Between the 11th – 13th March The Big Bang Fair was held in the Manchester Central Convention Complex in the heart of Manchester city centre and I was there on the NPL stand to show the some of 17,631 people who attended how science can be fun, and highlight some of the amazing work that NPL does.

The first two days were mainly for school groups and young people aged 11 – 18, whereas the Saturday was open to everyone who fancied to pop in and explore the wonders that was on offer, and what science, engineering and maths does and how you can get involved. Among the stands with NPL were the likes of Shell, E-on, BAE Systems, Airbus and the BBC to name just a few, as well as there being live shows from the BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory and Sky’s Braniac.

The NPL stand proved very popular with the visitors; where we had several interactive hands-on activities which demonstrated how the human mind perceives objects and how physics plays a part.

Here, a visitor is briefed on what to do on the vision test; where people have 2 minutes to decide whether 20 different samples of wood are each made of real wood, or man made wood – with their results being recorded and used to help NPL create computer systems which can mimic how humans see and compare objects.

On the other side of the test, people can also use touch, along with vision, to again try to guess which of the 20 samples are natural or non-natural wood. People who get 13 or more right won a much sought after plastic brain!

Another test on the NPL stand, which saw people having to arrange 6 Russian dolls in order weight, only to find out that they would always guess incorrectly because of the different densities of each which made everyone mistakenly believe the lighter, smaller dolls were actually much heavier than they truly were.

Someone trying to guess whether the sample being shown is natural or non-natural wood. Hopefully the results can have an influence on how man-made wood is created to give it a more natural effect and feel, thus reducing the need to cut down and use real trees.

Fellow Serco company the NNL (National Nuclear Laboratory) also shared the stand, who were demonstrating the science of nuclear power. Here, a group of school children are shown how nuclear materials are transported safely on vibrating carpets; who had the chance to win torches if they managed to pick up items moving around the carpet using robots.

The past couple of weeks have seen me spending my Wednesday evenings working late at NPL recording and photographing their latest ‘Protons for Breakfast’ course which lasts six weeks and aims to to teach people of all ages how science impacts us on our daily lives.

Through a mixture of lectures, live demonstrations and hands-on activities the students get taught and shown wide ranging areas of science; from the fundamentals of electricity and light in weeks one and two, to debates on climate change and health issues with mobile phone use.

For more information, you can check out the Protons for Breakfast section on the NPL site, or read the official Protons for Breakfast blog.

See some of the goings on from the past couple of weeks below;

Electrification with a Van de Graaff generator during Week 1

Week 2 saw the students exploring the wonders of light

Listening to a talk on optical illusions and light from week 2.

Last weekend the London Fashion Weekend saw out the end of February and closed the main London Fashion Week at Somerset House. I’m not one for fashion, but this event proved something not to be missed – offering a chance to get up close to the catwalk by selling photographer tickets which allowed access to the photography box, providing unprecedented views of the end of the runway.

Events selling photographer tickets do seem very, very rare – but something which I’ve thought about for quite some time; why some events don’t sell tickets for photographers (even at a premium if they must) is beyond me – after all, the organisers normally always are in favour of us and love the free publicity we photographers provide – maybe they can learn a thing or too from the London Fashion Weekend event!

So, without further a do, below are are a few highlights of the shots I took while I was there of the models showcasing outfits from a whole range of designers, including Betty Jackson, Jasper Conran and more.

As always you can also see more in the photography section.

Outfit by Betty Jackson

From the Swallows & Amazons range

Mecia Simson, winner of Britain’s Next Top Model 2009, showing off another outfit from Betty Jackon’s collection

From the Candy Rock range

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Yesterday saw London celebrate the start of the Year of the Tiger in China Town, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square. Luckily the weather reports for the most part were wrong, and we managed to miss the majority of any heavy rain or sleet and were free to wonder around without fear of my camera equipment getting wet!

However, even with the luck with the weather, there was just too many people and too few things going on for the day to be a great success, nevertheless however, below are a few photos and a video of the fireworks which ended the day.

Last weekend saw the annual MCN Motorcycle Show arrive into town at the ExCel Center in London. Aswell as displaying the latest bikes and accessories from all the top bike manufacturers, the MCN Babe of the Year contest was also counting down to the final; where out of hundreds of applicants, who were whittled down by modelling agency CT, just six took to the stage in a chance to win a year’s modelling contract and be the face of MCN for the next year.

All weekend, visitors to the event had the chance to phone in and vote for their favourite, however, there could only be one winner; who was Georgia Graham pictured below shortly after being crowned Babe of the Year 2010;

When asked what it would mean to win; Georgia, 20, from Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland said; “I was bullied as school for being ugly, so I want to prove the bullies wrong by winning”. See the rest of the post for more photos of the winner and runners-up.

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