In this post I preview this week’s talk by Joanna Bagniewska, look back at March’s event, celebrate something special and look forward to May’s PubSci
Hello and welcome to the April blog. Last month I’d just emerged from UK science week, delivering 17 workshops in 4 days at London primary schools. This month I’ve been supervising some Easter holiday workshops at the Royal Institution, and what a fabulous fortnight it was, with school age kids learning about fractals, programmable self-driving trains, and the mind-boggling scale of the universe. But what’s happening at Science in the Pub?
April’s PubSci talk is here!
You’re probably familiar with the idea of a medieval bestiary, those beautifully illustrated collections of fanciful beasts which often incorporated moral lessons about purity of heart and godliness.
“The Modern Bestiary” takes a rather different approach. In place of mythical, fantastical beasts it features some of the Earth’s most fascinating and extraordinary real wildlife. And instead of moralising, it features animal grossness, butts, and some quite dramatic mating practices!
If that sounds like your kind of thing, you’re in luck, because the author, zoologist and award-wining science communicator Joanna Bagniewska, will be talking about her book at the Old King’s Head tonight. There aren’t many tickets left, but if this reaches you in time, grab yourself a ticket and be amazed.
Copies of The Modern Bestiary will be available at tonight’s event.
Book your place at April’s PubSci via this link or head straight to our NEXT EVENT page.
Did you know that Charles Darwin actually fell for a hedgehog myth that originates in a medieval bestiary? To be fair, he wasn’t entirely convinced but nonetheless wrote “I have it on good authority that…”
Mike and I discuss this in our latest Random Walk in the current episode of The Science Show which first broadcast on Resonance FM and is now streaming on Mixcloud. Sadly episode 6 was Mike’s last show as he’s taking a step back due to other commitments, but I’ll be carrying on with guest co-presenters so watch this space. It’s been a delight making the show with Mike, and I want to thank him for jumping at the idea and brining it to fruition with me.
Next Month at PubSci
If you subscribe to PubSci’s calendar, you get Eventbrite booking links as they go live. If you don’t make sure to put the third Wednesday of every month in your diary (apart from December), starting with Wednesday 20th March when leading transplant surgeon Pankaj Chandak talks about the incredible future of transplant surgery and the techniques he has been pioneering.
If you don’t yet subscribe to our calendar, now’s a good time to do it so that PubSci events update automatically in your own calendar with the latest information and booking links. Clicking THIS link downloads a small .ics file which will add our calendar to yours once you’ve open it.
Is everything we know about the Big Bang wrong…?
This was the question that Professor Andrew Jaffe addressed at March’s PubSci. While the short answer is No, but we must be ready to revise it, the in depth answer was far more revealing. Andrew argues that in order to understand science in general, and cosmology in particular, we need to come to terms with the fact that everything we know is really just based on models and probability.
Will the cherry trees blossom this spring? Based on past performance, Yes! But that invokes a kind of reasoning that we should be aware of, especially when the questions we apply that reasoning to are more complex and nuanced and the data we have available is less clear.
Andrew develops in his book, The Random Universe, and after March’s PubSci, Andrew came into The Science Show’s virtual studio to talk about these ideas. You can listen to that interview, as well as the Random Walk I mentioned above in episode 6 of The Science Show, along with news of Artemis II and some excellent music.
In The Random Universe, Prof. Jaffe explains how scientists create, test, and refine their models by applying those paired concepts, for example to both quantum mechanics and the birth of the universe. It’s a highly readable blend of philosophy, probability theory, and cosmology, that I’m personally happy to recommend.
The limits of knowledge feature quite strongly in the book, and one of the interesting thoughts to emerge from Andrew’s talk came in response to an audience question about alternative hypotheses for the origins and evolution of the universe. Andrew’s replay was “Most ideas that disagree with the dominant scientific paradigm in any field are certainly wrong even though the dominant paradigm is probably also wrong.”
