Experience the Elekta Differ - Institute of Physics and Engineering in ...

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▼ Some of the models were almost life size, 38 so it was hard to tell. But one was trailing a long banner; the writing too small to read. Just then the volcano started rumbling, and great plumes of smoke billowed skywards. Panic set in; everyone started running down the mountain. Great folds of lava, red hot, and sulphurous fumes chasing them. Alice could feel the lava lapping at her feet, her lungs were bursting, the smoke enveloping her. Just in time, without a second to spare, the plane with the banner swooped down low on Alice. A drowning man REFERENCES 1 Havercroft, Klevenhagen. Phys Med Biol 1993; 38: 25–38. 2 Anon 3 Adrian Lonsdale 4 Agelos Saplaouros 5 Alexis Moore 6 Alison Scott 7 Andrew Tyler 8 Andy Beavis 9 Andy Buckle 10 Angela Cotton 11 Angela Newing 12 Arek Mazurek 13 Bruce Walmsley 16 | SEPTEMBER 2012 | SCOPE will grasp at a straw, and a trainee clinical scientist will do the same to a banner trailing from a model aircraft when being chased down a mountain by a stream of boiling lava. ‘Lucky I learned how to climb silks 34,36 when I was at juggling 27,52,72 school’, thought Alice, as she performed her favourite double hocks climb. It was when she was safely near the top that she paused and looked down at the writing on the banner. It was Havercroft’s paper on ion recombination, the very one she had been looking for! Engrossed by the elegance of 14 Caroline Rudland (May) 15 Carolyn Richardson 16 Catherine Eveleigh 17 Clare Hadley 18 Conor Heeney 19 David Carpenter 20 David Taylor 21 Ed Hockaday 22 Elizabeth Crawford 23 Eve Shin 24 Giles David Morrison 25 Graham Freestone 26 Heather Williams 27 Henry Lawrence 28 Ian Negus 29 Jack Aylward 30 Jacqueline Roberts 31 James Goracy 32 James Weston 33 Janet Droege (née Havercroft) 34 Jason Cashmore 35 Joseph O'Brien 36 Karen Chalmers 37 Karen Fuller 38 Keith Mitchell 39 Lucy Winch 40 Lynn Martinez 41 Lynsey Hamlett 42 Maria Holstensson FIGURE 4. ‘Lucky I learned how to climb silks when I was at juggling school.’ ▼ *‘Thulaikatchi’ is Tamil for ‘television’. Talekatchi Asana is sitting in front of the telly. 43 Marina Romanchikova 44 Mark Powell 45 Mark Rawson 46 Mathew James 47 Matilda Nyekiova 48 Mike Avison 49 Neil S. Robinson 50 Paul Ganney 51 Peter Clinch 52 Peter Julyan 53 Philip Orr 54 Rachel Cooke 55 Robert Flintham 56 Robert Speller 57 Robin Laney Havercroft’s analysis, she read on. Soon she had quite forgotten her plight, being towed behind a giant model aircraft escaping from an exploding volcano. And when she had finished the conclusion she looked up. Like a magic trick 44 she had recombined with reality! She was back in her office at Lymeswold Hospital, surrounded by a pile of debris from the archive cupboard. ‘Golly, what an adventure!’, thought Alice. ‘If I wrote it up, noone would believe me. 2,27,47 I can’t wait until I finish my portfolio and meet up with some normal people again.’ n 58 Rosalind Perrin 59 Rosemary Morton 60 Ryan Lewis 61 Samantha Eustace 62 Sarah Naylor 63 Sean Owen 64 Sharan Packer 65 Stephanie Wentworth 66 Stephen Mason 67 Steve Weston 68 Teresa Clark 69 Tom Jordan 70 Usman Lula 71 Wayne Gardner 72 Yatigammana Dylan
Radiating enthusiasm: IPEM at the 2012 Big Bang Science Fair Lisa Parker-Gomm (External Relations Manager, IPEM) How do you explain radioactivity to a 6-yearold? This was just one of the challenges IPEM’s team of outreach volunteers set themselves at this year’s Big Bang Fair – a national event for young people which celebrates science, technology, engineering and maths. In March over 56,000 visitors flocked to the NEC in Birmingham and hundreds of them visited IPEM’s stand where they had hands-on experience of how physics is used in healthcare. Matt Dunn, Head of Radiology Physics at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, led the IPEM team: ‘Our stand seemed relatively low-budget – no expensive plasma screens and suchlike. But our real strength was in allowing the visitors to get their hands on real equipment that is actually used in hospitals. Hundreds of people came to our stand, and we were busy most of the time’. DISCOVERING RADIOACTIVITY IPEM’s most attention-grabbing offering was a simulated hospital radioactivity incident. Every 30 minutes the alarms went off and it was time to don the big yellow CBRN protection