Sugar and power: from the materials of the future to taming electricity

What is reactive power and why does it affect how we transport our electricity around the country? And how does it relate to a pint of beer? Come along to learn about this fundamental force of nature, the technology used to harness it and the daily battles engineers face to control it. We’ll start at the basics, relive some major blackouts and (hypothetically) gaze down from the tops of towers. Whether you’re ecstatic about electricity or simply curious about these metal monoliths, you won’t look at a pylon in the same way again.

Plastics: we have a problem.
Plastics are made using fossil fuels, which aren’t a renewable resource. Plastic sticks around in the environment, polluting the sea-floor, the skies and everywhere in-between.
Plastic needs to be made of something more eco-friendly, and sugar may be the answer. Sugar molecules are everywhere, not only in the kitchen: plants and trees are made of long chains of sugars, and the chemical properties of sugars can be exploited to make greener materials.
Come and learn about the design, development and testing of sweeter alternatives to plastics from petrochemicals. Yum!