3M opens innovation centre

The customer centre, which showcases a range of products from digital stethoscopes to concrete material that floats, has been created "to share the 3M story of innovation and collaboration with customers and business partners, as well as young scientists and engineers of the future". Schools and colleges will also be invited to visit the centre where 3M staff will demonstrate how technology can provide solutions to problems ranging from the day-to-day - such as air bubbles on protective films - to major societal issues, such as the earth's depleting natural resources. The opening ceremony was performed by physicist and TV presenter Professor Brian Cox. He said: "It's now widely appreciated that getting more STEM students into our universities is vital to the UK economy and there's no doubt that industry has a very important role to play in helping to encourage them. "Being able to bring science to life by demonstrating how technology can change lives for the better has got to be a great inducement for young people to want to be a part of that."