On March 30, 2009, at the Royal Institution, The National Physical Laboratory's Andrew Hanson won "EPSRC Best Film (Adults)" within the National SciCast Science Film Competition with his film "It's about time you switched off your television set and did physics instead".
In two and a half minutes Andrew swiftly explained the implications of relativity to clock timings on global positioning satellites. As TV presenter Kate Humble gave Andrew his award, she asked: "Were you influenced by Terry Gilliam?"
Two more films originating from NPL's film making club were also nominated for awards at the event: ' Death of a Toothbrush' and '' The Immiscible Love Story'
NPL was acknowledged at the awards ceremony for significantly promoting SciCast (which aims to populate a website with short science demo films) - almost 25% of the total number of films submitted in 2009 originated from NPL's Richmond Science Film project. All three major winners at SciCast originated from this project.
View the films here:
1. 'It's about time you switched off your television set and did physics instead' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYPGFQkWEok
2. 'Death of a Toothbrush' http://www.planet-scicast.com/view_clip.cfm?cit_id=2788 –
3. 'The Immiscible Love Story' http://www.planet-scicast.com/view_clip.cfm?cit_id=2814 -