̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Cambridge Science Festival

Unexpected experiences: Lucy Spokes talks about the excitement of a newly digital Festival

zs332 — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 07:00:56 +0000

Head of Public Engagement, Dr Lucinda Spokes, describes the difficult decision to pull the plug on the 26th Cambridge Science Festival in March this year and reflects on the breathtaking flexibility of the Festival going digital – at least for now.

Cambridge Science Festival returns for milestone 25th year

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 15:48:27 +0000

Celebrating its 25th year, the Festival runs for two weeks from 11-24 March and explores the theme of ‘discoveries’. An impressive line-up of acclaimed scientists includes microscopist Professor Dame Pratibha Gai, Astronomer Royal Professor Lord Martin Rees, 2018 Nobel prize winner Sir Gregory Winter, geneticist Dr Giles Yeo, statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter, engineer Dr Hugh Hunt, marine biologist and author Helen Scales, THIS Institute Director Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, futurist Mark Stevenson, and science presenter Steve Mould.

̽��ֱ��full programme is teeming with events ranging from debates, talks, exhibitions, workshops and interactive activities to films, comedy and performances, held in lecture theatres, museums, cafes and galleries around Cambridge. There are events for all ages and most are free.
With so many events on offer, audiences will be spoilt for choice. Some of the biggest events in week one include:

Is technology making us miserable? (11 March). Virtually every interaction we have is mediated through technology. Despite being ‘always-on’, are we any better off? Are we better connected? Or is technology making us miserable?
Putting radioactivity in perspective (12 March). Following a renewal of electricity generated by nuclear power, Professors Ian Farnan and Gerry Thomas, Imperial College London, discuss radioactivity in the natural world and the outcomes of decades of study on the health effects of radiation. Could these research outcomes reset attitudes towards radiation and the risks?
̽��ֱ��universe of black holes (13 March). Christopher Reynolds, Plumian Professor of Astronomy, describes how future research into black holes may yet again change our view of reality.
̽��ֱ��long-term perspective of climate change (14 March). Professors Ulf Büntgen, Mike Hulme, Christine Lane, Hans W Linderholm, Clive Oppenheimer, Baskar Vira, and Paul J Krusic discuss how we investigate past climate and the challenges we face in applying this to the policy-making process.
Catalytic activation of renewable resources to make polymers and fuels (15 March). Professor Charlotte Williams, ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford, discusses the development of catalysts able to transform carbon dioxide into methanol, a process which may deliver more sustainable liquid transport fuels in the future.
Does the mother ever reject the fetus? (15 March). Professor Ashley Moffett discusses fetal rejection and explores new discoveries that show that there are multiple mechanisms to ensure there is a peaceful environment in the uterus, where the placenta is allowed to grow and develop to support the fetus.

Top picks for the second week include:

Cambridge gravity lecture: Sir Gregory Winter (18 March). Sir Gregory is a molecular biologist and 2018 Nobel Laureate best known for his work on developing technologies to make therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. His research has led to antibody therapies for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Discoveries leading to new treatments for dementia (18 March). Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Associate Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, Giovanna Mallucci discusses how new research leading to insights into dementia and degenerative brain diseases may lead to new treatments.
Improving quality and safety in healthcare (19 March). THIS Institute Director Professor Mary Dixon-Woods looks at the challenges to improving quality and safety in healthcare and considers why it’s so hard to answer the question: Does quality improvement actually improve quality? With Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor in Chief of ̽��ֱ��BMJ.
Immunology: the future of medicine? (19 March) Professor Clare Bryant and a panel of Cambridge immunologists discuss how understanding disease triggers may enable entirely new approaches to treating and potentially preventing disease.
Polar ocean: the dead end of plastic debris (19 March). An estimated 80% of all the litter in our oceans is plastic, and a significant concentration of plastics debris is found in both polar oceans. ̽��ֱ��impact of this debris on the sensitive polar ecosystem could be profound. Pelagic marine ecologist Dr Clara Manno, British Antarctic Survey, explores the current research and existing situation in the polar regions.
Reluctant futurist (19 March). Old models for healthcare, education, food production, energy supply and government are creaking under the weight of modern challenges. Futurist Mark Stevenson looks at the next 30 years and asks, how can we re-invent ourselves for the future?
Adolescent mental health: resilience after childhood adversity (20 March). Adolescence is characterised by huge physiological changes as well as a rapid rise in mental health disorders. Around 45% of adolescent mental health problems are caused by childhood difficulties but fortunately not all who experience difficulties develop mental health disorders. Dr Anne-Laura van Harmelen discusses mechanisms that may help adolescents with a history of childhood difficulty to become more resilient.
Making algorithms trustworthy (21 March). Increasingly, algorithms are being used to make judgements about sensitive parts of our lives. How do we check how their conclusions were arrived at, and if they are valid and fair? Professor David Spiegelhalter looks at efforts to make algorithms transparent and trustworthy, using systems that make predictions for people with cancer as an example.
On the future: prospects for humanity (22 March). Professor Lord Martin Rees argues that humanity’s prospects on Earth and in space depend on our taking a different approach to planning for tomorrow.

