• Question: what was your favourite experiment that you did?

    Asked by anon-225162 to Paul, Simon, Katy on 21 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-225179.
    • Photo: Paul Laurance-Young

      Paul Laurance-Young answered on 21 Nov 2019:

      I really enjoyed looking at a sample of eroded tooth enamel. “Hmm”, I hear you say, “that sounds SOOOOOOO exciting. Not.”
      You would be right, it isn’t that exciting but… and this is a big but… the piece of equipment was terrific fun! I was using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to look at the surface, okay, it’s more fun but not enough to make a grown man giggle in glee. The fun bit was attached to the SEM, a little module called a focussed ion beam, which used ionised tungsten to very precisely cut away tooth enamel: I got to play with my very own Death Star.

Comments