Author Archives: MarshalledThoughts

21st June 2023 | Eugenia Cheng: Is Maths Real?

Posted on June 1, 2023 | Leave a comment

[Ticketed event – free, with optional donation]

On Wednesday 21st June PubSci is delighted to welcome the extraordinary mathematician, Dr Eugenia Cheng, whose talks and books bring maths to life in unexpected, powerful, even life-affirming ways. Reserve your place now.

On a mission to rid the world of maths phobia, Eugenia presents maths as you’ve never seen it before, revealing how profound insights can emerge from seemingly unlikely sources.

Want to learn maths while cooking food? Eugenia wrote a book about that.

Could maths could help us see the world more clearly and make a case for justice and human rights? Eugenia covers that.

Ever thought maths was hard, obscure, or simply not for you…? Eugenia is the person who can, and probably will, change your mind.

Eugenia Cheng makes the case for maths emerging from normal human curiosity, and shows that being the kid who asked “But, why does 1+1=2?” could be more important than being the kid who always got the right answers.

• • •

US-based Dr Cheng is curently promoting her latest book, “Is Maths Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths” and we’re delighted to be included in her UK tour. June’s PubSci offers a unique opportunity to hear this celebrated mathematician in the intimate surroundings of a London pub. Don’t miss this chance to see maths in a wholly new way!

“Is Maths Real?” is published by Profile Books on 1st June. Copies will be on sale on the night.

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Join us upstairs at the Old King’s Head, near London Bridge station for an extraordinary evening of discovery and wonder. We anticipate a large turnout for this event and are using Eventbrite to manage numbers. Please reserve your spot ASAP to avoid disappointment.

Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. The Old King’s Head has a happy hour before 7, and the kitchen serves excellent pub grub. The nearest tube station is London Bridge (Borough High St. exit).

• • •

Eugenia Cheng is a British-born mathematician, author, public speaker, columnist, concert pianist, composer and artist who wants to rid the world of ‘maths phobia’.

As a mathematician, Eugenia’s field is Category Theory – the study of connections between things – which she encountered at Cambridge University where she received her PhD.

Her acclaimed books for a general audience include “How to Bake Pi”, “Beyond Infinity”, “The Art of Logic”, “x+y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto for Rethinking Gender”, and “The Joy of Abstraction: An Exploration of Math, Category theory, and Life”. She has written two children’s books, “Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries” and “Bake Infinite Pie with x+y“.

Dr Cheng is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, won tenure in Pure Mathematics at the University of Sheffield and is Honorary Visiting Fellow at City, University of London.

She also writes the Everyday Math column for the Wall Street Journal and has completed mathematical art commissions for hotels and cultural spaces in the USA. She has been a guest on BBC Radio 4’s More or Less with Tim Harford and The Life Scientific with Jim Al-Khalili, as well as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the USA.

Eugenia’s YouTube videos have been viewed almost 15 million times.

Eugenia Cheng talking on maths and music

• • •

Support PubSci.

There is no charge for attending PubSci talks, but we have a whip-round to cover expenses. As so few of us carry cash these days, you can contribute digitally through our TipJar link or make a donation when registering for ticketed events with Eventbrite. Please help PubSci continue to put on events.

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.

Check out the Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our Google Calendar so PubSci events automatically appear in your own Calendar. You can find all our links on our LinkTree.

We used to meet on the first Wednesday of the month but PubSci is now on the third Wednesday.

Address:

The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA

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Posted in Events, Popular Science, Pubsci, Maths

Tagged Science, event, Pubsci, science in the pub, Geeks and Nerds, Maths, Popular Science

News and Events Update

Posted on May 18, 2023 | Leave a comment

A huge thank you to everybody who came to yesterday’s talk and discussion on myths, misinformation and logical fallacies in the context of Covid-19. Despite the last minute change of speaker and topic, it proved to be a great night all round. Your support makes running PubSci worthwhile.

