ABSTRACT
In my recent book [1], I had a chapter entitled ‘Explaining “what is crystal structure analysis?” for a general audience’. That chapter was of course quite specialised to my research speciality of crystallography; see Figure 25.1 for a spectacular general example! Here I will discuss some general aspects with details derived from the following:
My participation in university open days meeting prospective undergraduates, encouraging them to apply to my own university department and answering any questions from them or their parents
Lectures I gave to schoolchildren
Lectures I gave to the public, for example, at local community centres
Lectures I had given not only to wide interest groups of scientists from many fields but also to other people curious about science topics, for example, to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society with the University Physics Department (Schuster Laboratory) on the occasion of the university’s celebrations of its 150th anniversary [2] and also presentation to a Friday evening discourse to the Royal Institution members in London
Synchrotron facility newsletter articles on prominent research results; these are newsletters that must reach out both to not only specialists and to the public especially but also including politicians, the pay masters of much of science
A plan I put forward to those responsible for education in UK prisons for me to present a lecture to prisoners as a contribution to their rehabilitation into society
Volta demonstrating his battery pile to Napoleon in 1801. I came upon this picture during my visit to the Volta Museum in Como, Italy; origin of the picture is unknown. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315394428/a7c84328-fd18-45e0-bbab-342fb558be30/content/fig25_1.jpg"/>