CAMBR I DGE SCI ENCE F EST I VAL
HERE COMES THE SCIENCE! FRANCES MCNAUGHTON REVEALS WHAT YOU AND THE WHOLE FAMILY CAN LOOK FORWARD TO DURING CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL
for families. Dr Peter Wothers, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry, is back with another of his much-loved action-packed talks, this time charting the elements involved in mankind’s mission to light his way. There are also hands-on demonstrations with Microsoft HoloLens, talks about the fastest animals on Earth and a virtual reality cycle ride. In the second week you can catch a talk called CRISPR technology and the future of genome editing on 16 March, led by CRISPRCas9’s co-discoverer Professor Jennifer Doudna from the University of California, Berkeley. She discusses the implications of this groundbreaking gene- editing tool and the policies around its
rom the 9 to 22 March, the Cambridge Science Festival is hosting nearly 400 events at venues across the city. Now in its
26th year, the festival’s 2020 programme explores the theme of vision, touching on topics from artificial intelligence to the climate crisis, with films, fun science quiz events, comedy and theatre. As always, there are a wide variety of talks and debates on offer, presented by some of the world’s greatest scientists. They will examine our past and suggest a vision for the future, revealing how science can help us understand and solve the greatest challenges of our time. Some of the festival’s distinguished speakers include Professor Dame Athene Donald, former chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies, BBC presenter Dr Adam Rutherford, Baroness Bryony Worthington and neuroscientist Professor Barbara Sahakian. Highlights from the first week include ExoMars Rover : engineering for the red planet on 9 March, in which Abbie Hutty – the Rover’s platform delivery manager – discusses the aims and objectives of Europe’s first Rover mission to Mars. There’s also From policing to fashion: how the use of artificial intelligence is shaping our work on 10 March. Hear about the social and psychological implications of artificial intelligence, from predictive policing to its role in reshaping the fashion design process. On 12 March, you can learn all about organoids in Mini-organs in a dish: how organoids are revolutionising research , which explains how miniature organs are grown and discusses why this new technology is so important for biomedical research. The first weekend of the festival features an impressive array of events
IMAGES The wide variety of talks, demos and exhibitions look at how AI is shaping the world, the future of genome editing and much more
30
M A R C H 2 0 2 0
C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K
Powered by FlippingBook