Event news:

Wanna Know what spacetime sounds like…?

Our friends at the Royal Institution have a fantastic event tomorrow called Sounds of Spacetime.

What better way to spend your Friday evening than in the Ri‘s world famous theatre, travelling through the history of gravity and discovering how we hear the universe? Join cosmologist and gravitational wave astronomer Tessa Baker for a talk that could change your perspective on the cosmos.

Tickets are available on the Ri Website.

• • •

Talking of the Royal Institution, our friends in the Cosmic Shambles Network are making a new podcast, hosted by Robin Ince and Helen Czerski, and it’s being recorded live at the Ri.

It’s called ‘They’ve Made Us’ and features two brilliant guests per episode. I’ve been at the first two recordings and can highly recommend getting hold of tickets for the remaining two on 26 May (Kwame Asante & Chris Jackson + Anjana Khatwa & Mark Miodownik) and 2 June (Dame Sue Black & Saiful Islam + Sir Tom Shakespeare & J. Wilgoose Esq).

Next PubSci

Finally, back to PubSci, our next event will be on Wednesday 21st June with the truly extraordinary mathematician, Eugenia Cheng. Eugenia has the ability to make maths fascinating, understandable, and relvant to eveybody, no matter how much they think they hate maths. Love it or hate it, come to the Old King’s Head to have your whole understanding of maths changed, as Eugenia asks: Is Maths Real?

Details on this site shortly.

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Tagged event, Science

Weds 17th May | Falsehoods and Fallacies – Framing COVID-19 in the misinformation pandemic

Posted on May 16, 2023 | 2 comments

In a change* to the scheduled event, on Wednesday 17th May 2023 Richard Marshall (PubSci host), will give a talk on critical thinking and data representation in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. This will be followed by a group discussion of insights arising from the pandemic, chaired by Kate Viscardi and Mike Lucibella.

Communicating complex ideas is a never-ending challenge for science and medicine, and getting it right can mean the difference between life and death. This is especially true when special interest groups run campaigns of confusion, obfuscation and misinformation – whether sincerely, naively, or maliciously – such as we witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Of course it’s perfectly valid to challenge a received narrative by interrogating what we’re told by official sources – something that science communication should not only rise to meet but actively welcome and embrace – but when dishonest tactics are employed to mislead the public, we need a mental toolkit to help us spot fallacies and sort the legitimate challenges from the logical heffalump traps.

In this talk, Richard will explore some of the tricks used to confuse the unwary, and dip into the mental processes that make us all vulnerable to them, as well as exploring a couple of real life examples from the pandemic misinformation playbook.

• • •

Richard Marshall has been programming and hosting PubSci since 2017. After studying Engineering at The University of Surrey, he worked in photography and journalism before returning to STEM to lecture in the Schools of Engineering and Maths at London South Bank University. He has run events since 1992 and is now a freelance science communicator, bringing the joy of science into primary schools as well as doing science-based standup.

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Kate Viscardi has been involved with PubSci since its inception in 2011. Before retiring she was, for many years, senior lecturer in the School of Engineering at London South Bank University and the School Lead for Higher Apprenticeships. Kate previously headed the Women in Engineering Centre, and in 1989 she appeared on a BBC Tomorrow’s World Christmas Special as an expert panelist alongside Douglas Adams.

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Mike Lucibella is a science communicator based in the Press and Media office at University College, London. He spent several years with the United States Antarctic Programme where he edited its newspaper, the Antactic Sun, as well as photographing the Earth’s sixth continent. He regularly gives talks on Antactica and its importance to our understanding of climate change. When not holding a microphone, camera or telephone, Mike can often be found with a geological hammer, hunting fossils.

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* The speaker originally programmed for tonight, Dr Michael Byford, has had to pull out for health reasons. We apologise to those who were looking forward to Michael’s talk, and we wish Michael a speedy recovery.

