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Category Archives: Events
ImageRemember when PubSci used to meet in an actual pub…?
Tagged event, Geeks and Nerds, Pub, Pubsci, Science, science in the pub, social
Tuesday 5th July | Story of the Higgs Boson Discovery | Live at Kings College London
PubSci speaker and KCL physicist, Malcom Fairbairn, has drawn our attention to a free talk marking the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson. It’s right up our street and we’re very happy to invite the PubSci community in the London area to attend tomorrow, Tuesday 5th July 2022.
PubSci may not be meeting in person at the moment, but how could we not mark the 10th anniversary of such a momentous scientific discovery? We don’t normally use this channel for anything but PubSci’s own events and announcements but are making a singular exception for this exciting anniversary talk.
Free tickets and full information on eventbrite – Register for your free ticket here
• • •
A talk by John Ellis, Kate Shaw, and Tevong You on the past, present, and future of the Higgs boson and particle physics
James Clerk Maxwell discovered the laws of electromagnetism in 1865 while at King’s College London (KCL). Almost a century later, Peter Higgs, a KCL alumnus, postulated the existence of a particle now known as the Higgs boson. It is one of the cornerstones of the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes successfully all the visible matter in the Universe. The Higgs boson was the last missing piece to be discovered, on July 4th 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS experiments using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Join us for an evening of particle physics celebrating ten years since the Higgs boson discovery, where we will share the story leading up to this landmark achievement in the history of physics, review progress since the Higgs discovery, and look towards the future of our quest to understand the fundamental laws of the Universe.
Everyone is welcome to this public event!
[Due to unforeseen circumstances Kate Shaw will unfortunately be unable to participate]
Programme:
- 6:30pm – Introduction, Malcolm Fairbairn (Head of KCL Theoretical Particle Physics & Cosmology)
- A historical perspective on the Higgs, John Ellis
- The discovery of the Higgs, Kate Shaw
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- Where do we go from here, Tevong You
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- 7:30pm – Q&A
- 8:30pm – End
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Register for your free ticket here
This is an external event organised by KJCL Physics. Any questions should be directed to the organiser as PubSci will not be able to answer queries. At the time of writing, we do not know whether the event will be streamed.
Hope to see you there!
Postponed: PubSci Online | Dr Anna Morgan: Toxins – Friends or Foes?
*** THIS EVENT HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY POSTPONED ***
On 7th July, PubSci is delighted to welcome Dr Anna Morgan, senior lecturer in Physiology and Pharmacology at Kingston University, for a talk titled Toxins – Friends or Foes?
Tickets are available now – booking and joining information follows the description below
[Muscarine, produced by Fly Agaric mushrooms is a powerful medicinal drug]
Do you need to detox? For advertisers, editors and lifestyle gurus, declaring toxins A Bad Thing has proved to be very good business. Numerous products – from cleaning agents to diets, even shoe inserts – claim to protect and cleanse us from toxins.
But what do we mean by toxin? And, setting aside the billion-pound detox market’s advertising claims, are toxins truly to be avoided at all costs? Or, can we harness their mechanisms to improve our lives?
In this fascinating talk, Dr Morgan explores a diverse sample of toxic substances to help us gain a better understanding of their effects, both harmful and beneficial, as she unpicks the fundamental meaning of ‘toxicity’.
[Event booking and joining information follows the description below]
• • •
Dr Anna Morgan is a Senior Lecturer in Physiology and Pharmacology at Kingston University, London. Her background is in pharmacology of inflammation, with an interest in models of non-communicable diseases.
After completing her PhD in pharmacology at the Sackler Institute for Pulmonary Pharmacology at King’s College London, Dr Morgan was awarded the C. W. Maplethorpe Fellowship through the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, also at King’s College where she researched toxicity as a postdoctoral fellow, specifically related to nanomaterials and drug delivery.
An interest in teaching and science communication eventually led to her current role as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kingston University, where she’s been part of the pharmacology teaching team since 2015.
Her research pursuits now centre around science education and teaching.
Anna is a member of the British Pharmacological Society and a Fellow of Advance HE.
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Viewing the talk: Virtual PubSci is hosted live online via Zoom. We also stream events live on our YouTube channel where they remain available for at least 28 days.
Like all our events, this talk is free to attend, but you will need to register with Eventbrite to access Zoom. We have included the option to donate a small amount when you register to help cover the cost of running PubSci, including Zoom and web hosting fees. Please consider using the Donation and Ticket option to help keep PubSci alive.
Ticket sales are already live. You’ll receive a confirmation email upon registering; the Zoom link is emailed on the day of the talk and available in the eventbrite online event page:
More details on the event registration page
Important Note: We aim to make our events accessible to all. You don’t have to pay, and you don’t need to install Zoom – Zoom can be run in a browser and events are streamed on the PubSci YouTube channel. Anybody wishing to support PubSci in our science communication can choose to make a donation when registering with eventbrite or contribute to our PayPal money pool, which goes directly to keeping PubSci online.
Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed and don’t forget to check out our downloadable PDF schedule, which includes confirmed speakers with dates TBC.
Posted in Events
PubSci Online | Naomi Rowe-Gurney – They Might Be [Ice] Giants!
(Solar System Science and the James Webb Space Telescope)
On Friday 28th May we’re delighted to welcome astrophysicist Naomi Rowe-Gurney, our fourth speaker of the 2021 programme, for a talk titled They Might be [Ice]Giants!
Naomi will talk about Solar System Science, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the “ice giant “planets, Neptune and Uranus. [Tickets are available now – booking and joining information follows the description below]
Neptune and Uranus © NASA
The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and is scheduled to be launched later this year.
Not many people realise that this huge infrared telescope – capable of seeing deeper into space and further back in time than anything before it – will be used to look at objects in our own solar-system with groundbreaking resolution, as well as probing the farthest reaches of the universe.
In her own research, Naomi looks at the ice giants with data from Spitzer Space Telescope, which has now been decommissioned. The JWST replaces Spitzer but has been much delayed. In her talk, Naomi will explain what the Webb is, why we need it, and will give the latest updates on its revised schedule. She will explain how it will help scientists look at our own solar-system.
From planetary atmospheres to Kuiper Belt Objects and Comets, Webb is equipped to observe them all. So, what is the Webb and what big science questions could it help to answer?
[Event booking and joining information follows the description below]
• • •
Naomi Rowe-Gurney
Naomi Rowe Gurney is completing a PhD at the University of Leicester, focusing on the atmospheres of the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune. She specialises in Planetary atmospheres, Spectral Inversion and Radiative Transfer. Her research uses data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to characterise the stratospheres of the two planets in preparation for the forthcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Naomi is an active member of the JWST UK outreach community and, as a former teacher, she is a passionate communicator of astronomy and astrophysics, and an advocate for women in science.
In recent years she has worked with NASA and was featured on the BBC’s flagship astronomy programme, The Sky at Night.
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Viewing the talk: Virtual PubSci is hosted live online via Zoom. We also stream events live on our YouTube channel where they remain available for at least 28 days.
Like all our events, this talk is free to attend, but you will need to register with eventbrite to access Zoom. We have included the option to donate a small amount when you register to help cover web hosting fees etc.
Ticket sales go live at 12:05 on Friday 12th March. You’ll receive a confirmation email; the Zoom link is emailed on the day of the talk and available in the eventbrite online event page.
More details on the event registration page.
Important Note: We aim to make our events accessible to all. You don’t have to pay, and you don’t need to install Zoom – Zoom can be run in a browser and events are streamed on the PubSci YouTube channel. Anybody wishing to support PubSci in our science communication can choose to make a donation when registering with eventbrite or contribute to our PayPal money pool, which goes directly to keeping PubSci online.
Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed and don’t forget to check out our downloadable PDF schedule, which includes confirmed speakers with dates TBC.
Posted in Astromony, Astrophysics, Events, Popular Science, Solar System, Space Flight
Tagged Astronomy, Astrophysics, Hubble, Ice_Giants, JWST, Nasa, Neptune, Solar_System, Space_Exploration, Uranus
Reminder: Book now for PubSci on Friday 30th April with Dr Brock Craft
Apologies for the extra email, but we’re aware that the previous PubSci email went out before tickets were available on eventbrite. Mea culpa!
So here’s a gentle reminder that tickets are available to book right now for the next PubSci online, Friday 30th April at 7pm BST.
Forget about going to the actual pub – it will be cold and damp outside! Come to the virtual pub for some real science – like the vital lesson that NASA should have learnt from Florence Nightingale.
Follow the link for a fascinating look at the beautiful, terrible, powerful role of data visualisation in the modern world with Dr Brock Craft – it could literally save your life!
PubSci Online | Dr Brock Craft: Picture This – Why Data Visualisation Matters
Posted in Big Data, Data, Events, Popular Science, Risk Management, Space Flight, talks, Uncategorized
PubSci Online | Dr Brock Craft: Picture This – Why Data Visualisation Matters
On 30th April, PubSci is delighted to welcome Dr Brock Craft, our third speaker of the 2021 programme, for a talk titled Picture This – Why Data Visualisation Matters in which Brock explains how data visualisation can be powerful, beautiful, and a matter of life and death.
On 28th Jan 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center. Could better data visualisation have prevented this disaster? (AP Photo/Bruce Weaver, File)
Talk Details
Data is all around us – now more than ever as we navigate a pandemic in daily charts, and we struggle urgently to weigh covid-19 fatalities against the lesser risk from vaccination. But data is more than tables of figures; how we present and visualise data can have literally life-or-death consequences for how we understand it, how we interpret it, and what patterns we discern in it.
Dr. Brock Craft is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington. He specialises in Information Visualisation, Human-Computer Interaction, Physical Computing, and Learning Design.
In this talk he will demonstrate why data visualisation matters to everybody, how there is genuine beauty to be found in data, and how a simple data visualisation could have prevented the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster.
• • •
Dr Craft has spent much of his career finding innovative ways to represent data in appealing, accessible, or aesthetically pleasing ways. Associate Professor at the University of Washington since 2015, Brock was previously Lecturer in Physical Computing, at Goldsmiths, University of London and programme founder/Senior Tutor on the MA in Information Experience Design at Royal College of Art, London.
He has a Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from DePaul University, Chicago, and a PhD in Data Visualisation from University College of London Interaction Centre (UCLIC)
In 2007 Brock helped form Tinker London, a design consultancy focused on creating products that bridge the digital and the physical worlds. As a partner at Tinker, Brock designed products and experiences for high-profile clients including Sony, Nokia, The Evening Standard and the BBC, often using data visualisation techniques to create appealing visual representations.
Bridging his industry work with teaching and learning, Brock served as a research fellow at the London Knowledge Lab, where he focused on Learning Design, tools for pedagogy design, technology-enhanced learning, and interactive learning objects. “I have been investigating how people interact with technology and working to make it better for my entire career.”
Brock is the author of Arduino Projects for Dummies (2013) and co-author of Raspberry Pi Projects for Dummies (2015), both published by John Wiley & Sons
He is also creator of the Brockenspiel – a musical instrument that turns bar codes and magnetic swipe cards into music played on tubular bells, as featured on the BBC.
Florence Nightingale’s famous Rose (or “Wedge”) Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army of the East”
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Viewing the talk: Virtual PubSci is hosted live online via Zoom. We also stream events live on our YouTube channel where they remain available for at least 28 days.
Like all our events, this talk is free to attend, but you will need to register with Eventbrite to access Zoom. We have included the option to donate a small amount when you register to help cover web hosting fees etc.
Ticket sales go live at noon on Saturday 10th April. You’ll receive a confirmation email; the Zoom link is emailed on the day of the talk and available in the eventbrite online event page at the event start time.
More details on the event registration page.
Important Note: We aim to make our events accessible to all. You don’t have to pay, and you don’t need to install Zoom – Zoom can be run in a browser and events are streamed on the PubSci YouTube channel. Anybody wishing to support PubSci in our science communication can choose to make a donation when registering with eventbrite or contribute to our PayPal money pool, which goes directly to keeping PubSci online.
Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed and don’t forget to check out our downloadable PDF schedule, which includes confirmed speakers with dates TBC.
Posted in Big Data, Data, Events, Risk Management, Space Flight, talks
Tagged Data, Statistics
PubSci Online | Dr Erica McAlister – The Inside Out of Flies
On Friday 26th March we’re delighted to welcome back Dr Erica McAlister, senior curator of Diptera in the Department of Entomology at London’s Natural History Museum, with The Inside Out of Flies
![The eyes of a Robber Fly [Artwork: R Marshall, source photo © NHM London]](https://pubsci.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/magic-robber-fly.jpg "Magic Robber Fly")
The eyes of a Robber Fly [Artwork: R Marshall, source photo © NHM London]
In this talk, Erica looks at the astonishing mechanics of fly anatomy, revealing the engineering embodied in each species of fly and discovering some of the fascinating implications flies hold for human technology, from hearing aids to biomimetics.
Along the way expect flies without wings, flies with rotating genitalia and tales of the terrible hairy fly as she uncovers science lessons in the form and function of the humble fly. This is a talk not to be missed.
• • •
Erica McAlister describes herself simply as somebody who “studies flies, talks flies, shows off about flies” – something of an understatement, perhaps, for the country’s foremost communicator of fly science.
Who you gonna call? Not a ghostbuster, but our speaker, Erica McAlister with a giant pooter and a pig.
A passionate communicator of her topic, Erica is especially keen on encouraging young people to enter the field and frequently give talks to schools. As senior curator of Diptera in the Department of Entomology at London’s Natural History Museum, Erica is renowned for her extensive knowledge of the subject and the enthusiasm and humour with which she presents it.
She is a regular guest on BBC Radio 4, appearing on The Natural History Programme, The Living World, Who’s the Pest?, The Museum of Curiosity , and Natural History Heroes in which she championed the entomologist George Verrall. On TV she has featured in The Museum of Life and Springwatch 2017.
In April 2019, Erica was Jim Al-Khalili’s guest on Radio 4’s The Life Scientific and in March 2021 Erica presented a week of lunchtime programmes on Radio 4 called Metamorphosis – How Insects Transformed Our World, currently available on iPlayer and BBC Sounds. Earlier this month, Erica gave the annual Verrall Lecture of the Royal Entomological Society, appropriately titled ‘A Fascination of Flies’.
Erica is the author of two acclaimed books published in association with the Natural History Museum: The Secret Life of Flies (2017) and The Inside Out of Flies (2020)
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Viewing the talk: Virtual PubSci is hosted live online via Zoom. We also stream events live on our YouTube channel where they remain available for at least 28 days.
Like all our events, this talk is free to attend, but you will need to register with Eventbrite to access Zoom. We have included the option to donate a small amount when you register to help cover web hosting fees etc.
Ticket sales go live at 12:05 on Friday 12th March. You’ll receive a confirmation email; the Zoom link is emailed on the day of the talk and available in the eventbrite online event page.
More details on the event registration page.
Important Note: We aim to make our events accessible to all. You don’t have to pay, and you don’t need to install Zoom – Zoom can be run in a browser and events are streamed on the PubSci YouTube channel. Anybody wishing to support PubSci in our science communication can choose to make a donation when registering with eventbrite or contribute to our PayPal money pool, which goes directly to keeping PubSci online.
Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed.
Posted in Events
Paolo Viscardi – Dismantling the ‘Dead Zoo’ | Friday 26th Feb 2021
On Friday 26th Feb we’re delighted to be kicking off a new season with an online talk by Paolo Viscardi, one of the founders of PubSci. Paolo, now based at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, will present Dismantling the Dead Zoo, streamed live on Zoom and YouTube.
Dublin’s Dead Zoo in June 2020 © Paolo Viscardi, National Museum of Ireland
In Dismantling the Dead Zoo, Paolo will talk about decanting the scientifically important natural history collections in Dublin’s delightfully named Dead Zoo during the coronavirus pandemic to allow building renovations to take place.
Safely moving large, historic museum specimens, such as whales, requires an understanding of biomechanics, engineering and even chemistry. It also requires a head for heights, a strong back, and very careful planning – especially in a 164 year old building where floor-loading is the ‘elephant in the room’. And, in this case, there are actual elephants in the room.
Paolo will answer audience questions after the talk.
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Paolo Viscardi
Paolo Viscardi is a Zoology Curator at the National Museum of Ireland and a trustee of the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA). His background is in biomechanics and he is particularly interested in bones. He is a keen science communicator and has worked as consultant and script editor on several TV documentaries. Paolo, now based in Dublin, is co-founder of PubSci.
Viewing the talk: Virtual PubSci is hosted live online via Zoom. We also stream events live on our YouTube channel where they remain available for at least 28 days.
Like all our events, this talk is free to attend, but you will need to register with Eventbrite to access Zoom. We have included the option to donate a small amount when you register to help cover web hosting fees etc.
Ticket sales go live at 1pm on Friday 12th February. You’ll receive a confirmation email; the Zoom link is emailed on the day of the talk.
More details on the event registration page.
Important Note: We aim to make our events accessible to all. You don’t have to pay, and you don’t need to install Zoom – Zoom can be run in a browser and events are streamed on the PubSci YouTube channel.
Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed.
Preparing to dismantle the fin whale ©Paolo Viscardi, National Museum of Ireland
Posted in Events, Popular Science, talks, Zoology
Announcing Virtual PubSci, Weds 3rd June
On Wednesday 3rd June we’re excited to welcome Dr Caspar Addyman, director of the InfantLab at Goldsmiths, University of London as our first ever speaker for Virtual PubSci. Caspar will give the talk that was originally scheduled for 1 April: Life Lessons from Laughing Babies. The talk will be streamed on Zoom and other channels.
In this talk Dr Addyman will survey the reasons why babies have such a great time being babies and why understanding baby laughter is key to understanding ourselves.
Joining Instruction: Please register for the event in advance by following this link to Eventbrite (opens in new window). Registered attendees will be sent joining instructions before the event start time. This is to minimise the risk of “Zoom Bombing”. Caspar will take questions after the talk via chat or Zoom.
• • •
Caspar Addyman is a lecturer in psychology and director of the InfantLab at Goldsmiths, University of London. His Baby Laughter project has surveyed families all over the world to find out just what causes all those little giggles and he is interested in how laughter helps babies bond and learn.
Caspar worked with Grammy winner Imogen Heap to create a song scientifically designed to make babies happy. He has a written a novel, Help Yourself, about a retired psychologist and a failed comedian and his popular science book, The Laughing Baby, published by Unbound in April 2020, is available from Amazon and all good book stores.
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Join us on Zoom/YouTube/Facebook Live this coming Wednesday 3rd June for our first ever Virtual PubSci. The links will be open from 7pm for a 7:30 start.
As usual the event is free, and it is free to register with Eventbrite. If you wish to support PubSci and help cover the costs of our monthly Zoom Pro hosting account you have the option to make a donation when registering.
To keep up to date with new events, please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed.
NB The events may be virtual but the science is real! Sadly we don’y know when we’ll be back in the Old King’s Head, but we send our best wishes to Craig and the team who have hosted us for so many years.
Feel free to get yourself a pint of Doombar or a glass of Malbec before the talk, but please ignore the event location on the website. For the time being, PubSci is in your living room not in the pub! “DID ANYBODY ORDER FISH AND CHIPS?”
Be Reasonable! (How to engage with anti-science conspiracies) – Michael Marshall
On Wednesday 4th March we’re excited to welcome Michael Marshall of the Good Thinking Society, to talk about anti-science beliefs and how to combat them.
Is it possible to have a rational conversation with people who believe in a flat earth? New Scientist recently asked the same question. Image © Josie Ford / New Scientist
• • •
Once considered harmless fringe beliefs, anti-Science and conspiracy thinking have reached the cultural and political mainstream thanks to YouTube and Twitter. Michael Marshall has spent over a decade conversing with proponents of pseudoscience to better understand their thinking, hosting them on his podcast and even attending a Flat Earth convention in the USA. Drawing on these experiences, Michael will share techniques for constructively engaging with people caught in pseudoscientific thinking, to help unweave conspiracy theories and connect with the people behind anti-science ideas. He also has some very funny stories.
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Michael Marshall (Image courtesy of Centre for Inquiry)
Michael Marshall is Project Director of the Good Thinking Society and Vice President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. He regularly speaks with proponents of pseudoscience for the Be Reasonable podcast (all links opens in new page).
As the UK’s only full-time sceptical activist, Michael’s work has seen him organise international homeopathy protests, go undercover to expose psychics and quack medics, spend a weekend embedded in the flat earth movement and co-found the popular QED conference.
Michael has written for the Guardian, The Times, New Scientist, New Statesman and The Skeptic.
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Join us upstairs at the Old King’s Head, near London Bridge station. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start.
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As usual the event is free, but we will have a whip-round to cover speaker’s expenses. 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.
Unfortunately there is no wheelchair access.
Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed.
Posted in Events
PubSci 