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Bright ideas for Bright Sparks
Researchers at the University of Sussex are bringing an extraordinary piece of equipment to Bright Sparks: nothing ... or what looks like nothing, just empty air. But although you can't see anything, you can feel invisible objects. They have been created by focusing ultrasound beams to make patches of air seem solid.
... And what's the use of that, you ask? Partly it's fun, partly it's blue-sky research - this is a solution to a problem; we just haven't found the problem yet - partly it's based on a speculation that in the future it'll be commonplace to combine images of an object with the feel of it. This is cutting edge research! In years to come you'll be able to boast to your great great grand children that you were there when a real Wall of Sound was first demonstrated.
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Quiz-time: is this geezer demonstrating the haptic 'Wall of Sound'? or is he just a busker? Click on him to find out.
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Speaking of great great grandparents. There are quite a lot of them around, now we live longer. Inevitably, at their age, many will be suffering in some degree from Alzheimer's disease, as their mental processes begin to break down. At Bright Sparks we will be discussing this with young people (their great great grandchildren), and using a hands-on labyrinth game to get to grips with the difficulty of thinking straight when your brain is clogged with amyloid plaque. We don't think any child is too young to be given answers, and we hope this will lead to greater understanding, greater respect, and less fear. A Brighton first.
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Looking For Light
More light entertainment this Sunday December 18th when the Sunday Assembly (a sort-of church for scientists) explores light through song, literature and poetry. Nick Sayers shows how he made his wonderful solargraph images of Brighton (right), and Richard Robinson 'unweaves the rainbow' to show some of the awe-inspiring tricks we can play with light now, which were unimaginable just 100 years ago.
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Copyright © 2016 Brighton Science Festival, All rights reserved.
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