Forthcoming/ongoing events
Fiction and fact in film: The imaginaries of science and society (Wolfman): 29 March 2010 (6.00pm – 9.30pm)
Event: Screening
Venue: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Audience: This event is open to everyone. Advanced booking via Chapter's website is discounted.
Contact: Dr Jamie Lewis / Dr Katie Featherstone (LewisJT1@cardiff.ac.uk / FeatherstoneK@cardiff.ac.uk)
This screening will include an opportunity for discussion and debate.
After a short introduction by academics at Cardiff University, the film will be screened. At the end of the film, a panel discussion with biomedical scientist and social scientists will take place with the audience to discuss some of the issues brought up during the film. The focus of the debate will centre on the rise in popularity of the gothic in film, the historical treatment of madness, human enhancement and trigger events for psychiatric disorders.
Optometry through the ages: March – December 2010 (9am-5pm)
Event: Exhibition
Venue: Optometry Building, Cardiff University, Maindy Road
Audience: Free and open to all
Contact: Reception - Optometry, 029 208 74374
The exhibition features various pieces of art on loan from the College of Optometrists Museum in London.
Research Images Exhibition: March – July 2010 (Open all hours)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Media Resources Centre, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park
Audience: Free and open to all
Contact: Community Engagement Team (emeryad@cf.ac.uk)
Explore the extraordinary variety of research undertaken at Cardiff University with the Serious Brain Power exhibition at National Museum Cardiff. This image based exhibition showcases individual projects with large colour photographs from all 29 schools within the University.
Past events
A bird’s eye view of the world: A sideways look: 2 March 2010 (7.30pm – 8.30pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: The Gate Arts Centre, Roath, Cardiff
Audience: Open to all. Free entry
Contact: Community Engagement Team (Community@Cardiff.ac.uk)
The purpose of this talk is to introduce you to birds as highly visual animals. Learn about the distinctive and rather comical “head bobbing” of some birds when they walk. You will hopefully come away from this talk with a better appreciation of the bird’s eye view of the world and how studies using the bird may enhance our understanding of vision.
Muslim Childhood: 2 March 2010 (7pm - 8pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Humanities Building, Column Drive, Cardiff University
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking advised
Contact: Community Engagement Team (publicbookings@cardiff.ac.uk)
Cardiff University’s own Jonathan Scourfield and Asma Khan explore the ways in which Muslim children growing up in the UK learn about religion, and how this compares to the way that other faiths nurture their young people. The talk will build on their experience of their current research project, ‘Religious nurture in Muslim Families’.
Recent Advances in Mapping the Human Brain: 3 March 2010 (7.30pm – 8.30pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Large Chemistry Lecture Theatre, Main Building, Cardiff University
Audience: Open to society members. Membership available at the door - £8 per year
Contact: Ms Joan Thomas (members@cardiffscientificsociety.org)
Cardiff Scientific Society talk. How is the brain wired up? What does it do? What happens when it goes wrong? To answer these questions, we need to probe the brain at different scales – from the neurotransmitter level, through the microstructure, to the macrostructural level. This talk will introduce new methods being developed to map the human brain at CUBRIC in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University and illustrate some of the things we’ve learned.
The Star Formation History of the University: 4 March 2010 (7.30pm – 8.30pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Prince Phillip Lecture Theatre, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University
Audience: Cardiff Astronomical Society members. Membership £15 per year.
Contact: Cardiff Astronomical Society (secretary@cardiff-astronomical-society.co.uk)
Dr Enzo Pascale from Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy will give the latest results from the Blast experiment – a stratospheric balloon-borne telescope that has been helping scientists to understand the history of the Universe. www.cardiff-astronomical-society.co.uk
How did the elephant get its trunk? And how did humans get their brains? By Professor Colin Blakemore: 5 March 2010 (6pm)
Venue: Julian Hodge Building, off Colum Road, Cardiff University
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking essential
Contact: Vanessa Davies (cnc@cardiff.ac.uk)
How did the elephant get its trunk? And how did humans get their brains? Intrigued, eager to know more? Be enlightened and fascinated by Prof Colin Blakemore, one of the UK’s most eminent scientists, renowned brain researcher and science communicator. To celebrate the launch of the Society for Neuroscience Wales Chapter, the Cardiff Neurosciences Centre (CNC) is pleased to welcome Prof Blakemore to Cardiff University to provide this inaugural public lecture. Everyone with an interest in science, no matter how big or small, is welcome to attend. Admittance will be through tickets issued upon registration only.
From Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes: 9 March 2010 (7pm - 8pm)
Venue: Prince Phillip Lecture Theatre, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff
Audience: This event is open to everyone. Booking essential
Contact: Chris North (events@astro.cf.ac.uk)
Professor Mike Edmunds, of Cardiff University, will discuss the origin of the chemical elements. This public lecture will be the final event of “MikeFest”, a workshop held in celebration of his distinguished career in physics and astronomy. Over the years Prof Edmunds has inspired many young physicists, and has become a renowned public speaker.
To register for the public talk, please visit http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/newsandevents/
Discovering Your Environment: 10-14 March 2010 (9.00am – 6.00pm)
Event: Exhibition
Venue: The Senedd, (The Oriel) Cardiff Bay
Audience :Free and open to all
Contact: Liz Thomas (heminge@Cardiff.ac.uk)
'Discovering your environment' is a photographic exhibition aimed at communicating environmental research. The exhibition will display photographs representing the significance of the environment to different user groups from researchers through to the members of the public. Accompanying each piece will be a brief description of what the photograph represents and how this impacts on all our lives, as well as postcards with the image and a brief description of an element of social science research.
Maternal Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: 11 March 2010 (7.30pm – 8.30pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Main Building, Cardiff University, Park Place
Audience: Open to all. Free entry
Contact: Community Engagement Team (emeryad@cf.ac.uk)
This talk will discuss how simple and effective interventions are impacting on the tragedy of 550,000 women dying worldwide of pregnancy related complications. By the time you have read this poster, at least one woman and her baby will have died unnecessarily.
Superconductivity - IET Trevithick Lecture: 12 March 2010 (3.30 – 4.30)
Event: Lecture for School Children
Venue: Techniquest, Cardiff Bay
Audience: 14-19 year olds. Free but booking essential
Contact: Community Engagement Team (emeryad@cf.ac.uk)
Superconductivity is a remarkable phenomenon whereby a material loses all of its electrical resistance. It is a large scale consequence of quantum mechanics with numerous applications, from magnetic levitation to high speed computing. The aims of this lecture, on the verge of the centenary of the discovery of superconductivity, are to introduce the basic properties of superconducting materials, to understand its physical origin (a problem that baffled many of the greatest minds of the 20th century), and to describe some of its applications.
Fiction and fact in film: The imaginaries of science and society (A Single Man): 14 March 2010 (5.00pm – 8.30pm)
Event: Screening
Venue: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Audience: This event is open to everyone. Advanced booking via Chapter's website is discounted.
Contact: Dr Jamie Lewis / Dr Katie Featherstone (LewisJT1@cardiff.ac.uk / FeatherstoneK@cardiff.ac.uk)
This screening will include an opportunity for discussion and debate.
The Sci Screen is a new crosscutting event promoting the engagement of society in the field of biomedical science and genetics. After a short introduction by academics at Cardiff University, the film will be screened. At the end of the film, a panel discussion with biomedical scientist and social scientists will take place with the audience to discuss some of the issues brought up during the film. The focus of the debate will centre on issues of psychological disorders, grief and bereavement, suicide and our perceptions of normality and abnormality.
Child's Play: 16 March 2010 (9.30am - 4.30pm)
Event: Interactive demonstrations and discussions
Venue: Techniquest, Stuart Street, Cardiff, CF10 5BW
Audience: Families with infants and toddlers
Contact: Development@Cardiff (development@cardiff.ac.uk)
The scientific process is not restricted to adults and laboratories. Each one of us has at some time been a scientist. As infants, we explored the world trying to make sense of it. At Development@Cardiff we are working towards a more complete picture of social and cognitive development by asking questions about how humans learn about the world from birth onwards. These questions range from those about newborns’ social abilities, to how infants learn about toys and tools, and language. Interactive demonstrations of how we attempt to answer such questions will be provided, with discussions of what we already know.
Nature in the Garden: 16 March 2010 (10.00am – 3.00pm)
Event: Pre School Children Activity Day
Venue: Llysdinam Field Centre, Newbridge-on-Wye, Powys
Audience: Pre-school children. Free but booking essential
Contact: Rachel Smith (SmithR3@cardiff.ac.uk)
Parents and siblings are invited to a fun day of hands-on activities to explore the wildlife on their doorsteps. Activities will include, planting, pond life, observing bird box cameras, mammal hunts, leaf bingo and hands-on with creepy crawlies and amphibians. A bilingual workbook is also provided which children can work through with their families in their own gardens. It includes identification games, colouring, things to make, ideas for encourging wildlife into your gardens and suggestions of activities to help the Planet e.g. energy saving and recycling etc.
