BA Festival of Science Webcast

Topics include nanomachines, how to vacuum-pack a teacher, Ireland's deep water coral reefs and much more. For the first time they will be webcast live over the Internet as well as being available for future viewing through a video archive.

Through webcasting, CUSP will bring lectures from the festival to a massively increased audience, eliminating the barriers of distance that would normally prevent the majority of the country from experiencing them.

"In webcasting outstanding lectures from the BA Festival of Science on the Internet, CUSP is exploring the relatively new medium of Internet video broadcasting, and is taking advantage of what this new medium offers. Broadcasting over the Internet is far cheaper than the traditional methods, and with a continually growing number of people online it is becoming easier by the day for people to tune in on their computers,” said Dr Bjoern Hassler, Chair of CUSP.

"The Internet also offers people the opportunity to give live feedback on what they are watching, via email or instant messaging, allowing some of the personal interaction to be retained. We see this as an innovative activity in disseminating popular science in an exciting way."

The project is being run entirely by volunteers from the University of Cambridge, ranging from undergraduate students to post-doctoral members of staff and is funded through grants. The lectures will be produced as a live multi-camera broadcast, with a high production standard. The webcasts will be freely available to anybody who would like to watch.

There will be an opportunity to email in questions for all lectures, which will either be asked on behalf of the viewer in the question and answer session, or in a separate interview with the lecturer.