This year’s Cambridge Science Festival also celebrates significant milestones in science, including the 200th anniversary of Cambridge Philosophical Society, Cambridge’s oldest scientific society, and 150 years since the publication of the modern Periodic Table.

Speaking ahead of the Festival, Dr Lucinda Spokes, Festival Manager, said: “We are tremendously proud of this year’s programme due to the variety of events and the calibre of our speakers from a range of institutions and industries.

“Alongside the meatier topics we have an array of events for all ages and interests across both weekends. We have everything from the science of perfumery and how your mood affects your taste, to a science version of 'Would I Lie to You?'

“One of my personal top picks are the open days at the various institutes and departments based at the West Cambridge site on Saturday 23 March. As always, the site is hosting some truly fascinating events, everything from the future of construction and how to make Alexa smarter, to how nanotechnology is opening up new routes in healthcare, and state-of-the-art approaches to low-cost solar energy and high-efficiency lighting solutions.

“A Festival of this magnitude would not be possible without the help from many people; we thank all our scientists, supporters, partners and sponsors, without whom the Festival would not happen. Most of all, we thank the audiences – there are more than 60,000 visits to the Festival events every year. We very much look forward to welcoming everyone from all ages to join us in March to explore the fabulous world of science.”

You can download the full programme here.

Bookings open on Monday 11 February at 11am.

This year’s Festival sponsors and partners are Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Illumina, TTP Group, Science AAAS, Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, Astex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge Science Centre, Cambridge Junction, IET, Hills Road 6th Form College, British Science Week, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Health Partners, Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology, and Walters Kundert Charitable Trust. Media Partners: BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Cambridge Independent.

̽��ֱ��2019 Cambridge Science Festival is set to host more than 350 events as it explores a range of issues that affect today’s world, from challenges around climate change policy, improving safety and quality in healthcare, and adolescent mental health, to looking at what the next 25 years holds for us and whether quantum computers can change the world.

We have everything from the science of perfumery and how your mood affects your taste, to a science version of 'Would I Lie to You?'

Dr Lucinda Spokes

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Revealed: face of ‘ordinary poor’ man from medieval Cambridge

fpjl2 — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:23:59 +0000

̽��ֱ��audience of an event at this year’s Cambridge Science Festival found themselves face-to-face with a fellow Cambridge resident – one who had spent the last 700 years buried beneath the venue in which they sat.

̽��ֱ��13th-century man, called Context 958 by researchers, was among some 400 burials for which complete skeletal remains were uncovered when one of the largest medieval hospital graveyards in Britain was discovered underneath the Old Divinity School of St John’s College, and excavated between 2010 and 2012.

̽��ֱ��bodies, which mostly date from a period spanning the 13th to 15th centuries, are burials from the Hospital of St John the Evangelist which stood opposite the graveyard until 1511, and from which the College takes its name. ̽��ֱ��hospital was an Augustinian charitable establishment in Cambridge dedicated to providing care to members of the public.

“Context 958 was probably an inmate of the Hospital of St John, a charitable institution which provided food and a place to live for a dozen or so indigent townspeople – some of whom were probably ill, some of whom were aged or poor and couldn't live alone,” said Professor John Robb, from the ̽��ֱ��’s Division of Archaeology.

In collaboration with Dr Chris Rynn from the ̽��ֱ�� of Dundee’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, Robb and Cambridge colleagues have reconstructed the man’s face and pieced together the rudiments of his life story by analysing his bones and teeth.

̽��ֱ��work is one of the first outputs from the Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘After the plague: health and history in medieval Cambridge’ for which Robb is principal investigator. ̽��ֱ��project is analysing the St John's burials not just statistically, but also biographically.

