Much to learn, you still have
These are the famous words of Jedi master Yoda to Count Dooku when he faces his old Padawan in Attack of the Clones. Based on these words, Liverpool University held a special event about the Physics of Star Wars to explore what is science and what is fiction in the famous movies. Hundreds of local high school students, university students and staff came on campus on 20 November 2019 and learned how world of Star Wars is connected with proton beam therapy and accelerator-based science in general.
The Force was strong at the Physics of Star Wars day in Liverpool.
Physics of Star Wars took place in the award-winning Central Teaching Laboratory, which was turned into a teaching space from a galaxy far, far away. The event started with an engaging lecture by OMA Coordinator Professor Carsten Welsch who immersed the participants into the Star Wars universe. He said: “I selected iconic scenes from the movies that everybody will immediately recognise, and used real-world physics to explain what is possible and what is fiction. However, this short scene from ‘Star Wars’ was just the introduction, the appetizer, to make the participants curious and discuss science. I then linked what I had just shown in the film to our current research.”
After the lecture, everyone was able to explore the science of Star Wars themselves through a range of hands-on experiments that were prepared by staff and students of Liverpool University, including OMA Fellow Jacinta Yap.
In the very first Star Wars movie, Luke Skywalker uses proton torpedoes to destroy the Death Star – the giant space station that destroys planets. More than 40 years on, science fact has caught up with science fiction. Within our OMA project, accelerator and clinical experts have been exploring ways to better control proton beams to improve cancer treatment. These beams can be used to destroy a tumour hidden deep inside the body. Amongst others, OMA research targets the use of a monitor originally developed for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN to characterize the treatment beam without touching it.
OMA Fellow Jacinta Yap explaining the proton mini golf challenge to a student.
Professor Welsch says: “For the students to experience for themselves the problems of controlling a beam you can’t see to hit an invisible target, OMA Fellows have created a Star Wars themed proton mini golf challenge. They experience first-hand that targeting becomes much easier if an advanced detector helps them guide the “beam”, i.e. the mini golf ball.”
Many other exciting developments, including novel plasma accelerating techniques, antimatter research, and upgrades to the world’s largest particle accelerator were discussed at this unique event which was deemed a roaring success. The day was an excellent example of how Star Wars fiction can inspire and train the next generation of researchers.
Yoda also said to Count Dooku “This is just the beginning!” and this is no doubt true in the case of science as well: Many more researchers will be needed in the future and Physics of Star Wars helped fascinate many more.
This is not an official Disney/Lucasfilm event, but planned, organised and run by Liverpool staff and students. The kind permission of Lucasfilm to use film excerpts as part of the seminar is acknowledged.