Advanced materials

Globally, up to 435 million people are taking water from unprotected wells and springs and by 2025 half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas. The challenge is to provide safer, accessible and more reliable supplies of clean water.

Graphene-based membranes have been described as the perfect barrier. They’re capable of separating two liquids to an exceptional degree and can block even the smallest atom, helium, from passing through.

Manchester research will enable future filtration systems to precisely control water permeation – from ultrafast permeation to complete blocking.

Outdoor runners need footwear that combines heavy-duty grip and wear with lightweight construction. Manufacturers have long competed to find a solution to the demands of customers and the terrain.

Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan and his team at Manchester worked with UK running brand inov-8 to produce the world’s first range of sports footwear featuring graphene. The 2D material has been used to develop outsole rubbers that are scientifically proven to be 50% stronger, 50% more elastic and 50% harder wearing.

Injuries or disease can leave people with significant and lasting physical impediments to daily life, effecting their long-term health and mobility. A priority challenge for biomaterials researchers is restoring biological function with minimum invasiveness.

New medical approaches to improve human health and well-being are essential for maintaining the UK’s global position in medical technology. Professor Sarah Cartmell and her team at Manchester are developing biomaterials systems to help patients replace damaged or missing biological structures, essential for their health and mobility. By creating a biodegradable device called a scaffold they can guide tissue regeneration, such as a bone piece or layers of cartilage.

Growing populations and climate change are challenging vehicle manufacturers to find, sustainable solutions to our travel needs. They increasingly need new processes to produce lighter, cheaper and more adaptable materials.

Cygnet Texkimp, a leading machinery manufacturer for the global aerospace and automotive sectors, teamed up with Manchester robotics and textile composite specialists to find a way to create complex components cost-effectively, in high volumes, and at high speeds. Building on a concept developed by Professor Prasad Potluri, the partnership produced the world’s first robotic 3D-winding machine, which could revolutionise manufacturing of next-generation cars and planes.

Plastic waste is a global problem. It’s estimated that 40 billion tons of plastic waste will be in the Earth’s system by 2050.

Professor Michael Shaver heads a new Manchester-based initiative called RE3 – Rethinking Resources and Recycling – which is working with industry and academic partners to address technological and societal issues around plastic. His vision is to tackle the plastic challenge with breakthroughs in materials science and collective social responsibility.

Globally, corrosion costs more than $2.5 trillion a year. Despite this large economic impact, the fundamental processes of corrosion are poorly understood and industry relies on field experience for its management.

Researchers led by Dr Brian Connolly at the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials, based at Manchester, are working collaboratively to understand the fundamental processes that initiate corrosion. This research will lead to the development of improved strategies to prevent corrosion and ultimately increase the reliability and lifespan of pipelines in the oil and gas industry.

Advanced materials could help solve some of the world’s most critical problems, but we need to accelerate the discovery and development of new materials systems to bring economic and societal benefit to the UK.

Manchester has a strong tradition of stimulating economic growth and industrial innovation. We’re home to the Henry Royce Institute, the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research and innovation, bringing together the brightest minds from across the UK, including world experts from the universities of Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial, as well as the National Nuclear Laboratory and the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in 2011 highlighted a challenge with the zirconium alloy used to make fuel rods. At the very high temperatures generated when coolant is lost, this particular alloy reacts with steam to produce explosive hydrogen gas.

Researchers at Manchester’s Dalton Nuclear Institute are developing fuel solutions that are much more tolerant to prolonged excessive temperatures. Our Zirconium Group is leading MIDAS, a large project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, to increase understanding of the metal, enabling its safe use as a primary cladding material in nuclear reactor systems.

Stanford Internet Observatory raises alarm over 'serious failings with the child protection systems at Twitter'

Updated  Twitter failed to take down numerous images of child sexual abuse material posted on its platform over two months, researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory will allege in an upcoming report.…

The academic group said it was looking at the wider issue of child exploitation online when it "discovered serious failings with the child protection systems at Twitter."

