© Pint of Science, 2024. All rights reserved.
What do you see in an apple? Ancient Greeks saw discord, Christians saw sin, Newton saw gravity and Steve Jobs saw computers.
We will review how the “scientific eye” can transform our lives by changing the way we use and think about materials. Shall we judge a book by its cover or should we rather examine things with a microscope? Can we always trust scientific arguments or should we be suspicious about the way in which they are being produced and used? Definitely, maybe and absolutely not... It’s a little bit complicated, but there is no doubt that our speakers will shed some light!
We will review how the “scientific eye” can transform our lives by changing the way we use and think about materials. Shall we judge a book by its cover or should we rather examine things with a microscope? Can we always trust scientific arguments or should we be suspicious about the way in which they are being produced and used? Definitely, maybe and absolutely not... It’s a little bit complicated, but there is no doubt that our speakers will shed some light!
What is in Flame?
Over the last century, fire has propelled our journeys on and beyond the Earth. Yet, we continue to have but a fledgeling grasp on, even, a candle's flame. And when turbulence joins for a ride: all hell breaks loose! Today, with supercomputing and laser diagnostics, we are equipped to address age-old questions about turbulence and fire. I will raise one such question to illustrate how differently we see fire today!
19th Century Health Foods and Their Modern Implications
Do we have to just swallow manufacturers’ claims about their health foods’ credentials? Or can a bite of history give ordinary eaters like you and me better ways to examine them? So how were our great-great-grandmothers convinced to feed their loved ones with unfamiliar products like Bovril fluid beef (to make you strong and resist the ‘flu), Plasmon protein powder (still devoured by Italian babies!) and Vi-Cocoa (an invigorating cocoa with kola or, in other words, a warm variant of Coca Cola more suited to Britain’s cold wet climate)? Come along and find out.
Watching the machinery of life at high resolution
Cells, the building blocks of life, are unbelievably sophisticated, and busy, in their effort to keep us alive and healthy. Recent advances in light microscopy permit us to watch the processes going on in living cells with a detail unthinkable only a few years ago. In this talk I will discuss such methods, permitting us to see things in cells that are much smaller than the wavelength of light itself. I shall show how we use such methods to gain a better understanding of diseases that cause brain cells to malfunction, for example in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
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Other The Maypole events
2024-05-13
Look Before You Flush
The Maypole
20A Portugal Place, Cambridge, CB5 8AF, United Kingdom
2024-05-14
Life Beyond Earth
The Maypole
20A Portugal Place, Cambridge, CB5 8AF, United Kingdom