In conversation with Nicholas Harrigan, 2007 winner of the coveted science communicator award.
Matt Brown
Nicholas Harrigan (in chef’s costume) with other FameLab finalists. Image courtesy of Kim Harrigan.
At last weekend’s Cheltenham Science Festival, Nicholas Harrigan was crowned winner of the annual NESTA FameLab contest to find talented science communicators. The PhD student, from Imperial’s Department of Physics, won £2000 and various speaking opportunities for his demonstration of the science behind the microwave oven.
Dressed as a chef, he impressed the judges with a series of unusual props, including a microwave oven, water-filled balloons and his favourite, colour-changing T-shirt. Nature Network London spoke to him about the competition, and his (kitchen) appliance of science.
Have you done anything like FameLab before?
I volunteer at a community centre, which occasionally involves talking about science to classes of school children. I also take part in the NOISEmaker scheme for promoting science to teenagers, which has involved giving one or two talks to larger teenage audiences. FameLab was the first time that I’d given science talks aimed at a more general audience.
Can you remember, as a kid, if there was one particular influence that got you into science?
The movie Back to The Future was a really big influence for me. The combination of hover-boards, time-travel and 80’s rock made it quite clear to me that I wanted to become a scientist.
Your winning talk focussed on microwave ovens. Is this something from your research, or do you just enjoy messing about with kitchen appliances?
My research is in the fields of quantum information and quantum foundations, and is entirely theoretical. Microwaves only come into it to save me from starvation when I’m working late! Anything that I don’t understand is a prime candidate for some messing around, and microwaves seemed like a nice unsafe choice.
What did you get out of doing FameLab, besides the prize?
It was an amazing experience. The chance to get feedback from some top science communicators was invaluable, but most of all it was a lot of fun. All the other contestants were awesome, and I came away having made some fantastic friends.
The presentation obviously went well, but did it seem so at the time?
It didn’t go exactly as planned; I had to ad-lib one or two bits because I forgot to mention some parts in the right order. I managed to sneak in my colour-changing t-shirt prop to answer one of the questions I got asked, so that made me happy. I love my colour-changing t-shirt.
As the winner, you’ll be in demand as a speaker. Anywhere you’d like to give a talk?
I’d love to be able to give my talk to the children at the community centre I volunteer at. They’re a fantastic audience, and they can come up with some of the deepest and most insightful questions of all. Also I’d like to do Wembley stadium with 70,000 screaming fans…
Moving on to your research, how do you describe your work when asked by a non-scientist?
I get to try my hand at solving a 100 year old puzzle about some of the smallest things that we know about. This puzzle concerns the weird features of reality which seem to underlie quantum mechanics – the best theory we have of the very small. The tricky question is why we don’t see similar weird features at larger more familiar scales. This problem so exasperated Einstein that he likened it to asking whether the moon is there or not when we don’t look at it!
What would you say is the cutting edge of your field right now?
About 20 years ago, people realized that the strange properties of quantum mechanics can be used to build computers that can perform tasks more efficiently than we could ever manage using normal computers (no matter how much money companies might throw into them!). A big question that is still the subject of much cutting edge research is just why it is that quantum mechanics can give us such unprecedented computing power. If we could answer this then I think we’d be a step closer to understanding how the universe gets away with being so weird in the first place.
Why did you pick Imperial for your PhD?
When I finished my first degree I had the feeling that I didn’t really understand quantum theory at all. My supervisor, Terry Rudolph, was the only person I met who was really keen to let me research some of the more fundamental unanswered aspects of quantum theory. Plus I’d heard that he liked AC/DC…
Do you ever read scientific blogs? If so, which ones?
I’m a big fan of the blog Shtetl-Optimized of the computer scientist Scott Aaronson. He’s really good at writing science articles and has done a fantastic job in taking a stand against some recent controversial claims made in the quantum computing community. I also occasionally dip into Biocurious, a blog on biophysics, and the Cocktail party physics, which always proves a great springboard for reading about interesting new research outside my field.
Where in London would you advise a visiting scientist to while away a free afternoon?
There are some great museums in London and most of them are free to get into! I’m a really big fan of the natural history museum, especially the less-frequented upstairs rooms. The imperial war museum is also really worth a visit. I’ve always loved the way that it’s laid out; the exhibits all flow together. If it’s a Sunday afternoon, then defending science at speaker’s corner in Hyde Park can be a lot of fun, and possibly one of the best ways to practise communicating science.
Finally, what are you going to spend your £2000 prize money on?
I’m considering buying a motorbike so that I can ride across Eastern Europe when I’ve finished my PhD.
FameLab, now in its third year, is supported by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), Channel 4, the Daily Telegraph, Pfizer and Research Councils UK.