Nick Dickens | Nicholas Harrigan | Philip Jess | Caroline Johnson
Marieke Navin | Jan Schnupp | Peter Zeidman | Reserves
Marieke is a Physics PhD student at Sheffield University, originally from Warrington. She won the York Heat by waxing lyrical about Neutrinos and the big bang.
How did you come up with your chosen subject matter at the FameLab heats?
My choice of subject the first round was easy – neutrinos, a ghostly elusive particle that pervades the Universe and the subject of my PhD thesis. For the second round I racked my brain the think of the most exciting area of physics I possible could – what else is more exciting than the Big Bang and the creation of our Universe? I also thought of an excellent prop to go with this topic, a small TV set with which I would try to listen to the echo of the Big Bang.
Did your presentation go according to plan?
No! I was fumbling around with the TV set trying to turn it on. I couldn't manage to which sent me into a spiral of panic and my mind went totally blank for what felt like forever! I put the TV set down and stalled for a while, then started talking again only to see the signal for 20 seconds remaining. I had to skip half of my talk and go straight to my final few sentences!
Please tell us what you feel your key skills are as a science communicator and why the public might respond well to you
I think my greatest asset is my enthusiasm, which always shines through when I talk about science. I believe passion for the subject is vital in an effective communicator. I think the public will respond well to me as I'm a normal and approachable young girl, not the stereotypical physics “geek”, an image which can deter many girls from studying science. I don't spend all my time studying either; i love to sing, travel, learn languages and go out with my friends.
How did you get interested in science?
My primary school infant class did a project on planets and i have been hooked on science ever since then. I cannot remember a time that i didn't want to be an astronomer or an astronaut. In the end it was particle physics that I chose for my PhD. The fundamental particles are so fascinating – to study interactions at the smallest scales (of quarks or electrons or neutrinos) we have to build the biggest and most expensive machines on the planet.
What do you do currently?
I am in my final year of a PhD on Particle Physics. I work on an experiment located in Japan which will measure the properties of neutrinos (fundamental particles that travel at close to the speed of light). I am working on developing chemicals which cause a flash of light, or scintillation, when a charged particle passes through them.
Why does science excite and inspire you?
Because it is so fundamental and I am on the front line of today's research. We are writing the physics books of tomorrow! It excites me because as a human race we have learnt so much but there is still so much that we don't understand. For example we can only account for about 5% of matter and do not know what the remaining 95% of the Universe is made up of! It's thrilling for me to be involved with answering some of these huge questions.
To date, what has been your most exciting scientific moment (other than being a FameLab finalist of course!)
Last year I participated in the refurbishment of a huge neutrino detector called Super Kamiokande beneath the Japanese Alps. The detector is a cylinder 40m diameter and 40m tall holding 40,000 tonnes of ultra-pure water. Extremely sensitive detectors called photomultiplier tubes detect a faint flash of light from a particle that travels faster than the speed of light in water (since light slows down in water). This experiment is iconic in the world of neutrino physics and won the Japanese part of the Nobel Prize in physics in 2002. An accident in 2001 caused billions of dollars worth of damage and reduced the sensitivity of the experiment. To have the chance to go inside this huge detector and help with the refurbishment was totally breath taking. There is a famous orange dinghy that the scientists use to navigate the top of the tank and riding in that was thrilling!
Who are your favourite science communicators and why?
I loved Kathy Sykes in Rough Science, someone in who's steps I would love to follow. I also always loved Johnny Ball as he always made science fun and not like schoolwork. I think there's definitely a market for more mainstream science programmes.
What are your ambitions for the future? Would winning FameLab have any impact on your plans?
Winning NESTA FameLab would have a dramatic effect on my future plans as my dream is to be the face of science on a TV science programme. The exposure given as a NESTA FameLab winner would be invaluable.
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