illuminating science

At the University of Queensland, where I’m a PhD student, with Jenny Riesz I run the Physics Demo Troupe, a group of performers who do physics shows and workshops for schools, community groups and the general public. Made up mainly of undergraduate students, we train to perform shows that not only teach important physics, but do so in a fun and entertaining fashion - if you’ve ever been to a children’s pantomime, there’s a little of that in our shows To date, we’ve been to several dozen schools and seen thousands of students, but have also performed for more interesting groups, like a sales conference for Hastings Deering - a machine and tractor company! We talked about the physics of optical fibres, lasers, mechanics and forces - the physics which underpins much of what they sell.

It’s immense fun, and I’ve personally learned a lot of really cool physics from playing with these demos (and did I mention it’s fun?). Playing with liquid nitrogen, channeling a million volts of lightening through your body…what more could you want from life? If you’d like to know more, you should check out our brand new website, which is at http://www.demotroupe.org. You can see some of the demos that we perform, and there are lots of photos of us in action (including some bad ones of yours truly torturing a balloon animal…) And quick plug, if you’re in Queensland (Australia!) and you’d like us to perform for your school or other function, just drop me a line! We guarantee it’ll be a blast!