麻豆社

One day you鈥檙e marking exam papers and the next you鈥檙e displaying clothes that dissolve 听in Sheffield. 麻豆社 Radio Sheffield鈥檚 Toby Foster chatted to Tony Ryan, Head of the Faculty of Sciences and Maths at the University of Sheffield. To you and me, that means he looks after Maths, Science, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Physiology!

Make a cup of tea, look at your computer and go home - that's what many people do every day in their jobs. But Tony Ryan the scientist isn鈥檛 like most people...

鈥淵esterday I was sitting in my office making the soundtrack for a movie about dissolving dresses. There鈥檚 a model with jeans and a t-shirt on filmed by Nick Knight and we鈥檙e going to be in Vogue.

Dissolving dress

鈥淚magine if somebody had told me 30 years ago when when I was doing my Chemistry O-Level that I would be paid for dissolving the clothes off women!鈥�

A strange and different concept you may think - but where does somebody get an idea like that from?

鈥淚 was on a 麻豆社 Radio 4 programme called 鈥楳aterial World鈥� and Helen Story who is a dress designer heard me. Helen is as an artist works to the theme of 鈥榓rt with a purpose.鈥�

鈥淏asically she heard me and said she had an idea. It was ridiculous to a scientist and inspirational at the same time, it was to make packaging that knows when it鈥檚 empty and then disappears."

Tony explains that an idea like that can鈥檛 be done but there are things you can do that are similar. Never somebody to hit a brick wall and stop, Tony worked around the idea.

鈥淲e made a grant proposal to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to do this exhibition about disappearing dresses as a metaphor for waste.鈥�

How does it actually disappear?

鈥淭he dress is made from a plastic that is soluble in water. The dresses (exhibited in Meadowhall shopping centre) were lowered into bowls of water where they just dissolve.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e proper dresses, you could wear them but they aren鈥檛 very comfy. A bit of rain or sweat and then you鈥檙e naked!"

From bottles to flowers

The Botanical Gardens in Sheffield held a sister exhibition to the one at Meadowhall, but in this case the focus of the display was plastic bottles which turned into flowers.

"If you have a bottle made out of a material that likes water, and it contains something that really likes water, then the stuff inside the bottle will just hold all the water inside.

Bottles into flowers

鈥淲hen it鈥檚 empty you can fill the bottle with water... then there is nothing competing with it for the water and it will just dissolve.

鈥淚t鈥檚 as if we made a bottle out of jelly, you dissolve it so it becomes a gel and we do that with the bottle. The top of the bottle becomes a salt and pepper pot sprinkled with seeds and routing compound and it turns into flowers!鈥�

The future of鈥� washing up liquid!?

鈥淚 want to see the supermarkets sell basil-fragrenced washing up liquid which then turs into a bowl of basil. We can do it technically, it鈥檚 just working our way through the marketing and getting through that chain.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a solution to the problem because you don鈥檛 want to wash all your packing down the drain because that will just cause more problems. The aim is to get people to think! We just don鈥檛 want to come across as if we鈥檙e preaching.

Flips without the flop

"Working with Helen has been fantastic. Because she's a fashion designer, you don鈥檛 get the normal questions that you get asked when working in a lab with scientists. One day she said, 鈥渨ouldn鈥檛 it be great if we never had to wear shoes ever again!?鈥�

Have you ever laid in bed at night with an idea rushing around in your head? That's what it must be like to be Tony - perhaps he never sleeps. One small comment from somebody sparks more and more ideas鈥�

鈥淚 told my workmate about the idea and he actually had a go. He made some soles that don鈥檛 have uppers but have patches of adhesive on the ball of the foot and the big toe to keep them on your feet. Flip without the flop!

鈥淲e鈥檙e thinking we might call them 鈥楩ree Feet鈥�. You can just rent them for the summer, take them back, we鈥檒l recycle them and then we鈥檒l give them to the third world.鈥�

When asked whether he thinks it鈥檒l actually happen, Tony was adamant that it鈥檒l be done. 鈥淲hen it happens, I鈥檒l bring some in!鈥