We Visited Some Big Science

On our way back from Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, we stopped by a Mystery Park and stared into the sun. Warning: features the return of Rainbow Comic Sans, and a bit of wind noise even despite our big fuzzy dead-cat microphone.
Thanks to the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy: ccfe.ac.uk
The CCFE videos:
Help, My Fusion Reactor's Making A Weird Noise: • Help, My Fusion Reacto...
The Not-Quite-Robots That Fix Fusion Reactors: • The Not-Quite-Robots T...
Matt's low-effort method for receiving pictures from space: mattg.co.uk/wor...
Get in touch: tomscott.com/c...

[@TheMohawkNinja]

Tom, I have an idea for a new show for you. "Matt Grey attempts to explain something scientific for 5 minutes"

[@any1alive]

omg yes and jsut shove itonto one of the mroe detailed channels jsut to see the reply x3

[@schlimmbotg472]

30 secs. Everytging fits in it

[@RainaRamsay]

I love listening to Matt (here and at Citation Needed), because I, too, can never find the word I need under pressure, and will say things like "orange-ish" instead of "segmented".

[@sujimtangerines]

I do the same thing he does with locations. Drives everyone I know nuts when I say, "Top right" of a state or city.

[@centrifugedestroyer2579]

I once called a luggage rack on a bike an "aft cargo hold". Another time I forgot the word "Saturday" in all languages I know and panicked and called it the "second Friday of the week"

[@Gilgwathir]

Tow nerds having a sciencegasm and animated rainbow comic sans. Tom I admire you for having the guts to do this with that font...

[@MercenaryPen]

Big molecules is fission- fusion is the really small molecules (usually hydrogen to helium)

[@Kaepsele337]

+Mercenary Pen not molecules, atoms. Or to be even more correct nuclei.

[@aurelia8028]

The correct term is atoms. Atoms are singulat entities. Molecule are any number of atoms held together by electromagnetism, basically

[@craigstoner2632]

I believe they were super dumbing it down for peoplw like me, that found your corrections a turn off!! Sorry!

[@MarkusAldawn]

Technically, no. Fusion _power_ is small elements (anything that is either below Iron or fuses into something below iron, I believe) and fission power is that but large and above replaced as needed. Fusion can happen to atoms of any size and so can fission (I assume there's a lower limit on that one, though). We use fusion on big atoms all the time- that's how we make trans-uranic elements and all those weird ones have have three letters near the end of the periodic table.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

You know what's coming up next... T-shirts with "MANIPULATOR ARMS" written on rainbow-hued Comic Sans

[@K.Arashi]

+mfaizsyahmi. i'd buy one

[@PassionPopsicle]

+mfaizsyahmi. Needs to happen

[@lividsoda]

+PassionPopsicle yes.

[@an_on5252]

Problem - custom t-shirts increase price per color on the t-shirt, so rainbow will make it expensive

[@RKBock]

not quite. (i've done an internship at a shop that did this) they usually have colored sheets of the stuff they print on where the shapes are cut out of. so i would guess that they take money per different sheet that they have to use. they have a rainbow collored one.

[@OrigamiMarie]

I can see why Matt would think "chocolate orange" before normal orange, because the segments are much more perfect and even in the chocolate version.

[@Faxter313]

I am waiting for the intro where you switch names and no one notices.

[@snowfloofcathug]

If no one notices, how will we know it hasn't happened already ;)

[@Faxter313]

That's the funny part. :D

[@thomashobbs7066]

Well hi there @Faxter313 from 8 years ago. Your comment made me think of something funny. Schrödinger’s name tags, until observed they are neither correct nor reversed. Hope you’re doing well all these years later.

[@NikHYTWP]

I don't think I've been more upset at a unreleased video than the one about getting pictures from space. Getting stuff from NOAA w/ an SDR is one of my favorite hobbies and I would've loved to see you guys talk about it!

