Microstructure of the car.
Dr Adam Wojcik from the Department of Mechanical Engineering examined the microstructure of the car with his microscope, and this is what he saw and said.
Some Nuggets about Zinc
The body of the car is said to be made from zinc. Is zinc poisonous? Where does it come from?
zinc deficiency and zinc poisoning
Could the young boy have been trying to lick/bite his way to the zinc underneath the paint? As a pica sufferer he could have been difficient in zinc and needed the metal body of the car!
Flourescent x-ray machine depicting metal content
The toy car was taken to the institute of Archaeology to be put into their XRF machine (flourescent x-ray) by lab technician Simon Groom.
Pre-Toy History
One aspect of this object’s biography that intrigues me is its pre-toy history: the people and processes that went into designing and manufacturing it, and the materials from which it was made.
What's Your Poison: Cocktails with toxicologists Andrea Sella and Mark Miodownik
On Thursday 15th October at 6 p.m.