Using the Elon Musk-owned social media company's API, researchers studied the metadata in tweets and parsed the URLs of images to scan for pictures depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM), employing a tool called PhotoDNA developed by Microsoft.

Algorithms converted suspected CSAM images into hash values, which were then compared against a known database stored by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) representing known illegal images of minors. A hash value match suggests that the photo posted on Twitter matches a known CSAM image from the database. 

Hash values allow those called on to analyze CSAM to do so without having to actually view or unlawfully store the images.

David Thiel, chief technologist at the Stanford Internet Observatory and co-author of the report, told The Wall Street Journal researchers detected 40 hash matches in 100,000 or so tweets from March 12 to May 20. The academic group said it reported the issue to the NCMEC in April, but the images weren't removed until May 20.

"Having no remaining Trust and Safety contacts at Twitter, we approached a third-party intermediary to arrange a briefing. Twitter was informed of the problem, and the issue appears to have been resolved as of May 20," the Observatory stated on Twitter. 

"Twitter is by no means the only platform dealing with CSAM, nor are they the primary focus of our upcoming report. Regardless, we're glad to have contributed to improving child safety on Twitter, and thank them for their help in remediating this issue," the org added.

Under Elon Musk's ownership, Twitter increased prices to access its API. A leaked slide deck previously suggested prices starting at $42,000 per month.

Stanford Internet Observatory's Thiel criticized Twitter for raising prices, and said doing so makes it more difficult for academics to study the platform and hold it accountable.

The Observatory relied on Twitter's API for its investigation, and had previously negotiated a deal to use the tool for free – but has stopped using the enterprise-level tier as of last week due to cost concerns, Thiel said.

A spokesperson from the Stanford Internet Observatory told The Register: "It is no longer possible to conduct a study like this using Twitter's API. The level of access needed for academic studies is no longer affordable and researchers are required to delete the data they previously collected under academic data access agreements."

In March 2023, Twitter's developer team stated it was working to try and help academics, who need to make a high volume of API requests for their research, access its software. They also said that academics could use its free or basic tiers. The spokesperson, however, said Twitter has not come up with an alternative solution for researchers and the lowest tier package costing $42,000 per month offers less data than was previously available to some academics for free. 

Meanwhile, the free tier reportedly provides "read-only" access, and doesn't have the flexibility required to support academic research.

Twitter did not respond to The Register's request for comment. Indeed, the press@twitter.com email address still auto-responds with nothing but a poop emoji. ®

David Thiel of the Stanford Internet Observatory got back to us with some thoughts we can share here:

Music and Studying: It’s Complicated

Music can motivate you, improve your mood, and help you relax. It can even help you focus so you can study or work. But different types of music can have different effects.

Many people find music helps them concentrate while studying and working. Others find it hard to focus with any background noise at all.

Music offers a lot of benefits, including:

But not everyone agrees that music improves a study session. So what’s the deal — does it help or not?

Music doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, so the answer is not just a straightforward “yes” or “no.”

Keep reading to learn more about the pros and cons of studying with music and get some tips for making the most out of your study playlist.

It would be fantastic if you could put on a playlist or song that could help you knock out a problem set or memorize all those dates for your history final, wouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, music isn’t quite that powerful. It mostly helps in indirect ways, but those benefits can still make a big difference.

Music doesn’t just motivate you. It can also help reduce stress and promote a more positive mindset.

In a 2013 study, 60 female volunteers carried out a psychological stress test while listening to relaxing music, sounds of rippling water, or no particular sound. Results suggested that listening to relaxing music makes a physical difference to the way people respond psychologically and physically — in terms of hormone response — under stress. However, the picture is complex, and more studies are needed.

In a 2021 study, patients in ICU said they felt less pain and anxiety after listening to music for 30 minutes than before.

Research suggests that a good mood generally improves your learning outcomes. You’ll likely have more success with studying and learning new material when you’re feeling good.

