgrade were used to find out how to handle extreme heat and control plasma.

In the 2010s–2020s, JET broke records. In 2022 it produced 59 megajoules of fusion energy in 5 seconds using a fuel mix of deuterium-tritium (two types of hydrogen). They fuse to form helium and release energy.

JET ended experimentation in December 2023 and is now being decommissioned.

Meanwhile the UK is planning its first prototype fusion power station, STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), to be built at West Burton, Nottinghamshire, a former coal-fired power station. Meanwhile, ITER, a European tokamak reactor is being built in France. Both are based on the research done and still being done at Culham.

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.

The Abingdon Market Place was buzzing with excitement today as the ATOM Science Festival brought scientific fun for families. Frank, who volunteers at the lock, told me he loved this event every year because it gave him such hope seeing all the youngsters involved in all the science activities.

The Town Crier did not need to tell anybody about the Science Festival because we were already there, and so he let people know about the Abingdon Artists Exhibition at St Helen’s Church (its last day).

The hands-on activities fascinated the youngsters. A particular highlight for them and me was creating slime using just four household ingredients. See the video at the end of this piece where I have a go.

The Abingdon Naturalist Society’s stall offered a glimpse into pondlife, with children and adults eager to spot the frogs and newts in the aquarium.

Budding physicists at the Oxford University Particle Physics stall could construct their own universe using “up” and “down” quark Lego bricks.

Over at the JET Laboratory stall, robots were being trained to help dismantle the Tokamak now its work is done. The JET Fusion research facility at Culham ran its final tritium experiments in the Tokamak recently and got a new fushion energy output to input record.

Fitzharris School showed off their battery-powered go-carts, designed for 90-minute endurance races on a single 12-volt battery.

The Abingdon Astronomical Society gave people a view of the sun through a specially filtered telescope. Two sunspots were visible. As the day wore on and the sun was hidden, the telescope was redirected to focus on a weather vane.

There were about twenty stalls in all, including the ATOM stall selling tickets for the talks in the next week. See https://www.atomfestival.org.uk/

There was also demonstrations and talks at Abingdon County Hall Museum where children and adults could ask about the table load of fossils

Down in the basement there were talks that got transmitted by Youtube.

There were also talks in the Roysse Room at the Guildhall.

Finally here is the video of slime making. With thanks to Evotec at Milton Park who normally develop drugs. The first ingredient was PVA glue, then food colour, bicarbonate of soda, and contact lens solution.