 The Scottish Parliament's main hall, given over to the spectacle of laser light, as a major exhibition for families and science enthusiasts officially opens. The centrepiece, a replica of one of the world's most powerful lasers, a stunning demonstration of the display's theme, the incredible power of light. So the Vulcan laser is used all across the UK and by some universities across the world and some industrial partners come in and do their high intensity laser experiments. But largely it's to look at how the research that I do indeed is to look at the transport of electrons as they travel through these little tiny solid foils that's there in the laser area which has relevance to fusion, particularly a form of fusion whereby a fuel is ignited by laser that hits the outside of a fuel pellet but the actual energy is transported to the very centre and the thermonuclear burn is caused by a beam of electrons so how electrons travel through high density materials is very important. Scottish Parliament's presiding officer, the right honourable Trisha Marwick MSP, joined pupils from Horry Family Primary School in Kirkntillic in the opening of the event which is part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. This exhibition is very good at telling us in specific on how lasers are being used to interact with our daily lives. So we've got demonstrations here that can discover what's inside sealed plastic containers that you don't know what's inside, you can't see what's inside but you can put your container inside this interactive machine that we have here and then you can work out what's inside using this particular scientific method. The exhibition runs through the month of April and the Scottish Parliament is getting into spirit of the event with the Parliament cafe and shop carrying a theme inspired by science. A major component of the exhibition will be evening science talks and for families and younger visitors a laugh of holiday and weekend interactive workshops. Like the exhibition itself these will be free of charge and drop in on selected dates in April. I wasn't interested in this art but now I've read all the information and it's quite interesting. It's really cool. It's really fun. It makes you feel like a mad scientist. It would be really great to think that you know somebody you could see here may be the next person to crack the fusion problem you never know. So it would be really good if we could get even just a few people to take up an interest that maybe wouldn't have previously. It's a really really worthwhile thing to do and hopefully they'll have fun doing it as well. The incredible power of light runs through the month of April. Access to the exhibition and all associated events are free. You can find out more on our website and join the conversation on social media.