Materials: Fact or Fiction - Wanaka (23 October)

Event details

Baakonite – a composite metal alloy from Star Trek, used by the Klingons in their bat'leths and mek'leths, as well as in their communicators.

Vibranium from Marvel Comics is a rare metallic ore with energy-manipulating properties. If tempered properly through a mix of magic and science, Vibranium can amplify mystical energies.

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.

Associate Professor Duncan McGillivray, a MacDiarmid Institute Principal Investigator at the University of Auckland, will give us his take on Baakonite as featured in Star Trek.

And Dr Krista Steenbergen, MacDiarmid Institute Associate Investigator and Physics Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), will talk about Vibranium, the fictional metal appearing in the Marvel Comics.

Duncan and Krista 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.