suit, apron, gloves, overshoes, hat and other pretend ‘protection’ gear and start searching for radiation! No-one was in danger, of course, but it gave visitors the opportunity to scan unfortunate victims with a Geiger counter to find ‘radiation’ (it was just alcohol vapour), and also to discover how everyday items such as bananas and potassium salt (Lo-Salt) are radioactive too. As well as being fun, the demonstrators had the opportunity to explain the many ways radiation is used in medicine for the benefit of patients. One parent asked a volunteer to explain radioactivity to his 6-year-old daughter. Amazingly, the child claimed to know what atoms were, and they were both happy with the impromptu, if perhaps non-PC, explanation that some atoms didn’t like the way they looked, so they threw off bits of themselves until they felt better! Another activity on offer was using an ultrasound scanner to identify sweets and fruit concealed in miniphantoms. ‘The children enjoyed the game, and on a few occasions we scanned ourselves to show the very enthusiastic ones our kidneys, hearts and blood vessel in our wrists’, commented Matt Dunn. This proved to be a very engaging demonstration when families would be guessing the fruit together, and parents telling their children about their experience with ultrasound during pregnancy. IPEM’s third offering was blood pressure and pulse monitoring. ‘My readings were sky high at the start due to the stress of organising the event!’, said Matt Dunn. ‘We were a bit worried too in case some of the visitors’ readings fell outside the normal range, but fortunately that didn’t happen.’ Children approached the experience with anxiety, much giggling and a spirit of competition to see who had the best reading. Volunteers agreed that although it could be tiring to stand all day talking to people, when they found someone who was genuinely interested in what they were saying it was a real joy. Matt said: ‘Many of the kids were really enthusiastic about science and it was really good to see that. We weren’t really trying to recruit them to be medical physicists, but just trying to inspire them to carry on their science education so that hopefully in years to come there will be a better supply of scientists contributing to the UK economy and society in general.’ Part II trainee Kirsty Hodgson commented: ‘It was great to talk to so many interesting people, not only the children and teachers, but members of the Science Council, the STEM ambassador scheme and many others. It will be a good experience to put into my portfolio and it was nice to promote physics in healthcare as many people had not come across it before.’ BENEFITS OF VOLUNTEERING The Big Bang Fair is delivered by over 170 organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors. Led by ▼ Scanning victims to detect ‘radiation’. FEATURE | SCOPE EngineeringUK in partnership with the British Science Association, the Institute of Physics, the Science Council, the Royal Academy of Engineering and Young Engineers, the event is supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as well as numerous sponsors from industry. IPEM has taken part in each of the 4 years the event has been staged. For more information see: www.thebigbangfair.co.uk. Next year’s national event will be in London on 24th–26th March and IPEM will once again be taking part. If you’re passionate about your profession and want to share this with young people, why not give it a go? IPEM has a range of pre-prepared activities, supporting materials for teachers, and will deal with all the logistics – all we need is a little of your time and enthusiasm. To find out more, contact outreach@ipem.ac.uk. As Evelyn Shin, another volunteer from Nottingham University Hospitals, enthused: ‘If offered again, I’d volunteer in a heartbeat. It was a really great experience.’ n ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the following for their contribution to this report: Matthew Dunn, Head of Radiology Physics, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust; Evelyn Shin, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust; Kirsty Hodgson, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust; Eva McClean, Development and Communications Manager, IPEM, and to all the other volunteers who helped on the stand or loaned equipment for the demonstrations. SCOPE | SEPTEMBER 2012 | 17
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