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3. Mirror, Mirror

Listener Koby wants to know 'What is the shiniest thing in the world slash universe?'.

9 year old listener Koby sends Hannah and Dara on a mission to find the shiniest thing in the world. And so they enter a world of mirrors鈥

The journey takes them into the subatomic goings on of shiny metal surfaces, where electrons waggle and dance and send light waves back at *just* the right angle. Our curious duo play with an astonishingly reflective plastic film that can be found hidden in devices we all use. And they probe the mysterious power of refraction, harnessed to make the $2 million mirrors which reflect the lasers at the huge LIGO experiment.

And everyone ponders the surprisingly reflective properties of a pint in space.

Contributors:

Dr Felix Flicker: University of Bristol, author of The Magick of Matter
Professor Stuart Reid: University of Strathclyde
Quinn Sanford: optical engineer from 3M
GariLynn Billingsley: Optical Sciences Group Leader at LIGO

Producer: Ilan Goodman
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A 大象传媒 Studios Audio Production

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sat 19 Oct 2024 10:00

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Broadcast

  • Sat 19 Oct 2024 10:00

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