Pupils in final of Royal Society science awards

Apr 2 2009 Crosby Herald

SCIENCE was made simple by four talented Merchant Taylors’ physicists when they went to London’s world famous Royal Society for the finals of the SCICAST science awards.

The Crosby classmates were selected from hundreds of entries nationwide after submitting their own two-and-a-half minute film explaining laser technology.

School physics teacher Paul Cooper said: “The object is to demystify science with an imaginative and ingenious brief explanation of a physics concept that would normally leave the layman scratching his head.”

Alastair Houston, 15, said: “Laser technology sounds daunting but in essence you fill a tube with helium, pass an electric current through the tube to energise the atoms and then shine a light through the gas using reflective mirrors to intensify the beam.”

Richard Kirkwood, 15, added: “Many people are blinded by physics, but the subject is truly enlightening. It helps us to understand the way the world works, from the smallest scale particles to the composition of the multi-universe and anything and everything in between.”