“Context 958 was over 40 when he died, and had quite a robust skeleton with a lot of wear and tear from a hard working life. We can't say what job specifically he did, but he was a working class person, perhaps with a specialised trade of some kind,” said Robb.

“One interesting feature is that he had a diet relatively rich in meat or fish, which may suggest that he was in a trade or job which gave him more access to these foods than a poor person might have normally had. He had fallen on hard times, perhaps through illness, limiting his ability to continue working or through not having a family network to take care of him in his poverty.”

There are hints beyond his interment in the hospital’s graveyard that Context 958’s life was one of adversity. His tooth enamel had stopped growing on two occasions during his youth, suggesting he had suffered bouts of sickness or famine early on. Archaeologists also found evidence of a blunt-force trauma on the back of his skull that had healed over prior to his death.

Click on images below to enlarge:

“He has a few unusual features, notably being buried face down which is a small irregularity for medieval burial. But, we are interested in him and in people like him more for ways in which they are not unusual, as they represent a sector of the medieval population which is quite hard to learn about: ordinary poor people,” said Robb.

“Most historical records are about well-off people and especially their financial and legal transactions – the less money and property you had, the less likely anybody was to ever write down anything about you. So skeletons like this are really our chance to learn about how the ordinary poor lived.”

̽��ֱ��focal point of the ‘After the Plague’ project will be the large sample of urban poor people from the graveyard of the Hospital of St John, which researchers will compare with other medieval collections to build up a picture of the lives, health and day-to-day activities of people living in Cambridge, and urban England as a whole, at this time.

“ ̽��ֱ��After the Plague project is also about humanising people in the past, getting beyond the scientific facts to see them as individuals with life stories and experiences,” said Robb.

“This helps us communicate our work to the public, but it also helps us imagine them ourselves as leading complex lives like we do today. That's why putting all the data together into biographies and giving them faces is so important.”

̽��ֱ��Old Divinity School of St John’s College was built in 1877-1879 and was recently refurbished, now housing a 180-seat lecture theatre used for College activities and public events, including last week’s Science Festival lecture given by Robb on the life of Context 958 and the research project.

̽��ֱ��School was formerly the burial ground of the Hospital, instituted around 1195 by the townspeople of Cambridge to care for the poor and sick in the community. Originally a small building on a patch of waste ground, the Hospital grew with Church support to be a noted place of hospitality and care for both ̽��ֱ�� scholars and local people.

New facial reconstruction of a man buried in a medieval hospital graveyard discovered underneath a Cambridge college sheds light on how ordinary poor people lived in 13th century England.

Skeletons like this are really our chance to learn about how the ordinary poor lived

John Robb

Chris Rynn, ̽��ֱ�� of Dundee

̽��ֱ��facial reconstruction of Context 958

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Cambridge Science Festival begins today

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 11:42:03 +0000

Hundreds of mostly free talks, exhibitions and hands-on events will take place around the city during the annual two-week festival, covering everything from astronomy to zoology. This year’s theme is ‘getting personal’ – looking at health and disease, our place in the world and our impact on the environment in which we live.

Free events taking place tonight (13 March) include talks on the search for life outside our solar system, which infectious diseases are going to kill you, and what brain scans can reveal about the inner workings of our minds.

In his talk Exoplanets: on the hunt of universal life, Professor Didier Queloz from the Cavendish Laboratory will show how early results from planets outside the solar system are paving the way for atmospheric studies of habitable exoplanets with a similar composition to Earth. After much speculation and philosophical debate, the existence of life outside our solar system is close to becoming a testable scientific hypothesis.

Dr Colin Russell from the Department of Veterinary Medicine will discuss what scientists are doing to predict the emergence of new diseases and combat existing threats in his talk How to feel safe: which infectious diseases are going to kill you. And Professors Barbara Sahakian, John Pickard and Molly Crockett and Dr Julia Gottwald will discuss some of the ethical issues raised by our increasing ability to ‘read’ thoughts through the use of functional MRI (fMRI) in their talk Sex, lies and brain scans: can scans reveal what goes on in our minds?

