Materials: Fact or Fiction - Nelson (10 November)

Event details

The Philosopher’s Stone from Harry Potter was a legendary alchemical substance with magical properties. This ruby-red stone could be used to create the Elixir of Life, which made the drinker immortal, as well as transform any metal into pure gold.

Axonite is a ‘thinking’ material featured in Doctor Who that can replicate any substance and spreads itself across the cosmos to feed itself. It uses the energy it absorbs not only to copy but to recreate and restructure any given substance.

From what we know of the periodic table and the world around us, could these materials exist in real life? Join us for ‘Materials Fact or Fiction’, where MacDiarmid researchers delve into the periodic table to give us their scientific take on whether these could be reality in a not too far off future. 

Dr Erin Leitao, a MacDiarmid Institute Associate Investigator at the University of Auckland, will give us her take on the Philosopher’s Stone.

And Professor Bill Williams, MacDiarmid Institute Principal Investigator based at Massey University, will talk about Axonite.

Erin and Bill will be joined by Otago Museum science communicator Dr Claire Concannon as MC. There’ll be two talks, a three-minute animated video on the ‘science of lightsabers’, and time for Q&A.

Due to recent uncertainty around COVID alert levels, the MacDiarmid Institute researchers and Claire will be contributing digitally to this event, but the public is invited to attend the event in person as normal and will still have the opportunity to ask questions of our speakers.