The human brain is a miraculous thing. Take a moment to look out of the window at the nearest plant or tree and you immediately know what it is thanks to your brain’s understanding and processing of all the microscopic bits of information you collect through your senses. It’s not only the shape and colour […]
While Andy Murray may be missing from the courts at Wimbledon this summer, another British legend has made a return appearance – graphene. The advanced material, first isolated here at The University of Manchester, is featured in the design of certain tennis racquets and helps players add power to their play. The inclusion of graphene […]
Like the plot of a movie, a team of students from across the Faculty of Science and Engineering have overcome some serious odds to claim victory at an international space probe competition in Texas. The fourth annual American Astronautical Society CanSat Competition took place at Tarleton State University; with a team from The University of […]
‘Twinkle twinkle little star’ could prove itself more science lesson than nursery rhyme thanks to a new discovery. For the first time, diamonds far smaller than grains of sand have been observed shimmering around stars. But this discovery is more a case of A Touch of Frost than Frost of London, as it’s allowed a […]
Volcanos have been around since time on Earth began – and the devastation they can cause has hardly changed in the intervening 4.5 billion years. In the past month alone, untold damage has been wrought by volcanic eruptions – in Hawaii, Indonesia and Guatemala. Of course, it is not possible to prevent volcanoes from erupting […]
The sun is the great star of human existence in more ways than one. All life on Earth depends on it, and the creation of our very planet would have been impossible without it. You would think, therefore, that when it dies, our iconic star would go out in style. However, until recently, scientists were […]
Science and engineering is all about coming up with solutions to the great mysteries and challenges of our age. But one of these challenges is proving hard to overcome, and that’s how to encourage more girls to choose a career in these subjects. When children are very young and first begin learning about the world […]
As part of my work at the Dalton Cumbrian Facility, I had the opportunity to visit Chernobyl last month. There are few people working in the nuclear industry who don’t know what happened at the power plant near the town of Pripyat, in what is now the Ukraine, 32 years ago this week. For those […]
The future of our world will be moulded by the next generation of scientists and engineers – but who will they be? After the success of the latest ScienceX, we’re sure a few will have been at the Trafford Centre this weekend. Science and engineering is all about asking questions, coming up with solutions and […]