New materials can help tackle climate change, improve healthcare, power cleaner technologies and create possibilities we have not yet imagined. They can also lead to more extraction, pollution, waste, inequality and consequences that only emerge years later.
So, do we still need to invent new materials?
In this two-hour public mock trial, students will put that question on trial. After two days of research, expert interviews and deliberation, they will present a semi-scripted Tribunal for Future Generations featuring competing arguments, evidence, testimony, speeches, deliberation and debate.
You will hear the case for continued invention, encounter the arguments against it, and consider perspectives spanning science, engineering, sustainability, economics, ethics and society. By the end of the evening, the evidence will have been heard, the arguments tested and a final public judgement delivered.
This event is for anyone curious about materials, sustainability, innovation, ethics, public policy or the future of science and technology. No specialist knowledge is required, and you do not need to have taken part in the preceding preparation programme. Just bring yourself, take your seat and prepare to hear the future of materials put on trial.
Sign up now.