WIREDGOV

A team from The Naked Scientist have produced their first podcast about STFC’s Central Laser Facility’s (CLF) superfast laser – Artemis.

The media – savvy group of doctors and researchers from Cambridge University (collectively known as ‘The Naked Scientists’) have been using radio, live lectures and the internet to ‘strip science down to its bare essentials’ for the public for over 10 years now.  The modestly clad team, who have recently received STFC’s Science in Society programme’s Large Award grant, visited the CLF to highlight the achievements of STFC’s facilities and scientific support programme.

Dr Emma Springate, from STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, took naked scientist Ben Valsler on a tour round the CLF to showcase the awesome technology and research that Artemis is using and producing.  Ben then later shared his experience with millions of online users in a podcast available here (link opens in a new window).

Artemis produces really, really short pulses of light, that we use that to generate pulses of XUV which is radiation in the region between the UV and the X-ray region.  It is used in areas such as material science research to look at the properties of the materials that high temperature super conductors are made from; and how molecules rotate which is important for biologists and chemists to help them understand viruses, drugs and all sorts of other chemical reactions.

Before embarking on the tour everyone had to don aprons and shoe coverings, Emma explained why this was essential for every visitor and researcher: ‘it keeps the amount of dust in the lab down.  If you get dust on some of the optics, the lasers are intense enough that they can actually burn the dust onto the optic and make a hole in the laser beam.’.

Listen to the podcast to hear more of Artemis being laid bare.