It will be an exciting time to be in Cambridge as Week 1 of the Cambridge Science Festival begins today.
Drink spiking, hallucinations, growing food underground, self-healing concrete, organ preservation, and nanotechnology, these are just a few of the many topics covered during Week 1 of the festival.
The Festival runs until 22 March with a packed programme of events and cutting-edge thinkers tackling many of the critical issues we are faced with in a rapidly changing world. Most events are free.
Vision is the theme of this year's Festival and events cover everything from new technology, the environment and food production to advances in healthcare, with new research offering a lookahead to the future.
Top picks for the first week include:
Tuesday:
- Drink spiking myths, truths, and advances in forensic science (10 March). Reports of drink spiking have risen by over 100% during the past three years alone. Despite this, there is still some misunderstanding of the situations that drink spiking may occur, the effects of the drugs involved, and importantly, how a delay in the reporting of an incident may lead to problems with confirming incidents with forensic techniques. Dr Lata Gautam and Christopher Davies, ARU, address these issues, discuss current and recent research advances, and reveal the future of forensic detection techniques of such drugs. They also look at findings from an online survey conducted in the UK.
- Now you see me: understanding how flowers manipulate pollinators (10 March). How do some flowering plants produce the striking pigmentation patterns and amazing microscopic features that are key to attracting pollinators? Dr Edwige Moyroud, Sainsbury Laboratory, explores the function and evolution of floral patterning and looks at what plant scientists are doing to try to solve this enigma.
- From policing to fashion: how the use of artificial intelligence is shaping our work (10 March). Artificial intelligence has created a lot of buzz about the future of work. Alentina Vardanyan, Judge Business School, and Lauren Waardenburg, KIN Center for Digital Innovation, Amsterdam, discuss the social and psychological implications of AI, from reshaping the fashion design process to predictive policing.
- Flower power: making crops better at being pollinated (11 March). By 2050, the global population is estimated to hit 10 billion, and we are going to need to feed them all. Around a third of our food depends on pollinating insects, but they are in decline. Hamish Symington explores how food relies on insects, and how research at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge aims to make flowers more efficient at being pollinated.
- Illusions and hallucinations: our tenuous grip on reality (11 March). Professor Paul Fletcher, Department of Psychiatry, discusses how we construct our picture of reality using a mix of sensory data and stored knowledge. Usually this works, but it does not take much for the system to become perturbed and for us to create a reality that other people do not share.
- Beyond 2020: what next for global biodiversity? (11 March). Leading conservationists from the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative reflect on the achievements following the 2011 Aichi Biodiversity Targets as they reach the end of their implementation period in 2020.
- Smoke in the lungs of the Earth (12 March). ‘Mega-fires’ raged across Brazilian Amazonia and Indonesia’s peat swamp forests in 2019. Dr Rachel Carmenta, Department of Geography, discusses the extent of the fires, distinguishes between types of fire, assesses the causes, impacts and considers the measures needed to mitigate future events.
- Growing underground (12 March). Dr Ruchi Choudhary, Department of Engineering, presents fascinating data from the world’s first underground farm in London and highlights the challenges and opportunities of growing food in abandoned city spaces. The Growing underground talk is set to be repeated on 14th March.
- The Moon: A history for the future (12 March) Oliver Morton, science writer and The Economist’s briefings editor, explores the history and future of humankind's relationship with the Moon.
- The horrible history (and the bright future) of organ preservation (12 March). Professor Mike Nicholson, Dr Sarah Hosgood and Mr Paul Gibbs from the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit (BTRU) in Organ Donation and Transplantation present a whistle-stop tour of the history of organ preservation. They start way back in the 1800s, with some of the earliest attempts to preserve organs, and journey to today to explain some of the latest research on organ perfusion technologies. This research is crucial as we try and close the gap between the number of people waiting for a transplant and the number of organs available.
- Every drop counts: blood donors of the future (12 March) Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio and Dr Lois Kim from the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, and Nick Gleadall, from the Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge talk about recruiting blood donors, identifying blood types and understanding the effects of frequent donation.
- Genetics research in autism: ethical perspectives (13 March). The Spectrum 10K study will collect DNA and life history information from 10,000 autistic people in the UK to identify genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the varied outcomes they have, with a view to ultimately improving wellbeing. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and Dr Varun Warrier from the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, a parent of an autistic child and an autistic person discuss the ethical issues, fears and opportunities surrounding such research.
- Mobile teaching kitchens: a community-led food revolution in India (14 March). India faces many challenges in improving food security. Obvious issues like drought are intertwined with a complex socio-economic landscape. Community-led education is one way to overcome these challenges. The TIGR2ESS Mobile Teaching Kitchen is offering tastings of one possible vision of India’s food future.
- Licence to heal: the world of self-healing concrete (14 March). Are smart materials science or science fiction? Dr Regeane Bagonyi, Dr Chrysoula Litina and Dr Livia Ribeiro de Souza from the Resilient Materials 4 Life Research Team introduce you to the world of intelligent construction materials and how they can shape the future of infrastructure.
- Physics of emergence in biological sciences and technology (14 March). A vertical pencil is unstable, it will fall over in a random direction. Dr Alexandre Kabla, Department of Engineering, shows how controlling mechanical instabilities such as these offers new ways to design innovative materials and simpler manufacturing processes.
- The healing power of crystals (14 March). How do we use X-rays to see protein molecules and what can they tell us about disease? Dr Stephen Graham, Department of Pathology explains.
- Concrete riddles (14 March). What can be wet but carry water, is never the same, and has something in common with the electric light bulb? Professor Janet Lees, Department of Engineering, discusses these and other riddles about concrete, the most widely used human-made material in the world.
- Size really does matter (14 March). Nanotechnology is a buzz word many of us have heard but are uncertain what it really means. Dr Colm Durkan, Department of Engineering, dispels the myths about this branch of science and technology that has already touched many aspects of our lives – from cheaper and faster medical diagnostic tools to helping create new medicines and electronic devices. He explores the science and history of nanotechnology, examples of how it is used, the cutting-edge research being carried out and why, and the potential risks.
View the full programme and book tickets here.
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This year’s Festival sponsors and partners are Cambridge University Press, AstraZeneca, Illumina, TTP Group, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge Epigenetix, Cambridge Science Centre, Cambridge Junction, IET, Hills Road 6th Form College, British Science Week, Cambridge University Health Partners, Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology, and Walters Kundert Charitable Trust. Media Partners: BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Cambridge Independent.