Lecture at University of Birmingham

We went back to Birmingham on 28 March 2007 with over 40 ChemNet members who attended a lecture on Superconductors at Birmingham University. Dr Ian Gameson, admissions tutor for the chemistry department, gave an excellent lecture on superconductors, including a demonstration of the Meissner effect (see below for stunning photography - yeah OK, average photography). 

As explained by Wikipedia:

  “The Meissner effect will levitate a magnet as long as the magnetic field does not exceed the critical magnetic field. A magnet that is suspended by the superconductor has two interesting properties; it does not move, and it can spin without friction. The ability for the magnet to stay perfectly still is due to flux pinning, in which the magnetic field lines become trapped within the superconductor at sites of impurity in the crystal structure”.

After the lecture we retired to one of the common rooms and devoured a light dinner, whilst ChemNet members grilled Dr Gameson and one of his undergraduates about what it was like to study chemistry at Birmingham University.