Mark Miodownik
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2014
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mark Miodownik's chronic interest in materials began in rather unhappy circumstances. He was stabbed in the back, with a razor, on his way to school. When he saw the tiny piece of steel that had caused him so much harm, he became obsessed with how it could it be so sharp and so strong. And he's been materials-mad ever since.
Working at a nuclear weapons laboratory in the US, he enjoyed huge budgets and the freedom to make the most amazing materials. But he gave that up to work with artists and designers because he believes that if you ignore the sensual aspects of materials, you end up with materials that people don't want.
For Mark, making is as important as reading and writing. It's an expression of who we are, like music or literature, and 'everyone should be doing it'. To this end, he wants our public libraries to be converted into public workshops, with laser cutters and 3 D printers in place of books.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the |
| 0:03.8 | podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC. |
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| 0:20.0 | and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines. |
| 0:23.7 | And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject |
| 0:28.3 | you might not even have thought you were interested in. |
| 0:30.2 | Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment, |
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| 0:40.1 | Thank you for downloading the Life Scientific from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:44.7 | I don't know many people who are equally at home in a nuclear weapons lab and a modern art |
| 0:49.7 | gallery. |
| 0:50.9 | But Mark Meidovnik happily inhabits both worlds. |
| 0:54.0 | He started his research career investigating turbine jet alloys, |
| 0:58.0 | single crystal structures designed to withstand tremendous force |
| 1:02.0 | and extremely high temperatures, |
| 1:04.0 | useful properties for nuclear missiles as well as jet planes. |
| 1:08.0 | But these days he's more likely to be found working with artists, architects, even fashion designers. The common thread is his love |
| 1:16.4 | of materials. Mark studies stuff what it looks like from the inside, how the individual molecules are organized and what effect all this |
| 1:24.6 | has on the way different materials behave. |
| 1:27.9 | From tin to titanium, synthetic skin to spacecraft, charcoal to chocolate. |
| 1:34.0 | As professor of materials and society at University College London, he recently set up the |
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