The sustainable diet: implications for public health and the environment: 16 March 2010 (5.30pm drinks for 6.00pm lecture)
Event: Free talk
Venue: Glamorgan Building Committee Rooms
Audience: This event is open to everyone. Booking essential. If you would like to come – please confirm your attendance by Tuesday 9 March 2010.
Contact: Evelyn Osborne (OsborneE1@cardiff.ac.uk)
Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning, Innovation and Engagement Lecture Series
Lecture by Professor Tim Lang, City University
The evidence that developed countries like the UK eats an unsustainable diet is strong. Using a variety of measures - energy, water, health, land-space, greenhouse gas emissions - our ‘national' diet is unsustainable. This lecture will summarise the emergence of current thinking about what a sustainable diet is. It will argue that we do not know what it is yet, but we are clearer about the criteria by which it might be judged. The almost painfully slow moves to address this ‘big picture' will be discussed.
Careers in Engineering: 16 & 17 March 2010 (10am - 4pm)
Event: Exhibition stands and talks
Venue: Trevithick Building, Cardiff University
Audience: Undergraduate students
Contact: The Careers Service (mcdarrens@cardiff.ac.uk)
This careers fair is predominantly aimed at Engineers but is also relevant to Computer Scientists and Physicists. This event offers the chance to attend a number of talks and chat informally to a small selection of student and graduate recruiters
To book please log onto: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/carsv/newsandevents/bookings/index.html
Inside Out & Out Side In: 16 March 2010 (6:30pm - 8pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Council Chamber, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking essential
Contact: Community Engagement Team (community@cardiff.ac.uk)
An evening of thought provoking and practical presentations on the fusion of design and lifestyle. How can good design inside buildings help us connect more and live in tune with nature outside? We will explore both the dramatic and the subtle influences of Inside Out and Outside In, and find some practical design solutions and home tips which we can apply to improve our own health and the health of our community while helping to support a healthy environment.
Turing Lecture - Embracing Uncertainty: The new machine intelligence: 16 March 2010 (6:30pm - 8pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Main Building, Cardiff University
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking essential
Contact: The Institution of Engineering and Technology (eventsa2@theiet.org)
Professor Christopher Bishop - Chief Research Scientist, Microsoft Research
Computers are traditionally viewed as logical machines which follow precise, deterministic instructions. The real world in which they operate, however, is full of complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty. Professor Chris Bishop discusses the field of machine learning, and shows how uncertainty can be modelled and quantified using probabilities.
To register visit: http://conferences.theiet.org/lectures/turing/index.htm
The Emergence of Islamic Fashion in Britain: 16 March 2010 (7pm - 8pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Humanities Building, Column Drive, Cardiff University
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking advised
Contact: Community Engagement Team (publicbookings@cardiff.ac.uk)
Emma Tarlo is an anthropologist from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research looks at the way in which cultures express themselves through their clothes, and what fashion can say about the culture that wears it. How is the Muslim community in the UK communicating through fashion and how has that changed over the years? This fascinating talk will explore the ways in which these unconscious signals reflect a community’s confidence, status and aspirations.
The Cosmic Web – Talk and Exhibition: 16 March 2010 (7pm - 9.30pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Prince Phillip Lecture Theatre, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff
Audience: This event is open to everyone. Booking essential.
Contact: Chris North (events@astro.cf.ac.uk)
Professor Peter Coles of Cardiff University will talk about “The Cosmic Web”. Over the last few decades astronomers have revealed that our cosmos is not only vast in scale but also exceedingly complex, with galaxies and clusters of galaxies linked together in immense chains and sheets, surrounding giant voids of empty space.
Following the talk, there will be an exhibition of a variety of work in the School of Physics and Astronomy.
To register for both, please visit http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/newsandevents/
Philosophy Café – Neuroscience and Philosophy: 16 March 2010 (7.30 – 9.30pm)
Event: Public Debate
Venue: The Gate Arts Centre, Keppoch Street, Roath, Cardiff
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking essential
Contact: Chris Groves (Grovesc1@cf.ac.uk)
How are our minds and our brains related? And what is the relationship between introspective knowledge of our minds, and knowledge of our brains, the territory of neuroscience? Neuroscience has told us a great deal about how the brain works, but does this mean it has told us anything about consciousness, about free will, and about what “selves” are? An evening of discussion with a neuroscientist and a philosopher from Cardiff University." More information available at www.philosophycafe.org.uk
Learn About Life: 17 & 18 March 2010 (9.30am – 2.30pm each day)
Event: Schools Workshop – Year 5 & 6
Venue: Biomedical Building, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff
Audience: Year 5 & 6 pupils. Free but booking essential
Contact: Dr Fiona Wyllie, School of Biosciences (wyllie@cf.ac.uk)
The Biosciences cover a wide range of fascinating topics and this event aims to introduce young people to a variety of those on offer. The emphasis of all of the day’s activities will be on active participation and for the pupils to appreciate more about their own bodies and health and the natural world around them. Workshop topics will range from otters and parasites to visualising the visitors’ own cells and testing how their lungs respond to physical exercise.
