Mark Miodownik
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markmiodownik.bsky.social
Mark Miodownik
@markmiodownik.bsky.social
Materials scientist & engineer; Director of the UCL Institute of Making; Author of New York Times best selling book Stuff Matters and others; Occasional BBC TV/radio presenter.
We have another repair cafe coming up on 20th Feb. Bring us your broken but loved electronics, clothes, shoes, lamps, ect.. and we will help you repair them share.google/g02JWYX8iPN7...
UCL Repair Cafe @ MechSpace - Institute of Making
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February 1, 2026 at 9:31 PM
Don't miss this! Public and Members event - Tim Hunkin evening talk - Institute of Making share.google/31h1YYrDnWEe...
Public and Members event - Tim Hunkin evening talk - Institute of Making
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February 1, 2026 at 9:27 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
Rock-climber Alex Honnold is in the news again, for climbing solo a Taipei skyscraper - an excuse to recycle this old post of mine about the importance of technological innovation in climbing, (contrary to the claims of a well-known economist).
February 1, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
Good climate news this week
1 Germany: Top court order stronger climate measures to meet 65% emissions cut by 2030
2 EU: EVs outsold petrol cars in EU for 1st time ever in December 2025
3 Europe: 10 countries to build 100GW wind power grid in North Sea
4 Spain: Rooftop solar tops 9GW

1/5
February 1, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
It's Roger Livesey day on the Beeb!
January 31, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
The end of information – media, knowledge, and education in a post-truth age
11 Mar, 17:00 – 18:15
Join this event to hear Prof David Buckingham discuss his most recent book, The End of Information. Sponsored by the GC theme of Data-Empowered Societies

https://bit.ly/3NvTyCs
The end of information – media, knowledge, and education in a post-truth age
Join this event to hear Professor David Buckingham discuss his most recent book, The End of Information.
bit.ly
January 31, 2026 at 10:04 AM
Opinion | Time to Say Goodbye
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
PFAS — “forever chemicals” — contaminate water, soil & food, harming ecosystems & posing serious risks to human health. Our report with @eeb.org, @clientearth.bsky.social, Opopa & @notreaffaireatous.bsky.social asks a simple question: who should pay for the damage PFAS cause to people & the planet?🧵
January 29, 2026 at 11:14 AM
Am late to this. So many interesting insights not least that most people across the political spectrum care about nature and pollution. Most people also think that most people dont care. So why you ask is it political at all. Because ..... share.google/VTdX6UGMslfb...
The seven British segments - Climate Outreach
These segments group British society into seven distinct audience segments based on people’s values, core beliefs and worldviews.
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January 29, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
@acollierastro.bsky.social’s video on glass blowing in physics is very interesting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eUI...
the most important material in science
YouTube video by Angela Collier
www.youtube.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
We have a local community repair group that is very successful, but they move around as a pop-up. Giving them a permanent home in one of the empty shops would be such a good idea!
January 28, 2026 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
Share Bedford – A library of things
www.sharebedford.org
January 28, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
We have a (free) community tool library where I live, anything from angle grinders to ladders, & it's a great resource for when you just need something for a one off, or don't have the money/space to buy and keep.
January 28, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
This!

We have one in Folkestone and hardly anyone I speak to knows it exists - get down there!: sunflowerhouse.org.uk/folkestone-r...
January 28, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
Repair shop + maker space - I was fortunate in Calgary to have two makerspaces and they added a huge amount to the community and arts scene, plus generated multiple small businesses. One ended up in Vogue magazine.
January 28, 2026 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
This is ours in Hull
Home :: Library of Stuff CIC share.google/960qlgHoD7F0...

Apologies if you are already very familiar, just thought it might be useful?
Home :: Library of Stuff CIC
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January 28, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
We have a monthly community Repair Cafe once a month, it's brilliant! It's in the community hall thag has a proper kitchen, so you can buy a breakfast bap and tea/coffee to enjoy while you wait.
January 28, 2026 at 12:12 PM
Put community repair shops on every high street. Our work shows people love it, increases community interaction & helps people keep essential goods going for longer giving them more money to spend on food & utility bills It reduces waste and so reduces local authority costs. It is a win, win, win.
January 28, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Or...move the sofa closer to your existing TV. Save money and reduce pollution.
January 27, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
RheEnergise use a mineral-rich suspension 2.5 times denser than water which can then operate like a conventional hydro

Only needs hills -not mountains - so can be more widely deployed

Allows long-duration storage at (they claim) half price of lithium batteries

www.theguardian.com/business/202...
First of its kind ‘high-density’ hydro system begins generating electricity in Devon
Project employs technology that can be used to store and release renewable energy using even gentle slopes
www.theguardian.com
January 27, 2026 at 8:04 AM
Trust that recycling really means recycling is an increasing problem: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Europe’s supermarket shelves packed with ‘misleading’ claims about recycled plastic packaging
Manufacturers use method that labels plastic as ‘circular’ and climate-friendly, despite being mostly fossil-based
www.theguardian.com
January 27, 2026 at 4:26 PM
Great paper by @salzmannlab.bsky.social Lab showing that car tire microplastics are nucleation agents for ice crystals in the atmosphere. Their roles in regulating the climate likely to be important given that 1.3 million tons of tyre microparticles per year in Europe: share.google/qoOquT63awT8...
Tire-Wear Particles as Potential Ice-Nucleating Agents in the Atmosphere
Tire-wear particles, generated through tire abrasion during driving, represent one of the largest global sources of microplastic pollution, with current annual emissions approaching 6 Tg. Due to their small particle sizes and low mass density, tire-wear particles can become airborne, undergo long-range transport, and potentially influence atmospheric processes. One critical but poorly understood pathway involves the heterogeneous freezing of supercooled cloud droplets, a key process in cloud glaciation and climate regulation. Here, we systematically investigate the ice-nucleating properties of laboratory-generated particles from summer, all-weather, and winter tires. Using optical microscopy as well as Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy, we obtained particle-size distributions (∼100 μm mean diameter) and characterized the surface chemical compositions, confirming close similarity to the pristine tire materials. Ice-nucleation experiments performed with our custom-built IceBox instrument demonstrated that all tire particles consistently elevated the freezing temperatures of supercooled water droplets. The ice-nucleation performances of tire particles are found to be between feldspar and quartz, which are important mineral-based ice-nucleating agents in the atmosphere. Comparable results across all tire types suggest that major components such as rubber polymers or graphitic fillers are responsible for the observed activity. These findings establish tire-wear particles as effective atmospheric ice-nucleating agents, providing a baseline for future studies of environmentally aged tire particles and their potential roles in affecting the climate.
share.google
January 25, 2026 at 6:45 PM
You can join the Big Plastic Count here: share.google/q1bdJ4OXqcuy...
Join The Big Plastic Count
The UK’s biggest people-powered investigation into household plastic waste.
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January 23, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Mark Miodownik
I'm just about to give my third Gresham College lecture - on the atmosphere - and you can watch it live here at 6pm: www.youtube.com/watch?v=43HS...

All Gresham College lectures are freely available online (inc an archive of all past lectures) - do take a look!
An Ocean of Air - Helen Czerski
YouTube video by Gresham College
www.youtube.com
January 22, 2026 at 5:39 PM