Diamonds in Space - British Science Week Fair 2018, Aberystwyth University

Kerry Hazeldine

As part of British Science Week 2018, Aberystwyth University hosted a 3-day event where students from across county Ceredigion from years 3 to 7 were invited to come along to see what exciting science and research is being conducted at the University and its partners.

Students of the CDT partnered up with students from Aberystwyth University to put on a ‘Diamonds in Space’ stand to highlight diamond research being conducted by the CDT, and diamond science and space science research being conducted in the Physics department at Aberystwyth.

Over the course of the three days’, children were taught about how diamonds are formed on earth in the mantle, how the environment in which they are formed relates to their crystal structure, how the carbon in diamond is different to carbon in other carbon allotropes, and how diamond can be formed in space. One of the interactive activities was to help build a large and growing structure of diamond using ball and stick models; with another activity being able to use the virtual reality headsets to have a look around the solar system and find areas and environments were diamonds could form, i.e. in the asteroid belt.

Over the entire week, approximately 1600 children and adults visited the fair with approximately 400 of those visiting our stall.