[@gwenynorisu6883]

I'm impressed at how you seem to be filming right next to the M25, yet the vocal track is still clear and understandable over the top of it. I've had recordings made in lecture theatres that didn't come out that well simply because of projector fan noise.

[@AssassinAgent]

You probably know this (and I'm two years late, don't judge me, just going trough these older vids again), but Matt works in radio so he knows a thing or two about audio

[@NotKyleChicago]

Particularly as they don't appear to have any lapel or other clip on mics, nor the mic we've seen in other videos that looks fluffy.

[@StanleyYork]

Watching these is like watching the gradual increase in insanity in Matt...

[@Mousy677]

tom's robot noises are the best thing I've ever heard

[@JustOneAsbesto]

Manipulator arm?!? I HARDLY KNOW 'ER!!!

[@Jwend392]

Eight Segments of Science would be a great name for a band.

[@ragnkja]

It'd be an even better name for an album. It needs to have exactly eight tracks, of course.

[@Jwend392]

Indeed.

[@joshuahadams]

Nillie and each son needs to be about a scientific concept.

[@uxjjkzbxlr]

1:40 You take very very tiny molecules (usually H2), take all their electrons away, by heating them up (this makes them a plasma). You are left with nuclei which you fuse into marginally bigger nuclei like Helium-nuclei (this is where the energy comes from).

[@TissueCat]

We actually do have chocolate oranges in America too. I'm not sure how the sales numbers compare here vs in the UK, but we definitely have them. I used to get a chocolate orange in my stocking every Christmas.

[@richb313]

Those "Arms" or Manipulators are Spatially Correspondent meaning the manipulators move to the same position as the Master Arm or Controller. From your description they also have force feedback which gives you resistance in the master arm to give you a rudimentary feel for what is going on. We used these types of manipulators in the R.O.V. Industry. Because of the sensors required to measure the angle of the joints of the slave arm, the one that was under water on the vehicle, these were complex electro-mechanical assemblies. Our manipulators were moved with hydraulics. There is a simpler method to control these types of arms and that is an on/off method or Rate Controlled. You have a controller with switches for each joint of the arm so you can extend/ retract. Move up / down. Rotate CW / CCW. Open / Close the jaw. Interestingly most ROV Pilots could actually perform tasks quicker with the Rate arm rather than the S.C. (Spatially Corespondent) one because with a rate arm it stays where you leave it. Just though your viewers might like a little more info from a user of manipulators for nearly 40 years.

[@Seegalgalguntijak]

Wow, that's quite the efficiency there! I mean, a pile of compost also only works because it gets energy from the sun (or its components have gotten it from there before they went on that pile). So they have the same energy density, but the one is millions of kilometers away and drives the other one. Amazing! (And yes, I know a pile of compost is a bit more complex than just a simple fusion reaction, but all the energy in it still originally comes from the sun)

[@benkai09]

well we've had "things you might not have know" and "Amazing places" next we have "Cool Engineering"

[@Biped]

if you only watch the 20 seconds after 8:37 it becomes incredibly awkward/cringy

[@manuelbonet]

Yes

[@iriscandy6377]

Christ

[@longdeadchannel8311]

Oh my God

[@vkillion]

We have chocolate oranges here in the US. My family has an unofficial tradition to get one around Christmas. So, that reference wasn't too British for me.

[@kaleb_barbour3]

Same! I've never met anyone who's family did that too

[@sujimtangerines]

I put one of these in my family members' stockings. When I was a kid we got real ones... Which, meh. Would've rather had chocolate. So when I became a mom that's what I did!

[@Arkhanno]

God, I really wanted Matt to say, "... and using that one spare science..." at about 3:30 but sadly it didn't happen. Next time, Matt. Next time.

[@crissd8283]

1:33 Fusion reactors generally run on isotopes of hydrogen which is not a large molecule but rather a very small one. After the reaction you get mostly helium which is very small as well. There are other types of fusion reactors but they all must run on elements near the top of they periodic table which are generally small atoms.

