Learn all about the planets in one evening! Dr Carolin Crawford from the Institute of Astronomy and conductor Mark Austin will be in conversation during a free pre-concert talk. Followed by the Cambridge Graduate Orchestra performing Holst’s 'The Planets' accompanied by eye-opening planetary projections.
To prepare competitors and spectators for London 2012, we cast a mathematical eye over a wide range of Olympic sporting events. A little elementary maths can help us appreciate more fully what is going on in a range of running, swimming, jumping, throwing, paddling, lifting, swinging and wheelchair racing events. We will also examine some of the strange scoring systems that sports employ.
Throughout the 20th century, films used the monstrous to explore concerns about intervention and normality. This second series of 'Reproduction on Film' presents works featuring various artificial and natural monsters, examining anxieties about science, sex, relationships, parenthood and social marginalisation.
In this lecture materials scientist Sir Colin Humphreys will talk about apparent inconsistencies in the Gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus' life that have puzzled Bible scholars for centuries.
Gert-Jan de Haas, neuropsychologist and musician, takes us on a journey through the musical brain via dancing parrots, snails, a cup of tea and the important principle of ‘not not’. He explains how what is known about general brain functions can be applied to learning and performing music and why it is that the musical brain really knows nothing!
Clive Oppenheimer explores geological, historical and archaeological records to ask how volcanic eruptions have shaped the trajectory of human society through prehistory and history. He looks at the evidence for volcanic cataclysm and considers how we can prepare ourselves for future catastrophes.
Knowing how long we have before we interact with a zombie could mean the difference between life, death and zombification. Join Thomas Woolley as he applies the same mathematical models to zombies that you would use to describe flu or measles. This model is used to develop strategies which allow the human race to survive.
Why do some people always seem to get what they want? How do they influence, persuade and sometimes manipulate others? From the political genius of top world leaders to the malign influence of psychopaths and conmen, Kevin Dutton explores what psychology can teach us about of the techniques of persuasion.
Compulsive acts or habits which are hard to stop occur in people with OCD and other disorders such as autism or substance abuse disorder. Sometimes these habits are distressing and cause difficulties in daily life, but how do these get started? What is the neurobiological basis for them and how can they best be treated?
Throughout the 20th century, films used the monstrous to explore concerns about intervention and normality. This second series of 'Reproduction on Film' presents works featuring various artificial and natural monsters, examining anxieties about science, sex, relationships, parenthood and social marginalisation.
Find out how genome research is helping us to understand infectious diseases such as cholera and malaria. Discover how a contagious cancer is causing the decline of the Tasmanian devil and how sequencing genomes helps us to understand common human diseases.
Recent and forthcoming developments in the physical sciences, engineering and computing science are likely to impact health care powerfully over the next 10 – 20 years. Listen to our panel discuss how the experience, benefit and risk of health care is likely to change, as well as what role patients and the public play in shaping the future of health care.
The Northumberland Telescope, erected at Cambridge University Observatory during the 1830s, and still in use, was one of the great engineering triumphs of 19th century science. Professor Simon Schaffer explores why the instrument was built and how it came into use in those troubled times.
Talk by Dr Julie Adams, Research Fellow at the Museum, which considers the consequences of projects aimed at reconnecting museum collections with source communities in the Pacific. Includes a film shot in Vanuatu in 2007.
Join Christl Donnelly, Professor of Statistical Epidemiology, in a race against the clock to limit the spread of a newly identified infectious disease. Only a coordinated effort will keep the number of deaths down and stop our health services from becoming overwhelmed. Learn why some outbreaks never really take off whereas with others infections spread across the world.
A talk from Margaret Stanley OBE, Professor of Epithelial Biology, University of Cambridge about vaccines and immunotherapaies to combat cervical cancer.
Join Dr Stuart Clark to explore how from Kepler to Newton to Einstein, the greatest breakthroughs in our understanding of the Universe came by studying motion in the Universe. Once again, astronomers are seeing movements in the Universe they cannot explain. Is the next big breakthrough imminent?
