The excited energy states of the nitrogen nucleus.
Markus Kayser - Solar Sinter
When we were discussing plans for a new project last week, Physicist John Tisch introduced me to the very nice work of Markus Kayser.....
Molecule Cooling - Optics Table
This beautiful optics table took two years to build. It exists in the physics department basement. Quite a few different colours (or energies) of laser light are required to cool a molecule due to the more complex energy level structures (compared with an atom) - resulting in this lovely spectacle. The molecules are cooled to temperatures colder than outer space of less than a mK by hitting them with carefully tuned photons of light that exactly match the quantum energy levels of the molecule taking into account the doppler effect.
Seeing into the atom
Visiting the London Science festival at UCL in early October, I met Gleb Lukicov who had created this beautiful experience for visitors - using a cheap hand held spectrascope they could see the spectral lines emitted by different gases. Each lamp contains a different element (cadmium, mercury, sodium.....) which produces its own unique spectral lines, like a fingerprint. The lines tell us about the atomic structure. Gleb is a young physicist and passionate science communicator.
all the light
The unified photon spectrum
Russell Turner 1989, Laganch 1995, Henry 2002
Andrew Jaffe presented this chart in his guest lecture today - it shows the entire light energy density in the universe. Over 99% of this light energy is from the big bang.
Hydrogen in the early universe
The whiteboard after a conversation with cosmologist JP about the story of hydrogen in the early universe and what we might learn from studying the 21cm electromagnetic wave emitted due to the electron spin flip transition.