European Researcher’s Night: One night,
several hundred cities all over Europe
and beyond!
Don’t miss the European Researcher’s Night on Friday 25 September.
This is a mega event which takes place every year simultaneously in
several hundred cities all over Europe and beyond.
A speaker from the Particle Physics Department at the Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory will give a talk about the LHC with a live link up
to CERN.
Talks will take place at 1:30pm and 7pm
Talking Science Series 2015-16
Autumn bookings Winter bookings open Spring/Summer bookings
open 4 August 2015 10 November 2015
open 1 March 2016
DATE TALK
TIME
17/09/15
18/09/15
Henry Moseley: a scientist lost 7pm
to war
1.30pm
25/09/15
European Researcher’s Night
1.30pm/7pm
30/10/15
Eat My Science!
12pm/3pm/6.30pm
27/11/15
LHC: The Higgs and what
comes next
1.30pm/7pm
11/12/15
Hypothesis Hunter: Adventures 1.30pm/7pm
in the Inner Space of the Face
05/02/16
Insects: Sex, violence and a
cast of billions
1.30pm/7pm
11/03/16
Vaccines for old and
new pathogens
1.30pm/7pm
15/04/16
Why Bat’s Don’t Get
Fresher’s Flu
1.30pm/7pm
20/05/16
Indestructible Energy
1.30pm/7pm
10/06/16
The Oldest Light in the
Universe
1.30pm/7pm
Events take place in the Pickavance Lecture Theatre at the STFC Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory. Please visit our website for directions, www.stfc.ac.uk/2489
For the lunchtime talks, parking onsite will only be permitted for disabled badge
holders, all other cars should park in the overflow carpark (bus terminal). Please
follow signs for Talking Science parking on your way in. For the evening talks,
some parking will be available on site.
A hearing loop is installed in the lecture theatre and disabled access is available.
Please let us know when you book if you need any adjustments or assistance.
Children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Please note that telephone bookings will not receive confirmation but you will
be contacted if you have not been successful in getting a place. Online bookings
will receive a confirmation email. We do not provide hard copy tickets.
Science Series
Booking is essential:
Book online
www.stfc.ac.uk/rltalkingscience
Email [email protected]
Or call 01235 445959 (24 hour answerphone)
FREE stimulating talks on science, maths and
the Universe, for families, public and schools
Talking Science
Series 2015-16
AUTUMN
BOOKINGS OPEN 4 AUGUST 2015
WINTER
BOOKINGS OPEN 10 NOVEMBER 2015
SPRING/SUMMER
BOOKINGS OPEN 1 MARCH 2016
17-18 SEPTEMBER, 7pm (THURS) &1.30pm (FRI) - audience 14+
FRI 11 DECEMBER, 1.30pm/7pm - audience 12+
FRI 15 APRIL, 1.30pm/7pm - audience 10+
Henry Moseley: a scientist lost to war
Hypothesis Hunter: Adventures in the
Inner Space of the Face
Why Bats Don’t Get Fresher’s Flu
Russell Egdell, University of Oxford/Trinity College Oxford
/Northumbria University and Andy Dent, Diamond Light Source
Henry Moseley was an English physicist who was killed in 1915 at the
age of 27 while serving as a signals officer in the Gallipoli campaign. In a
brief but mercurial research career he had completed experimental work
which established the concept of atomic number as the charge on the
nucleus of the atom. He was nominated for the 1916 Nobel Prizes in both
chemistry and physics, but his death came before the Nobel Committees
could make an award. This lecture will deal with Moseley’s life and legacy
and will consider the huge impact his work has had on science.
Dr Todd C. Rae, Centre for Research in Evolutionary
and Environmental Anthropology, Dept of Life Sciences,
University of Roehampton
Most people are only aware of their sinuses when they become
infected. But what exactly are they? Where did they come from?
What exactly do they do? We will approach (if not answer) these
questions by looking at recent work on the evolution of sinuses in
primates (including humans, both recent and fossil) and other mammals
using sophisticated methods of imaging and measuring internal
structures. The results are often counter-intuitive and offer new
interpretations of these fascinating hollows in the facial skeleton.
