International Year of Light

Event Launchan evening of talks and exhibitions

Monday 23 February 2015

ExhibitsPlease see maps on pages 5 and 6 for further information

Staff will be on hand throughout the event to help direct visitors to the relevant rooms

Please do not hesitate to ask for help

Visit the Reception Hall

• Image Contest Spot-On-Micro Image Contest

• Dunbar Science

Festival

• Intelligent Lighting

Centre

Art, Light and Culture

Visit the Turner Room, Scott Room, Hutton Room and the Fellows’ Room

• Laser harp A playable laser harp based on an annular frame and crossed

lasers

• Light notes A laser-based music box – set the notes and turn the handle

• Music of the Universe Demonstrations showcasing the link between music and light in

astronomy

• Adaptive optics Using lasers and deformable mirrors to remove the twinkle from

stars

• Image slicer Slicing galaxies: producing a 3D view from a single observation

• Seeds of light A visual art installation centred on the peculiar optical properties of

silica-based aerogels

Light and Life Visit Wellcome East Room

• EnLightenment: living

lights to astronomical

biology

Coral skeletons: how they harvest light and their hidden colours

• Seeing life in a new

light

Discover how scientists shine light on cancer and how laser beams

can be used as tweezers and scissors

• Light for tracking

molecules

Using light to track molecules - can you fi nd the hidden particles in

the water?

• Bringing lasers to life:

biological and living

lasers

Bringing lasers to life: biological and living lasers

• Light to image and

control swimming

bacteria

Using light microscopy techniques to image and control swimming

bacteria

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ExhibitsPlease see maps on pages 5 and 6 for further information

Light in Society

Visit the Kelvin Room and the President’s Offi ce

• Light, health, body Exploring the associations between light exposure and sleep

patterns

• Getting the light right An interactive exhibit showing how light affects the way we see

faces, fi gures and the details of sign language

• Light pollution A demonstration of how we lose the night sky due to light pollution

• Photopoetry A special collaboration between a photographer, a poet and

scientists working with light

• Light sight: an artistic

interpretation

Imagine being able to slow down a moment of time by one

hundred thousand million times; so much so that if you could set

back from the reality of the world we live in, you would be able to

see light traveling through space. What would it look like? And how

would it move?

Light Interactions Wellcome Room West and the President’s Offi ce

• Invisibility Guiding light to make an object invisible

• Diamond Join Diamond Light Source, the UK’s synchrotron, and research

groups from Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities, to fi nd out

how X-rays brighter than the Sun can help us to understand the

secrets of biology, chemistry and a lot more

• Solar power How can sunlight – the most abundant renewable energy source –

power the world?

• Imaging at the speed

of light

Taking images so fast that you can see light travelling through air;

and using the latest technology to look around corners.

• Colder than Outer

Space – laser cooling

of atoms

Visualising and manipulating cold atoms in a magneto-optical trap

• Computer-generated

holography

Shaping a laser beam for computer-generated holography

• Communicating with

light

Showing how light underpins modern communication and cutting

edge research on “Li-Fi”

• Finding explosives

with light

Using light to detect explosives

• LIGHTPATH: the

continuous line of light

by PhotoSynergy

The continuous line of light targeted at improved safety for society

• Hyperspectral imaging Using the telltale fi ngerprints of light for identifi cation and detection

of substance at a distance

• Make a spectroscope Make a spectroscope from a cardboard fl atpack and diffraction fi lm

• PROTEUS - lighting

up the lung

PROTEUS – light up the lung to detect disease

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ProgrammePlease collect tickets for the talks from the registration desk if you wish to attend

Tickets will be allocated on a fi rst come, fi rst served basis

17:00 Doors open

Exhibitions will be available from 17:00 until 20:00

17:20 “The Big Bang” Trumpet Recital

Reception Area

17:30–17:40 Offi cial Launch

by Laurence Howells

Chief Executive, Scottish Funding Council

Reception Area

17:50–18:35 Robert Crawford and Norman McBeath book launch and

poetry reading

Wolfson Lecture Theatre

Robert Crawford, a poet who has written about light and

optoelectronics, will read some poems appropriate to the

International Year of Light, before joining the photographer Norman

McBeath to launch Light Box, a new work on the theme of light

specially commissioned by the University of St Andrews for 2015.

After this, three postgraduate students of creative writing, who

have been working with photographers and with members of the

St Andrews Organic Semiconductor Electronics group, will present

three works commissioned for this RSE event.

18:35–18:55 Short break

18:55–19:45 Maxwell on Light, Colour and Electromagnetism

by Professor Malcolm Longair

Wolfson Lecture Theatre

In the 19th Century, no one contributed more to the understanding

of light, colour and electromagnetism than James Clerk

Maxwell. To celebrate the International Year of Light and the

sesquicentenary of his great paper on A Dynamical Theory of the

Electromagnetic Field, his achievements in these areas will be

described. His many interests in the science of light and colour, as

well as his demonstration that light is electromagnetic radiation, will

be described. The deep impact of these researches for the future

development of physics will be discussed. The lecture will be

profusely illustrated and delivered at a non-technical level.

20:00 Event closes

4

Refreshments

Registration

and Launch

James Clerk

Maxwell

Hologram

Talks

First fl oor plan overleaf

Art, L

ight an

d C

ultu

re

In the event of an emergency and/ or the fi re alarms going off, please depart by the nearest fi re

exit and assemble outside the George Hotel, opposite the front of the RSE building

5

Art, Light and Culture

Turner

Room

Art, L

ight a

nd Cultu

re

Art, L

ight an

d C

ultu

re

Light and Life

Auerbach

Room

Light in Society

Light in Society

Light Interactions

Light Interactions

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NOTES

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We are grateful for the support of...