This Saturday and Sunday, dozens of events for families will be taking place around the city. Highlights include Dr Peter Wothers creating lots of loud bangs as he looks at the science of explosions; James Grime discussing Alan Turing and the Enigma Machine; Chemistry in the Kitchen; and David Bainbridge’s investigation of whether teenagers really are unproductive and worthless in his talk Zits, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Science Festival runs until 26 March, and is presented by the ̽��ֱ�� and its partner institutions, local charities and businesses. To browse the full programme or to pre-book events, visit the Cambridge Science Festival website, or call 01223 766766. Follow the Festival on Twitter or Facebook.

Do aliens exist? Can brain scans reveal our naughtiest thoughts? And what’s the point of teenagers, anyhow? These are just some of the questions which will be tackled at the Cambridge Science Festival, which kicks off today.

Saskia Suijkerbuijk, Piddini Lab, ̽��ֱ��Gurdon Institute, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Tree of life

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Artificial intelligence and rise of the machines: Cambridge Science Festival 2016

rw485 — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:59:40 +0000

Full programme now online | Bookings open Monday 8 February

Will artificial intelligence be superior to or as creative as the human brain? Are we letting machines take over and give rise to mass unemployment or worse? Should we be worried about quantum computing and the impact it will have on the way we work, communicate and live in the future? Or should we harness rather than hate the digital deluge?

As we teeter on the brink of total machine dependency and epoch-making technological developments that cross all areas of our lives, Cambridge Science Festival asks these and many other critical questions.

̽��ֱ��annual Festival presents an impressive line-up of who’s who from the science world and beyond, including Professors Sir John Gurdon (Nobel Laureate), Sir David Spiegelhalter, Richard Gilbertson, Raymond Leflamme, Didier Queloz, Meg Urry, and Tony Purnell, Head of Technical Development for British Cycling. Other speakers include Dr Ewan Birney, Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute; Angus Thirlwell, CEO and Co-founder of Hotel Chocolat; Dr Hermann Hauser, eminent technology entrepreneur; comedian Robin Ince; Charles Simonyi, high-tech pioneer and space traveller; and writer Simon Guerrier (Dr Who).

At the core of this year’s Festival is a series of events that explores the increasing symbiosis between humans and technology, and the questions this raises for humanity in the coming century. On the first day, a panel of outstanding speakers debate the implications of artificial intelligence. ̽��ֱ��panel consists of experts from the fields of information technology, robotics and neuroscience, including Dr Hermann Hauser, Dr Mateja Jamnik, Professor Trevor Robbins and Professor Alan Winfield. This event will be moderated by Tom Feilden, Science Correspondent for the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4.

Organiser of the event, Professor Barbara Sahakian, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Artificial intelligence could be of great benefit to society, producing innovative discoveries and providing humans with more leisure time. However, workers are concerned that, more and more, jobs are being taken over by artificial intelligence. We can see this in the context of the current trend for robots to work in car factories and driverless trains, and also in the future movement towards driverless cars.

“Some people feel this is an inevitable progression into the future due to advances in artificial intelligence, information technology and machine learning. However, others including many neuroscientists are not convinced that computers will ever be able to demonstrate creativity nor fully understand social and emotional interactions.”

̽��ֱ��view that machines are taking over every aspect of our lives and whether this is a positive or negative factor of modern living is further examined in the event, ‘ ̽��ֱ��rise of the humans: at the intersection of society and technology’. Dave Coplin, author and Chief Envisioning Officer for Microsoft UK, discusses the future of the UK’s IT and digital industries and addresses the convergence of society and technology, focussing on the developments that are creating so many new opportunities.

Coplin, who also has a new book coming out shortly, believes our current relationship with technology is holding us back from using it properly and we should think differently about the potential future uses for technology.

He said: “We should harness, rather than hate, the digital deluge. Individuals and organisations need to rise up and take back control of the potential that technology offers our society. We need to understand and aspire to greater outcomes from our use of technology”.

Building further on these issues in the second week of the Festival, Zoubin Ghahramani, Professor of Information Engineering at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Cambridge Liaison Director of the Alan Turing Institute, explores intelligence and learning in brains and machines. He asks, what is intelligence? What is learning? Can we build computers and robots that learn? How much information does the brain store? How does mathematics help us answer these questions?

Professor Ghahramani highlights some current areas of research at the frontiers of machine learning, including a project to develop an Automatic Statistician, and speculates on some of the future applications of computers that learn.

