The Faraday Discussions - Full Film

The Faraday discussions are named after famous British scientist Michael Faraday, who was long dead before the first meeting ever took place. The Faraday Society was first conceived in 1902, with the first council meeting taking place in February 1903. There were already meetings taking place, where journals were presented and discussed by the membership. The Faraday discussions were different, in that the focus was the discussion of one topic, the contents of the journal were taken as read and the same is true today. At the end of 1906, council proposed holding a discussion meeting where all the papers would be on a single topic. Since 1910, there's been at least one discussion meeting every year, even through two world wars. I'm Eleanor Campbell, I have the chair of chemistry at Edinburgh University. I think the Faraday division has certain very special touches to it. I think the Faraday discussions are fantastic and it has a long tradition, which I think is very nice to continue with. And I think being president, if you look back at the list of previous presidents, there are quite a few famous names there, so it's really quite an honour to be asked to carry that on. It's a really special meeting. It's a meeting that you should travel around the world to come to. This is a conference where all the focus is on the discussion, on the interaction, and it changes the dynamic completely. And in fact, instead of really personal arguments, which often emerge at conferences, what you get instead is a discussion about the material. So people start focusing on the science and on the technology, where it's going to go, and explore around it. So it's really collaborative science. It's actually how science should be done. The name says it. It's about discussing the papers in great detail and not so much about having a nice polished presentation of the research that you've been doing in the last two or three years. And it's much more audience participation. The audience has the opportunity to look at the work in advance and try to understand what it's about, and then be able to prepare much more probing and helpful questions. I find it a very stimulating format, unique format. I've never been to a meeting like this. And the short presentations followed by the very long discussions actually is a very scientific, a very productive way of organising a meeting. Over the years, the scope of the Faraday Discussions has expanded from those topics most closely associated with Michael Faraday, and meetings are now held at the interfaces of chemistry, biology and physics. One of the main aims of the Faraday Discussions is to bring together communities who might not normally meet to discuss common issues and move the field forward. At the time when they started, it was more customary for members of learning societies to have these kinds of discussions. But as the fields broadened and more people became involved in scientific research, that became less feasible. And I think the Faraday Discussions are carrying on that tradition. And I think because Faraday is really at the interfaces where new things are happening, and where physical chemistry broadens out to physics and now increasingly biology or engineering, I think it's actually an excellent format for really pushing these fields and really advancing the science that's done. Our predecessor, the Chemical Society, was founded in 1841. We took our present form in 1980, when the Chemical Society merged with the Royal Institute of Chemistry and with the Faraday Society and the Society of Analytical Chemistry. The Faraday Society continues as the Faraday Division, one of nine divisions covering all areas of chemistry, industry and education. You can get medics, you can get material scientists coming to talk to physical scientists. Physical scientists are interested in understanding things, techniques, measurements, but it's really grounded in applications nowadays. And you have medics or materials people saying, how do I make something? What do I need to make? But the physical scientists help in understanding the fundamentals to drive forward new materials, new devices. Here the discussion is open, and so it's much more also connected to the younger science community, who are the people who are actually in the best place to take advantage of new directions. Those are the people who also are not in a particular place within a scientific career. They're not in an institution they're going to stay in forever. So they will move between industry, academia, institutions and around the world as well. So those are the right people to involve in the discussion. I think it's very important for the students to realise that the senior people don't always understand everything and know the right answer to everything. That you can argue, that you can discuss, that you can point out discrepancies. And I think that's very important because science is about questioning. In each of the sessions you can get answers to questions. I found that there are people, including myself, who have doubts about certain works. And then the authors explain for five minutes what this strong coupling means, what the Hamiltonian approach really means. And I think this is tremendously valuable when I go back later to talk to my students. Now I can come back with answers. Having the discussion format where most of the time is devoted to really discussing around the various issues, that really helps to clarify the language. Having the opportunity to bring people together and really bash it out, as it were, and have that question and answer discussion going on can solve that much quicker than would otherwise be the case. I think it's very unusual that the participants are getting the papers before the meeting takes place. So, you know, you really have time to think about what people are going to say and think about how you're going to put rather tricky and probing questions to them. And I think that adds a lot to the discussions and to the advances that can take place because of that. And this sort of brainstorming can give more from a meeting than you expect. It's not just people presenting their work, but actually thinking up the new ideas that are really going to take the field forward. Faraday discussion, you can have people leading in the field, prepare discussions and evolve a scientific area through the course of the two-day meeting, which is much faster than doing it through the publication media. And of course, the discussions are reported and citable. Faraday discussion in 56 in 1973, where I think it was the first time that surface-enhanced remand scattering was ever identified experimentally. And there's been a nice review of this to show that this was the first time that anybody mentioned it. I don't think anybody really called it surface-enhanced remand scattering at the time, but that's the whole point of the discussion. I think they're a really key record, actually. I think there's lots of evidence that people go and look at these. They're cited. And if you want to actually, if you can't get to the meeting, but you want to come and understand what's going on at the meeting, understand what the issues are in a particular area, and you get that context of whether there's a vigorous debate about an area, whether there's consensus about an area, that's really important in understanding what's important, what the challenges are. I've met new people that I didn't know, and with whom I will sort of enlarge my network of scientists with whom I interact. And I will continue to interact after the meeting. I find the whole experience quite inspiring. And just talking to my colleagues, I think we all share that kind of feeling. This has been a very positive, unexpected experience. And I think many people say now that almost all the conference should be like this. People are interested across the world. Science is now a world team event. I see them moving particularly towards the interfaces of physical chemistry and chemical physics with other disciplines. And I think applying our understanding, applying our science in these other areas is really where I see a lot of discussions being asked for and lots of growth. Keep your eyes open for the topics and sign up to the ones that you're interested in.