Join the Exploration Welcome
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11 – 24 March 2013 Join the exploration www.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival Welcome Welcome to the Cambridge Science Highlights Festival, your opportunity to discover, question and take part in scientific Page 4 activity at the University of Cambridge and partner organisations. Explore Guest Director’s picks research that is leading the world at Check out Benedict Cumberbatch’s highlights hundreds of events discussing science in the Festival programme. and its place in our lives. Come to our family open days on 16, 17 and 23 March Page 22 and join in conversations throughout the The modern alchemist with entire Festival fortnight. Dr Peter Wothers Highlights this year include Professor John Gurdon, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, science comedian Robin Ince, author Simon Mayo and up-and-coming BBC science presenter Helen Czerski. We’re excited to welcome Benedict Cumberbatch as our Guest Director, who searched for clues in our programme and outlines his top picks over the page. What will yours be? We couldn’t run this Festival without the support of our researchers, volunteers Dr Wothers will be sharing some of the and sponsors. Hundreds of people from highlights from his Royal Institution Christmas the University of Cambridge, partner Lectures shown on the BBC. organisations and research institutes work Warning: Loud bangs and explosions! together to offer the Cambridge Science Festival and we hope you enjoy it. Pages 30 – 32 With so much on, there really is Science on Sunday something for everyone. Challenge your Building on the popularity of Science on mind, try something new and join us on a Saturday, a selection of favourites for all ages journey of discovery and excitement. will be on offer again, including hands on fun in the Biology Zone and Top Talks in the Babbage. Illustrations by Tim Parker: timparkerillustration.com 2 How to use this programme The programme pages are colour-coded to help you plan your visit to Cambridge Science Festival. Events are listed chronologically and we have a new Science on Saturday pull-out section with map in the centre pages to help you navigate your way around our big family fun day. Our events are held in a large number of buildings around Cambridge; accessibility information for all these venues can be found on page 43. 11 – 24 March Throughout the Festival pages 5 – 12, 33 – 37 16 March Science on Saturday pages 13 – 29 17 March Science on Sunday pages 30 – 32 23 March Science on Saturday 2 pages 38 – 44 Booking is required where mentioned and unless otherwise stated can be done at www.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival , or by calling 01223 766766 , or by emailing [email protected] . Booking opens at 10am on 4 February and lines are open Monday – Friday, 10am – 4.30pm. Booking closes 24 hours before the event takes place. We’re a very small team so please keep trying if you can’t get through first time or book via our website. Tips for attending the Festival • There is no need to book for events unless otherwise stated. • There may still be spaces available at events which are listed as ‘pre book’; you are welcome to turn up and enquire on the day, but we cannot guarantee entry. • Arrive on time for events; entry may be refused if the venue is full or if you are late. • All events are free-of-charge unless otherwise stated. • Children should be accompanied at all times and observe the minimum age guide in the event description; those under the minimum age may not be admitted owing to the nature and content of the event. Please call ahead to check. • Your attendance at any Festival event signifies your agreement to comply with the following guidelines for attendance: www.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival/guidance The Festival gets very busy with around 30,000 people attending over the two weeks, so we ask for your patience with staff and volunteers as queues can occur and resources are limited. The Festival is hosted in working departments and is run by staff and student volunteers. We are trying to give you the best experience possible, while keeping events free-of-charge and accessible to everyone. Please check: www.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival for the latest updates on events and follow us on: www.facebook.com/cambridgesciencefestival www.twitter.com/camscience #CSF2013 3 A note from our Guest Director, Benedict Cumberbatch I'm delighted to be the Guest Director of the We hope the programme entertains and 2013 Cambridge Science Festival. My link to inspires you to take a deeper look at our a science festival may seem a little tenuous extraordinary world and our existence in it at first glance. And yet as an actor who has and the universe. With Science on Saturday, researched playing Stephen Hawking, the whole family is encouraged to participate Joseph Hooker, Heisenburg and both in/with hands on scientific exhibits and Frankenstein and his creation I've long had a activities. You can try anything from passion for all fields of science. It really all dissecting owl pellets to extracting and began at school in the biology lab and taking home your DNA and finding out what keeping mice! But ever since then and partly makes you you! thanks to my ridiculously privileged existence as an actor, I have been able to Personally, as someone who has portrayed keep that amateur interest and investigation Sherlock Holmes, I'm of course particularly of science alive and build a very personal looking forward to Professor Jim relationship with some of my heroes from Woodhouse on 8 March talking about why that world like Professor Hawking. the violin is so hard to play, and also on 16 March testing my real-life deduction skills in I believe science and our engagement with the mock crime scene at the Central it has reached a crucial crossroads. Whether Science Library during Science on Saturday. it's fighting disease on a cellular scale, tackling climate change, solving food and I'm also a huge fan of last year’s Guest energy crises, exploring the outer regions of Director Robin Ince; his mixture of humour the universe or simply making it easier to and insight is as informative as it is shop online – science and technology play entertaining, so watch out for his 'The an increasingly integral part of our daily Importance of Being Interested' on Sunday lives. And yet to the layperson like me, the 17 March. Robin will bring science within intellectual and ethical complexities and the reach of all of us and dare us to become technical detail can often seem daunting engaged. This is surely the ambition of and distancing. Hence a festival of this range science at school as well as a way to and accessibility is a hugely important reignite adult interest. bridge between the public and science. While it has been an exciting time for Have a wonderful Festival and hopefully I'll science, with the work at CERN producing see you there! incredible results in the search for the Higgs- Boson particle, it's vital for us to look beyond Live long and think hard! the headlines. And as while there is much to marvel at, scientific discovery is a step-by- Benedict Cumberbatch step, day-by-day process that involves incredible hard work and devotion. Those aspects can be related to so many of our lives and other non-scientific pursuits. 4 l a v i Throughout the Festival t s 11 – 15 March e F The Science Festival starts here! e h t Welcome to the first week of events at the Science Festival, a time to t immerse yourself in talks, tours and discussions on a range of topics from u o infectious diseases and conservation, to how our polar regions enable us to h study space technologies close to home. g u o Events in these pages are listed r h chronologically by time and date T and show the type of activity, the appropriate age and whether you need to pre-book. Access information for all venues is provided at the end of this programme and there are maps in the centre pages to help you navigate your way around Cambridge. We have over 200 events on offer at the Science Festival this year, with something for everyone, whatever your age and interests. Highlights Page 7 Page 10 Page 12 Caught on camera: The future of energy Cell replacement in age engineering in action Join a panel of experts as and disease: what are A stunning selection of they explore the the prospects? entries from the possibilities for finding a Nobel Prize winner photography competition sustainable future. Professor John Gurdon at the Department of outlines his work and looks Engineering are on display towards the future for cell during the Festival at the replacement. Michaelhouse Café. 6.30pm – 9pm, 4, 11, 18 March 12.30pm – 1pm, 9 March Reproduction on film: Grafton Shopping Centre l making babies 8pm – 9pm, 16 March a Cambridge Arts Picturehouse , Gala Performance, Sir Humphrey Cripps v i 38-39 St Andrew’s Street, CB2 3AR Auditorium, Magdalene College, CB3 0AG t s The sometimes-winding road to parenthood can Inside an unquiet mind e be a source of great joy and much anguish. This Inside an Unquiet Mind (IAUM3) is a powerful F third series of ‘Reproduction on Film’ charts changes musical theatre project taking people and their e in cinematic representations of pregnancy, mental health experiences on tour in local h childbirth and babies from the community settings to explore perceptions and t challenge stigma.