We are, says the introduction to the exhibition, at the very beginning of our relationship with Graphene, but it has always been around us.
Wonder Materials, Graphene and beyond which opens this weekend at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, tells the story of a material which will one day transform the world.
How a single layer of carbon atoms with fascinating properties could be, with the help of a roll of sticky tape in a Manchester Laboratory, liberated into a material with world shattering potential.
Literally it is as old of the hills, the ‘ lead in your pencil’ mined in the Lake District, before scientists realized that it wasn’t lead at all but a derivative of carbon.
Graphene is only an atom thick, yet it is strong because of the nature of the way that the carbon atoms bond, thus it combines lightness with strength when used
This is Manchester’s story, in the same way that the city drove the industrial revolution of two hundred years ago, could now drive the post industrial twenty first century.
It is also a personal story, that of two scientists from Russia, Kostya and Andre, the latter here at the opening of the exhibition, who had previously won a Nobel Prize for levitating a frog with magnets.
They have brought the Nobel accolade to Manchester but with it an almost over expectation of what will follow. Andre Geim reminds us that on average it can take fifty years for a new material to become commercially universal, Graphene had been with us for just five teen.
“People”, says Museum Director Sally Macdonald, “that come here should be inspired and maybe in the future, they can take this material into the real world.
The exhibition, which is sponsored by Haydale, a group that focuses on enabling technology for the commercialisation of Graphene and other nano materials, features other artist highlights including a provocative new work by Lemm Sissay in a call for creative ideas to realise the potential for Graphene to change lives and a recreation of the National Graphene Institute’s White room where visitors can discover the substance’s cutting edge applications.
Wonder Materials Graphene and Beyond runs at the Museum of Science and Industry from 23rd-July to 25th June 2017 Entrance is Free
