5–10 June 2018 Box Office 01242 850270 cheltenhamfestivals.com #cheltscifest THANK YOU to our Partners and Supporters WELCOME A very warm welcome to #cheltscifest 2018. The brilliance In Association with This year we’ve got even more questions to of the Cheltenham ask and big ideas to explore. In a world that Science Festival is more connected than ever before, our is the breadth of Connected:Divided theme looks at what brings what’s on offer, us together and what pushes us apart. but how do you We’ve invited four fabulous guest curators to choose from so help us pull together a packed programme of much? My tip is to book your Principal Partners events for all ages – turn to pages 7-8 to find out faves but try at least one thing what Maddie Moate, Olly Mann, Jessica Barker that’s completely new to you. and FC have in store for you. Who knows – you might be connecting to something that Our MakerShack is back by popular demand really speaks to you. Enjoy! and we have a brand new Cyber Zone exploring the digital world. With more free activities than Vivienne Parry ever before, there’s plenty to fill a day. Chair of Cheltenham Science Festival Major Partners Current Affairs How Science Got Women And Men Wrong page 18 How Do We Solve The Plastic Problem? page 21 Should We All Become Vegan? page 22 Can Democracy Survive Social Media? page 30 The Science Of Donald Trump page 31 Details on pages How Do We Stop Social Media Trolls? page 40 36–37 and 42–43. Best For First-Timers Cutting Edge Strategic Partner Hunted: How Not To Get Caught page 17 Deep Brain Surgery page 27 Garden Wildlife Question Time page 22 Mapping The Human Journey page 29 The Truth About Exercise page 30 How To Find Dark Matter page 33 What Is Attraction? page 35 Checkmate: How AI Conquered Games And Why It Jury Live: DNA In The Dock page 36 Matters page 33 What Does The Internet Know About You? Building A Virtual Human page 34 page 42 Beyond Light: The Future Of Astronomy page 40 Big Thinkers Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: Secrets Of The Teenage Brain page 19 Festival Partners Frank Close: A Life Scientific page 29 Adam Rutherford: The Dark Side Of Genetics page 34 Demis Hassabis: The Future Of AI And Science page 35 Sheila Rowan: Gravitational Waves page 35 www.joincyberdiscovery.com Art & Music Evening Entertainment Cellular Dynamics page 19 The Science Of Marvel page 26 Frankenstein page 35 FameLab International Final page 27 Can Science Explain Art? page 36 An Impractical Guide To Leaving The Planet page 31 Computer Generated Music page 39 Science Festival Variety Night page 36 What Makes A Masterpiece? page 40 Robin Ince: Chaos Of Delight page 42 View the full programme and filter for your favourite topics and themes at cheltenhamfestivals.com/science/programme 2 3 FESTIVAL VILLAGE KEY Free interactive zones Free activities Ticketed event venues Imperial Square, Cheltenham, GL50 1QA Site opens 5 June free entry Free interactive zones All Ages Free activities EDF Energy Zone Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Discover Stargazing In Conversation Parabola Arts Centre GL50 3AA Zone Toilets 8–10 June, 10am–5pm The Gardens Corner Careers evening, 8 June, 5–7pm 5 minute walk Toilets 7 & 8 June, 9.45–11pm Have our speakers got your brain whirring? Late opening for adults, 8 June, 8–10pm Town Hall Meet at the Holst Statue Share ideas, be inspired and join other Regency Café audience members for an informal chat at See page 12 for details. Join members of the Cotswold Conversation Corner in the Festival Café. Pillar Room Astronomical Society for a Places limited, unreserved seating. Toilet supervised evening of stargazing using members’ telescopes. Imperial Science Trail GE Pavilion Garden Bar Daily All ages 5, 7 & 10 June, 10am–6pm Waterstones Conversation Collect your quiz sheet from the Science 6, 8 & 9 June, 10am–8pm Book Shop Corner Hartpury GE Pavilion Trail starting point and follow the Trail Festival Café Science Hub around Imperial Square. Careers evening, 8 June, 5–7pm Science EDF The Arena See page 13 for details. Trail Start Energy Supported by Zone ExperiTent Box Office The Cube The Sphere Holst Statue Cyber Trail Women in Woodland STEM Daily Ages 10+ Discover Zone Trust The Crucible Daily 10am–5pm Become a code-breaker as you follow the Helix Cyber Trail around Imperial Square. Begin Late opening for adults, 8 June, 8–10pm Theatre your quest in the Cyber Zone and gather See page 11 for details. clues to unlock this cryptic challenge. Supported by Cyber Zone MakerShack Women in STEM Toilets Photo Installation Daily All ages MakerShack Find out more about amazing women in Daily 10am–5pm science, technology, engineering and maths in our photo installation, new for Late opening for adults, 8 June, 8–10pm 2018. Visit our photo