Vega

Well what is happening here at Vega?

On the N2H project Ed Goldwyn has started working with the consortium partners on the final films. Travelling first to Belgium to film Jean-Jacques, Zeila and Alex and the management meeting for the discussions on the final research of the project. The major question and decision to be made is 'which metals are to be used to coat the nanotubes in order to produce the gas sensors?' Soon Ed will be visiting the group at Nantes, the meeting in Luxembourg, Brussels and then on to Spain to visit Eduard and Radouane and Marc at Sensotran. I am really looking forward to seeing the final films and seeing the sensor in action!

Last month Chris and I were pleased to be asked to a meeting at the EU to look at ways in which to promote EU Materials Research. This was a great opportunity to show the N2H project and other Vega projects. It was really good to meet the guys at the EU running the research programmes who were all very approachable and enthusiastic! It was also a good opportunity to meet other experts promoting science through various projects such as museums, journalism, art and science, television, festivals etc., all devoted to producing the best access to information on science for the public.

What about Vega - the website has been revamped to make it easier to find material on the site and our science outreach grant came to an end with finishing the production of some very nice instructional mini-films to be used in school/college workshops http://vega.org.uk/video/subseries/27 given by Jonathan Hare of the BBC Rough Science programme. These programmes explain how to generate electricity from a windmill, make a battery from seawater and a potato and explain what carbon nanotubes, giant fullerenes and Bucky Balls are. They are to be used as part of workshops in schools and colleges or viewed for general interest as on Youtube.

My aim at the moment is to promote our set of career video profiles 'Snapshots' http://www.vega.org.uk/video/series/10 hopefully with the outcome of obtaining funding to produce some more! These programmes are proving very popular as they show what it is really like to work in science and the routes (not necessarily straight forward!) into a career in science! Teaching careers in the UK has now become part of the school's national curriculum and these programmes are now also a useful resource towards that aim as well as fun to watch anyway.

Another exciting project that Vega is just getting involved with is the EU Diversity grant. This project which includes heads of materials departments and politicians is looking at ways in which to try and encourage and promote women into decision making positions within materials science research. The film of the first meeting is on the way and will be up on the Vega website as soon as possible. Link to Mini-films Link to Snapshots