Olympic track ready for athletes

Olympic Stadium from Greenway, October 2011

The track for the Olympic athletes has been engineered for fast running. Work on the track is now finished. A range of large, medium and small companies have been involved in managing all aspects of the project, supplying the expertise and the materials. At the moment the stadium is surrounded by an unfinished landscape. The track will be covered for protection until the rest of the stadium is fitted out.

Glimpse of the running track

The engineering company, Sir Robert McAlpine, had overall responsibility for the main stadium. Their success with the Emirates Stadium helped their bid to succeed. The steel was supplied by Watson Steel of Bolton.  Apparently  some of this steel was reshaped from recycled leftovers from a major gas pipeline project.


The running track has been supplied by the Italian company Mondo. The track is made from vulcanised rubber. Mondo explains that the design of the material has been informed by detailed analysis of the biomechanics of athletes feet as they interact with the track surface. This has to take into account the contrasting needs of sprinters and long-distance runners.


Thanks to the London Marathon Charitable Trust, UK athletes are able to train of the same type of track as that in the Olympic Stadium because identical tracks have been laid in the Lee Valley and in Loughborough at the national performance centres where our athletes train.

The Geology of Music

I have found it hard to respond with enthusiasm to events, or artefacts, that try to create meaning from the interaction between science and the arts. Nevertheless, I went along to Camden Forge this evening to see what I could make of a programme called The Geology of Music. The first part of the programme combined live music on piano, cello and bass clarinet with electronic music and film. This is what attracted me because I am a fan of the bass clarinet - especially when played by Sarah Watts.

A cross section of rocks containing the new – but very old – fossil sponges.
Photograph: Maloof Lib/Situ studio/Situ Studio

The music was inspired by discoveries made by Adam Maloof and his team. This led to the second part of the programme during which Adam was interviewed about the significance of his find of ancient sponges that has pushed back by 70-90 million years the date at which we know that there was first animal life on Earth.

Adam was interesting on the way that he teamed up with architects and a design studio to create 3D images of the fossils. He was also interesting in the possible implications of his work for the theory of Snowball Earth.

An odd evening. The two parts seemed like separate events to me. Again I failed to detect the insights that science brings to music or music to science - but that's me.