New Zealand: Land of rockets, not hobbits
Image credit; Rocket Lab The Māhia Peninsula has been a haven for New Zealand holiday-goers for decades. Located on the east coast of the country’s North Island, the headland offers sandy beaches, natural hot springs, and scenic walking trails. Oh, and the world’s first privately-owned orbital launch site. Māhia is the home of Rocket Lab – a US...
75 Twitter women in STEM you should be following
Thursday 8th March was International Women’s Day 2018, #iwd2018. As has now become tradition, I gave up a day’s pay to tweet about awesome women, but this year, I put a bit of a twist on it. For a start, I actually did some preparation, so that I could pace out the day, ans schedule in breaks. Secondly, I realised that I follow A LOT of incredible...
Harvesting energy from a handshake
Hybrid energy harvester from Kwangwoon University shows promise as a wearable charger for portable electronic devices How many electronic devices do you carry with you on a typical day? Between laptops, mobile phones and smart watches, there is an ever-growing need for reliable, portable power sources. Battery packs can provide that functionality, but they too...
Conductive textile for flexible lithium batteries
The development of a new lithium-ion conducting ceramic textile could get us a step closer to practical solid-state lithium metal batteries Lithium-ion batteries are found in everything from laptops and power tools, to electric cars and Mars rovers. They are relatively inexpensive, can be easily recharged, and operate well at low and ambient temperatures. But...
#InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
11 February is the UN’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science (which has an inexplicably long official hashtag), so I did a bit of tweeting to mark the day – you can see the results of my efforts in this Twitter Moment: https://twitter.com/i/moments/962779916814008320 Amongst the women featured in the thread were three NPL scientists that I...
RocketLab add a temporary star to the night sky
Before moving to NZ, I wrote a list of Kiwi companies that I would love to work for. Right at the top of that list was RocketLab. Founded by New Zealander Peter Beck, and headquartered in California, RocketLab has a manufacturing and R&D base in Auckland, and a launch site in the beautiful Māhia Peninsula in Hawke’s Bay). Unfortunately, neither of its NZ...
2017: My first year down under (Part 2)
Ok, I’m back. Have you caffeinated up? There are six more months of life/work in NZ to cover… I’m fully aware that this is now becoming more of a journaling exercise than an attempt to write something that one of my followers might be itching to read. Forgive me! JULY July was a very chilled out month. I’d finished my Sustainable Seas project at the end...
2017: My first year down under (Part 1)
Happy New Year to you, my lovely friends! As an official representative of the future (at the time of writing, NZ is 13 hours ahead of UK/Ireland), all I can say, so far, so good… assuming you ignore the state of world politics, OBVS. Anyway, let’s detour around that particular rabbit hole just for a moment. In case you haven’t already guessed it, this is...
Science-y Christmas Gift Guide
Ho-ho-ho, Merry Chri… Ok, I have to be honest, it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere, which means I’m not feeling particularly festive. This will be my second NZ Christmas, and I’ve had an excellent first year of living here, but I’m still struggling to get my head around the warm, BBQ-filled, antipodean version of the festive season. So, to help me...
The Art and Science of Making Materials
UCL’s Professor Mark Miodownik is a materials engineer, broadcaster and writer, and recipient of this year’s Michael Faraday Medal from The Royal Society. We talked to him about his career, the multidisciplinary Institute of Making, and his lifelong love of materials. Institute of Making’s Festival of Stuff (taken from Twitter) Your role at UCL is...