For many, quantum computing is the answer to machine learning. Influential pioneer in quantum information theory and the co-founder and current director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the ̽��ֱ�� of Waterloo, Professor Raymond Laflamme presents the annual Andrew Chamblin Memorial Lecture: ‘harnessing the quantum world’. During his lecture, Professor Laflamme will share the latest breakthroughs and biggest challenges in the quest to build technologies based on quantum properties that will change the ways we work, communicate and live.

A former PhD student of Professor Stephen Hawking, Professor Laflamme is interested in harnessing the laws of quantum mechanics to develop new technologies that will have extensive societal impact. He believes that the development of quantum computers will allow us to really understand the quantum world and explore it more deeply.

He said: “This exploration will allow us to navigate in the quantum world, to understand chemistry and physics at the fundamental level and bring us new technologies with applications in health, such as the development of drugs, and to develop new materials with a variety of applications.

“In the next half decade, we will produce quantum processors with more than 100 quantum bits (qubits). As we pass the count of about 30 qubits (approximately one gigabyte), classical computers can no longer compete and we fully enter the quantum world. That will be very exciting, from then on we do not have the support of classical computers to tell us if the quantum devices behave as expected so we will need to find new ways to learn the reliability of these devices. Once we have 30-50 qubits (approximately one million gigabytes), I believe that we will get an equivalent of Moore's law, but for the increased number of qubits.”

New technologies also have a major impact on healthcare, which comes under the spotlight during the final weekend of the Festival as it returns for the third year running to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. During the event ‘How big data analysis is changing how we understand the living world’, Dr Ewan Birney, Fellow of the Royal Society and Director of the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute, explores the opportunities and challenges of genomics and big data in healthcare, from molecular data to high-resolution imaging.

These kinds of technological revolutions mean biological data is being collected faster than ever. Dr Shamith Samarajiwa, from the Medical Research Council Cancer Unit, explains how analysing biomedical big data can help us understand different cancers and identify new targets for treatments in ‘Battling cancer with data science’. Meanwhile, Dr Peter Maccallum from Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, discusses the challenges of storing and processing the terabytes of data produced every week, more than was previously generated in a decade in the event ‘Big data from small sources: computing demands in molecular and cell biology’.

Speaking ahead of this year’s Science Festival, Coordinator, Dr Lucinda Spokes said, “Using the theme of big data and knowledge, we are addressing important questions about the kinds of technology that affects, or will affect, not only every aspect of science, from astronomy to zoology, but every area of our lives; health, work, relationships and even what we think we know.

“Through a vast range of debates, talks, demonstrations and performances, some of the most crucial issues of our time and uncertainties about our future as a species will be explored during these packed two weeks.”

̽��ֱ��full programme also includes events on neuroscience, healthcare, sports science, psychology, zoology and an adults-only hands-on session amongst many others.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cambridgesciencefestival

Twitter: @camscience #csf2016

̽��ֱ��annual two-week Festival, which runs from 7 – 20 March and stages more than 300 events, examines the growing interaction between humans and technology.

John Krzesinski

Circuit city

Cambridge Science Festival

Since its launch in 1994, the Cambridge Science Festival has inspired thousands of young researchers and visitor numbers continues to rise; last year, the Festival attracted well over 45,000 visitors. ̽��ֱ��Festival, one of the largest and most respected, brings science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine to an audience of all ages through demonstrations, talks, performances and debates. It draws together a diverse range of independent organisations in addition to many ̽��ֱ�� departments, centres and museums.

This year’s Festival sponsors and partners are Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Illumina, TTP Group, Science AAAS, BlueBridge Education, Siemens, ARM, Microsoft Research, Redgate, Linguamatics, FameLab, Babraham Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Napp, ̽��ֱ��Institute of Engineering and Technology, St Mary’s School, Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, Cambridge Junction, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, James Dyson Foundation, Naked Scientists, Hills Road Sixth Form College, UTC Cambridge, British Science Week, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge Science Centre, Cambridge Live, and BBC Cambridgeshire.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Wow - it's the Cambridge Science Festival

pbh25 — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:10:34 +0000

In recognition of International Women’s Day and Cambridge’s WOW - Women of the World Festival - which takes place on the eve of this year’s two-week science extravaganza, Cambridge Science Festival turns the spotlight onto women.

Celebrating past and present achievements of women, there will be a host of thought-provoking and inspiring talks and debates throughout the Festivals.

As part of WOW, a joint discussion between panels in Cambridge and at Southbank Centre, London, ̽��ֱ��Education Emergency, will examine the difference education makes to women and girls worldwide.

