MIDAS at ScienceX

The MIDAS team at Science X

The MIDAS team participated in ScienceX; a free in-person science festival held at Manchester Central Library on 28th October.  

ScienceX is an annual collaboration between staff and students from across the University of Manchester’s Faculty of Science and Engineering. The event encourages children and families to discover science through hands-on activities.  

Inspired by our research, the MIDAS team created activities for our stand ‘Making better materials for nuclear power’. The activities, led by our Post-Doctoral Researchers and PhD students, addressed some fundamental principles behind our research, using recognisable objects as models to facilitate public engagement these ideas. For example, colliding balls on a pool table demonstrated the atomic structure of zirconium and how it is disturbed by collisions with high-energy neutrons in radioactive environments. We tested chocolate bars in a basic Charpy impact tester to show irradiation defects in zirconium and how similar materials (caramel and chocolate) can have change properties when exposed to different environmental conditions which modifies the material’s brittleness.  

“I was really surprised when the Mars Bar beat the Crunchie – I thought the Crunchie would be super-tough!”  Laura, 10   

Interactive models of a fuel assembly (made with crafting straws!) and fuel rods and pellets (3D printed) helped us to explain irradiation induced growth and the industrial applications of MIDAS’s research.  

Together, these models demonstrated how researchers develop and test new materials when solving problems. These activities gave families an accessible and fun way to engage with our research and the MIDAS team. Learn more about our outreach activities and similar projects. 

The activities MIDAS developed for ScienceX will be used in upcoming outreach work as we take advantage of the increasing range of in-person outreach opportunities available to us.