Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

The Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition is an annual event where cutting-edge research projects from all different scientific and technological fields are made available for the general public to find out more about. This year it was held at the society's London base, Carlton House Terrace, with 22 different exhibits, most of which included interactive games or experiments, all of which had experts to simplify their techniques for science-simpletons like me...

The place was quite busy, with lots of families out to enjoy themselves and learn a bit; here's a few things I learnt from the exhibits I tried to get to grips with: -

Speaking & Listening in a Noisy World
- This is all to do with following a single speaker when another voice/s are interrupting. The experiment used previously gathered data and also the results of everyone who'd tried it out at the exhibition.
- Young children find it difficult to listen to a speaker when one other voice is also present. However they can concentrate on one voice over a crowd of interrupters much better.
- The ability to concentrate on the single voice peaks around age 19-20. We could follow the instructions of the lady's voice when the man's was six times louder! (Although this might say more about our ability to ignore what men are saying :P)

How Nature Dresses to Impress
- There are butterflies which change colour when their wings are wet. This is not to do with their actual colour, but the structure of the wings themselves.
- The same can be said of iridescent shells; the water affects they way they reflect light

Graphene: Unexpected Science in a Pencil Line
- A layer that is only one atom thick, which scientists want to use in future technology
- It was referred to as "2D", which bugged us (as it can't be, really)

Raiders of the Lost Amp
- A heat difference can be used generate power.
- My unanswerable question: if you had a separate power source, which got the two sides to their differing temperatures, could you then turn that power source off and use the energy generated by the heat difference to power the heat difference...??

Combating the Superpests: the Battle to Save our Food
- Greenfly are evil, not only because they eat our food & become practically invincible, but also because it makes my skin crawl and itch just to look at them...

21st Century Traffic Control: the Invisible Referee
- "Phantom jams" are annoying when driving, but surprisingly satisfying when viewed from above
- I was the fourth best person (that hour, on that day) at directing traffic around some junctions!

Geometry & Light: the Science of Invisibility
- If the refractive index of an object is the same as whatever surrounds it (e.g. water) then it is essentially invisible!
- Dutch men don't just hand out invisible marbles to anyone; apparently it helps if you are a small, cute kid. Dammit!

Facing up to Faces: Perception from Brains to Robots
- We all have an "average face" in our mind's eye; when we look at a person, we compare their face to that average face, and it's the differences that help you to recognise and remember them
- You know the smile recognition software you get in cameras? The rubbish one that can't detect a smile unless you've figuratively split your face ear-to-ear? There are people being paid to develop that.

Interactive Bionic Vision
- For people who can't see, because the photosensitive cells in their eyes don't function, but where the receptors to the brain are intact: they have developed a (3mm) microchip that can be inserted into the eye, that allows the user to see shades! This used to be a 9 x 9 pattern of dots, but it is now much more detailed.
- For those who can see, but not very well: MAGIC GLASSES! They have two cameras (one on each side) which look forward. The image they pick up is shown on the glasses' lenses, which are LCD screens. The dual images picked up allow the wearer to perceive depth!

Guns, Knives and Bombs: Spotting Weapons in Baggage X-Rays
- If you are asked to spot one thing in a collection of items, you can have quite a high success rate (91.7%, woohoo!)
- However, if asked to spot one of two possibles in a collection, the success rate drops dramatically (33.3%, boooooo!)
- Different materials show up as different colours in baggage x-rays; bombs are a different colour from guns. As scanners are looking for one of two different things, it makes it harder to spot.
- Airport queues may grow longer, as scientists are recommending baggage is scanned twice by different people - one looking for knives/guns, one looking for bombs/explosives.

Trauma Surgery: the Science of the Bleeding Obvious
- GCSE Double Science Award (2003-2005) can help stop you looking like too much of an idiot :D
- When you cut yourself, you bleed. You stop bleeding because of something called Fibrin and Platelets. In trauma patients, the body produces something called Protein C, which breaks down the fibrin, meaning bleeding does not stop! This is why so many trauma patients bleed out.
- They are developing a chemical that could be administered to major trauma victims early on, which would slow down the actions of Protein C, allowing many more to make it to the operating theatre where their wounds can be repaired.
- Seemingly regardless of age or appearance, doctors in scrubs can be quite yummy.

This is for you if...
You like playing with interactive experiments and learning the basics of modern science projects. I certainly found it a very entertaining few hours!

Recommendations
Take a friend. The exhibits can be quite busy and you can end up waiting around if you want to use the interactive things or chat to the experts, so it's good to have someone to discuss *science* with while you wait.

Leave enough time! I could definitely have spent much longer there (especially with the trauma doctor...)

The name's Bond. Covalent Bond.

And for my next trick...

What: Summer Science Exhibition
Where: Carlton House Terrace, London
Who: The Royal Society
When: Sunday 10th July
Why: To learn a bit more about chemistry and biology ;) and physics I spose... Plus it has free entry.