Light (weight)

Dr Carolyn Atkins https://www.roe.ac.uk/roe/staff/index.html Why do we need telescopes in space? What are the challenges in collecting light from distant objects in space like planets, stars and galaxies? This talk answered these questions and explained how the STFC UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh is using 3D printing to solve some of the challenges of […]

Galaxies: past and present

Dr Emma Curtis-Lake https://emmacurtislake.com/ https://www.kicc.cam.ac.uk/directory/dr-emma-curtis-lake https://twitter.com/astronomeremma Dr Curtis-Lake explained how the James Webb Space Telescope will act as a time machine, allowing us to peer into the early Universe to learn how galaxies first formed and how they evolved. The first galaxies looked very different to the awe-inspiring shapes that populate the Universe today. We […]

The Maths of Beauty and Symmetry

Professor Sarah Hart Sarah B. Hart is a British mathematician specialising in group theory. She is a professor of mathematics at Birkbeck, University of London and the Head of Mathematics and Statistics at Birkbeck. In 2020, she was appointed to what may be the oldest chair in mathematics in Britain, the Gresham Professor of Geometry […]

The Science of Dr Who

Karl Byrne https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/byrne.karl https://twitter.com/kjcbyrne https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-byrne-10bb6336/ Dr Who is the longest running science fiction programme in the world, entertaining and terrifying children and adults alike for over 50 years! Mega fan Karl Byrne looked into the scientific possibilities behind travelling through time and space, regeneration and aliens with two hearts. https://youtu.be/fezY3VcDi3I

Einstein’s Blunder

Professor Roberto Trotta http://robertotrotta.com/ https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.trotta https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertotrotta/?originalSubdomain=uk https://twitter.com/r_trotta Roberto Trotta is Visiting Gresham Professor of Cosmology and Professor of Astrostatistics at Imperial College London, currently on leave of absence to the International School of Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, where he is part of the senior leadership team establishing a new Data Science Institute. His research […]

The impact of technology on sporting performance

Dr Steve Haake https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/steve-haake Stephen John Haake OBE is a British sports engineer. He is professor of sports engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, England and is founding director of the university’s advanced wellbeing research centre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Haake https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-haake-1547b212/?originalSubdomain=uk https://stevehaake.com/research/ https://twitter.com/stevehaake We think of sports technology as something new, but the ancient Greeks first used it to […]

Early Universe

Wednesday, 29 September 2021 Professor Katherine Blundell OBE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Blundell Katherine Mary Blundell OBE is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a supernumerary research fellow at St John’s College, Oxford. Previously, she held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, and fellowships from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and Balliol […]

Gravitational Waves, Dark Energy and Black Holes

What are stars? How do they evolve and die? Why do we need general relativity to describe their behaviour? What are black holes? What is the astronomical evidence for their existence? What are gravitational waves? Can wormholes in space-time exist? Is the film interstellar feasible? All these questions and more were answered in Professor Longair’s […]

Periodic Success

Dr Jamie Gallagher https://www.jamiebgall.co.uk/ https://twitter.com/JamieBGall?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-gallagher-8b82676b/?originalSubdomain=uk The periodic table has been an emblem of science for over 150 years. Behind this iconic classroom poster live tales of romance, murder, greed and wonder. Which element will make you reek of garlic? Why do we love gold? And what is the disgusting secret of antimony? Material scientist […]

Mars Missions 2021: Early Discoveries

Professor Andrew Coates Three new missions arrived at Mars in February 2021, to look at weather, water and life. This lecture looked at new results from the UAE’s Hope mission, China’s Tianwen-1 and NASA’s Perseverance. It also looked at the prospects for the ESA-Russia Rosalind Franklin rover to be launched next year arriving on 10 […]