[@unakamillasteinsen4817]

Those science-y explanations... very accurate. This is exactly how nuclear fission and fusion work. Nailed it.

[@HaroldWilsonsGhost]

Everyone's complaining about the rainbow comic sans, but where did the fluffy microphone go?

[@jonnywak1292]

I think they've mounted it by the camera

[@HaroldWilsonsGhost]

Lorry Mun Yeah probably

[@robertbackhaus8911]

+Ginger Biscuit It was there (they mentioned it in the comments) but it seems it isn't up to the job when pointed directly into the wind.

[@XDRosenheim]

RAINBOW. COMIC. SANS. How could you?

[@danielchong5032]

+XDRosenheim You mad bro?

[@CoffeeOnRails]

+XDRosenheim MLG Tom Scott

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

Matt Gray and his Eight Segments of Science is the name of my new filk band

[@benford1726]

My old physics teacher used to work at JET. I think she worked on the front desk or something and had nothing to do with any of the physics but apparently that qualified her to read the physics textbook to a class of teenagers at Oxford. (To be clear, A-level at Oxpens college not Oxford University) I had a friend who was there a year before me who told me that before she was a physics teacher she was a key skills teacher. (For anyone who may not know, key skills is basically Microsoft word and Google)

[@rondowar]

haven't read up on nuclear fusion is nearly 10 years.. glad there's still active research on it. it really is the future of nuclear energy (since it's pretty much clean)

[@AlucardNoir]

8 science... so they're working on the Sid Meier's Civilizations model?

[@joshuahadams]

AlucardNoir maybe the Kerbal Space Program model?

[@Cuthboer]

Matt looking into the camera at 7:35 was scarier than than the weird creature robot arm thing

[@PandoraSystem]

Tom, it wasn't a bad mime until you did the groping motion.

[@stefanf4110]

1:34 - You don't get big big molecules, you get the very opposite. You take the smallest possible atoms, Hydrogen, and heat them until they lose their electrons (each of them has one). This is what forms a plasma, an ionised gas. Eventually as heat becomes high enough the ions making up the plasma will fuse, releasing what can only be described as 'silly' amounts of energy.

[@AJGoff110]

1:32 In fusion you don't start with big molecules, you start with tiny atoms. Tiny forms of hydrogen atoms that are pretty much just a proton and a neutron or two. And while the reaction does give off lots of energy, you need to put a lot of energy into the reactor to get the Hydrogen plasma up to a few million degrees, which is pretty much why it's hard to get any extra energy out in the end.

[@blobcreeper]

"tiny forms of hydrogen" seriously, I can't take anyone seriously if they call isotopes of hydrogen that. Deuterium and Tritium are the names of the isotopes.

[@AJGoff110]

Phijkchu_Blob do you think it's more clear or concise for a layman if i call it "Deuterium" over "a form of Hydrogen." Obviously the more accurate name is more accurate, but that doesn't make it the right word to use.

[@blobcreeper]

Aj Goff But they aren't exactly what you would call a layman, sure some of the commenters are but they need only ask or better yet look it up.

[@dergun5639]

9:10 no it’s a great mime

[@halfcelestialelf]

I went to Cullam a few years ago and it was great fun :)

[@robertlinke2666]

wow it gives 8 science, i wanna have that in CIV V

[@MS4E]

what I've learned from this video: do not listen to these guys for science purposes :p

[@rondowar]

+MS4E nah, it's "SCIENCE" :D how can't you understand that?

