Today, I took a tour of the mobile lab unit at Camp Mabry, a military base in Austin. It was cool, but the highlight, for me, was getting to shove my hands into a “glove box” while a coworker got a pic. Also took a couple selfies in the mobile lab. Those “glove boxes” have TRIPLE HVAC. 😳
Too bad my lab hasn’t had any scary stuff to work with. Last time we got scary stuff, it was so hot we had the sender come and pick it right TF back up. Not even our “high rad” lab was equipped to handle it. We didn’t even use our own mobile lab. Wtf 🤦🏻♀️ 🤷🏻♀️
(I wanna put on the bunny suit and work with the scary stuff....)
I gave a tour of my lab today to a prospective student and her mom. Student was STOKED on the gators. Mom.....was not. I take them on a more extensive tour of the department after my lab. They go home excited. I go back to my lab to clean only to discover that one of my gators escaped from her tank IMMEDIATELY after the tour. I send mom a pic and laugh about it. She replies with just “Oh FUCK no”
Instead of a regular Physics 101.1 class today, we instead had a tour of the different labs located within the National Institute of Physics.
As the National Institute of Physics, NIP is the leading institute of physics research in the entire Philippines. That being said, taking a look into the different labs that the building had to offer was both an honor and a privilege.
The labs within NIP are located in the Research Wing of the building. This is area of NIP is normally closed off to regular students, to allow the different people performing research there the proper environment for scientific discovery; however, during a week within the annual Physics Month held every February, the NIP Research Wing opens up its doors to people, allowing others to view the inner workings of leading physics research within the country.
The last time I had the opportunity to tour the labs within NIP was at the start of the school year as sort of an introductory tour for pre-Physics freshmen. This day I had the chance to take another tour of the facilities as an actual student of the institution. In the days to follow, I would have the opportunity to take the tour once more, this time as a tour guide as an applicant of the UP Physics Association, who handles the lab tours for the different participants.
The Labs
There are six (6) labs within NIP, each of them having a specialization within the field of Physics. Since topics are interrelated, there is some overlap between the labs; nevertheless, each lab is unique in the topics they are primarily interested in and in the way they tackle these problems. The 6 labs are the Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory (CMPL), which separates into the two labs SuperCon and SemiCon, Instrumentation Physics Laboratory (Instru/IPL), Structure and Dynamics Group (SanD), Photonics, Theory, and Plasma.
CMPL contains two main divisions. The first of the CMPL labs is SuperCon which deals with superconductors. Superconductors are materials that gain magnetic properties at very extreme temperatures. The research in this lab finds ways to harness the potential of these materials as well as identify the properties of potential superconductors. The other CMPL lab is SemiCon, which deals with other conductors and conducting materials. This lab had the most unique rooms. The Yellow Room, a room that uses yellow light and plastic covers for shoes, utilizes these specific features to provide a pristine environment that allows the researchers to build and develop their semiconductors. SemiCon also houses the largest and most expensive machine in the entire NIP building.
The Instrumentation Physics Laboratory contains the most varied topics tackled within their research. From complex systems to optics and art to biology, IPL, as the name would suggest, uses a variety of different instruments to tackle many problems faced by physicists. Many of IPL’s research has immediate real world applications, making the lab an efficient contributor to Philippine society.
The Structure and Dynamics Group is probably my favorite. The lab itself uses computers to employ simulations that answer some of the most complex physics problems. Technology is SanD’s biggest asset as they do not require physically conducted experimentation to produce results. Fields of interest include entanglement and quantum computing, parallel and high-performance computing, spin transport and spin-orbit interactions, and two-dimensional electron systems. This is the lab I hope to join in my future here in NIP.
The Photonics Group deals with the many different aspects of photonics. Light is their primary concern as they harness its properties and find practical uses for the ever complicated wave-particle. Image imprinting and laser manipulation were interesting things of note in this lab.
Theory has the simplest room, containing only table, desks, and the shelves of books needed to build up their thoughts. The Theory Group tackles the different problems of theoretical physics, those that cannot be answered by experimentation as they are too difficult to devise experiments for. Equations fill their boards and coffee fills the air of this lab.
Last but not the least is the Plasma laboratory, which harnesses the power of the 4th state of matter for practical applications. In a large room containing all their equipment and machinery, the Plasma laboratory uses plasma in its different states to do whatever they need it to do.
My Thoughts
Seeing the different labs once more, I have strengthened my love for physics. Just seeing the different things that physics research can accomplish and the wide variety of fields that physics actually affects drives me to do my best as a student. Hopefully, I can one day join a lab of my own and help contribute to the pool of knowledge that is ever expanded by those in the labs of the National Institute of Physics.