Mariam Khalique, the former teacher of Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who will take part in the discussion on 8 March, said: "Women have been a victim of injustice and discrimination for centuries in many parts of the world and they are being marginalised in the name of religion.

"In many cases, women are coerced in the name of culture and tradition. ̽��ֱ��only weapon women can fight with to have their freedom and dignity is education.

"My life experience tells me that a girl with a book is much stronger than one without.”

Another WOW event, Wonderwomen: Discoverers and Pioneers will investigate what difference women have made to the world.

Challenging why female scientists have been denied their place in history are Professor Monica Grady of the Rosetta project, Deborah Jaffé, author of Ingenious Women, Aurelia Hibbert from Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Eco-Racing team and Dr Jenny Tillotson, Reader in Sensory Fashion at Central St Martin’s.

This event will be hosted by Professor Tim Bussey from Science Grrl’s ‘She blinded me with science’ campaign.

One of the most topical events during the Science Festival will take place on Saturday 21 March.

During the public debate, 'Gender and conservation: does it matter?', a panel will tackle the issue of underrepresentation of women in environmental-science faculty positions and in conservation practice, particularly in positions of conservation leadership.

This debate explores the ways in which biodiversity conservation could be improved if there was more gender equality amongst its leaders and explores how this might be achieved.

Dr Rosie Trevelyan, a British biologist and director of the Cambridge office of the Tropical Biology Association, who will be speaking at this event said: “Why do more men than women reach senior leadership positions? There are fewer senior women than men in conservation science – a pattern that mirrors business and politics.

“I am interested in debating how we create more gender-balanced leadership. Where does change need to take place and when? How can more female voices be effectively heard? What would our world be like if we had equal numbers of women leaders in conservation science? Will it happen? And if so, when?”

Also on the panel will be Pamela Abbott from Nature England, who commented: “Women are under-represented in the leadership of many conservation organisations and academic institutions. It is vitally important for the future success of conservation that we nurture and benefit from the talents of everyone who aspires to move the conservation agenda forward. Understanding, challenging and removing barriers to career progression for women will bring about diversity in conservation leadership that reflects society as a whole.”

On Monday 9 March, Rachel McKendry, Professor of Biomedical Nanotechnology at ̽��ֱ�� College London, will be giving the Annual WiSETI lecture: ̽��ֱ��Mobile Revolution: From M-Health to M-Powering Women.

Professor McKendry will be speaking about her life and work. Her research lies at the cutting edge of infectious diseases, nanotechnology, telecommunications and Big Data.

One of the aims of this lecture is to highlight the issues that particularly affect women in science, technology, engineering, medicine and maths (STEMM) and contribute to low retention rates in these subjects.

Also on Monday 9 March, Christine Bartram of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge herbarium will explore the role of women in 19th Century botany using historic sources from the herbarium and rare books from the Cory Library, during her talk Women in botany at the Botanic Garden.

Women working for the British Antarctic Survey will talk about their experiences on the ice at the Polar Museum on Tuesday 10 March.

̽��ֱ��panel discussion will end with a late-night opening of the Museum, during which visitors will be able to meet the women from the British Antarctic Survey who work at the Poles.

WOW Cambridge and the Cambridge Science Festival turn spotlight onto women, education and science.

̽��ֱ��only weapon women can fight with to have their freedom and dignity is education. My life experience tells me that a girl with a book is much stronger than one without.

Mariam Khalique

More information

For further information concerning the Science Festival, please visit: www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk. For further information concerning the WOW Cambridge Festival, please visit: www.wowcambridge.cam.ac.uk.

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Yes

Dementia: what’s needed now?

rw485 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:48:07 +0000

Mind over matter showcases 12 of Britain’s oldest brain donors who agreed to be photographed and interviewed. Presented by artist Ania Dabrowska and Professor Bronwyn Parry, King’s College London, the event also includes a panel discussion chaired by Carol Brayne, Professor of Public Health Medicine in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Speaking about her involvement in this event, artist Ania Dabrowska said: “ ̽��ֱ��Mind over matter project came out of my longstanding artistic interest in questions of memory, Professor Bronwyn Parry's research on brain banks and body organ donation, and our mutual desire to create work that not only demystifies what happens behind the doors of brain banks to the audiences but also celebrates the role that brain donors play in the search for the cure for dementia.