[@mgray3052]

Ok Im a physics student so imma explain just because I can. Fission is used in nuclear power plants and is splitting a really big atom into 2 roughly equal smaller atoms with a slow-moving neutron. There is less energy needed to hold two smaller atoms together than one big atom, so each reaction has a little bit of excess energy (as heat) - and because more than one neutron is emitted, its a chain reaction that increases exponentially. So fission triggered by one neutron will release maybe three neutrons, that will each trigger another fission reaction each and etc etc. Not too difficult to do, more difficult to keep under control and at a constant rate. Fission is more difficult. It requires very very high pressure and temperature to overcome electrostatic repulsion. The actual energy release from this is from the lost mass and mass-energy conservation. Fission is really good because there's an endless (for humanity) source of the raw material and there's no radioactive waste like fusion. But it can't be used practically because it takes more energy to reach the temperature required compared to the energy we get out at the end. So! Fusion - big atoms in half, radioactive waste, already done on Earth Fission - small atoms joined together, no radioactive waste, still mostly unachievable because it happens in the core of stars and we need to replicate that somehow :)

[@richardbradley6388]

When Tom was shaking out the pain from his hand you should have multiple bounced the end screen credit in unison with Tom's arm, like you do once at the end of a normal video. That would have been a nice effect.

[@jesutherland]

In the US, in Idaho at the EBR-1 site there is a set of waldo's you can play with all day if you'd like. Two sets actualy. They have various blocks and puzzles and things setup on the far side of each one.

[@neuroboii]

Matt as Animal...it makes soooo much sense. How did I never see it before??

[@bosapiutsa3829]

Awesome stuff! Thanks for the content.

[@VagueHandWaving]

From the people who brought you 5 Seconds of Summer cones the new #1 nerd band 8 SEGMENTS OF SCIENCE!!!!

[@sparkyprojects]

I used to live just a few miles from JET, a friend used to work there on the fire team, he got me an invite on an open day while they were building the torus, so i got to stand next to it and look inside. btw, interesting place for science if you are ever in America is the Geek group in Grand Rapids MI

[@EmmaLiza]

5:40 Yes, do try and avoid causing an act of nuclear cyberterrorism. It'll probably be terribly written. 9:40 But can you use it to cook bacon on a hair curler, that's the real question here...

[@MerlynCooper]

Tom's got a presenting style that is like a mix between blue peter and how 2

[@dragoncurveenthusiast]

Hiii! We got to use the grabby thing! ^^ 8:41

[@RuiAlbuquerque1]

also, this would be real cool in podcast form

[@therese294776]

Your hoodie strings match in their asymmetry.

[@peter_smyth]

MANIPULATOR ARM! Sounds like a metal band.

[@K1W1fly]

Blotchy tree shadows over everything - even better than the Rainbow Comic Sans

[@Candoran2]

1:34 isn't it atoms, not molecules?

[@Eric_D_6]

+Candoran2 it's actually hydrogen and helium nuclei (sometimes just hydrogen), so the "big" part is pretty wrong also.

[@rondowar]

+Eric D pretty important difference.. since going from big to bigger actually costs energy instead of giving energy (which is how stars eventually die)

[@JulianDanzerHAL9001]

2:00 that is looking at the current thermal energy - and taking the energy density of compost (chemial energy when burned) WITHOUT taking the oxygen needed for burning into account if you take the energy the sun will release over it's lifetime you get a billion times more

[@zJoriz]

Okay, corrections will be in rainbow Comic Sans, fair enough. But did BLOODY EVERYTHING really need to be that way?

[@desertrose5613]

Throughout the video I just kept staring at Tom's fabulous hair as it blew majestically in the wind. Ah, the plight of the social sciences guy. Or perk, perhaps.

[@theJellyjoker]

The sun is a giant hydrogen compost pile in the sky.

[@lewismassie]

+Jeffery Liggett Best quote ever

[@legatelaurie]

+Jeffery Liggett sounds like something out of HHGTTG

[@flensborg82]

MANIPULATOR AAARRRRRM. That was brilliant.

[@mysticvirgo9318]

Awww the ever sought after boom arm of science :)

[@SonOfFurzehatt]

The rainbow comic sans is a punishment for getting things wrong. Nobody WANTS to use rainbow comic sans. Well, nobody you'd want to meet.

