Jonathan's creative space

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Schoolchildren from around Sussex have been getting their hands on Jonathan Hare's buckyballs again. But this time they've been in his new laboratory.

The CPES research fellow opened the doors of his new Creative Science Centre (CSC) in the Chichester Building a month ago and has already held numerous workshops for young science students, including groups from Brighton College of Technology, Angmering School, Brighton and Hove High School for Girls and St Christopher's School in Hove (pictured).

Although he set up the CSC five years ago, this is the first time Jonathan has been able to host events on campus. "It's been a wonderful opportunity to bring people into the University," he says. "I can use this space so effectively."

A key member of the Sussex Fullerene Group headed by Nobel prize-winner Professor Sir Harry Kroto, Jonathan has been explaining the chemistry behind Buckminsterfullerenes. He has also been helping children to build simple electric circuits and has plans to organise workshops on satellite dishes and the construction of underwater cameras.

Next term he is collaborating with David Randall (BIOLS) and Peter Adamczyk (USIE) in various projects, including getting children to work out how to build dome structures out of bamboo.

Many of the tools and items of equipment for the new laboratory have been bought with grants for the Public Understanding of Science. Hewlett-Packard donated a digital camera, a scanner and a new PC.

As another strand to the lab's use, Jonathan is setting up a 'drop-in' alkaline battery reactivating scheme, which means that anyone with dead AA batteries can take them along and swap them for ones he has reactivated. "It takes 50 times more energy to produce a battery than the energy it gives out," he says. "It seems such a waste to throw them away."

Jonathan, who was awarded a NESTA fellowship this year to develop his creative ideas, has a few other exciting projects on the go, as well.

After the success of the first series of Rough Science, a BBC2/Open University co-production that involved sending Jonathan and other scientists to a remote Mediterranean island to see how they coped in the wilderness, a second series is now on the cards.

He has also been asked to co-present a new BBC2/Open University series, Hollywood Science, with actor Robert Llewellyn (from Red Dwarf), which will take a look at famous movie stunts to see if they could happen for real. It won't involve him travelling to Tinsel Town or mingling with the stars, however. The point of the series is to show you can do real hard science using a few low-tech props in your own back garden.