“ ̽��ֱ��project, funded by Wellcome Trust People Award, proved to be ground-breaking because of the ethical issues it raises about creating art work about people who might be affected by dementia, access to brain banks and unveiling of brain donors' identity, something that was apparently unprecedented. It offered me as an artist rare access to private lives and archives of the donors we worked with as well as an opportunity to learn about the incredible research that goes on in brain banks around the world.

“I believe that the relationship between art and science can be beneficial for both disciplines and for the public, but it is a challenging one as they are routed in disparate traditions, come with sets of conflicting expectations and are governed by different rules of conduct.

“Thanks to the trust between Professor Parry, the donors, their families and myself, our collaborators at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospital’s Brain Bank and Wellcome Trust support, we succeeded in overcoming these challenges, producing a book and a multi-sensory exhibition that gave due space to both of these worlds in an emotionally charged, curatorially experimental, intellectually challenging and scientifically accurate outputs. All of this was only possible because of the willingness of all parties to cross the boundaries of their usual practice and our shared belief in the importance of bringing the subject of dementia to the forefront of public awareness.”

A further event covering the subject of dementia will be held on Sunday 23 March. Dementia: what's needed now? will investigate the state of research into dementia and the commitment of G8 countries to trying to find a cure by 2025. This will be discussed by leading dementia researcher, Professor Carol Brayne with the agency responsible for dementia policy in the UK, Public Health England.

Professor Brayne said: “Dementia continues to hit the press almost if not every day. It is one of the major topics of our time and has attracted policy makers’ attention round the world. ̽��ֱ��announcement of a Dementia Envoy for the recent G8 is a completely new development to assist the international efforts to meet the aspirations set up at this highly successful international forum in December last year. These two events, focused on this topic, cover very different angles of science. ̽��ֱ��first is an arts and science collaboration to celebrate brain donation, which was built upon long standing studies in Cambridge and participants and their families. ̽��ֱ��second will be a reflection on the G8, its outcomes and the way in which our institutional structures are responding to policy developments and how science informs this process.”

̽��ֱ��event, Become a Dementia Friend, which is also on Sunday 23 March, will highlight the need for a helping hand for those suffering with dementia to go about their daily lives and feel included in their local community. Dementia Friends gives people an idea of the small things they can do to make a difference to people living with dementia.

Lucy Lloyd from the Institute of Public Health, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “670,000 people across England are living with dementia. Many people (one in four) with dementia say that shopping and going out can be very stressful and many have given up since being diagnosed. Drop in to one of our Become a Dementia Friend information sessions to learn how to offer a helping hand. By becoming a Dementia Friend you will be able to support people in your community, help shift misconceptions, and help make your local area a more dementia aware community.”

For more information about the Cambridge Science Festival or to book tickets for any of these events, please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/science-festival

Further news stories about the Cambridge Science Festival can be viewed here: www.cam.ac.uk/science-festival/news

You can also follow us on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cambridgesciencefestival Twitter: https://twitter.com/camscience

To download the Festival app, please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/csf/app

A remarkable new project that looks at brain donor’s involvement in brain research and the search for cures for dementia will be presented at this year’s Cambridge Science Festival on Friday 21 March.

All of this was only possible because of the willingness of all parties to cross the boundaries of their usual practice and our shared belief in the importance of bringing the subject of dementia to the forefront of public awareness.

Ania Dabrowska, artist

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Behind the scenes of cancer research

rw485 — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 11:09:12 +0000

Professor Venkitaraman’s Unit will be opening its doors on Sunday 23 March for the event Behind the scenes of cancer research. Visitors will be able to join scientists from the MRC Cancer Unit and the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre to find out more about how they are trying to improve the detection and treatment of cancer. They will also be able to take a look at DNA mutations and unusual chromosomes, and have a go at some of the experiments the researchers do in the lab every day.

Professor Venkitaraman said: “Research at the MRC Cancer Unit focuses on understanding the earliest stages in the development of cancer, and using this new knowledge to find better ways of detecting and treating the disease before it advances. My colleagues and I believe that research on early cancer progression, detection and treatment has tremendous potential to improve the survival rates of cancer patients.

“ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Science Festival is an excellent opportunity for us to speak to the public about our science, and our hopes for the future of cancer detection, treatment and prevention. We also hope our event will give visitors a small insight into what goes on in some of our labs, and perhaps even inspire the next generation of cancer researchers.”

