The planet is in trouble; fossil fuels are being depleted and are contributing to global warming. Plants, however, have been directly harnessing solar energy for as long as they have existed. A flash talk from Tomas Leijtens.

Are we still in the dark about Dark Matter?

Jul 7th, 2014 9m 45s

Kathryn boast gives a flash talk discussing what we already know about dark matter, and what we still have to find out about it. There is quite a lot of conclusive evidence for the existence of dark matter, but we still have very little idea of

Einstein's Greatest Blunder

Jul 7th, 2014 9m 5s

Albert Einstein is one of the greatest scientists to ever live, and even he made mistakes, as Luke Jew explains - A comforting thought for all of us! This great mistake was about the astrophysics that will ultimately determine how our universe

The Hare and the Tortoise

Jul 7th, 2014 8m 33s

A flash talk given by Liam Brannigan about "Connecting the fast and slow parts of the climate system through the stormy upper ocean. "

Quantum Measurement and Control: How to Roll a Six Everytime

Jul 7th, 2014 8m 34s

In this flash talk Wojciech Kozlowski discusses the bizarre properties of measurement and how we can harness its probabilistic nature to produce results. Quantum mechanics is currently our most precise physical theory. Whilst we do not have man

Space - The Ultimate Laboratory

Jul 7th, 2014 9m 36s

What can space teach us about the laws of physics? Space is huge and complicated. This is a challenge, but also gives us the ultimate physics lab. Francesca Day explores this further. Light from the beginning of the universe is hidden in the ni

Lab, Camera, Action: Tides

Feb 3rd, 2014 4m 17s

The Bay of St Brieuc in Brittany has one of the largest tides on Earth. Dr Andrew Steele takes some time out of his holiday, on the day of the highest tide of the year, to find out why.

Lab, Camera, Action: Transit of Venus

Feb 3rd, 2014 3m 28s

In June of 2012, one of the rarest predictable astronomical phenomena took place: Venus passed directly in front of the Sun, as seen from Earth. For more information, visit transitofvenus.org. As part of the Lab, Camera, Action! series, Dr Andr

Lab, Camera, Action: Maglev Train

Feb 3rd, 2014 5m 26s

Wheels are so last century. We’ve got a train set which doesn’t have any; it just floats around the track in a billowing cloud of steam. Dr Andrew Steele explains how our superconducting magnetic levitation—or maglev—train really works.

Lab, Camera, Action: Particle Accelerator

Feb 3rd, 2014 4m 31s

Dr Andrew Steele takes a look inside the ISIS particle accelerator in Oxfordshire, where scientists use neutrons to investigate the structure of materials, and accelerator physicist Dr Suzie Sheehy explains how this massive machine works.

Lab, Camera, Action: Make your own CD spectrometer

Feb 3rd, 2014 3m 59s

How do we know what the stars are made of when we've never been to one? Dr Andrew Steele shows us how to make a spectrometer, a device used by scientists to analyse light, using a cereal box and a CD.

The Physics of the Violin

Dec 13th, 2013 11m 56s

Jesse Liu, winner of the the departmental Speaking Competition for undergraduates, gives a short talk on the physics of a violin. The violin and elastic band are both string instruments. Yet what is it about the first that allows it to produce

The coldest place in the Universe

Dec 13th, 2013 12m 57s

Tiffany Harte, Oxford Physics, discusses absolute zero temperatures and how by cooling atoms in a lab we can aim to replicate the coldest place in the Universe. I will be discussing how we cool atoms to create the coldest place in the Univers

Heart of Darkness: The Interplay of Galaxies and Dark Matter

Dec 13th, 2013 9m 3s

A short flash talk from Peter Hatfield, Oxford Physics, who discusses the origins of the galaxies we see in our night sky and the mysterious nature of dark matter. Galaxies are huge clusters of hundreds of billions of stars - the Milky Way is o

Superconductivity -- alchemy for the 21st Century?

Dec 12th, 2013 13m 9s

An exciting talk and demonstration about superconductivity and its potential practical applications by Ben Williams, Oxford Physics. Superconductivity is a weird property of some materials that has exciting applications both in the lab and outs

Sea Ice Growth: Mushy layers, Convection and Brinicles

Dec 12th, 2013 10m 4s

Joe Hitchen, Oxford University Physics Department, describe the different stages of sea ice growth and the formation of hollow tubes of ice in the ocean known as brinicles. Every year, millions of square kilometres of the Arctic ocean freeze ov

Matter, Antimatter and The Mystery of Existence

Dec 12th, 2013 10m 48s

In this talk Nazim Hussain, Oxford University, will provide an introduction to matter and antimatter and the interplay between them. As far as we can tell, our universe is filled with galaxies and planets (and people) all of which are made of m

How to find a Higgs boson

Jun 4th, 2013 11m 38s

The discovery of the Higgs boson last summer is widely regarded as one of the most important scientific discoveries of our time. This talk will take you on a quick journey describing why we were searching for this elusive particle, and the expe

What is a Quantum Computer?

Jun 4th, 2013 13m 10s

How does a quantum computer work? Why is a quantum computer so much better than a traditional computer? This talk will give you an insight into the strange features of the quantum world that we can exploit to develop a super fast quantum comput

Dealing with Frustration - Order in Disorder

Jun 4th, 2013 9m 34s

Magnetic particles can get frustrated in their interactions with other particles because of lattice geometry. Lots of new and exciting physics is involved in understanding how they deal with their frustration.

Masters of Nature? - The physics of trying to control the climate

Jun 4th, 2013 12m 31s

The Earth's climate is changing; but what are we doing about it? The frustration felt all around the world at the inability to agree a meaningful deal on global carbon dioxide emission leaves people looking for alternatives. Do we have the abi

Light Fantastic: X-ray Laser Research in Oxford

Jun 4th, 2013 12m 45s

David LLoyd describes how x-rays can be used for far more than identifying broken bones. From tracking the motion of electron to imaging the structure of viruses, he illustrates some examples of how researchers are using new x-ray sources to ex

Extra-solar planets: from science-fiction to reality

Jun 4th, 2013 10m 50s

Since the discovery of the first extra-solar planet in the '90s, our perspective of the Universe has changed. Over the last two decades a whole host of exotic planet systems have been found, including analogues of famous science-fiction-worlds.