Communicating OMA through Star Wars
Hundreds of local secondary school students attended the Physics of Star Wars event hosted by the University’ of Liverpool Department of Physics.
The event, which was a celebration of Star Wars’ 40th anniversary, discussed what is science and what is fiction in the famous films. The Physics Department linked the Star Wars universe to their current research activities and international projects including OMA, in an informative and entertaining event.
Almost 200 local high school students visited campus for the morning session, in addition to 150 staff and students from across the university attending the evening event at the university’s award-winning Central Teaching Laboratory.
Organiser Professor Carsten P Welsch, Head of the Department of Physics and OMA Coordinator, explained the link between Star Wars fiction and the OMA project in his public lecture:
‘In the very first movie from 1977, the rebels have used proton torpedoes that make the Death Star explode as their lasers wouldn’t penetrate the shields. I linked that to our use of ‘proton torpedoes’ in cancer therapy. Within the pan-European OMA project, we are using proton beams to target something that is hidden very deep inside the body and very difficult to target and destroy.’
BBC Radio Merseyside (from 1:26:11), the Warrington Guardian and Physics World have reported about the event which has brought the OMA project to the attention of several hundreds of thousands. The BBC’s Science Focus website has published a whole feature article about the event, with links to OMA. Many photographs from the exciting day can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/livuniphysics (#physicsofstarwars).
This was not an official Disney/Lucasfilm event, but planned, organised and run by Liverpool staff and students.