Discover Materials at the RI Fun Day

The Discover Materials team was at The Royal Institution for the RI Family Fun Day on March 28^th, 2026. We brought along our Let’s Move to the Moon (funded by the UK Space Agency) space-themed box, which meant that the day was full of conversations surrounding the applicability of materials science in space.

We had a great time chatting with the guests about what materials were best suited for visors or space suits, the effect of vacuum on edible and non-edible substances, and the usefulness of lightweight, durable materials in spacecrafts. Our popular items were the ferrofluid bottles, polarizer sheets, and the photochromic beads from our busking box. Amongst other activities, our nitinol shape memory alloy paperclips were clear winners.

Thank you to Eshaal Alavi, Daniel Ramírez, Chris Hamlett, and Durga Tilak for their time and support. We are very grateful to Fiona Evans, Zosia Hermaszewska, and the entire team at The Royal Institution for having us, and we hope to return to the Institution again next year.