Breaking things: the search for sustainable materials

For Dr David “don’t call me a lecturer” Jesson, who describes himself as a ‘breaker of things’, creating a truly sustainable material is the ultimate goal.

In a feature I wrote for this week’s Surrey Advertiser (published on Friday March 18), Dr Jesson chatted to me about his research, which involves testing materials to breaking point and working with carbon nanotubes (CNTs).

The University of Surrey materials engineer also gave me a tour of their labs, featuring an array of formidable-looking machines designed to crush, stretch and generally destroy things.

Losing body parts: could continuing human evolution spell the end for some "unnecessary" biological bits and pieces?

Are humans still evolving, or are we already the finished product, was the topic of this week’s Horizon – and feeling the back of my mouth where my absent wisdom teeth would normally go, I wondered whether these, and other body parts, are testament to humanity’s continuing evolution.

A central question at the heart of the programme presented by Dr Alice Roberts was whether, through our use of technology, we have isolated ourselves from natural selection.