We are planning a visit to the Materials Library at Kings College London on Weds 18 June, 2.30pm.  Currently the materials library is not open to visitors yet. But we are getting a sneak preview! There are 15 places. So if you fancy going, can you put your names down below:

1. Dionea Rocha-watt

2. Brigit Connolly

3. Jack Tan

4. Kristine Tillge Lund

5. Marie Herman

6. Liam Jefferies

7. Caroline Tattersall

8. Gediminas Vysniauskas

9. Pernille Braun Joergensen

10. Helene Uffren

11. Anna Anderson

12. Meital Covo

13. Mikael Jackson

14. Cathrine Kramer

15. Joanne Ayre

Getting There

The Materials Library is in the Division of Engingeering at KCL's Strand Campus. Click here for a map. Click here for bus, train and tube information to get to KCL.

Nylon Chain Mail Part Shows How Sintering Allows Detail Not Possible with Traditional Fab Methods - This Mesh Is Constructed As All One Part, Not Put Together from Separate Rings  (photo: MindTribe). See item 4 below.

Excerpt from the KCL Materials Library website:

Deep in the bowels of King's College London there is a space that is home to a collection of some of the most extrodinary materials on Earth. A chunk of Aerogel from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA that, at 99.8% air, is the worlds lightest solid; a tile of aluminium nitride that conducts the heat from one's hand efficiently enough to cut ice as if it were butter; a vial of a totally inert fluorocarbon liquid into which one can place any electronic equipment while continuing to operate it, without any ill effects. These materials are gathered together not only for scientific interest, but for their ability to fire the imagination and advance conceptualisation. Our hypothesis is that not only do technical details enhance aesthetic experience but that in generating physical encounters with matter, one provides an often forgotten way into this technical knowledge.

The library is a physical archive of more than 500 new materials and is growing every month. We specialise in new and advanced prototype materials collected from research labs all round the world. The ideal of the library is to provide a intellectual and sensual intersection between the arts and sciences. We are not trying to create a comprehensive materials collection, instead we are trying to create a thinking space for the Materials Research Group. Read more about the background to our approach.

our current favourite materials

1. Aerogel- lightest solid on earth.

2. Aluminium Nitride Wafer - cuts ice like butter.

3. Bioglass Scaffold.- cells turn into bone on contact.

4. Rapid Prototpye Nylon Chainmail - the ultimate in machine art

5. Silicon Nitride Ball Bearing - smashes concrete without a scratch

6. Ferro fluid - a liquid that is not a liquid

7.Thermochromic Paper - a retake on the colour of heat

8. Tin Stick - a metal that cries

9. Shape Memory Alloy - metal that remember its shape

10. TV Rock - natural version of transparent concrete.