Digital Audio Encoding - IET Trevithick Lecture: 17 March 2010 (3.30pm - 4.30pm)
Event: Lecture for School Children
Venue: Techniquest, Cardiff Bay
Audience: 14-19 year olds. Free but booking essential
Contact: Community Engagement Team (emeryad@cardiff.ac.uk)
Digital audio is an exciting subject that spans the disciplines of Computer Science, Engineering, Physics and Mathematics. This talk will introduce the basic theory of Digital Audio and will follow the pipeline of processes from recording audio (typically from acoustic sources), to manipulating audio within a computer and finally outputting the recorded audio to a saved file or streaming across the Internet.
Botanic Research Garden Guided Tour: 17 March 2010 (11am -12pm & 1pm – 2pm)
Event: Tour and Talk
Venue: Talybont Court, Off Excelsior Road, Cardiff CF14 3UX
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking essential
Contact: Community Engagement Team (publicbookings@cardiff.ac.uk)
Join us for a group guided tour of the Cardiff University glass houses where plants such as alstroemerias and tobacco plants are grown for use in research projects. This tour will also offer the chance to meet and talk to the researchers who work on these projects. This tour will also include a chance to see the wide range of exotic and not so exotic plants that are used for teaching undergraduate students.
Young People Paint a Picture of Health: 17 March 2010 (4.30pm - 7pm)
Event: Creation of short films
Venue: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Audience: Open to all. Free but booking essential
Contact: Philip Daniels (DanielsP1@cardiff.ac.uk)
Youth homelessness and eating disorders are two areas of health highlighted by young people in Cardiff in a project that uses digital technology to create short films that detail public health issues.
The “Picture of Health” project brings together young people aged 15-18 from Cardiff youth service, along with undergraduates, postgraduates and support staff from Cardiff University to produce honest accounts of some of the health issues effecting young people today. The project involved young people being trained in digital technologies to create short films detailing the health issues that affect them.
Science in Health Live: 18 March 2010 (9am – 2.45pm)
Event: Schools Activity Day – Year 12
Venue: University Hospital of Wales
Audience: Year 12 pupils. Free but booking essential
Contact: Undergraduate Office (JensenL@cardiff.ac.uk)
Discover more about the science behind medicine and some of the internationally recognised research taking place in Cardiff’s largest teaching hospital. The day promises to provide a variety of lively and interesting experiences for those who might be interested in either the health care professions or laboratory sciences. Activities include selected tours around various research-academic departments, an interactive exhibition and a selection of short talks.
Making a Real Difference to Health: 18 March 2010 (7.30pm - 8.30pm)
Event: Public Lecture
Venue: Main Building, Cardiff University, Park Place
Audience: Open to all. Free entry
Contact: Community Engagement Team (community@cardiff.ac.uk)
Science in Health Public Lecture. Dr Julian Tudor Hart is an Honorary Fellow at Cardiff University and also a retired family doctor. He is a distinguished writer and lecturer on health policy and on the provision of health services. Best known for introducing the concept and the term ‘The inverse-care law’, (the greater the health needs, the less available the health services!) he has had a profound effect upon health in one of the most deprived areas in South Wales.
Infrared Space Astronomy: 18 March 2010 (7.30pm - 8.30pm)
Event: Talk
Venue: Prince Phillip Lecture Theatre, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University
Audience: Cardiff Astronomical Society members. Membership £15 per year.
Contact: Cardiff Astronomical Society (secretary@cardiff-astronomical-society.co.uk)
Professor Matt Griffin of Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy talks about infra-red astronomy and the ground-breaking work of the Herschell and Planck space instruments built by his team here in Cardiff.
Humourology - Saves The World!: 21 March 2010 (8pm - 11pm)
Event: Comedy
Venue: Dempseys, Castle Street, Central Cardiff (£5)
Audience: 18+, booking recommended
Contact: Dean Burnett (humourology@live.co.uk (email to reserve seats))
In celebration of the NSEW theme ‘Earth’, round the week off with a bang as the best and brightest of the live comedy and science scenes put forward their ideas for tackling and eliminating serious threats to the planet (and, more pressingly, us humans). Yet another noble effort to force together Science and Comedy, a combination that’s too powerful for even the Large Hadron Collider to handle. But at least there’s a bar. Entertainment guaranteed.