Question: have you always been interested in atoms and magnets

Dan Porter answered on 7 Mar 2019:

No, I’ve not always been interested in atoms and magnets, when I started by degree I was much more interested in particle physics and cosmology, but during my degree I found that I really enjoyed performing experiments in the lab, and this isn’t really possible in any meaningful way in those areas, whereas there is still so much we don’t understand happening in materials all around us, and we can learn more by doing much smaller experiments in university labs or at national facilities, rather than the ones like the LHC and the Hubble telescope.