Join us upstairs at the Old King’s Head, near London Bridge station. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. The Old King’s Head has a happy hour before 7pm, and the kitchen serves excellent pub grub.

• • •

Please support PubSci.

There is no charge for attending PubSci talks, but we have a whip-round to cover expenses. Because so few of us carry cash these days, you can contribute digitally too. Please help PubSci continue to put on events.

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.

Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed. The Spring/Summer talks programme will also be announced at this event. You can find all our links on our LinkTree.

We used to meet on the first Wednesday of the month but PubSci is now on the third Wednesday.

Address:

The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA

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Posted in Events, Popular Science, Pubsci, talks

Tagged event, Geeks and Nerds, London, Pubsci, Science, science in the pub

17th May | Notice of event change to “Dr Michael Byford: What We Learnt from the Pandemic (And What We Didn’t):

Posted on May 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

Unfortunately Michael is unable to give this talk due to ill health. Please see the latest blog post for information on the replacement event or follow this link. We wish Michael a good recovery.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

On Wednesday 17th May 2023 we are delighted to welcome biochemist and microbologist Michael Byford to PubSci to talk about what was learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic.

SARS-CoV-2 caused a global pandemic on a scale not seen for over a century. In this talk, Michael will outline the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19. He will also describe the nature of mRNA vaccines and how the pandemic spurred the development of this approach which is being adapted to fight other diseases.

This talk was originally scheduled for PubSci online in June 2021 but was postponed due to changing covid restrictions. Almost two years on, we gain the benefit of both hindsight and new insights.

Michael is one of our most prolific and popular speakers and we couldn’t be happier to welcome him as our first speaker of the new season. Anybody who remembers Michael’s 2019 talk on bacteriophages will know to expect a fascinating and informative evening.

• • •

Michael Byford received his PhD in biochemistry in 1983 from the University of Southampton before joining the University of Washington where he discovered the “IQ domain” in a neurospecific protein and developed a method of detecting phosphorylated residues of amino acids, a key step in understanding metabolic pathways.

He returned to Southampton to initiate work on neuroblastoma, a highly aggressive tumour found only in children. Upon moving to the University of Oxford he worked on the first step in the synthesis of penicillin. He then worked for DEFRA primarily on Creutzfeldt Jacob (AKA “mad cow”) disease.

Following a brief spell working on DNA repair, Michael became senior lecturer in biochemistry at London South Bank University. After a period teaching environmental microbiology at the University of Portsmouth Michael returned to his native Sussex to tutor privately.

• • •

Join us upstairs at the Old King’s Head, near London Bridge station. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. The Old King’s Head has a happy hour before 7pm to get you in the mood, and the kitchen serves excellent pub grub.

Please support PubSci. As usual, there is no charge for attending PubSci talks, but we have a whip-round to cover expenses. Because so few of us carry cash these days, you can contribute digitally too.

• • •

We aim to keep PubSci accessible for all, although it is unsuitable for under 18s as we meet in the upper room of a pub. Regrettably, there is no wheelchair access.

Check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our Google Calendar so PubSci events automatically appear in your own Calendar. You can find all our links on our LinkTree.

NB PubSci used to meet on the first Wednesday of the month but is now on the third Wednesday.

Address:

The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA

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Posted in Bioscience, Events, Microbiology, pharmacology, Pubsci, talks

Tagged event, Geeks and Nerds, London, Pubsci, Science, science in the pub, social

Thank you… and we’re back in the room!

Posted on April 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

A huge thank you to everybody who came to the Old King’s Head on Wednesday.

It really was great to be back live, talking about science – in the pub. It’s been a long, steep journey to relaunch live events from scratch after three years without a venue. Wednesday made it all worthwhile.

If you weren’t there, you won’t know what you missed, but the full Spring / Summer programme is now up, so make sure you come to the next one if you can. Subscribe to our google calendar to be on the safe side!