We learn at school that Isaac Newton is the father of modern optics and that Copernicus heralded the birth of astronomy. But what is the debt these men owe to the physicists and astronomers of the medieval Islamic Empire? Men such as Ibn al-Haytham, al-Tusi and Ibn al-Shatir. In this Andrew Chamblin memorial lecture; Jim Al-Khalili will tell the story of these fascinating characters.
In space no-one can hear you scream... but it is still a noisy Universe . This lecture takes a new approach to appreciating the Universe, through the vehicle of sound.
CHaOS student volunteers are running a series of talks filled with exciting demonstrations! You'll find more crashes, bangs, and squelches here if you find that our hands on events are full, or if you want even more CHaOS at the Science Festival!
This exciting new show by science junkies Huw James and Greg Foot uncovers the physiology and sports engineering that make an athelete a champion. Live on stage, we'll use sensors attached to exercise machines to see what happens as you start to sweat and struggle to get enough oxygen into your muscles.
Join Christopher Lloyd on a whistle-stop tour through the history of life on Earth using a coat of many pockets and a giant wallbook with more than 1,000 species on a four billion year timeline!
Dr Andrew Murray will explore the physiology behind the extraordinary feats of survival that took Scott to the South Pole, Hillary to the summit of Everest and Armstrong to the Moon, and he asks if you could achieve the same with your own remarkable body.
CHaOS student volunteers are running a series of talks filled with exciting demonstrations! You'll find more crashes, bangs, and squelches here if you find that our hands on events are full, or if you want even more CHaOS at the Science Festival!
Join Christopher Lloyd on a whistle-stop tour through the history of life on Earth using a coat of many pockets and a giant wallbook with more than 1,000 species on a four billion year timeline!
On 17 March NGOs and social enterprises will present problems in international health and development, giving teams of students and researchers a week to find an innovative, viable solution. On 24 March teams will present their solutions to a panel of judges.
How fast do bats fly? What’s the fastest animal on earth? Discover answers to these and loads more amazing ‘animal athlete’ questions. Plus: see snake strike speed, slimy snail strategy, rodent recall and ‘itchy insects – to infinity and beyond’! Junior education team representatives will be on hand with more fun facts.
ThinkCon is back for 2012 a day of talks aim at adults and older teens covering the science and the arts, all the talks are free and open to anyone at the Cambridge Science Festival. Please feel free to pick and choose what interests you. If you do want to come for the day we offer a ticket for £6 which covers the cost of a light lunch and tea.
What happens when you make molecules really really long? They do crazy things and act in unexpected ways. The weird properties of polymers put them at the cutting edge of technology and make them a magician's best friend.
CHaOS student volunteers are running a series of talks filled with exciting demonstrations! You'll find more crashes, bangs, and squelches here if you find that our hands on events are full, or if you want even more CHaOS at the Science Festival!
Space plasma physicist and 'Kiss FM' DJ Martin Archer takes you on a journey into sound with his virtual DJ booth, covering waves, frequency and other principles.
Join philosopher, author, publisher and campaigner, Dr Ben Irvine, for a whistle-stop tour of some of the major objections to, and misreadings of, the theory of natural selection – and discover how understanding Darwinism better can help us all to achieve well-being.
CHaOS student volunteers are running a series of talks filled with exciting demonstrations! You'll find more crashes, bangs, and squelches here if you find that our hands on events are full, or if you want even more CHaOS at the Science Festival!
Join Christopher Lloyd on a whistle-stop tour through the history of life on Earth using a coat of many pockets and a giant wallbook with more than 1,000 species on a four billion year timeline!
No-one's ever seen dark matter. So why do astronomers insist that it's all around us? And why might LHC physicists be so excited about it? Tackle Dr Andrew Pontzen (astronomer) and Dr Tom Whyntie (particle physicist) as they attempt to convince you that they're not utterly bonkers.
