Movies often use bridges to represent something, and they're often destroyed in the process. Antonia, Laura, Rwayda and Alex discuss the engineering behind some of the most iconic bridges as well as some of their favourite movie scenes featuring bridges: Spiderman, Indiana Jones and Shrek.

We explain how engineers consider the dynamic forces acting on a bridge and we mention this video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, an example of what happens when the forces aren't fully taken into account.

Read the article that's based on this conversation on medium.com

Alex also produces her own podcast - Embracing Diversity: Diversity Diaries - all about how diverse engineering can be, how you can be an ally for diversity and celebrate our differences.

Continue the conversation with Technically Speaking on Twitter @TechnicallySp11

How are building materials chosen and what makes some materials fire-resistant? Aneeqa, Laura and Rwayda discuss some aspects of fire engineering and share a few personal stories where they have used science to their advantange. True to form, they also throw in some pop-culture references; hello Vin Diesel!

Read an excellent summary of this episode on medium.com

Have you ever thought about where we get the lithium from for Li-ion batteries? Laura, Antonia, Aneeqa and Amina discuss trends in car ownership, where we get lithium from, how difficult it is to recycle these batteries, what the ethical implications of lithium mining are, and how this fits in with UK government plans to tackle the climate emergency.

Read about this episode on medium.com

The team share stories about their individual career paths, talk about the women that inspire us, and what engineering means to us.

Do you ever think about how your own background or the stories you read in the media influence your own view of the world? Amina, Aneeqa, Cara and Antonia discuss what we mean by scientific findings and talk about some ways where science has been used to provide a biased narrative. Using examples from veganism, nutrition, climate change and the car emissions scandal, they also discuss whether there can be benefit to focussing the story in this way or whether being too focused can be detrimental.

Read a summary of this episode on medium.com

Sparked by an article that Ghalia saw in the news, she is joined by Laura, Antonia and Aneeqa to discuss just how big our carbon footprint is, how it compares to other things and how difficult is can be to calculate it.

Read a great summary of this episode on medium.com

Did you know that the change in habits brought about by the pandemic had a huge impact on our water supply? Or how about how the water industry helped track the pandemic? Amina, Ghalia, Laura and Rwayda talk about how their use of water changed because of the pandemic and the wider effect of sudden, national changes in water use on the industry, while also thinking about the link to other utilities.

Read about this episode on medium.com

Laura, Rwayda, Aneeqa, Ellie, Amina, Ghalia and Antonia talk about their passion of, and some frustrations with, how science is communicated to non-experts. In this wide ranging episode we ask: What do pineapples have to do with nuclear fusion? Can you trust wildlife documentaries or reports about carbon offsetting? How does science keep us safe?

Read a brilliant summary of this episode, and more, on medium.com

Amina, Cara, Antonia and Laura share what they know about nuclear waste generated in the UK and speculate on what society might do with it in the future.

Comments? We're on twitter @TechnicallySp11

You can read an overview of this episode on medium.com

Aneeqa, Rwayda, Cara and Laura discuss using concrete to build a dream home as well as some iconic structures: the Renold Building at The University of Manchester, The Clackmannanshire bridge and a museum in Dundee.

You can read all about this episode on medium.com