U3A Explores Science at the Ri 2019

Join U3A members and explore science through a variety of fascinating talks.

Programme

1.15pm Audience arrives

1.45pm Introduction by Martin Davies, Public Programme Manager, Royal Institution.

Linda Geddes: Chasing the Sun
The clocks ‘fall back’ at the end of the month, but what effect does this have on our bodies and minds? Our biology is set up to work in partnership with the sun. From our sleep cycles to our immune systems and our mental health, access to sunlight is crucial for living a happy and fulfilling life. New research suggests that our sun exposure over a lifetime - even before we were born - may shape our risk of developing a range of different illnesses, from depression to diabetes. Linda Geddes will discuss the science of sunlight and how you can exploit your relationship with light and darkness to improve your health, sleep and productivity.

2.20pm Question and answer session (15 minutes)

2.35pm Gustav Kuhn: Experiencing the impossible
Magicians create illusions that allow you to experience the impossible. They produce these illusions by exploiting huge gaps in our conscious experience, holes that we are typically unaware of. Recent advances in our scientific understanding of magic provide new insights into the nature of magic, and the ease by which magicians trick us highlights many of our mind’s limitations. For example, magicians use misdirection to manipulate your attention, which prevents you from noticing things that are right in front of your eyes. These surprising and stunning illusions provide intriguing insights into how our brain works. Gustav Kuhn will use science, interactive demonstrations and magic to explore the psychology of magic and explain why our mind is so easily deceived. He will illustrate that the world you experience as being real is in fact simply an illusion.

Understanding how and why our brain is fooled will dramatically change the way you judge yourself and others, and it will also provide you with a new appreciation of your brain’s amazing capacity.

3.10pm Question and answer session (15 minutes)

3.25pm Tea and coffee (30 minutes)

3.55pm Harry Cliff: Beyond the Higgs
In 2012, the announcement of the Higgs boson made headlines around the world. But what has been going on at the Large Hadron Collider since? What is the future of the world’s biggest physics experiment? And what intriguing hints of new physics are around the corner? Physicist Harry Cliff will be your guide.

4.30pm Question and answer session (15 minutes)

4.45pm Ian McCannah (Chair of the Third Age Trust)
Thanks and close of meeting

About the speakers

Linda Geddes is a Bristol-based freelance journalist writing about biology, medicine and technology. Born in Cambridge, she graduated from Liverpool University with a first-class degree in Cell Biology. She spent nine years at 'New Scientist' magazine working as a news editor, features editor and reporter, and remains a consultant to the magazine. Linda has received numerous awards for her journalism, including the Association of British Science Writers’ awards for Best Investigative Journalism. She is married with two young children, Matilda and Max.

Gustav Kuhn is a Reader in the department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and director of the MAGIC Lab. He is the leading researcher in the science of magic and he has authored over 70 scientific papers and a highly acclaimed book on the Science of Magic (Experiencing the Impossible, MIT press). He is also president of the Science of Magic Association, and a member of the Magic Circle.

Harry Cliff is the Science Museum Fellow of Modern Science, which he reckons might be the only job title which begins and ends with 'science'. He spends half his time searching for signs of new physics at LHCb, one of the four big experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. For the other half, he indulges his love of talking about physics at the Science Museum, where he develop exhibitions, events and online content.