Speaking about some of the latest research, Dr Ireena Dutta, Scientific Communications Manager at the MRC Cancer Unit said: “One area in which we're making significant strides is the screening and monitoring of patients at risk of developing oesophageal cancer (cancer in the gullet). Research undertaken by Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald has developed a new device called the Cytosponge, which can be used to collect cell samples from patients, and is much less invasive (and cheaper) than traditional monitoring methods such as endoscopies. This makes it suitable for use in a screening programme, and it is currently being assessed in a large-scale clinical trial. Visitors can find out more about this and other research we are currently doing on the day.”

On the same day, there will be another similar event, Be a cancer research scientist for a day, which is being run by the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute. They are inviting visitors to don a lab coat and be a scientist for a day. Visitors will be able to enter their mini science lab, run a DNA gel, stain tissue sections and look at them down a microscope, and try out virtual reality radiotherapy with CRUK’s clinical cancer colleagues.

Drug development is a major part of cancer research and visitors to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus will be able to discover more about this aspect of medical research with two further events also being held on Sunday 23 March.

During the first event, Making medicines from A to Z, visitors will be able to learn how AstraZeneca scientists discover and develop new medicines. In this interactive experience, they will be able to explore how chemistry and 3D modelling are used in the design and build of new drugs and then explore how these drugs, alone or in combination, are tested in humans to treat diseases such as cancer. This event will also take place on Sunday 16 March at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

̽��ֱ��second event is Developing new drugs: have a go at pharmacokinetic sampling! ̽��ֱ��National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Investigation Ward is involved in many research studies working towards the development of new treatments for cancer. During the development of new drugs detailed studies are undertaken to establish how quickly the body absorbs the drug and how long it stays in the body. Visitors will able to find out more about this aspect of medical research and have a go at ‘pharmacokinetic’ sampling.

Other talks, debates and demonstrations relating to cancer research include:

Saturday 15 March, as part of ThinkCon 2014, Kat Arney will be talking about the Evolution of Cancer.
Tuesday 18 March, Transmissible cancers in dogs and Tasmanian devils. Andrea Strakova will reveal unexpected findings about two unique cancers that have adapted to transfer by the means of living cancer cells between their hosts – Tasmanian devils and domestic dogs. We will explore how a cancer can become transmissible, despite the fact that it is usually considered to be a malignant transformation of cells of your own body.

For more information about the Cambridge Science Festival or to book tickets for any of these events, please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/science-festival

Further news stories about the Cambridge Science Festival can be viewed here: www.cam.ac.uk/science-festival/news

You can also follow us on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cambridgesciencefestival Twitter: https://twitter.com/camscience

To download the Festival app, please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/csf/app

Ends

About Cambridge Science Festival

Now in its 20^th year, the Cambridge Science Festival gives the public the opportunity to explore Cambridge science. Thanks to the support of the ̽��ֱ��, our sponsors and partners, most of the events are free.

̽��ֱ��Science Festival aims to provide the public with opportunities to explore and discuss issues of scientific interest and concern and to raise aspirations and career awareness in the areas of science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

Patrons of the Science Festival are: Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor John Barrow, Dr Claire Cockcroft, Dr Henry Gee, Lord Rees of Ludlow, Professor Malcolm Longair, Mr Tim Radford, Professor Barbara Sahakian, Professor Jeremy Sanders, Dr Andrew Sugden, Ms Carol Vorderman, Professor Jim Secord, Mr Ian Harvey, Professor Andrea Brand, Professor Ron Laskey, Professor Bill Sutherland, Professor John Naughton, Professor Alan Barrell.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Science Festival is sponsored by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, the Medical Research Council, Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Royal Society of Chemistry, AAAS Science International Inc., TTP Group plc., BlueBridgeEducation, Linguamatics, Abcam plc., RAND Europe, Society of Biology, ̽��ֱ��Babraham Institute, British Association for Psychopharmacology , the Pye Foundation, Walters Kundert Charitable Trust, and Cambridge City Council. Other Festival partners are Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals, the Cambridge Science Centre, Hills Road Sixth Form College and National Science and Engineering Week. ̽��ֱ��Festival's media partner is BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Cancer will affect one in three of us at some point in our lives, so research into this disease is vital. Most cancer patients will see their doctor when the disease is already advanced and harder to treat, according to Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer Unit in Cambridge.

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