First up, do you have a telescope?
No, I鈥檝e never owned one. This doesn鈥檛 feel like the best start, in the context of this article. I鈥檝e owned quite a few microscopes over the years if that鈥檚 any consolation.
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As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I can remember really clearly wanting to be a pudding designer.
Explain what you do in one easy paragraph.
I鈥檓 an artist, designer and material engineer. We collect , conduct research into materials and stage events on the art, science, craft and engineering of materials, as well as running an open-access workshop at UCL that I like to think of as a dream garden shed.
What do you love most about what you do, and what鈥檚 the worst part?
Working with friends and having nobody鈥檚 permission to ask but my own. The worst part is saying no.
What does a typical day involve?
There is probably no typical day, but a typical element of every day is having lunch with the team at the . This is something we take time to do with as many of us around the table can be there on that given day.
Sum up your life in a one-sentence elevator pitch鈥�
An enthusiastic amateur gets carried away? Or: making, as defined by the relationship between materials and processes, explored, celebrated and investigated in as many ways as possible.
Were you good at science at school?
I was keen, enjoyed the practical side and, on the whole, found it interesting, but I wasn鈥檛 one of the 鈥済ood at science鈥� crew.
If you could send a message back to yourself as a kid, what would you say?
Don鈥檛 put Smurfy in that box.
If you could have a long conversation with any scientist, living or dead, who would it be?
I鈥檇 like to have a discussion with Richard Feynman, though who wouldn鈥檛! But I鈥檇 want to bring up .
Do you have an unusual hobby, and if so, please will you tell us about it?
I like to stage informal 鈥淥lympic games鈥� at family get-togethers and festive occasions. There is a summer garden Olympics and a winter garden Olympics, and often an Easter edition too. Favourite events include the shopping-basket-slalom relay race, the five-bar-gate challenge and the balled-up-sock-through-an-upstairs-window lob.
What鈥檚 the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
Last month, I learned that Dolly Parton said 鈥淔ind out who you are and do it on purpose.鈥� That strikes me as great advice.
What鈥檚 the best thing you鈥檝e read or seen in the past 12 months?
42nd Street at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London, three times.
鈥淚t takes a tonne of ore to retrieve the same amount of gold as there is in 40 smartphones鈥�
How useful will your skills be after the apocalypse?
I鈥檓 definitely a practical person who can turn their hand to all sorts of making and fixing. I can whittle a mean spoon, light fires without matches and make rope from stinging nettles, so I think I鈥檇 do above average.
OK, one last thing: tell us something that will blow our minds鈥�
While making a documentary about rubbish and landfill, I learned that it takes a tonne of ore to create just 1 gram of gold 鈥� the same amount of the metal that can be retrieved from just 40 smartphones. Plus, there are now more smartphones and similarly .
