Iris Festival of Ancient and Modern Science Tuesday 7Th February, 2017, 3 - 7Pm Cheney School

Iris Festival of Ancient and Modern Science Tuesday 7th February, 2017, 3 - 7pm Cheney School Speakers: Professor Robert Winston, Professor Anthony Grayling, Professor Helen King Stalls, Activities, Demonstrations, Performances and more - for all ages Welcome to the Iris Festival of Ancient and Modern Science This event is a celebration of science through the ages, from ancient Greece and Rome to modern times. A very wide range of organisations and speakers are running activities, stalls and talks which you will be able to find throughout the school. The stalls, performances and activities run from 3 until 5.45pm. The Brighouse Building is hosting activities and stalls themed on biology, and areas such as Astronomy, Archaeology and Technology can be found in the Lane Building. There are also performances in the Lane Building from Flux Dance Company and Comitatus, as well as a refreshments stall. In our Library, you can explore the ancient city of Pompeii, and find out all about volcanoes and visit the Hellenic Bookservice with their wide range of books and other classical merchandise. Don’t forget to get your brochure stamped in each region! The Classics Centre at Cheney is founded and run by educational charity The Iris Project. We are privileged to work in partnership with Cheney School. Many Cheney School students and staff are helping at the festival. We are also very grateful to volunteers from the University of Oxford, other HE institutions, businesses and other organisations who are taking part in the festival. All our classes, projects and events are offered free of charge to the local community and beyond. We are therefore grateful for donations and support for our work. If you would like to offer support, you are able to do so through our website at www. irisproject.org.uk or by contacting us at [email protected] Many thanks indeed and we hope you enjoy the Festival! Dr Lorna Robinson, Director of The Iris Project Mr David Gimson, UCAS and Higher Attainers Co-ordinator Our Speakers Professor Robert Winston: Opening words and Q&A 3 – 3.30pm, Assembly Hall Lord Winston is Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London. In the 1970s he developed gynaecological surgical techniques that improved fertility treatments. He later pioneered new treatments to improve in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and developed pre-implantation diagnosis. This allowed embryos to be screened for genetic diseases and has allowed parents carrying faulty genes to have children free of illnesses such as cystic fibrosis. Robert Winston has over 300 scientific publications about human reproduction and the early stages of pregnancy. Robert Winston is also Chairman of the Genesis Research Trust – a charity which raised over £13 million to establish the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology. Dr Kyle Grant: Growing Plants on Mars 3.45 – 4.15pm, Assembly Hall Have you ever wondered if you could really grow plants on Mars? You’ve seen the movie, now come see the science behind The Martian, with Kyle Grant. His project specialises in the design of bacteria and plants that can colonise and survive in Martian and Lunar settings. In collaboration with NASA, the project hopes to one day provide crop plants and engineered bacterial counterparts for the support of astronauts on space missions. Dr Ben Kane: Archimedes and Weaponry 4.30– 5pm, Assembly Hall Ben Kane is a veterinary surgeon turned novelist, specialising in historical fiction. He is best known for The Forgotten Legion, Spartacus and Hannibal book series. Eight of his ten novels have been Sunday Times bestsellers. In 2013, Kane and two friends walked the entire length of Hadrian’s Wall for charity while wearing full Roman military kit, including hobnailed boots. They raised nearly £19,000 for Combat Stress and Médecins Sans Frontières. In 2014, they walked again in Italy, raising over £26,500. A documentary film was made about their walk, entitled The Road to Rome. Ian McKellen provides the voiceover, and the film can be viewed on Youtube. In 2016, Kane cycled more than 1500 miles from Spain to Italy, following much of Hannibal’s trail, and in the process raising another £17,000 for charity. Professor Helen King: What’s wrong with me? Symptoms and labels in Hippocratic medicine 5.15 – 5.45pm, Assembly Hall Helen is Professor of Classical Studies, and moved to the OU from the University of Reading in 2011. Her first degree, at UCL, was in Ancient History and Social Anthropology; she then held research fellowships in Cambridge and Newcastle, taught in Liverpool for 8 years, and came to Reading on a Wellcome Trust University Award in 1996. From her PhD (on ancient Greek menstruation) onwards, she been interested in setting ancient medical thought within its social and cultural context, as one way - among others - of making sense of life. She has therefore looked at ancient ideas about creation, the role of women, and