The evening wasn’t without its surprises. The evening chef called in sick and it looked like there’d be no food at all, but lovely Sam from the bar, who has been a friend to PubSci for years, arranged for us to order pizzas from Giuseppe’s. She even took the payments and delivered the pizza. And they were delicious! Thanks Sam.

This is a good point to mention a little known fact: PubSci has a tradition of leaving a tip for the bar staff from contributions on the night (even if expenses outweigh contributions) because we couldn’t run the event without them.

It’s also a good moment to thank those who put in contributions to help keep PubSci running. Apologies to those who couldn’t make the QR code work – we think it was camera / device settings rather than an issue with the code itself. If you missed the chance on the night, you can always head to our linktree to use the Tip Jar.

Thank you Kate, George and Mike for giving such excellent talks, and for the audience questions. And for listening to me too! For the record, the talks were:

Kate Viscardi – “How Long Is a Piece of String?
George Holdaway – “Islamic Art: The Quest for the Quasi Crystal”
Mike Lucibella – “What’s the Deal with Antarctica?”
Richard Marshall – “The Levitating Hamster and Other Definitely True Stories”

You all made it worthwhile. X

See you back at the OKH on Wednesday 17th May for Dr. Michael Byford: What We Learnt from the Pandemic (And What We Didn’t)

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Posted in Events

Tagged event, Geeks and Nerds, London, Pubsci, Science, science in the pub, social

PubSci Returns to the Pub – Today!

Posted on April 19, 2023 | Leave a comment

A little reminder that we’re back in the Old King’s Head tonight

Kate Viscardi considers standards and deviations in “How Long Is a Piece of String?
George Holdaway discusses “Islamic Art: The Quest for the Quasi Crystal”
Mike Lucibella asks “What’s the Deal with Antarctica?”
Richard Marshall presents “The Levitating Hamster and Other Definitely True Stories”

Full details here: https://pubsci.info/next-event-19th-april-restart-special

• • •

The kitchen will be open. Order before 7pm and tell the bar staff you’re upstairs – they’ll bring your food in arrive early to get a table seat..

• • •

PubSci is free to attend but we have a whip-round to cover expenses. As so few of us carry cash now, you can contribute digitally too. This event will not be livestreamed. Regrettably, there is no wheelchair access.

Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed. The Spring/Summer talks programme will also be announced at this event. You can find all our links on our LinkTree.

Venue:

The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA

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Posted in Events

Tagged event, Geeks and Nerds, London, Pubsci, Science, science in the pub, social

Typo, Type-o, Typewriters

Posted on April 12, 2023 | Leave a comment

Word has reached PubSci Towers that subscribers to the mailing list were sent a typo-ridden first draft on Monday night instead of a shiny, polished blog post at a more sensible time of day. Sincere apologies for that.

Nobody wants Aphabetti Spaghetti on their morning cornflakes, especially after a 4-day weekend.

If you head to the PubSci WordPress site you can read the corrected blog post in all its shiny glory, devoid of spelling mishaps but full of information about PubSci’s upcoming restart event on Wednesday 19th March.

Weds 19th April | PubSci Restart Event: A Celebration of Science | PubSci

Meanwhile the monkey responsible for typing and mailing that draft is sitting with his tail between his legs, reconsidering his infinite life choices.

Hope to see you on the 19th.

Richard

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Posted in Events

Weds 19th April | PubSci Restart Event: A Celebration of Science

Posted on April 11, 2023 | 1 comment

On Wednesday 19th April 2023 we’re enormously excited to be returning to in-person events, three years after we paused due to the pandemic. This will be a celebratory evening of science communication and socialising: Four different speakers on four different topics to make you laugh, cry, gasp, and ask “Just how close is the bar?”

Please join us for an evening to remember:

Kate Viscardi considers standards and deviations in “How Long Is a Piece of String?
George Holdaway discusses “Islamic Art: The Quest for the Quasi Crystal”
Mike Lucibella asks “What’s the Deal with Antarctica?”
Richard Marshall presents “The Levitating Hamster and Other Definitely True Stories”

• • •

This event will be a social one as well as a SciCom one. In a change from the usual ~45-minute talk followed by questions, there will be more bar breaks and we’ve included extra time for catching up with friends old and new. Let’s celebrate getting together again!