booth in the Cyber See page 10 for details. Zone to add your own photo to the display. Women in Cyber Zone Innovation Daily 10am–5pm Careers evening, 8 June, 5–7pm Photography Late opening for adults, Exhibition 8 June, 8–10pm RAF Falcons Town Hall See page 9 for details. NEW Display Representing UK’s most promising female Supported by Look to the sky and you may be surprised entrepreneurs, recognising their differences by an exciting sky diving display by the and the diverse ideas they bring forward. RAF Falcons on Tuesday and Wednesday. Portraits provided by Innovate UK. Large Animal Weather dependent. Dissection Hartpury Woodland Trust 10 June, 10am–4pm Daily All ages The Sphere Careers Science Hub Hartpury Science Hub Evening Learn more about how woods and trees Daily 10am–5pm 5–10 June, 10am–5pm Following the success of last year’s horse benefit the environment around us with 8 June, 5–7pm investigation, Hartpury Scientists will Create your own unique art inspired by Careers evening, 8 June, 5–7pm Food & Drink some hands-on activities and fun from the see page 30 be performing a detailed dissection of a people behind Nature Detectives! your heartbeat, get hands-on with Lego NEW Drop in to take part in exciting wallaby. Stop to refuel between Festival events at genome editing, make a microbe, get experiments, explore pioneering our Festival Café, Imperial Garden Bar or a glimpse of what living in a “Quantum research and find out more about sport Regency Café – vegetarian and gluten free City” might be like, create your own vegan and exercise, equine performance, options available! smoothie and more… animal welfare and agriculture. 4 5 2018 THEME GUEST CURATORS Connected:Divided Olly Mann Maddie Moate Current Affairs Programme Curator Family Programme Curator One of the unique things about us humans is the way that we communicate and connect with each other. These connections can be strengthened through our similarities, tying us together and uniting us. But they can also reveal our differences: if our lines of communication break down, we can become divided, separated and isolated from each other. Thanks to technology, we live in a world that is more connected than ever before, yet division and conflict are rarely out of the headlines. At this year’s Festival, we dive into psychology, biology, technology, engineering, anthropology, health, current affairs and so much more to ask what it is that connects and divides us as a species, both locally and around the world. Presenter, columnist and media Maddie Moate is a BAFTA-award commentator Olly Mann is host of winning television presenter and Radio 4’s Fourthought and The Male a prominent ‘Edu-tuber’, amassing Room. His podcasts, including The over 20 million views on her Modern Mann, The Media Podcast, YouTube videos across multiple The Week Unwrapped and the Sony science and technology channels. award-winning series Answer Me Her popular CBeebies series Do This! have achieved over 40 million You Know explores how everyday downloads. objects are made and work. As well as exploring the latest I’ve been working with the Events to look out for: news and current affairs, I’ll be asking Cheltenham programming team The Evolution Of about the unintended consequences to help develop new and exciting Communication page 17 of our dependence on technology events for the Festival’s youngest The Value Of Human and trying to get to the truth behind fans. I’ll be sharing my passion for Contact page 17 the subject. It’s incredibly revealing beekeeping and space travel as well Connected Yet Divided when a broad range of experts who as exploring how our bodies work. page 18 are completely immersed in their And it’s always a fantastic time to The Rise Of Extremism individual topics can be challenged meet other science page 22 by the audience and each other. communicators and Boredom: The Upside of Cheltenham Science Festival provides watch and learn from Downtime page 23 the perfect opportunity for this. my peers in action. Is Cyber War The New Cold War? page 25 The Future of Human Communication page 30 Events to look out for: Come and see Maddie in these events: Connections: Belief And Is Your Tech Bad For You? page 22 Maddie’s Mission To Mars page 36 Community page 33 Podcast LIVE: The Week How Does Your Body Work? What Is Attraction? page 35 Unwrapped page 27 page 37 The Art And Science Of The Science Of Donald Trump Busy Bees page 43 Conversation page 39 page 31 6 7 GUEST CURATORS NEW Jessica Barker & FC FOR Tech & Cyber Programme Curators Cyber Zone 2018! FREE Supported by INTERACTIVE ZONE Workshop Becoming A Chess Daily 10am–5pm Grandmaster Free Entry All Ages Friday 8 June, 4–5pm Late opening for adults Saturday 9 June, 3.30–4.30pm, Friday 8 June, 8–10pm 4.45–5.45pm Free no ticket required.