Category Archives: Engineering

Iron Nanochains

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Caustics formed from iron nanoparticles coalescing into chains aligned with the lines of the magnetic field from an adjacent magnet

Many people will be familiar with an iron filings and magnet experiment often performed in high school physics classes.  Iron filings on a sheet of paper with a magnet underneath, when the paper is gently tapped, align with the lines of the magnetic field sometimes forming ‘chains’.  In our research group, we have performed a version of this experiment at the nanoscale using iron nanoparticles smaller than 200nm in diameter floating in deionised water on a microscope slide.  We brought a magnet into close proximity with the slide and the nanoparticles formed chains aligned along the lines of magnetic field which we visualised using caustics [see ‘Holes in fluids’ on October 22, 2014].  When we removed the magnet, the nanoparticles resumed their Brownian motion.  Not a ground-breaking experiment but it’s exciting to be able to demonstrate that the phenomenon occurs at the nanoscale and that we can observe it.

Worldly goods and routes to happiness

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Decorative image of a flowerIn her novel, ‘The Gap of Time’, Jeanette Winterson writes that Buddha and Jesus knew that when you had so much money that you could buy anything, everything, then worldly goods were worthless.  Modern capitalism has generated a small number of owners of capital who have this much money.  For the rest of us worldly goods are not valueless or worthless.  Omnipresent advertising tends to create a desire in many of us for a lifestyle that is unattainable with our income, which can lead us to be dissatisfied and unhappy.  Some surveys have suggested that engineers are amongst the happiest people [see ‘Choosing a career is like going shopping’ on June 17th, 2015].  Perhaps this is because we managed to do as Rutger Berger suggested in his 2025 BBC Reith Lecture, which is to measure our success in terms of our contribution to tackling humanity’s toughest problems.  For many engineers, this is a key component of their role.

Sources

Jeanette Winterson, The Gap of Time, Penguin, London 2015

Simon van Teutem, How our brightest minds get trapped in the city, FT 18/19 October 2025.

Extra! Extra!

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Extra! Extra! Read all about it!  As newspaper vendors used to shout.  The Pint of Science Festival is happening across the UK in the week beginning Monday 18th May for three evenings in venues in 43 locations.  I am talking on the first evening, May 18th, in Lime Street Social (51 Lime Street, L1 1JQ) on ‘I Sell Here, Sir, What all World Desires to have – POWER’.  My title is a quote from Matthew Boulton, who with James Watt, set up a factory in Birmingham to produce steam engines in the 18th century.  I am going to talk about producing nuclear power units in a factory (see ‘Commoditization of civil nuclear power’ on June 5th, 2024).  If you would like to come to the event and hear three other speakers besides me and have a pint or two then please register at https://pintofscience.co.uk/events/liverpool/.

Experiencing success vicariously

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Decorative image of a graduation ceremonyThe final PhD student for whom I will act as lead supervisor is scheduled to finish this month.  I have graduated forty PhD students since I was appointed a lecturer in 1985.  I am still in touch with many of them – they are divided between industry and universities with a bias towards industry (about 60%).  For the first twenty years, I was a sole academic supervisor often with an industrial supervisor providing support.  Then I moved to the US where a PhD committee provides supervisory guidance to the student and supervisor.  By the time I returned to the UK, about fifteen years ago, it had become accepted practice to appoint a second supervisor for each PhD student.  So, although I decided a couple of years ago not to accept any new PhD students as lead supervisor, I am acting as second supervisor for five students.  This is a great role since you have less responsibility, but you are engaged with the exciting research.  The topics vary from understanding the nanoscale mechanics of particles interacting with cells (see, for example, ‘Label-free real-time tracking of individual bacterium‘ on January 25, 2023 through to ‘Structural damage assessment using infrared detectors in fusion environments‘ on March 15, 2023), and just starting this year, innovative methods for communicating confidence in computational models.  Although the research is exciting, at a training session for supervisors during the CDT Winter School that I attended in January (see ‘Experiencing success vicariously‘ on January 7, 2026), we discussed our roles as supervisors and in particular that the research project is not the principal outcome of the PhD.  Instead, the development of the PhD student is the principal outcome.  It’s all about nurturing and mentoring people and the reward is experiencing their success vicariously.

Image: still from a video of a graduation ceremony at the University of Liverpool on December 9, 2025.  As Dean of the School of Engineering, I am at the lectern presenting PhD graduates, but I am hidden behind the Vice-Chancellor who has his back to the camera on the extreme left of the image.  You can watch the video at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/graduation/the-ceremony/watch-graduation/catch-up/school-of-engineering/9-december-2025-10am/ .