JANUARY

NATIONWIDE

Various events via Café Scientifique
Date: Ongoing
Venue: Various, from The Orkney Islands to Falmouth
Audience: Adults
Cost: Mostly free
Café Scientifique is a network of informal meetings groups up and down the UK that are run for the discussion of topical scientific issues. They offer a unique opportunity for the scientific community and those interested in science to engage with one another in a relaxed atmosphere and are designed to be more accessible than a public lecture. Meetings take place in bars and cafes, although other venues, such as theatres, are also used.
Information on Café Scientifique across the UK

ABERDEEN

Science, Society, So What!
Date: 19 January, 7pm
Venue: Waterstones (Union Bridge branch), Union Street, Aberdeen
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. Anne Glover, chief scientific advisor for Scotland, chairs an open discussion on science and society.
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ABERYSTWYTH

Biofuels - Good or Evil?
Date: 26 January, 7.30pm
Venue: Theatre Bar, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. Dr Iain Donnison will be the guest speaker at this event.
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BERKSHIRE

Food for thought - The Effects of Flavonoids on Brain Ageing
Date: 26 January, 7.30pm
Venue: The Queens Head Pub, 54 Christchurch Road, Reading, RG2
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Diet is one of the most important lifestyle factors influencing the incidence and onset of neurodegenerative diseases. Thus a healthy diet is an essential factor for healthy ageing! A group of plant phytochemicals known as flavonoids have been investigated in recent years for their abilities to produce beneficial effects on cognitive performance. Flavonoids are widely distributed in a variety of fruits, vegetables and beverages, with high concentrations in onions, green tea, citrus fruits and most notably berry fruits. Research from the University of Reading has shown that supplementing a regular diet with blueberries results in improvements in spatial working memory tasks. So, should we all be eating lots of blueberries? What other foods are likely to have similar effects and why?
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CUMBRIA

Neuroethics - New Answers to Old Questions
Date: 20 January, 7.15pm
Venue: The Old Cooperage Bar, Jennings Brewery, Castlegate, Cockermouth
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Traditional ethical theory has centered on philosophical notions such as free will, self-control, personal identity, and intention. The emerging field of neuroethics investigates these notions from the perspective of brain function. As an example Dr Katja Wiech will look at the brain bases of moral cognition and its social and legal implications.
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DEVON

Darwin’s Voyage of Discovery
Date: 24 January, 7-8.30pm
Venue: Plymouth City Museum, Plymouth, Devon
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
Capture the spirit of Charles Darwin’s journey of discovery - one which lasted his entire life and which is still influencing us today. 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his ground-breaking book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. His most influential voyage of discovery onboard the Beagle set sail from Plymouth in December 1831. Use our timeline filled with anecdotes and stories to explore his journey across the oceans. Take a closer look at our living ancestral heritage with specimens from our natural history collections.
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DUNDEE

Are You Dying for a Suntan?
Date: 20 January, 7-8.30pm
Venue: University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
In ancient Egypt, Akhenatan was so impressed by Ra, the sun god, that he introduced a period of sun worship. This sort of behaviour is still popular today as 40 million sun-worshippers flock to the Mediterranean beaches each summer. In this lecture, Professor Harry Moseley will explore the healthy and unhealthy aspects of exposure to sunlight.
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EAST SUSSEX

Newton
Date: 20 January, 7.30pm
Venue: 32 Egremont Place, Brighton
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
The subject will be discussed by Robert Iliff from the University of Sussex. Check back for more details of the talk nearer the time.
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GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Eye for Colour
Date: Now until 21 March
Venue: Explore-At-Bristol, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free with ticket to Explore (which is £5.50) and free for the under threes
Ever wondered how you’d feel if sausages were purple, or what colour paint used to be made from ground-up Egyptian mummies? Well come and let Explore-At-Bristol’s eye-opening interactive exhibition lead you through the dazzling world of colour.
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HERTFORDSHIRE

The Amazing Science of Hearing
Date: 19 January, 7.15pm
Venue: The Ferguson Building Lecture Theatre at Bishop's Stortford College
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. Dr Jonathan Ashmore, professor of biophysics at University College London, will be talking about the science behind hearing.
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KENT

Carbohydrates - Some Sweet Chemistry
Date: 13 January, 7pm
Venue: Olde Beverlie, St Stephens Green, Canterbury
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. Dr Alison Edwards will be the guest speaker at this event.
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Local Food for Local People
Date: 13 January, 7.15pm
Venue: The Pavillion (in the gardens of The Royal Oak pub), 42 The Burgage, Prestbury, GL52 3DL
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. James Kirwan will be the guest speaker at this event.
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LONDON

Films of Fact
Date: Now until 9 February
Venue: The Science Museum, South Kensington, London
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
An exhibition about scientific films and television programmes. It deals with when they started and the four major genres that developed up to 1965. Today there are nature and technology films, those on the social mission of science, and those that simply convey the content and excitement of science. Each of these types of science programming was invented at a specific point in the last 110 years. And, if you go back and look, you can see how each was the product of particular historical circumstances.
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Listening Post
Date: Now until February
Venue: The Science Museum, South Kensington, London
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
Listening Post is a ‘dynamic portrait’ of online communication, displaying uncensored fragments of text, sampled in real-time, from public internet chatrooms and bulletin boards. Artists Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin have divided their work into seven separate ‘scenes’ akin to movements in a symphony. Each scene has its own ‘internal logic’, sifting, filtering and ordering the text fragments in different ways. By pulling text quotes from thousands of unwitting contributors' postings, Listening Post allows you to experience an extraordinary snapshot of the internet and gain a great sense of the humanity behind the data. The artwork is world renowned as a masterpiece of electronic and contemporary art and a monument to the ways we find to connect with each other and express our identities online.
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Japan Car - Designs for the Crowded Globe
Date: Now until April
Venue: The Science Museum, South Kensington, London
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
The exhibition shows how Japanese car design reflects the 'soil and the spirit of Japan', shown through concept cars and special home market models. Japan Car explores three themes while examining the future of mobility in cities. Japan, being both highly innovative and densely populated, can be seen as the driving force behind transport solutions for 21st-century cities.
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Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain
Date: Now until October
Venue: The Science Museum, South Kensington, London
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
Dan Dare’s rocket fleet roars high over Venus to trounce his arch foe - the power-mad Mekon. Meanwhile, back on Earth, another extraordinary future is unfolding, one which laid the foundation for Britain’s hi-tech consumer society. After 1945, though war-weary and broke, Britain found huge pride in wartime advances such as radar, penicillin and the jet engine. Discoveries like these were now tipped to kick-start world-beating industries, bring prosperity and bankroll the emerging welfare state. In an age before globalisation, products from rockets to radios sprang from local roots. Together they reveal a fascinating ‘lost world’ of British design and invention; a glimpse of a time when the TV in the corner was a Murphy, not a Sony. This exciting new temporary exhibition explores the role played by technology in creating post-war Britain.
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WILTSHIRE

Nutritional Deprivation in Early Life
Date: 6 January, 7.30pm
Venue: Salisbury Arts Centre, Bedwin Street, Salisbury
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Professor Barker talks about the impact of a poor diet in childhood.
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