Geoff Parsons - Sports ScienceGeoff will speak for about 55 minutes, introducing video clips and props which are accessible to the audience. The talk is designed to stimulate a debate on some of the moral and ethical issues facing modern sport, eg drugs and the use of technology, such as ultrasound, which can provide pictures inside the body without the need for investigative surgery. It will also introduce the perceptions of the science behind sport and then discuss how we look at nature to enhance performances. The lecture ends with examples of technological advances in designs of racing bikes, golf clubs etc showing a video highlight of actual performances from the last Olympics. Speaker Available cost £750Phil Williams - Plan-It EcoPhil Williams has many years experience working within theatre, TV and film, both in front of and behind the camera. For 17 years he worked all over the World including The Philippines and Costa Rica where he gained first hand knowledge of the Rainforests. In 1997 Phil returned to the UK to launch Plan-It Eco. The exciting program uses slides, video, music and visual challenges, including a large selection of genuine artefacts, as it explores the wonders and importance of the tropical rainforestsDr Diane Ashton, Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining – “Materials in Action”Diane is a Materials Engineer and completed her MEng PhD at the University of Birmingham. Diane has been in her current role at the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining for 4 years and spends most of her time visiting schools giving talks. In the last academic year, she spoke to about 6,500 people! In this talk the world of materials will be explored through applications in aerospace, car manufacture, sports equipment, medicine and communication technology. Metals, polymers, ceramics and composites (including smart materials) will be discussed in terms of their impact on our technology, their properties and how they are processed. The session will provide the opportunity to see and feel artefacts relating to the topics discussed, including a single crystal turbine blade for a jet engine, artificial body parts and single crystal silicon wafer.Lecture suitable for KS3&4Dr Paul Beaumont, Science & Plants for Schools, Homerton College, Cambridge – “From Sellotape to Fireflies – the Chemistry of Bio-luminescence”The talk poses the questions: Why do fireflies and glow-worms glow in the dark? What do disposable nappies, envelopes and Sellotape have in common? Why do your clothes glow under the lights in a disco? Who are the ‘Blue People’ of Troublesome Creek and why is their skin blue? How does the 1812 Overture allow us to investigate the rate of a chemical reaction? Through this lecture, Paul will address the above questions and show that light and colour are important features in biological and chemical systems.Lecture suitable for KS4 Dr Kevin Byron – Inventor & NESTA Fellow“Crazy about Physics”This lecture was short-listed for the Institute of Physics Schools’ Lecture 2006 and explores counter-intuitive ideas in physics through a handout quiz and interactive demonstrations.Lecture suitable for KS4&5 “Holo-decks, Photon Torpedoes & Light Sabres”This lecture demonstration explores the unique properties of laser light and how it has been exploited in a variety of technologies including holography, telecommunications, machining and entertainment. With over half a dozen exciting physics demonstrations and a number of film clips, we will explore not only the physics of laser light and its associated technologies, but we will also cross the boundary from science into the arts. We will see how the invention of the laser in 1958 was first perceived by the media and later by the film industry and explore the interaction between science and the arts in predicting the future of laser technologies.Lecture suitable for KS4&5Sarah Collins – Cambridge University“Volcanoes”The talk will be about Volcanoes and the study of Volcanology. Introducing some simple science about volcanoes including what volcanologists do both in the field and in the lab and also explaining why we are studying them, why they are both useful and interesting and why they are still a threat to humans and the environment. Sarah has a degree in Geology from Imperial College, London and is now in the 2nd year of her PhD in volcanology, at the University of Cambridge. Her researchincorporates field and lab work in order to understand the processes involved with volcanic activity. Specifically she is looking at metal concentrations in the gases which they emit and the consequences of this.Lecture suitable for KS3Dr Tim Hunt, Cancer Research UK (& Nobel Prize Winner)“Staying Alive: The Secrets of Cell Division”Dr Hunt will describe what we know about the cell cycle-the process of cell division-and how we know it, trying to show what drives scientists to find things out, and how they do it. A series of lucky breaks led to the work that brought him the Nobel Prize. What was the 'Eureka' moment and how does it feel? How does modern biology differ from physical sciences? What are the implications for biology taught in school? Tim discovered the first cyclin molecule in 1982. Cyclins are proteins that are made and degraded during each cell cycle, hence their name. Their oscillations drive cell cycle transitions.The discovery of cyclin was made through studying protein synthesis in sea urchin eggs. Tim noticed that this protein suddenly disappeared just before the eggs divided. Tim found that cyclins were present in other animals (first in clams, then in frogs). They are found in yeast and plants as well as animals. Today ten different cyclins have been found in humans.Tim works at Cancer Research UK, in Hertfordshire and was awarded The Nobel Prize in 2001 for his discovery of cyclins, proteins that regulate the CDK function. In his talk, Tim will tell stories about his life, his science and why he is still as amazed by the mechanisms of living creatures now as he was when he was twenty-one.Lecture suitable for KS5Dr Patricia Fara, University of Cambridge - Women, Science and Power in the EnlightenmentPatricia Fara, author of the acclaimed Pandora’s Breeches, challenges conventional history by showing how women have been unjustly concealed behind the reputations of Enlightenment scientific heroes such as Isaac Newton, William Herschel and Antoine Lavoisier. Women made different contributions from