Alom Shaha – How to be Your Child’s First Science Teacher

Doing hands-on activities with children is the best way to get them exploring the world around them and thinking like scientists and engineers. However, many parents lack confidence in doing science with their kids, even when they are scientists or engineers themselves!

Teacher & author of Mr Shaha’s Recipes for Wonder, Alom Shaha, will talk about his own introduction to science and show how any parent can help their children to learn from their curiosity about the world – so they can take the step from “wow!” to “how?”

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 30th June 2019, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

The event is free and unticketed.

Brenna Hassett – Built on Bones: How Digging Up The Dead Reveals The Past

Clues from human skeletons can be used to understand how people lived and died in the past. Archaeological teeth and bones can tell us key parts of the human story.
Building on her work across the world, including Thailand, Greece, the Pyramids in Giza, a 10,000 year old village in Anatolia, and a series of basement labs in between, Brenna’s talk will be an accessible journey through our recent evolution into a majority-urban species over the last 15,000 years.

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 24th February 2019, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

The event is free and unticketed.

Caroline Rance – The Golden Age of Quackery

The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a proliferation of advertised medicines and health devices – some harmless, some strange and some downright fraudulent.

From arsenic wafers to electric corsets, and from morphine-laced teething syrups to life-enhancing ‘Z-Rays’, Caroline Rance of http://www.thequackdoctor.com explores how patent medicine vendors attracted customers, and how medical campaigners of the day attempted to put a stop to their lucrative activities.

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 4th November 2018, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

The event is free and unticketed.

RESCHEDULED – Prof. David Whyte- Corruption: How Bad is the UK?

Banks accused of rate-fixing. MPs cooking the books. Major defence contractors investigated over suspect arms deals. Police accused of being paid off by tabloids. The headlines are familiar, but just how corrupt is Britain?

Prof David Whyte (University of Liverpool) writes extensively on the connection between corporate law and power. This talk will focus on his research into the corruption that he sees embedded in UK politics, police and finance.

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 21st October 2018, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

The event is free and unticketed.

This event is rescheduled from July.

RESCHEDULED – Dr Sophie Kain – Nanotechnology: Miracle or a curse?

Nanotechnology will touch every aspect of our lives in the next 20 years, from the mundane to the mind boggling – cancerous cells killed one at a time; food that changes flavour to suit the individual, and even clothes that adapt to temperature.

However, such advances without sufficient regulation could herald new peril. Is it harming our health? Is it possible to spy on anyone, even inside their bodies? Could it start a nano-tech war or even lead to the end of humanity? Join us to find out!

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 18th Mar 2018, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

NOW RESCHEDULED TO
3 – 4 pm Sunday 27th May in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury

The talk is free and unticketed.

James Ball – The Post-Truth President: What Donald Did Next.

Donald Trump the campaigner defied political gravity and confounded both the political establishment and the media – his trademark bombast, belligerence, and willingness to ignore niceties such as truth or accuracy, paved his way to the Oval Office.

But governing and campaigning are very different. In this talk, James Ball – author of “Post-Truth: How Bullsh!t Conquered The World” – looks at the first year of the Trump presidency, and how Trump’s relationship with truth has evolved.

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 4th Feb 2018, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

The talk is free and unticketed.

Alistair Coleman – Reading Kim Jong-Un :What does North Korea want?

With deteriorating relations between North Korea and US, and increased direct talk of war between Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump, peace in the Far East appears to be on a knife edge.

Alistair Coleman – a 28 year veteran of the BBC’s Monitoring Service – will discuss the dark history of the Kim Dynasty, explore the complex motives behind its actions, and ask whether the slide into conflict can be stopped.

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 5th Nov 2017, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

The talk is free and unticketed.

Dr Chris Crowe – Star Trek & Star Wars The Astrophysics Behind Sci-Fi

What is the probability of finding intelligent life out there? In the last few years, researchers have discovered hundreds of planets orbiting distant stars, opening up the tantalising prospect of discovering life on other worlds.

Dr Chris Crowe is Director of the Rayleigh Observatory London. Come along to hear what is and isn’t possible according to the laws of physics for phasers, life & Darth Vader, and whether we might ever find intelligent life in the Universe.

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 8th Oct 2017, in the Balcony Bar, Corn Exchange, Market Square, Newbury.

The talk is free and unticketed.

Mark Stevenson – The Future (and what to do about it)

Our systems are failing. Old models – for education, healthcare, government, food production and energy supply – are creaking under the weight of modern challenges. As the world’s population heads towards 10 billion, it is clear we need new approaches.

Futurologist Mark Stevenson set out to find alternative approaches – the story of his journey offered a much needed dose of down-to-earth optimism. It is a window on – and a roadmap to – a different and better future.

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 23rd April 2017, in the Newbury Town Hall, Market Street, Newbury.

Andrea Sella – FREEZE! The Strange Science of Ice.

It’s mostly for keeping drinks cold, but did you know that without ice life on earth – as we know it – wouldn’t exist?

In this visual talk, renowned practical chemist Andrea Sella takes a cold, hard look at the weird and wonderful properties of ice – how it misbehaves, its connection with climate change & how our future may be much less certain than we imagine. 

When & Where is the talk?

3 – 4pm, Sunday 12th March 2017, in the Balcony Bar of the Corn Exchange Theatre, Market Street, Newbury.

Free & unticketed.