CATCH A STEM LECTURE IN FEBRUARY - sign up online The second quantum revolution 19:00 - 20:30 THURS 4th FEB. Professor Sir Peter Knight FRS, Co-author of the UK Government Office of Science Blackett Report, will bring us up-to-date on the opportunities and challenges in translating our understanding of quantum physics into technological and industrial products and services. https://www.friendsofimperial.org.uk/Event/the-second-quantum-revolution Ripples from the Dark Side of the Universe 17:00 - 18:00 TUES 9th FEB. This talk will review progress in the field of gravitational wave detection from the first days of aluminium bar detectors to the present time where the laser interferometer detectors, Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo, have allowed gravitational waves to be detected, and are opening up a new field of gravitational multi-messenger astrophysics. https://isaacphysics.org/pages/cpc_lectures#february Blood, powder, and residue: how crime labs translate evidence in to proof 19:00 - 20:30 11th FEB. Drawing on eighteen months of rigorous fieldwork in a crime lab of a major metro area, Beth Bechky tells the stories of the forensic scientists who struggle to deliver unbiased science while under intense pressure. From DNA profiles to comparisons of bullets, fingerprints, and shoeprints, forensic science findings are widely used in police investigations and courtr ooms. In this talk, discover the people behind the detailed analysis and long journey that forensic evidence can take. https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2021/february/public-blood-powder-and-residue The Schrödinger Lecture 2021: CRISPR 17:15 – 18:15 WEDS 24th FEB Dr. Jennifer A. Doudna is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and a Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her ground breaking development of CRISPR-Cas9 as a genome- engineering technology, with collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, earned the two the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and forever changed the course of human and agricultural genomics research.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/events/129421/the-schrodinger-lecture-2021-crispr/ Vaccines, Warriors and Worriers 19:00 – 20:30 THURS 25th FEB In early 2020, when coronavirus engulfed the globe, we dared not hope that vaccines would be produced and approved by the end of the year. The fastest any vaccine had previously been developed was four years, for mumps in the 1960s. But many people are unsure about the safety of this, and other vaccines, despite overwhelming clinical evidence of the millions of lives they save.

https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2021/february/public-vaccines-warriors-and-worriers Fusion Energy Storage in Diamond 19:00 – 20:00 THURS 25th FEB How do you think of energy storage? What comes to mind? Calories? AA batteries? Oil? Uranium? The Sun? In this talk speaker Tom Wallace-Smith will introduce you to a new type of energy storage technology, that will hopefully reshape how you think about energy itself and how the energy economy of the future might look. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fusion-energy-storage-in-diamond-tickets-139057644157?aff=