Studying can be stressful, especially when you don’t entirely understand the subject material. If you feel overwhelmed or upset, putting on some music can help you relax and work more effectively.

If you’ve ever grappled with a long, exhausting night of homework, your resolve to keep studying may have started to flag long before you finished.

Perhaps you promised yourself a reward in order to get through the study session, such as the latest episode of a show you like or your favorite takeout meal.

Research from 2019 suggests music can activate the same reward centers in your brain as other things you enjoy. Rewarding yourself with your favorite music can provide the motivation you need to learn new information.

If you prefer music that doesn’t work well for studying (more on that below), listening to your favorite songs during study breaks could motivate you to study harder.

According to a 2007 study, music — classical music, specifically — can help your brain absorb and interpret new information more easily.

Your brain processes the abundance of information it receives from the world around you by separating it into smaller segments.

The researchers found evidence to suggest that music can engage your brain in such a way that it trains it to pay better attention to events and make predictions about what might happen.

How does this help you study? Well, if you struggle to make sense of new material, listening to music could make this process easier.

You can also link the ability to make better predictions about events to reasoning skills.

Improved reasoning abilities won’t help you pull answers out of thin air come exam time. But you could notice a difference in your ability to reason your way to these answers based on the information you do have.

Other research also supports music as a possible method of improving focus.

In a 2011 study of 41 boys diagnosed with ADHD, background music distracted some of the boys, but it appeared to lead to better performance in the classroom for others.

According to a 2014 study, listening to classical music seemed to help older adults perform better on memory and processing tasks.

These findings suggest certain types of music can help boost memorization abilities and other cognitive functions.

Music helps stimulate your brain, similar to the way exercise helps stimulate your body.

The more you exercise your muscles, the stronger they become, right? Giving your brain a cognitive workout could help strengthen it in a similar fashion.

Not everyone finds music helpful for tasks that require concentration.

An important part of music’s impact lies in its power to distract.

When you feel sad or stressed, distracting yourself with your favorite tunes can help lift your spirits.

But distraction probably isn’t what you’re looking for when you need to hit the books.

If you’re trying to argue your position in a term paper or solve a difficult calculus equation, music that’s too loud or fast might just interrupt your thoughts and hinder your process.

Working memory refers to the information you use for problem-solving, learning, and other cognitive tasks.

You use working memory when trying to remember:

Most people can work with a few pieces of information at a time. A high working memory capacity means you can handle more material.

Research suggests, however, that listening to music can reduce working memory capacity.

If you already have a hard time manipulating multiple pieces of information, listening to music could make this process even more challenging.

Certain types of music — including music with lyrics and instrumental music that is fast and loud — can make it harder to understand and absorb reading material.

Whether you’re looking at an evening of Victorian literature or some one-on-one time with your biology textbook, soft classical music with a slow tempo may be a better choice.

Listening to music while you study or work doesn’t always make you less productive or efficient.

If you prefer to study with music, there’s no need to give it up. Keeping these tips in mind can help you find the most helpful music for work and study:

Some research suggests that music can help reduce stress during an academic task and that it may help with memory and processing during tasks that require thinking. However, this may depend on the type of music and the individual.

The best type will depend on the individual. There is evidence that classical symphonies or relaxing music are a good choice for managing stress, but also that upbeat music might boost a person’s thinking processes. Instrumental music may be more suitable than songs with lyrics, as the lyrics can be distracting.

Each person can decide if it suits them to listen to music while studying or not and which type of music is best. Types of music that may not be helpful include songs, fast and loud music, and music that provokes strong feelings in the listener.

Music can improve your mood and help you feel more motivated to tackle important tasks, but it doesn’t always work as a study tool.

Even people who love music might find it less than helpful when trying to concentrate.

Choosing music carefully can help you maximize its benefits, but if you still struggle to focus, it may help to consider white noise or other audio options instead.

Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health. In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues.