Tag Archives: social

Ada Lovelace PubSci Special

Celebrating Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths)

On Tuesday 16th October we will have a PubSci special celebrating women in STEM hosted by Dr Rebekah Higgitt.

Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women in STEM subjects who have been inspirational. Ada was born in 1815 and became a mathematician, writer and arguably the world’s first computer programmer over 100 years before the first electronic computer was invented. Talk about being ahead of her time!

We will celebrate by having a variety of women at different stages of their STEM careers talking about what they do, their experiences as a female in STEM and the female figures that have inspired them. Then the floor will open for the usual exchange of ideas and quaffing of appropriately alcoholic beverages until time is called at the bar.

Join us at the Brixton Ritzy Upstairs Bar from 18:45ish for food, drink and a chat, ready for an 19:30 start.

Oh yes, and as always entry is free!

September PubSci: Physics Special

Symmetry, singularities & string theory

On Tuesday 18th September we will have PubSci regular Dr. John Hamilton guiding us on a tour of why physicists always bang on about symmetry, and how it fits in to theoretical physics.

A simulated event in the CMS detector, a collision in which a micro black hole may be created.

You may have encountered John if you’ve been to PubSci  before, he’s the one who has clearly explained the answers to really interesting questions like “what are the LHC and the Higgs Boson all about?” and “what does it mean if neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light?”

John will be talking mainly about symmetry, touching on singularities and string theory (and why it’s probably wrong) along with all sorts of exciting concepts that we’ve heard about thanks to the enthusiastic outpourings of Prof. Brian Cox.

In short, it’ll be an evening of really complicated science made really interesting and understandable. Plus beer.

So why not join us at the Brixton Ritzy Upstairs Bar from 18:45ish for food, drink and a chat, ready for an 19:45ish start?

Oh yes, and as always it’s free!

July PubSci: Terrible Table Manners

The Feeding Habits of Carnivorous Dinosaurs

On Tuesday 17th July Tuesday 24th July we will be finding out more about dinosaur behaviour with Dr. David Hone.

Understanding the diet and feeding habits of long extinct species is a challenge, but it can provide an insight into predator-prey relationships, ecosystem structure and animal behaviour in past environments.

Majungatholus atopus feeding. Artwork by Demetrios M. Vital

Majungatholus atopus feeding. Artwork by Demetrios M. Vital

Dave  is the founder of Ask A Biologist, he runs an excellent blog and he is one of the latest additions to the Guardian’s science blogging stable. He is also an active vertebrate palaeontologist involved in some really interesting research on dinosaurs, pterosaurs and birds. That means he isn’t just reporting on this topic – you’ll be hearing about the research, results and the fossils from the source.

Why not join him for an insight into the science used to explore the feeding habits of the mighty meat-eating dinosaurs – you may never see T. rex and Velociraptor in quite the same way again!

The talk will start around 7:45pm, but the venue (Upstairs at the Ritzy) will be open from 6pm for those who want food, a drink and a bit of geeky chat. Hope to see you there!

Oh yes, and it’s FREE!

March PubSci: 1000 Years of Cultural Amnesia

On Tuesday 6th March at 7:30pm Upstairs at the Brixton Ritzy we will be exploring science in the context of Arabic with Dr Anne-Maria Brennan.

Anne-Maria is a Principal Lecturer in Bioscience and Forensic Biology at London South Bank University. One of her many activities (besides music and co-writing the definitive entry textbook on Ecology) has been to organise, chair and present at conferences for the British Science Association on the Muslim contribution to science.

Islamic heritage in the sciences is a fascinating area that has sometimes been the subject of a form of cultural amnesia – why not join us to find out more about the causes, consequences and cures?

February PubSci: Darwin Day

On Tuesday 7th February we will be celebrating Darwin Day Upstairs at the Brixton Ritzy.

Paolo Viscardi will lead the celebrations with a talk on Darwin’s life, his evolutionary ideas and their lasting legacy. Then we can get down to the serious business of discussion about some of the issues raised over a beer.

Join us from 6pm if you want to get food, drink and conversation. The more formal bit won’t start until 7:30pm and the talk will probably kick off at 8pm. Oh, and as always, PubSci is free!

We hope you can make it!

PubSci SciPubQuiz

Science (Quiz) in the Pub

For December’s Science In The Pub there will be a science-themed pub quiz hosted by Kash Farooq and James Longstaff. The usual PubSci hosts Paolo and James get a night off – as they will be taking part in the quiz.

And, thanks to our good friends at the British Science Association, there will be some appropriately geeky/sciencey prizes that we will dish out as we see fit!

We suggest that you form teams of 3 or 4 people. Don’t worry if you don’t have have enough people – just turn up. We’re a friendly bunch and we’re sure we can get everyone into a team.

It might also be a good idea to “mix disciplines” when forming a team – each round will have questions from various areas of science. We’ve been busy thinking up questions for a few weeks now and have come up with a fairly wide variety.

To give you a clue of the sort of questions to expect, here are the categories we came up when we were thinking up questions:

  • Chemistry
  • Scientists
  • Geology
  • Astronomy/Space
  • Physics
  • Biology

See you on Tuesday 6th December from 7:30, upstairs at the Brixton Ritzy!

Moon

Next CineSci6 screening:

Moon – Sunday 13 November, 14:30

A lone worker on a lunar mining base begins to have very odd experiences just as he’s about to return home to Earth. For almost 3 years Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) has been mining Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3, for Lunar Industries. But when a routine extraction goes horribly wrong, it becomes increasingly clear that his contract isn’t the only thing that is about to expire.

Duncan Jones’ stunning debut harks back to classic psychological sci-fi films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dark Star, not just in terms of the way it looks, but also in the way it forces us to explore issues of loneliness, isolation and our place in the vast cosmic canvas.

After the screening there will be a Q&A with Lewis Dartnell, from the Centre for Planetary Sciences Earth Sciences at University College London, and author of Life in the Universe: A Beginner’s Guide. Lewis will discuss this modern cult classic film, as well as the wider opportunities and concerns of human space exploration and lunar science. So, come join us on Sunday afternoon for a scientific journey into space.

You won’t be alone.

 

Post written by Simon Frantz, posted by PaoloV

November PubSci – FIRE!

Fire Science

At 7:30pm on Tuesday 1st November 2011 (just a few days before Bonfire Night), we will be exploring the science of FIRE with Fire & Explosion scientist Claire Benson ‘Burner’.

FIRE

This is your chance to find out about how and why forensic scientists undertake fire investigation, with details about everything from charring to explosive combustion.

Here’s a taster:

All of this excitement is free and can be had over a pint of beer, or perhaps some flaming sambucas if you really want to get into the mood.

Usual venue upstairs at the Brixton Rizty – hope to see you there!

(N.B. This video contains some of the greatest dance moves ever seen)

Forbidden Planet

Next CineSci6 screening:

Forbidden Planet 16 October, 2:30pm

For the next in our series of CineSci6 films, we’re inviting you to fasten your seat belts, put your space helmets on, and hang on tight, because we’ll be taking a trip through outer space to visit the Forbidden Planet.

This classic 1950s sci-fi, loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, tells the tale of a spaceship landing on a remote planet, populated only by Dr Morbius, his daughter and their robot Robby. The lone survivors of an earlier expedition, the doctor and his daughter say they have pieced together the secrets of the planet’s vanished race. So who, or what, is the invisible monster that begins to attack the human inhabitants with a vengeance?

A cult classic with groundbreaking special effects for its time, and one of sci-fi’s most loved robot characters, what better way could there be of spending a grey, autumnal Sunday afternoon?

After the screening there will be a Q&A with Oliver Morton, Energy and Environment Editor at The Economist, and author of “Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet“, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and “Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World“. The topic of conversation will be what makes a classic sci-fi film/story, beginning with the “Forbidden Planet” before broadening out to other films.

So come along, and enjoy a sci-fi classic and lively discussion over a few drinks.  The screening begins at 2:30pm, see the Clapham PictureHouse site for more details.

Post written by Simon Frantz, posted by PaoloV

October PubSci: Ig Nobel Prizes

Ig Nobel Prizes

On 29th September 2011 a very exciting event will be taking place – the 21st Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

For those who aren’t aware of the Ig Nobel Prizes, they celebrate the best of research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

Past winners have carried out research on swearing as a response to pain, the microbiological laboratory hazard of bearded men and fellatio in fruitbats.

We don’t know who the winners for this year will be yet, but at 7:30pm Tuesday 4th October, Upstairs at the Ritzy in Brixton, be prepared to discuss and debate the finer points of the kind of science that brought us levitating frogs and homosexual necrophiliac mallards (which we have discussed before).

And of course, we will be running another live experiment. Hope to see you there!