What Have Scotland's Physicists Done For You ?
The answer to the question is “QUITE A LOT!” and this is illustrated
in the talk by focusing on a number of Scots physicists, some well known – some
not so well known, and showing how their work has a great positive effect
on our lifestyle today.
The contribution of John Logie Baird to the development of television and Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone are well known and have obvious applications today. But is Ian Donald’s pioneering work in ultrasound scans for obstetrics or James Kerr’s development of electro-optics for fast optical switching or David Brewster’s work with polarised light so well recognised? The answer here is “PROBABLY NOT!”, yet the work of all these Scots has applications today in areas ranging from medicine to optical communications and flat screen display technology.
This talk shows the contributions of these and others using demonstrations which illustrate the basic principles and their modern applications. It is aimed at students aged 14 and over and is suitable for audiences of 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students.
