1.   He thinks that porous silicon could one day provide thrust for small satellites.

2.   Leigh Canham is a physicist who specializes in porous silicon and has set up a company called pSiMedica in Malvern to exploit the material.

3.   Kovalev and his team were studying the optical properties of porous silicon, a sponge-like material.

4.   Other labs have created explosions in porous silicon wafers, he said.

5.   Porous silicon has a layer of hydrogen just one atom thick covering its surface.

6.   The violent explosion was caused by scientists in a lab in Germany whilst studying porous silicon.

7.   The team applied an oxidising chemical, gadolinium nitrate, to a porous silicon wafer.