With the electromagnetic dance and fame of 'watt costs what' (a new take on the 'Price is Right'), Nij Lal explores the science of electricity and gets our brains ticking about the electrical future...
CHaOS student volunteers are running a series of talks filled with exciting demonstrations! You'll find more crashes, bangs, and squelches here if you find that our hands on events are full, or if you want even more CHaOS at the Science Festival!
Dr Elinor Shaffer, who has just finished co-editing the third of the three-volume 'The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe', discusses how European responses to Darwin have shed new light on the works of Samuel Butler.
What happens when you cool materials too close to absolute zero? We explore the weird behaviour of superconductors, the ultra-cold materials which drive the Large Hadron Collider and could be the future of electricity transport.
Robin Ince questions a panel of the religious and non-religious, including Mohammed Ansar, the Reverend Richard Coles and more, on whether there really is a battle between religion and science as portrayed in the mass media or if the two can survive happily side by side.
The Naked Scientists take you on a whistle-stop tour of the world of waves, gases and chemistry. They detonate bombs, electrocute vegetables, turn air into a liquid, reveal the secrets of sun cream, use chemicals to produce bright lights, and launch hydrogen-powered rockets. Definitely not for the faint of heart!
Will we find signs of life in a sub-glacial lake, buried beneath 3km of ice and untouched for up to half a million years? A member of the Lake Ellsworth Mission team gives an insider's view of the project.
We all need to breathe constantly to stay alive - as little as three minutes without oxygen can kill a human. Yet some whales can hold their breath for over an hour whilst diving.
CHaOS student volunteers are running a series of talks filled with exciting demonstrations! You'll find more crashes, bangs, and squelches here if you find that our hands on events are full, or if you want even more CHaOS at the Science Festival!
Join Christopher Lloyd on a whistle-stop tour through the history of life on Earth using a coat of many pockets and a giant wallbook with more than 1,000 species on a four billion year timeline!
Alison Pearn, Associate Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, looks at the letters exchanged by Charles Darwin and Samuel Butler, and charts the disintegration of their relationship from a shared spirit of intellectual enquiry to a state of personal and public conflict.
CHaOS student volunteers are running a series of talks filled with exciting demonstrations! You'll find more crashes, bangs, and squelches here if you find that our hands on events are full, or if you want even more CHaOS at the Science Festival!
Featuring authors Katherine Orr and Adam Marek and scientist, Dr Simon Stott. Chair: Ra Page (editor). Is research always fully aware of its consequences? Does science need to grow a conscience? Or are we in danger of being too distrustful of science? Of demonising it even? Supported by the Wellcome Trust.
One of the UK’s finest and most imaginative writers, Alan Moore, discusses the meeting of science and fiction, his own inspirations from the world of scientific discovery and whether there is room for the mystical in a rational world. With Robin Ince. Of course, a man of so many ideas may well go off on quite a different tangent and none of the above may be applicable.
Join Hannah Critchlow from the Naked Scientists on an exploration of the brain with mind-boggling live experiments and demonstrations. A not to be missed science theatrical stage show for all the family. Definately not for the faint of thought!
This talk looks under the microscope at some of the amazing structures produced in the natural world, from ants' feet and spider silk to carnivorous pitcher plants. Can we mimic them to make high-performance man-made materials? Nature has had a two-billion year head start, but can we catch up?
Join Christopher Lloyd on a whistle-stop tour through the history of life on Earth using a coat of many pockets and a giant wallbook with more than 1,000 species on a four billion year timeline!
Using simple demonstrations, Professor Chris Bishop from Microsoft Research explores the fascinating world of computer science and uncovers some of the great ideas behind the digital revolution.
How fast do bats fly? What’s the fastest animal on earth? Discover answers to these and loads more amazing ‘animal athlete’ questions. Plus: see snake strike speed, slimy snail strategy, rodent recall and ‘itchy insects – to infinity and beyond’! Junior education team representatives will be on hand with more fun facts.
