More than the Sum of its Parts

“Crystals are like people - it is the defects in them that make them interesting”. Our world is shaped by defective crystals. Defects turn metals into malleable materials from which we can make car bodies, furniture, buildings, jet engines … Some defects seem to have a life of their own, moving at high speeds, multiplying, and working together to create less benign defects. Join Adrian as he tours through the inner workings of crystalline metals and shows the connection with a soapy bath and a pint of bitter.

Nanomaterials, such as graphene, are a new class of materials that exhibit fascinating properties that cannot be found elsewhere. They have the potential to revolutionise many different areas such as information technology, energy production/storage, medicine and many others. With nanomaterials being at the cutting edge of research for the last decade in labs all over the world, you might expect that making them is very difficult... but sometimes you only need a pencil and some tape to get a Nobel prize.