men – but different need not mean insignificant. Many of the world’s greatest men of science relied on the help of female friends and relatives, and Patricia Fara reveals this hidden band of scientific workers. Experiments were being carried out at home, so women were inevitably involved in the achievements credited to their husbands, fathers and brothers. Just as importantly, women were media experts who communicated the latest ideas to researchers, students and the general public. Sexual discrimination is still rife in modern science, and gendered imagery of uncovering and penetrating female nature has pervaded scientific thought for centuries. Patricia Fara examines how studying the past can help us to understand women’s role in science today.Patricia Fara is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and she lectures in the History and Philosophy of Science Department. Her major research speciality is eighteenth-century England, but she has published a range of academic and popular books on several aspects of scientific history, including Pandora’s Breeches: Women, Science and Power in the Enlightenment; Newton: The Making of Genius; and Scientists Anonymous: Great Stories of Women in Science (for children).Lecture suitable for KS4&5Dr Sarah Fielding, Palaeontologist - “What Big Teeth…!”After completing a BSc in Palaeobiology, Sarah started a PhD on Jurassic turtles which has given her the chance to; name new species of turtle, do TV work for BBC2 and Channel 4, travel around Europe, work on palaeontological dig sites in the UK, build models for museums, present at conferences, and become a ‘Researcher in Residence’. Sarah’s lecture comprises hands-on activities with animal and model dinosaur skulls, teeth and fossils and she will talk about the comparative anatomy of animals and dinosaurs, ecosystems and ecology, covering topics such as their adaptations for hunting, feeding and digestion. Lecture/workshops suitable for KS3, 4 and 5Dr Steffi Friedrichs, Institute of Nanotechnology Nanotechnology - Leaping with tiny Steps into the Future The discovery of novel features and properties in matter confined to nanometre size has created an unprecedented amount of world-wide hype, but also concern about potential sociological and environmental consequences; never before has a technology promised to impact so wide an area of life-depending and enhancing technologies, while forecast to be so detrimentally disruptive to the existing industrial landscape. ‘What are we to believe?’, ‘What can we really expect from nanotechnology?’ and, most of all ‘What is this thing called nanotechnology that promises to solve every technological problem of modern life?’ are only a few of the many questions raised by nanotechnology. The lecture will highlight some of the technological problems scientists and engineers encounter when conducting nanoscience and technology and explain why their innovations can only work on this length scale. In order to provide a ‘reality check’ for nanotechnology, vivid examples of the latest scientific and commercial breakthroughs will be given in the form of movie clips, adverts and practical demonstrations.Dr Steffi Friedrichs is a nanotechnology consultant at The Technology Partnership plc., in Melbourn near Cambridge, where, amongst many other things, she is responsible for the development of nanotechnological innovations and contributes to the tendering and due diligence processes for the MNT Network (Department of Trade and Industry, UK Government). Additional to her scientific qualifications, Steffi has a diploma in learning and teaching in higher education and is engaged in the promotion of women in science, technology and engineering; she is currently the head of a ‘Gender Action Group’ in a European Network of Excellence.Prof Peter Kalmus, Queen Mary, University of London“Particles and the Universe”One of the outstanding achievements of 20th Century science was the realisation that the great diversity of nature is based on a handful of elementary particles acting under the influence of only a few fundamental forces. It forms the basis of particle physics, a field which extends beyond the confines of the atom towards a synthesis with astronomy and cosmology. We explain particle physics and show how experiments at large accelerators help us to recreate some of the conditions of the early universe.“The Forces of Nature”Everything we understand in science is based on no more than four fundamental forces. Gravity and electromagnetism are well known forces, and are sufficient for all chemical and biological phenomena. Physics, astrophysics and cosmology are greedier. Two additional forces were discovered in the first half of the twentieth century; the strong force which binds the atomic nucleus, and the weak force which allows the Sun to shine. Twenty-four years ago an experiment which collided matter with antimatter showed that the weak force and electromagnetism were actually aspects of the same force.“Antimatter”What is antimatter and where might it exist? For every type of particle there is a corresponding antiparticle. The electric and nuclear forces between two antiparticles are the same as between corresponding particles. Thus anti-atoms and even antimatter in bulk might exist. However when antiparticles come into contact with ordinary particles they can annihilate each other, so antimatter would not exist for long on Earth unless it was totally isolated. We explain how particle physics could help us to avoid being annihilated by a science-fiction antimatter alien from another world. We review searches for antimatter in the universe, and describe some experiments with antiparticles on Earth.“Mirror Images, Antimatter & Time Reversal” We explore, without mathematics, the three symmetries implied in the title. These are important in science, particularly in particle physics. At the microscopic level, the laws of mechanics and electromagnetism appear to be perfectly symmetrical, but the symmetry is broken by the weak interaction, the force that allows the Sun to shine. We explain how symmetry breaking could help us to avoid being annihilated by a science-fiction antimatter alien from another world. Again at the microscopic level there is a small asymmetry between the forward and backward directions of time. On larger scales however the direction of time is crucial and time-reversed systems generally lead to absurd situations.Lecture suitable for KS5