Join Mark Brake as he gives a fun, quirky, and playful guide to alien life which answers questions like: What is life? Where is life> When was life?! How would we talk to aliens? And have aliens ever visited planet Earth?
Join Christopher Lloyd on a whistle-stop tour through the history of life on Earth using a coat of many pockets and a giant wallbook with more than 1,000 species on a four billion year timeline!
Join Christopher Lloyd on a whistle-stop tour through the history of life on Earth using a coat of many pockets and a giant wallbook with more than 1,000 species on a four billion year timeline!
The Rare Books Department at Cambridge University Library presents the opportunity to see and hear about some of the world's most lavish and elegant illustrated books on birds, produced in the nineteenth century by the pioneering ornithologist, John Gould.
Throughout the 20th century, films used the monstrous to explore concerns about intervention and normality. This second series of 'Reproduction on Film' presents works featuring various artificial and natural monsters, examining anxieties about science, sex, relationships, parenthood and social marginalisation.
Come to the new Sainsbury Laboratory for a talk on the future of plant research by Associate Director Professor Ottoline Leyser. We depend on plants for our food and increasingly for many other products as we look to replace fossil fuels. How can we most effectively and sustainably harness the power of plants?
Join Aled Jones to explore: how do limits in the availability of certain resources impact on governments and business and what does this potentiall mean for society, our pensions and our savings?
The ideas of space and time are pretty obvious in our everyday life, but once we start asking questions about the nature of space and time, we find ourselves facing difficulties and realise we don't have obvious answers.
Imagine machines that can 'talk' to humans, 'understand' what we mean, and 'comprehend' the visual world around all of us. David Barber will discuss biological inspirations for the reverse engineering of intelligence and the fundamental challenges that lie ahead.
Professor Russell Foster looks at how new research into photoreceptive cells in the retina that regulate a broad range of behaviour and physiology has redefined our understanding of vision and the nature of blindness.
Join Dr Ken McNamara, Director of the Sedgwick Museum, for a roller-coaster ride through the whole history of life on Earth and find out how recent fossil discoveries have changed our understanding of the evolution of living things.
Join Helen and William Bynum as they explore the great discoveries which have helped and healed. Each is a powerful story. From dissection to DNA, understanding health and disease in diverse cultures, devising the tools of the trade, developing drugs, vaccines and successful surgery all make up medicine's past and comment on its present.
Throughout the 20th century, films used the monstrous to explore concerns about intervention and normality. This second series of 'Reproduction on Film' presents works featuring various artificial and natural monsters, examining anxieties about science, sex, relationships, parenthood and social marginalisation.
This lecture will explore the preparation strategies that are employed by athletes in the final few months leading up to an Olympic and Para-Olympic Games in order to optimise performance. We will consider physiological and psychological athlete preparation and the role of the so called 'Secret Squirrels'.
The 2012 speaker is Professor Carol Robinson FRS, a distinguished British chemist whose research looks at the development of mass spectrometry as a tool used for investigating the structure and dynamics of protein complexes. She is also a mentor for women pursuing careers in science.
The Open University was a production partner on the hit series Frozen Planet. Here, Dr Mark Brandon of The Open University will talk about his work over the last four years getting the science behind the ice, penguins and bears into the front line of nature programming and science outreach.
Some of the most thrilling new discoveries have not come from excavations. Instead, they have just 'surfaced', appearing in museums, auction houses, or antique dealers' stock without any account of where in the world they were found. Explore what has been happening and why it matters to Dr Christopher Chippindale and Christos Tsirogiannis.
Despite the ever-growing demands of the public, policy-makers and the media, many scientists still find it difficult to successfully explain and publicise their activities or to understand and respond to people's hopes and concerns about their work. Dr David Bennett gives an insight into the key ingredients in successful science communication.
Why do we draw stars with five points? Why do we have blind spots? How can we depict dark matter? These will be among the questions addressed by an exciting panel of artists, visual scientists and astronomers in a debate about Art, Space and Perception.
