How does materials science affect our lives? – with Anna Ploszajski

What's the science behind everyday materials like glass, plastic, steel, and sugar? And how can you make a chocolate trumpet? Find out with Anna's demo-packed talk.

Join Anna Ploszajski to learn about materials science - the interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials - in ways you'd never imagine through the world of craft.

As a materials scientist, Anna has turned to storytelling to communicate her work in new and engaging ways. Through her stories and demos, you'll see materials in a whole new way.

This lecture was recorded at the Ri on 9 May 2023.

An honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, presenter, comedian and storyteller based in London. She’s a materials generalist, equally fascinated by metals, plastics, ceramics, glasses and substances from the natural world. Her work centres around engaging traditionally underserved audiences with materials science and engineering through writing, podcasting, presenting and social media. Having developed her own unique blend of autobiographical scientific storytelling in her first book, Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning Through Making, she now trains professional technical people to communicate what they do better, through the study of story. In her spare time, Anna plays the trumpet in a funk and soul covers band and is an ultra-endurance open water swimmer. Oh, and it’s pronounced “Por-shy-ski”.

With thanks to the Royal Academy of Engineering for their generous support in making tickets to this event free to London schools.

00:00 Intro
4:59 What is materials science and how does it relate to making?
11:25 Intro to glass
15:00 What’s the science behind glass blowing? (demo)
19:27 The optical properties of glass
24:34 Intro to plastic - and Grandad George
37:38 The issues with recycling plastic
40:57 Steel – and breaking the landspeed record
47:29 What happens when you freeze a Snickers? (demo)
49:07 Why do brittle materials break?
53:03 Blacksmithing (demo)
57:56 Intro to brass
59:20 How harmonics work
1:03:21 Demonstrating the Rubens tube
1:06:59 How the trumpet has evolved
1:13:59 What can you make a trumpet out of?
1:17:10 Intro to sugar molecules
1:20:20 Why sugar burns
1:24:09 What sugar crystals look like
1:26:53 Conclusion

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[shwetaram]

Your positive outlook on Materials is just infectious!! Thanks for this amazing lecture!!

[Nitrogen]

Thanks for an interesting presentation about materials!

[minutestomidnight]

This was a fun and interesting presentation, but I think it would have been better to have more in-depth information about the specific structures and qualities of different materials. Probably should have gotten the craftsmen themselves to come out and demonstrate bits and pieces of their craft for the audience. Nonetheless, still fun and demos are hard to do live too.

[panhandle-]

She just throughly captivated her audience with facts, anedotes an accounts of how material were invented, used an the associated problems, especially with plastics...

[aboodymahdy]

I thought we might get deeper in materials unique specifications and what some combinations might give us, or which qualities we get out of them.

[lostboytnt]

one of my favorite quotes is, "The more you know, the more you know, there's more to know."

[Tommy]

I don't think we've fully unlocked materials science potential.

[panhandle-]

Plastic recycling an reuse is a huge industry, an is increasing daily. To make the best use of this fascinating material.

[YogeshKumar-jstx]

I think it should be filled with experiments and demonstrations than history

[adamdavis]

I've missed so much of this because of commercials. It's just abusive now. I'll try to watch again later. Gonna watch the Glass Onion without commercials now.

[olegostanin]

I wonder if materials science can explain how a person can be so awesome.

[panhandle-]

When she blew a hole in the CD after heating it.
That was a wow, moment!

[simonspencer]

I heard a rumour that she has a book coming out?

[MichaLLLBM]

I'm a bit dissatisfied with the explanation of why maltodextrin doesn't burn. If that really depends on ring numbers, then polysaccharides like flour/starch shouldn't burn either. But they do. It's more about the degree of fragmentation I think. Or even water molecules that are in the crystalline framework.
But the shoes are really cool!

[geoffgeoff]

Glass melts. It just doesn't have a defined melting temperature.

[busterthemutt]

I kind of want to try glass blowing but I figured it'd be more about creativity like she did, I use to study art but fell out of it due to it being damn near all computerized and I have no imagination even though I'v got a decent skill in arts, plus some medical issues make it hard to keep my hands steady. xD

[panhandle-]

As regards the history of horns/trumpets, she left out the Shofar (rams horn) used in biblical times, an still used today.

[CookingWithCows]

It's funny that they removed the historical desk for her while they kept it for other people doing fire and explosions, haha..

[cezarcatalin]

I still find funny “the soviet method of making rubber from potatoes”.
Potato->Ethanol(bad vodka)->Butadiene->Rubber

[Charok]

Mark Miodownik's two books on material science are good.