Andrew repeated this in a social media post, so I asked him about it in our interview. Check out his response in The Science Show.
Going out on a high
At the risk of over-egging the radio show and podcast, our latest episode – and Mike’s final one – just reached number 1 in the science charts on our streaming platform. Of course there are bigger platforms with bigger charts, but considering we do this ion our own time, with no backing or monetisation, it’s an achievement we can be truly proud of.
Many thanks to Mike for the hard work and the fun times we’ve had making great – possibly unique – science radio. If you haven’t listened yet, now’s the time to do so. You won’t find a similar mix of science news, events, random discussions and excellent music anywhere else.
We use Mixcloud for podcast hosting as it’s the only platform which automatically pays royalties to copyright holders, allowing us to play the great music we love, which makes our particular scientific miscellany so different from any other science show. Unfortunately this comes with the limitation of streaming only (no downloads) but we consider this a small price to pay for creative freedom and supporting musical artists.
You can listen live on Resonance 104.4 FM at 3pm on the first Monday of every month (also DAB, RadioPlayer, and live-streaming from the Resonance website) or catch up at time from our Mixcloud page.
Not quite lastly (and definitely not leastly), have a look at what else is coming up at PubSci this Spring!
PubSci’s latest events programme (below) covers January to May 2026 and I’m super-excited with what’s in store for PubSci in the coming months. I’ll be publishing the Spring-Summer programme soon.
Our events programme is perfect for printing out and pinning to your work noticeboard or sticking to the fridge. It’s also available on the Current Programme page. I recommend putting the dates in your diary now. Even better, subscribe to our calendar HERE. For example this is what you’ll see for March’s PubSci when you subscribe to our Calendar.
Click the image to open the programme in a new tab.
Finally, a reminder about how you can listen to a rather excellent Science Show
The Science Show on Resonance FM is co-presented by myself and Mike Lucibella. Resonance is the Arts Council-backed radio station for London, broadcastings live on good old FM. It’s also on DAB and you can livestream Resonance anywhere in the world or and on Radioplayer across the UK. Better still, listen any time here.
The Science Show is a monthly, hour long magazine programme (i.e. a show with different segments) that you can listen to in one go or break up into three easy chunks. Our fifth show went out on Monday 2nd March, and our next show goes at at 3pm on Monday 6th April.
It’s not on any podcast server, but our page on Mixcloud effectively works like one – just find the show you like the look of and click PLAY. You can let us know what you think by sending a message at our dedicated email address.
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Don’t forget to grab your last minute ticket to March’s PubSci (or at least get on the waitlist), and remember to follow us on all the socials including LinkedIn to keep up to date with what we’re doing. You can find those on our Linktree.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to email or comment in response. Hope to see you at The Old King’s Head on Wednesday.
17/03/26 Posted by Richard, PubSci programmer and host
PubSci: Sipping • Supping • Science
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About PubSci talks
PubSci is organised and hosted by science communicator, Richard Marshall, assisted by Mike Lucibella. Events are held upstairs at the Old King’s Head, near London Bridge tube. No specialist knowledge is required, just curiosity. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Talks run for ~45 minutes and are followed by a Q&A session. The Old King’s Head has a happy hour before 7pm, and the kitchen serves excellent pub grub.
Keeping Up With Future Events
To make sure you don’t miss out on future events, subscribe to our Google Calendar to be the first to know when new talks are scheduled, and follow PubSci’s events on Eventbrite to be notified when tickets are available. You can also sign up to our own mailing list on any page on this site.
There is no charge for attending PubSci talks, but we have a cash whip-round to cover expenses on the night – consider it “Pay What You Can Afford”. As few of us carry cash these days, you can make a donation when registering for ticketed events with Eventbrite. Please help us continue putting on events. PubSci has no other source of funding.
We aim to keep PubSci accessible for all, although it is unsuitable for under 18s as we meet in the function room of a pub. Regrettably, there is no wheelchair access.
You can find all our links on our LinkTree.
Address:
The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA
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