Due to the growing popularity of the Christmas Lectures each year, there were two hour-long lectures for budding scientists on Monday, December 8 and Tuesday, December 9, which took place in the University’s Taliesin Theatre.

Professor Mike Charlton, Head of the Department of Physics, College of Science, gave the welcome and introduced this year’s guest presenters to a capacity audience.

The morning lecture was presented by Dr Michael Wilson, consultant clinical scientist in the Nuclear Medicine Department of the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust and lecturer at the University of Birmingham, on the subject of “From X-rays to Antimatter – see inside the human body”.

And the afternoon lecture was presented by plasma physicist Dr Ceri Brenner, of the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, near Oxford, on the subject of “Igniting stars with super intense lasers”.

Professor Charlton said: “We were delighted to engage two such distinguished and enthusiastic speakers to give this year’s Christmas Lectures, allowing us to offer an exciting and Curriculum-relevant programme for our guests.

“Swansea’s Physics Department has a long history of producing graduates and researchers who are among the world’s best. Our alumni include Professor Lynn Evans, Project Leader of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, and we are proud of the strong professional links we have with organisations such as this.

“As academics, we are also committed to inspiring the next generation of scientists in STEM areas. Engaging pupils at a young age is crucial and we are certain this year’s exciting lecture programme engaged, stimulated, and challenged them.”

‌Dr Michael Wilson’s lecture, entitled “From X-rays to Antimatter – see inside the human body”, revealed how over the past 100 years, physicists have developed increasingly sophisticated techniques to see inside the body.

These techniques use X-ray, radioactive molecules and magnetic fields to produce images of the body, and how these images allow doctors to better diagnose and treat illness and disease.

Dr Ceri Brenner’s lecture, entitled “Igniting stars with super intense lasers”, revealed when you gaze into the night sky and see a blanket of twinkling stars, you’re actually observing the effect of complex, high temperature and exotic plasma physics in action.

We’re far from being to get up close to any of these stars, even our own Sun, but perhaps we can instead recreate solar conditions on earth and study them within the lab? The most powerful and intense lasers in the world enable us to do just that.

From studying the energy process at the centre of the Sun to mimicking the action of the death of a star, a supernova explosion, laser plasmas are a diverse and extraordinarily inspiring area to be working in.

But plasma physics is also a very application-driven area of research and touches on future electricity sources in terms of fusion energy, as well as future accelerator technology that will impact cancer diagnosis and treatment.

For more information on Swansea University's Department of Physics visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk/physics.

Image captions:

1) Pictured left to right, Sam Melmoth and Rachel Payne of Ysgol Gyfyn Gwyr, Gowerton; Professor Mike Charlton, Department of Physics, Swansea University; guest speaker Dr Michael Wilson; Seren Corbett and Stuart Lewis of Crickhowell High School.

2) Pictured are pupils from Crickhowell High School with Dr Ceri Brenner (centre, left) and Professor Chris Allton (centre, right), Department of Physics, Swansea University.