Physics: how is it related to real-world issues
Rocket Writing Exercise
In each topic note
 where it might connect with school science curriculum
 why the area of research is important
 its relevance to person, community or society
 what careers it’s associated with
 is it transformative to other sciences or areas of investigation – is it
interdisciplinary
Now consider in each how would students would perceive
 topics
 careers/pathways/opportunities
 identify with physicists/scientists
 how transformative would they perceive the science
 how connected to real world problems are the topics
Would students have stereotypes in mind about people that studied the sciences below?
Comment:
Area of Physics
Key Words
Advanced Smart Materials
& Nanotechnology
diamond, semi-conductors, metamaterials, nanostructures, single photon
sources, optical fibres, superconducting
electronics, quantum devices, quantum
dots
Student Identity or Efficacy – how well
do secondary or primary students
connect with doing this science and how
good do they feel they are at these?
Relevance
Semi-conductors can be made very small
thus miniaturisation of devices;
Diamonds – very small - can be formed
artificially to also contain fluorescent
molecules
Application to helping individuals or
society
Medical devices to save lives, implants
e.g. cochlea ear implant, bionic eye
Very little
Very little
Labelled diamonds can track activity in
cancer cells to identify action pathways
that can be targeted with medication –
medical advancement in drug delivery
Transformative contribution
Without the understanding of physical
principals of quantum dots and devices the
biological/medical/engineering cannot
make the advances
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Nerdy, men, old, ??
Astronomy & Astrophysics
observational and theoretical cosmology,
active galactic nuclei & quasars, supermassive black-holes, gravitational lensing,
dust, galaxies, groups & clusters, radio
astronomy, solar system, gravitational
waves, pulsars & supernova remnants,
reionization of the Universe
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Astroparticle Physics &
Particle Cosmology
high energy astroparticle physics, particle
cosmology, early universe, dark matter,
neutrino astrophysics, baryogenesis and
leptogenesis, quantum universe
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Atomic Physics
quantum electrodynamics, x-ray
interactions with matter, laser cooling of
atoms, atomic coherence, atom optics
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Biotechnology & Biophysics
imaging non-crystalline membrane
proteins using coherent light sources from
the Australian Synchrotron, laser physics,
ARC Centre for Coherent X-ray Science
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Characterisation & Analysis
ion beam lithography, nuclear microprobe,
spectroscopy (atomic force, electron,
Raman, X-ray, UV, near-field, IR,
fluorescence); refer also 'X-ray Physics' and
'Optical Physics & Imaging'
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Computing
grid, Tier 2, terabyte dataset
management, quantum computing, on-line
data storage & archiving, quantum game
theory
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Condensed Matter Physics
atomic resolution imaging, electron
spectroscopy, scattering, diffraction,
novel states of condensed matter, BoseEinstein condensates
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Energy Systems
uranium, nuclear energy debate, climate
change
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Experimental Particle
Physics
Large Hadron Collider, CERN, ATLAS &
BELLE high energy physics programs, origin
of mass, dark matter, dark energy,
Standard Model, CP violation,
supersymmetry, Higgs boson, silicon
detector physics, grid computing
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Foundations & Philosophy
quantum decoherence, quantum-toclassical transition, quantum measurement
problem, interpretations of quantum
Relevance
Very little
mechanics, quantum probabilities,
entanglement
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Instrumentation
Development
Positron Emission Topography (PET), high
precision silicon pixel detectors, Australian
Synchrotron, mammography, lasers,
quantum computer, low frequency radio
telescope, single photon source (see also
MOGlabs Pty Ltd)
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Medical & Neurosciences
Positron Emission Topography (PET),
mammography, biomedical imaging
technologies, Australian Synchrotron
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Optical Physics & Imaging
Quantum and optical physics and imaging
with lasers & x-rays; photonics, atomic
resolution imaging, ARC Centre for
Coherent X-ray Science, Australian
Synchrotron
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Origins of the Universe
Refer to 'Astronomy & Astrophysics',
'Experimental Particle Physics',
'Theoretical Particle Physics' entries
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Theoretical Particle
Physics
Big Bang, brane-worlds & extradimensional models, dark matter,
extensions to the Standard Model, neutrino
physics, early universe, astro-particle
physics
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
Quantum Information
Science
quantum computing, quantum
decoherence, quantum game theory,
quantum devices, qubits, cryptography,
diamond, Quantum Communications
Victoria
Relevance
Very little
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes
X-ray Physics
X-ray optics, diffraction, imaging &
spectroscopy; X-ray free-electron laser
(XFEL), X-ray absorption fine structure
Relevance
Very little
(XAFS), X-ray absorption near edge
structure (XANES); Australian Synchrotron,
ARC Centre for Coherent X-ray Science
Very little
Application to helping individuals or
society
Transformative contribution
Career pathways & opportunities or
transferable skills
Stereotypes