Discover Materials visits The British Science Festival!

The British Science Festival in Exeter represented another great opportunity for Discover Materials to promote Materials Science.

Held annually the British Science Festival tours different locations and for 2023 this involved a festival based on the University of Exeter main campus and also Cathedral Green, where we were based for the two days.

Resources taken to the British Science Festival included the smart materials, busking box and chocolate impact tester. Particular favourites included activities looking at UV colour changing beads, paper clips made of shape memory alloys and super-hydrophobic surfaces, such as lotus leaves. The event was rather warm (nearly 30 ⁰C) and prompted many discussions on the effect of temperature on materials’ properties. Furthermore, the cross-sections of the chocolate brought many comparisons to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

Many thanks to all the ambassadors for their help at the event.