A team of budding young scientists put their summer holidays to good use, building their very own versions of the TAIPAN and WOMBAT instruments – out of LEGO®. Based on plans drawn up by John Burfoot from the Macquarie Innovations Centre at Macquarie University, the team worked to recreate their own TAIPAN model and then started to recreate WOMBAT.
Help was at hand from Bragg Institute instrument scientists Kirrily Rule and Helen Maynard-Casely, but they were only needed as consultants and by the end of two days had a working triple axis instrument, as well as a great start to the WOMBAT half-moon detector.
The aim is that the models can be used by visiting school groups to explain the operation of the instruments, which both have movable sections that recreate the monochromator, sample and analyser/detector.
Students themselves will be able to have a go at putting a crystal onto the instruments and, using a laser or white Light Emitting Diode (LED), detect the resulting patterns.
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| From left to right; Andy Olsen, Shaun Peng , Ethan Peng and Kirrily Rule | From left to right; Rebecca Robinson, Kira Haley, Helen Maynard-Casely and Mitch Olsen. |
Published: 21/01/2016