[@wolfbd5950]

When Grey is using it, it's a Matt-nipulator arm.

[@TheBreed010]

You guys meant POWER(!) density, because the sun would have "burned out" a long time ago if it only had the energy density of a pile of compost. The rest of the fusion and fission process I think is (more or less) covered in other posts

[@rikwisselink-bijker]

That method of remote control is the same thing as operating robots, which is why the idea people have from those things are massively different from how they actually work

[@s8w5]

With that performance, you will never be allowed to high-five with the manipulator arm.

[@chrisneary8538]

that moment when you just realised the Count Dracula pun

[@maxximumb]

I like the new unit of measurement. The science,

[@eatbachelorchow]

I was on the open day! your friend had a motorbike, it was good

[@vlanoik]

"Everyone was really nice on camera" so I take it somebody was a bit of a jerk off camera and you didn't want to call them out on it

[@aasmund_ks6369]

Rainbow comic sans huh. You do know how to make one cringe.

[@ragnkja]

+aasmund_ks Animated rainbow text, regardless of font, is cringeworthy.

[@LeoWattenberg]

Better yet: Animated rainbow comic sans on a website with an animated rainbow background animating in the opposite direction with autoplaying music and lots of flash content.

[@Firecul]

+Leo Wattenberg (LEOXD) Please, not again.

[@kickthejetengine]

+Leo Wattenberg (LEOXD) How did you get verified on Google+ and KZbin?

[@LeoWattenberg]

Kick The Jet Engine I'm a Google Top Contributor, KZbin Certified and so on.

[@ballergames101]

take a shot everytime tom blinks

[@michaelw9285]

It's sad that I know exactly where that park bench is and I've never been - just know the Builder Depot from my train journey to work!

[@tarab2003]

I learnt about big science and also how to high five. Today is a good day

[@waverleyrocker]

*small molecules for fusion. (hydrogen & helium) Big ones for fission (uranium) Opposite ends of this curve: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg/500px-Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg.png

[@AdamLloyd98]

Rainbow Comic Sans needed for the explanation of fusion...😂

[@xWood4000]

I'm going to the same experiment this summer.

[@tomweston3239]

I think the to me to you mic setup worked better as there was some 'noise' in both meanings of the word

[@Noremaad]

That robot definitely looks like one of the UH suits from Soma. Just make sure it doesn't start talking one day D:

[@annapejskova9290]

And everyone's favourite Matt Gray Matt Gray!

[@infrabread]

Is rainbow comic sans going to be a running gag?

[@HyukBurgersTV]

I hope so

[@bunbott]

+infrabread it already is i think

[@joshuahadams]

Gorea235 from the future: it is.

[@Sedado77]

Rainbow Comic Sans!!! WOOOOO :D

[@BlownTyre]

I would really like to see maybe you visiting a Formula 1 factory someday. Probably extremely difficult to do, but I don't know...

[@richdobbs6595]

The term you want is "Waldo" rather than robot or the clumsy manipulator arm phrase. Robert Heinlein wrote a science fiction story in 1942 describing them.

[@greg4629]

is it not a bit disappointing that tom isn't actually doing science and is only a television presenter.

[@sion8]

So. These guys are doing it on their own, also neither of them are actual scientists.

[@greg4629]

sion8 tom is a computer scientist and he's doing a job that could be given to a blonde with big jugs

[@sion8]

***** This feels more like just for fun in a nerdy/geeky way than anything else. As for his job, isn't he a programmer? I don't think a programmer is a computer scientist but maybe computer scientists know about programming as part of their jobs?

[@kilésengati]

"I own sunglasses." [du dududududu]

[@jonnywak1292]

(No one knows what tune du is to)

[@JordanFromIT]

+Lorry Mun what's the song that goes dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun?

[@iTechy21]

*shudders* you know what you have done...

[@violetnhz]

Question: first video with rainbow comic sans?

[@slikrx]

Just to be sure, "reccy", as in reconnoiter? (American, here)

[@robmobz]

+slikrx Yes

[@TransportFan378]

+slikrx *Recce

[@PsyKeks]

I would appreciate you uploading the Park Bench just a bit later than the main video. When I go through my subscribtions chronologically, I most often hit the Park Bench first and have to rearrange my brain and my playlist... :( And when using Comic Sans, Rainbow is the way to do it!

[@abeta201]

"Everyone was really nice on-camera!" But off-camera?

[@lizzyb.8009]

it made me chuckle. i guess i have a degree of typographical schadenfreude.

[@jamesarthur67]

Fusion is small nuclei (not large molecules) join together to create a large nuclei and nuetrons

[@jamescarwyncandila8044]

If I'm not mistaken, I remember that when you will add a rainbow comic sans, there's a mistake that have happened. P.S. Haven't watched the video yet.

[@jamescarwyncandila8044]

And apparently, I was correct. Well, at least they are really good at fulfilling promises.

[@Zalaniar]

I know I'm like 8 years late here, but what's a "recce" (the captions' spelling) at 4:25 and elsewhere? I tried googling for it but not knowing how to spell it, I didn't anything related.

[@zuluhyena305]

Short for reconnaissance. "Have a recce" is army slang I think for checking something out

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

Quick note, because your sciency word ramble was almost but not quite vaguely right: The sun's massive pressure doesn't facilitate fusion! We thought it did, but it's not enough to push nuclei past the energy barrier thingy! What it *is* enough to do is get lots and lots of nuclei all together in such unimaginable quantities that they just up and quantum tunnel into each other! Yep! It relies on making something incredibly unlikely incredibly common by sheer quantity! How The Tables Have Turned Tangent: From a biology point of view this is actually hilarious. Epic solar forces have to smush a truly stupid number of atoms together and particle physicists have to cool things to near-proper!Zero in weird magnetic fields, all just to make some dinky quantum tunneling happen (albeit in the former case enough to support a star thank u mama Sol). Meanwhile, evolution is such a powerful iterative process that proteins in your body are just spaced perfectly to force the potential tunneling to be *optimal,* so it *happens.* Yep. Enzymes just have their electrons *do* that. Because it's efficient. Programmers rejoice: Darwin is thy saviour. (Speaking of Darwin, finches. Speaking of finches, pigeons. Speaking of pigeons, the magnetoreceptor thingy they famously possess is actually too weak to interact with the earth's magnetic field in any meaningful way unless something weirdly quantum is happening. This was one of the best clues that biological systems could support quantum effects, even though that flew in the face of everything we thought we knew about quantum mechanics.)

[@gupdoo3]

But how come the videos were released in the opposite order?

[@leow_se]

Hi from Oxfordshire

[@makleto84]

What, pray tell (for the uncultured Americans such as myself), is a "rekky" or whatever it is you were saying?

[@mattandtom]

+Mak Leto Recce, short for reconnaissance. A site visit to see what we could do there. --Matt

[@sidbrun_]

I'm British and I had no idea either

[@RainaRamsay]

+Sid B Probably actually Australian. Sounds exactly like an Australian slang term.

[@thekarategirl5787]

+Raina Ramsay it's a military term.

[@captobvious360]

+Matt and Tom Actually short for reconnoitre :)

[@d3xbot]

MANIPULATOR ARM

[@lovisakrohn5100]

You really should have told people what a Torus is. For me personally it's not a problem, as I have taken some University Level Maths, but many people don't know what a torus is and they might be confused. Otherwise a very funny and Informative video

[@gwenynorisu6883]

Isn't the SI unit for an indivisible amount of science a "chunk"?

[@genius27641]

Please go back and have them make something on a pottery wheel with it