Kate Viscardi is a senior lecturer at LSBU and previously headed their Women in Engineering Centre.
George Holdaway is a polymath who tutors in STEM topics.
Mike Lucibella edited the newspaper of the US Antarctic Programme before joining UCL.
Richard Marshall has been programming and hosting PubSci since 2018.

Join us upstairs at the Old King’s Head, near London Bridge station (see below). Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. The Old King’s Head has a happy hour before 7pm to get you in the mood, and the kitchen serves excellent pub grub.

• • •

As usual the event is free, but we will have a whip-round to cover expenses. As so few of us carry cash now, you can contribute digitally too. This event will not be livestreamed.

We aim to keep PubSci accessible for all, although it is unsuitable for under 18s as we meet in the upper room of a pub. Regrettably, there is no wheelchair access. We tried very hard to find an accessible venue.

Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed. The Spring/Summer talks programme will also be announced at this event. You can find all our links on our LinkTree.

NB We used to meet on the first Wednesday of the month but PubSci is now on the third Wednesday.

Address:

The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA

1 Comment

Posted in Events

Tagged event, Geeks and Nerds, London, Pubsci, Science, science in the pub, social

PubSci Returns: 19th April 2023 | Old King’s Head Pub

Posted on March 31, 2023 | Leave a comment

The rumours are true: PubSci is back!

Three years after the pandemic halted live events, PubSci returns to its familiar home near London Bridge for a cornucopia of science talks in the comfort of the Old King’s Head (OKH).

On Wednesday 19th April PubSci presents our Restart Special: A Celebration of Science.

Four Speakers in One Night

The PubSci Restart Special will be an evening of entertaining short talks on fascinating science topics. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you think. Some might turn you to drink. After the main event, you’ll have time to catch up with old friends, space to make new friends, and the opportunity to chat with your kind of people over a drink or two.

Save the date now and look out for the full event announcement in early April.

The OKH has a well-stocked bar, a happy hour from 5-7pm (we start at 7), and a great range of pub grub. The landlord has kindly agreed to keep the kitchen open for us, so you can satisfy your physiological and intellectual appetites at the same time.

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Third Wednesday of Every Month

Looking ahead, we have a constellation of fantastic speakers lined up, including some all-time PubSci favourites. Don’t forget, we’ve moved from the first Wednesday of the month to the third, so please put third Wednesdays in your diary, beginning with 19th April 2023.

I’ll be announcing the spring/summer programme at the Restart Special before posting it on our website. While there, you can subscribe to the PubSci calendar to be notified as events are scheduled. Don’t forget to join our email list to receive the full monthly update.

PubSci remains free to attend. We pass round a beer mug at each event on a pay-what-you-can basis to cover costs such as speakers’ expenses and AV equipment.

See you on the 19th!

Richard

PS You can follow us on social media too.

Twitter Facebook Youtube

Regretably, the upstairs room at the OKH is not wheelchair accessible.

• • •

What’s the future of PubSci Online?

Running PubSci via Zoom while we were unable to get together in person was a great experience, despite the additional costs. Creating a Virtual Pub with Real Science ™ allowed me to invite speakers from the USA, and gave us the chance to widen the PubSci community without geographical limits. We haven’t forgotten you!

Whilst PubSci is about in-person science communication at heart, returning to live events doesn’t mean the end of the wider PubSci community. The April event will be IRL only, but we hope to begin live-streaming later in the spring. Once live events are up-and running I will work on the logistics and set about finding volunteers to record and stream live talks. If you come to PubSci regularly and have experience with OBS, please get in touch!

If you’ve never been to PubSci, our YouTube channel has recordings of our online talks during lockdown