FRI 30 OCTOBER, 12pm/3pm/6.30pm - all ages
FRI 5 FEBRUARY, 1.30pm/7pm - all ages
Eat My Science!
Insects: Sex, violence and a cast
of billions
Stefan Gates, Gastronaut
The BBC’s Stefan Gates (Incredible Edibles, Food Factory,
Cooking in the Danger Zone) takes you on an explosive, stomachchurning adventure through the amazing chemistry, physics and
biology of your food. There’ll be some extraordinary sensory perception
adventures, food rockets, flavour cannons, edible insects and culinary
flame throwing, as well as lots of audience participation and the
opportunity to taste some extraordinary foods. All in the name of
science, you understand. Leave your hang-ups at the door: this could
get messy. Check out some of Stefan’s Gastronaut adventures on his
Gastronaut YouTube channel.
Dr George McGavin, Honorary Research Associate, Oxford
University Museum of Natural History and Dept of Zoology, Oxford
Insects are the most diverse and successful group of animals on Earth.
They are an essential component of every terrestrial and aquatic food
chain - without them the world would be a very different place. But
insects have a dark side - many are disease vectors and crop destroyers.
Welcome to Bug World!
FRI 11 MARCH, 1.30pm/7pm - audience 15+
LHC: The Higgs and what comes next
Vaccines for old and new pathogens
The LHC accelerator in CERN has started its second run at
nearly twice the energy of the first. The first run discovered ‘a Higgs
boson’, but what do physicists really know about it, what does it tell us
about the universe and what might be discovered in the new run?
Bats are one of the most charismatic groups of mammals in the world.
With over 1,200 species, the ability to see in complete darkness, and
a diet ranging from fruit and frogs to blood and birds, bats are both
fascinating and key for a healthy planet. Tom has studied bats from the
Yorkshire dales to the cloud forests of Honduras for over seven years.
Tom will give a whistle stop tour of bats, covering the ‘bat basics’,
his own research into bats’ social behaviour as well as how you can
explore the ultrasonic world that bats live in.
FRI 20 MAY, 1.30pm/7pm - audience 7+
Indestructible Energy
Dr Jamie Gallagher, University of Glasgow
Petrol, ping pong balls, calories and cookies – what do they
all have in common? Energy! FameLabber Jamie Gallagher burns food,
bounces balls and generates electricity as he shows us what energy is
and why we can’t create or destroy it. Take part in his energy swap shop
game, explore how your body is like a combustion engine and why cars
burn petrol instead of eating cookies!
FRI 10 JUNE, 1.30pm/7pm - audience 8+
The Oldest Light in the Universe
Dr Roberto Trotta, Imperial College London and STFC
Public Engagement Fellow
FRI 27 NOVEMBER, 1.30pm/7pm - audience 12+
Professor William Murray, STFC and Warwick University
Dr Tom August, Computational Ecologist, NERC Centre for
Ecology and Hydrology
Professor Helen McShane, Professor of Vaccinology and
Wellcome Senior Fellow, University of Oxford
The most cost effective way to control any infectious disease
epidemic is with vaccination. We have successfully eradicated one
Global infectious disease, Smallpox, with effective vaccination and
the world is close to eradicating a second, Polio. Developing vaccines
against Tuberculosis (TB), HIV and Malaria is not as easy as developing
vaccines for Polio, Smallpox, Tetanus etc. The Jenner Institute has
research programmes in each of these areas to try and develop
effective vaccines. An overview of the vaccine activity within the
Jenner Institute will be given with a particular focus on TB, Malaria
and most recently, Ebola.
The mysterious Dark Matter and Dark Energy account together for 95%
of the contents of the Universe - yet very little is known about them!
Join astrophysicist Dr Roberto Trotta to discover what the oldest light in
the cosmos, the luminous echo of the Big Bang itself, can tell us about
the fundamental nature of the Universe (the ‘All-There-Is’)... using only
the most common 1,000 words in English!
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