In the centenary year of Alan Turing's birth, Simon Singh discusses the German
Enigma cipher machine and how it was cracked by Alan Turing and the other
codebreakers at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
In this lecture, in memory of Alex Hopkins, Professor Carol V Robinson will chart the history of this mass spectrometry from the earliest mass spectrometers designed in Cambridge to measure rare gases through to their modern day counterparts used in this lab.
In this highly-illustrated lecture, Alastair Fothergill, Honoary President of South Georgia Heritage Trust and Executive Producer at the BBC, will tell the epic story behind the making of the series Frozen Planet. Proceeds will support the Trust's conservation work in South Georgia.
Luke Webster will lead a scientific wine tasting, describing the science behind prize-winning wines using experience he gained judging at International Wine Challenge (IWC) events.
How fast do bats fly? What’s the fastest animal on earth? Discover answers to these and loads more amazing ‘animal athlete’ questions. Plus: see snake strike speed, slimy snail strategy, rodent recall and ‘itchy insects – to infinity and beyond’! Junior education team representatives will be on hand with more fun facts.
Two teams will compete to produce the best balanced meal within a 15 minute period. As part of the show you will get the chance to vote for the dish you think is the best. It is sure to be an exciting, educational, fun filled event. Don’t miss it!
How could Usain Bolt improve his world 100 metres sprint record significantly without improving his speed? How fast should he be able to run? Professor John Barrow FRS answers these and other questons in this talk, which also looks at the mechanics of sprinting and the effects of wind assistance, timing accuary and altitude on sprint times.
We all recognize goo when we see it. It turns up in many places and guises from food to playthings, from glues to medical ointments. But what makes a good 'goo' and can we control the 'gooeyness'? Talk given by Professor Dame Athene Donald, FRS of the Biological and Soft Systems Group.
Two teams will compete to produce the best balanced meal within a 15 minute period. As part of the show you will get the chance to vote for the dish you think is the best. It is sure to be an exciting, educational, fun filled event. Don’t miss it!
Arguably the home of computing, the Computer Laboratory will feature demonstrations and hands-on activities that illustrate the cutting edge of computer science
Who was Leonardo da Vinci? An artist? Engineer? Scientist? Mathematician? Anatomist? Mr Francis Wells takes his audience on a whirlwind tour of Leonardo's work describing his incredible talent in all these disciplines. Hosted by The Prince's Teaching Institute.
Join other members of the public and teachers at this talk hosted by The Prince's Teaching Institute. Dr David Acheson asks: Why are so many people scared of maths? It's full of wonderful surprises that anyone can enjoy, from mind-reading tricks with the number 1089 to helping to play the guitar.
On 17 March NGOs and social enterprises will present problems in international health and development, giving teams of students and researchers a week to find an innovative, viable solution. On 24 March teams will present their solutions to a panel of judges.
Learn how natural selection explains the origin of adaptation in living organisms and discover the roles that sexual and kin selection play in the evolutionary process. Dr Ed Turner will explore the recent revolution in thinking about evolutionary biology.
How fast do bats fly? What’s the fastest animal on earth? Discover answers to these and loads more amazing ‘animal athlete’ questions. Plus: see snake strike speed, slimy snail strategy, rodent recall and ‘itchy insects – to infinity and beyond’! Junior education team representatives will be on hand with more fun facts.
Can a cat hidden in a box be simultaneously alive and dead? Emily Caddick suggests a new account of how to understand Schrödinger's infamous thought-experiment, used to illustrate the paradoxes of quantum mechanics.
From steel and concrete to silicon chips and liquid crystals, materials science has given us the building blocks of technology. We will take a look at the extraordinary microscopic structures inside some everyday materials, and see how these influence the uses to which they can be put.
Portland Folk Club presents a talk and concert exploring the acoustic properties of stringed instruments. Professor Jim Woodhouse will discuss how instrument makers control the tone and loudness of their products. Cellist Anna Bull and guitarist/banjoist/fiddler and singer Robin Gillan will play stirring re-interpretations of traditional English and American tunes and songs.
