The other day Josh Levs on CNN in the States did a little feature on NPL’s Smallest Snowman, which just so happens to feature the webpage I created for the little chap on the NPL website on the plasma screen in the background!
Check the video out below;
The snowman above is only 10 µm across, 1/5th the width of a human hair and was made by scientists at my place of work; the National Physical Laboratory.
The snowman was made from two tin beads used to calibrate electron microscope astigmatism. The eyes and smile were milled using a focused ion beam, and the nose, which is under 1 µm wide (or 0.001 mm), is ion beam deposited platinum.
More information: www.npl.co.uk/christmas
Friday saw the grand opening of NPL’s sponsored exhibit at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park about ‘The Technology of the Internet’. I was there to record the event which saw past scientists who worked on developing the internet meet up again like an old school reunion, many of whom hadn’t seen each other in decades.
It was a great day, and the exhibit, along with the museum itself, is definately worth a visit if you happen to be at Bletchley Park! Below are a few photos from the day;
All images in this post are property of NPL, and fall under © Crown Copyright protection
More information:
The National Museum of Computing | Gallery Opening Article
A highlight of photos from the NPL Fireworks display 2009 in Teddington’ all of which were launched to the rhythm of James Bond music. Check out the photography section for more photos from the night.
Today was the day of The Great River Race along the River Thames, which sees rowers from far and wide row 22 miles from Greenwich in East London, to Richmond in the West.
As with the previous years, NPL’s own Physical Wrecks rowing team was there with 2 male boats and 1 female boat to show everyone how it’s done! I was there along the way to get photo’s of the start and finish of their race!
Congratulations to all 3 boats and everyone rowing them as it must have been a very tiring journey!
Update: 7 Sept ‘09 The times of the boats were;
Mens A boat – 2hr 23 (The mens A boat won 2 classes)
Mens B boat – 2hrs 42
Ladies boat – 2hrs 46