Brain Matters, Saturday 5 September, 1pm-6pm, Guildford High Street
Organised by Bristol Neuroscience and the Centre for Public Engagement, Brain Matters is an afternoon of hands-on activities and exhibits about neuroscience including an interactive Neurobot who shows how pain pathways operate, a chance to make your own neurons, build brains and see the real things, a Stroop competition to test out your own grey matter, and have a go at drawing your own ‘brain portrait’ on a hat to take home.
Mathematics and Meltdown: How Financial Systems Collapse, Saturday 5 September, 3pm-5pm, Lt L, University of Surrey
Professor Harvey Goldstein of the Graduate School of Education chairs a series of talks about the relationship between finance and science and a discussion about the role of data in financial modelling, credit ratings and the future regulation of the financial sector.
Grid Computing in the UK: How can it help your research? Monday 7 September, 9am-1pm, Austin Pearce 1, University of Surrey
As part of a series of talks on The Grid, a distributed computing system giving researchers access to almost limitless computing power, James Jackson, a PhD student in the Department of Physics, will discuss the use of the grid computing to help physicists analyse the data coming from the Large Hadron Collider.
Discovering Ancestors: Catalhoyuk and its wider context, Wednesday 9 September, 11am-4pm, LT E, University of Surrey
Dr David Shankland of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology will open a series of talks on the Neolithic archaeological site at Catalhoyuk in Turkey. Experts will describe their recent finds and outline how the rigorous inter-disciplinary methodology that the site encourages helps us to reach new interpretations of human life at the dawn of farming. Professor Richard Evershed of the School of Chemistry will give a talk on the first use of milk and the new work being done on lipids at Catalhoyuk.
Supersense: The brain science of belief, Wednesday 9 September, 4pm-6pm, Austin Pearce 4, University of Surrey
Professor Bruce Hood of the Department of Experimental Psychology will give a talk on his new book Supersense which asks why many of us believe in the unbelievable and explores how beliefs are formed spontaneously in young children and continue to influence the minds of rational adults.
About the British Science Festival
The British Science Festival is one of Europe’s largest science festivals and regularly attracts over 350 of the UK’s top scientists and speakers to discuss the latest developments in science with the public. Over 50,000 visitors regularly attend the talks, discussions and workshops. The Festival takes place at a different location each year and was last held in Guildford in 1975. The 2009 festival will take place from 5-10 September at the University of Surrey, Guildford, and across the region.
About the British Science Association
The British Science Association is the UK's nationwide, open membership organisation that exists to advance the public understanding, accessibility and accountability of the sciences and engineering. Established in 1831, the British Science Association organises major initiatives across the UK, including National Science and Engineering Week, the annual British Science Festival, programmes of regional and local events, and an extensive programme for young people in schools and colleges. The Association also organises specific activities for the science communication community in the UK through its Science in Society programme.