sacrifice to illuminate Hippocratic gynaecology Professor Allan Chapman Professor Allan Chapman will be splitting his time between the outside space (with a telescope) and the Brighouse building, where he will be speaking informally to visitors about his work. Having attended the local Cromwell Road Secondary Modern School for Boys, Sefton Road, Pendlebury (1957–1962), Professor Chapman gained his first degree from the University of Lancaster. Subsequently he undertook a history of science DPhil at Wadham College, Oxford. He is a historian by training and his special interests are astronomy and scientific biography. He has been based at Oxford University for most of his career, as a member of the Faculty of History, based at Wadham College. He is also a television presenter, notably Gods in the Sky, covering astronomical religion in early civilisations, and Great Scientists, presenting the lives of five of the greatest thinkers. Professor Anthony Grayling: The Science of the Pre-Socratic Philosophers 6 – 7pm, Assembly Hall Anthony is a British philosopher, and the author of about 30 books on philosophy, including The Refutation of Scepticism (1985), The Future of Moral Values (1997), The Meaning of Things (2001), The Good Book (2011), and The God Argument (2013). He is a Trustee of the London Library, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a director and contributor at Prospect Magazine, as well as a Vice President of the British Humanist Association. His main academic interests lie in epistemology, metaphysics and philosophical logic. Stalls and Activities We are the Mindfulness and Resilience Brighouse in Adolescence (MYRIAD) project. This Building Wellcome Trust Strategic Award will ask whether mindfulness training for teenagers can improve their mental health and resilience. We will offer you an opportunity to find out about our research and try out some activities that are part of Visited? the programme. We study how embryos and embryonic Brighouse hearts of different species, e.g, fish, Building chicks and mice, develop using high power microscopy. We will be bringing microscopes, live fish embryos and 3D printed models of developing hearts. We work closely with Micron who will be bringing a 3D printer and other displays. Visited? Cancer is not a new problem, and we’ve known about it for at least 2000 years. Brighouse But, what is cancer? The answer depends Building on when you try to answer it. The Greeks and Romans knew it as an imbalance of humours, the 19th and 20th century struggled with ideas of numbers and sizes of cells. The 21st century sees it as cells that share characteristics. Join us and Visited? explore three eras of thought. The Communicate Project is a Community Brighouse Interest Company exploring different Building forms of communication and expression through the use of languages, drama and the arts. At our stall you will be able to see the human body through Roman eyes, looking at modern ailments and ancient remedies, and learning some Latin on the Visited? way. Brighouse The Centre for Personalised Medicine brings Building people together to discuss new ideas and learn about cutting-edge science. Come along and extract the DNA (the material that every living thing shares) from strawberries Brighouse using common kitchen ingredients. Visited? Building Medical Marvels with Science Oxford Which treatments will you choose to use Visited? on our casualties; ancient remedies or Brighouse modern medicine? Will swallowing a spider Building cure their fever? Or munching woodlice ease a cough? Maybe blood will need to be let to improve their temper! Perhaps the more modern options of oxygen to help the Brighouse injured breathe, pressure to reduce bleeding Building or a sling to protect a fracture would be more fitting? Join the team from Science Oxford and students from the MSc course in International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, Visited? Oxford University to discover the wonders of Visited? medical science past and present, as well as trying out some first aid techniques yourself. Brighouse Tick tock goes your body clock! Brighouse Have you ever wondered why you feel sleepy Building in the morning and more awake at night? Building Come and pick the brains of our scientists to learn more about yours! Find out how your brain controls sleep and why researching genes in mice can tell us more about human disease. Make your own neurones, explore a Visited? 3D brain model and challenge each other at Visited? our vision goggles game. Brighouse Brighouse Building Come and handle 3D prints of the inside of Building cells and learn from our researchers about how plant and animal cells work. We’ll also be able to show you how to transform your own mobile phone into a portable microscope! Visited? Visited? Brighouse Oxford Sparks aims to share the University’s Building amazing science, support teachers to enrich their science lessons, and support researchers to get their stories out there.

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