The Science Festival provides the public with opportunities to explore and discuss issues of scientific interest and concern and to raise aspirations by encouraging young people to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

Each year, the Festival welcomes visitors to hundreds of events and receives extensive national and local media coverage. Over 170 event coordinators organise talks, interactive demonstrations, hands-on activities, film showings and debates with the assistance of around 1,000 staff and students from departments and organisations across the University and research institutions, charities and industry in the eastern region. In addition, over 150 people volunteer their time to act as stewards to ensure visitors have a safe and enjoyable Festival experience.

http://www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk/

Cambridge Science Festival 2016

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Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, will speak about ‘Holocaust Denial: A Flat Earth Theory or a Clear and Present Danger?’

Holocaust denial, the attempt to deny that the Third Reich engaged in the annihilation of approximately six million Jews, has been depicted as a serious threat to historical truth. Others have dismissed it as the equivalent of the theory that the earth is flat, i.e. absurd, illogical, and unworthy of serious consideration. In this presentation Professor Lipstadt will explore these two contradictory perspectives on Holocaust denial. In addition, she will explore the difference between “hardcore” or traditional Holocaust denial and the more recent phenomenon of “soft core” denial. 

Holocaust Denial: A Flat Earth Theory or a Clear and Present Danger?

Richard Grisenthwaite, Lead Architect and Fellow at ARM, talks about how the ARM architecture and the computing ecosystem it enables has changed in the 25 year history of ARM Ltd. Aimed at a technical audience, this talk looks at how the architecture has been influenced, sometimes in unexpected ways, by the changing environment and fashions, of the computing industry. It draws out some general lessons of the process of balancing the developments in hardware and software learnt from the progression of ARM to be one of the most popular architectures in the world. 

A history of the ARM architecture, and the lessons learned while building it

Do you think you make rational decisions? Think again... Ginny Smith turns your understanding of your brain upside down - and may even improve your decision-making! We'll be asking you to take part in some 'tricks of the mind' so please bring along an Internet-enabled device so you can play along with the show.


Your irrational brain: how we really make decisions

Your iTunes playlist may reveal more about you than you think. Science shows that the music we choose to listen to is not random. In fact, there is evidence that both our musical taste and abilities are tied to our personality and the way that we think. Dr David Greenberg explores how our preferences for musical genres and attributes map onto five different personality traits and three thinking styles. 

What does your musical taste say about your personality?

Can we build a machine that can solve any problem? How can we break a code others believe unbreakable? Why do leopards have spots and zebras stripes? These questions were all answered by Alan Turing. Mathematician James Grime explores Turing's childhood fascination with maths and how it led to the breaking of the infamous Enigma cipher. Including a demonstration of an original WWII Enigma Machine! 

Alan Turing and the Enigma Machine

While mathematicians are undoubtedly brilliant, there are still questions they can't answer. Every mathematical question is a puzzle and there'll be plenty of puzzles to chew on while mathematician Katie Steckles introduces questions that still leave mathematicians stumped, from simple-sounding number and shape problems to mind-bending fundamental questions. 

Maths' greatest unsolved puzzles

Earlier this week, Professor Stephen Hawking and the University of Cambridge made his 1966 PhD thesis available to anyone, anywhere in the world via Open Access. You can read more about the story and download the PhD thesis here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/step-inside-the-mind-of-the-young-stephen-hawking-as-his-phd-thesis-goes-online-for-first-time

And, to whet your appetite, Professor Hawking recorded a short extract from the PhD thesis for you to listen to here.

Stephen Hawking reads an extract from his 1966 PhD thesis

We know that populists can be sloppy with facts and speedy with promises that are impossible to deliver. Yet populist leaders also tend to highlight real inequities and to persuade followers that they are in possession of some greater truth. Followers often outsource their judgment to the populist leader on the basis of this belief. What, then, is the relationship between populism and truth? What might we learn about our contemporary political moment from an understanding of this relationship? In this panel, we explore these less discussed aspects of populism, drawing on current and historical examples from Argentina to India, and from Turkey to Russia.

Confirmed speakers:
 Ayça Çubukçu (LSE) on Recep Erdogan
 Hugo Drochon (CRASSH) on Marine Le Pen
 Tanya Filer (CIPP) on Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
 Matthew Barr (Cambridge) on Donald Trump
 Nayanika Mathur (Oxford) on Narendra Modi
 Madeleine Reeves (Manchester) on Vladimir Putin

POPULISM

Insufficient sleep affects all stages of a person’s live, from their development as a child and teenager, to their ability to function as an adult at home and work. 

You are what you sleep takes attendees through all the different effects of insufficient sleep, from the impact on individual health and performance, to the impact on businesses and the wider economy. The session looks at what can be done to tackle the growing problem of sleep deprivation in society, and explains why the science and economics show that sleep really matters.

Speakers are:

• Dr Dagmara Dimitriou, Director of the LILAS Lab: Lifespan Learning & Sleep Lab at University College London. Dagmara is interested in sleep disorders and how these relate to learning and behaviour in children with developmental disorders, such as Autism, Williams Syndrome, Down syndrome and ADHD. 

• Dr Wendy M. Troxel, Senior Behavioural and Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation. Wendy’s research focuses on understanding the links between close relationships and sleep, and how this relationship may influence couples’ health and functioning. 

• Marcus de Guingand, Managing Director of Third Pillar of Health. Marcus helps organisations to support their staff in overcoming the debilitating health, safety and productivity effects of tiredness, sleep deprivation and fatigue. 

• Marco Hafner is a Senior Economist at RAND Europe. Marco led the research – Why Sleep Matters – which estimated the economic impact of insufficient sleep among the workforces of five countries – the US, UK, Canada, Germany and Japan.

Presented with RAND Europe

YOU ARE WHAT YOU SLEEP

Yes, we really do! Vladimir Putin has been running Russia since 2000 and it’s a fair bet (if anyone is still betting about politics these days) that he will win another six-year term in the 2018 elections. Yet in the West we know little about Putin or his remarkable country that has roller-coasted along since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. David Reynolds (History Faculty) and Kristina Spohr (London School of Economics) draw on their book Transcending the Cold War to bring alive Putin’s worldview, blending historical analysis with entertaining vignettes from some of his most vivid summits.