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The Anatomy of Discovery Podcast · Episode 02
Materials No One Else On The Planet Can Make – Keith Cook, UCR Group
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About this episode
In this episode, Mel Morris CBE sits down with UCR Group's CEO, Keith Cook, in a lab described as a playground for physicists.
They explore plasma-made ceramics that skip high-energy sintering, and materials built for energy, hypersonics, performance cars and bio-implants. One example is a 27% efficiency boost for gas turbines.
They also cover why proven solutions go unused, the hidden cost of patent searching, the role of AI in research, and why the UK needs to move faster.
Show notes
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:22 Working across scientific disciplines
- 04:15 Ceramic-coated ship propellers
- 10:51 Making gas turbines 27% more efficient
- 15:22 Why materials science needs to open its eyes
- 18:48 Inside UCR: a kids' playground for physicists
- 20:41 The IP challenge and the focus problem
- 23:30 Inside the UCR lab
- 28:35 The three barriers to innovation
- 30:22 Keith's advice for frontier researchers
- 33:33 Boosting solar panel output
- 39:39 AI and the £11 billion cost of patent searching
- 41:28 Solutions hiding outside the scope
- 45:49 Accelerating R&D in the UK
- 46:00 The cost of patent searching
- 52:55 Getting there quicker
- 53:50 The UK innovation landscape