Nick has also been tutoring science at University as well as volunteering for the Newman Trust Holiday for autistic children over the past two summers.
For his masters project Nick used a laser to investigate a low temperature plasma. A plasma is a collection of electrons, ions and neutral gas, and they are found everywhere from interstellar space to light bulbs. He used a diode laser (much like those found in laser pointers) that was pulsed very quickly to look at plasmas which have had a very large electric pulse applied to them. These types of plasmas are very common industrially, but despite this the underlying chemistry of what is occurring is still relatively poorly understood. Nick also received first class marks for his work.
A plasma discharge commonly used in industry