A material world

From swimsuits and coffee cups to quantum computers and medicines, materials science – the “middle of the Venn diagram between chemistry, engineering, and physics” – enables all the products, substances, and general ‘stuff’ with which we interact every day.

But what makes for a good material? What makes a material ‘smart’, for that matter? And, while new, more advanced materials can help to power industries far into the future, at what cost do we make them more complex, and less degradable?

Joining us in our ‘materials’ episode of Create the Future are materials experts Anna Ploszajski, materials scientist and research fellow at the Institute of Making at University College London; and Tim Minshall, Professor of Innovation and Head of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge.