Download L BR(R) LF 1016 LSE Events-8.indd

Milton Keynes • Tuesday 18 April 7.30pm • Dr Manish Patel
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission to Mars
and the search for signs of life
On Earth, most of the methane in the atmosphere is produced by life. Hence its
presence on Mars opens up a tantalising possibility that this trace gas may be a
sign of the presence of life on that planet. The Open University co-leads one of the
methane hunting instruments (called NOMAD), and has significant science roles in
the Schiaparelli lander that will land on the surface of Mars. I will present the ExoMars
Trace Gas Orbiter mission to Mars, and its background, and give an update on its
latest status and the results to date from the orbiter and the lander.
June 2017
Milton Keynes •Tuesday 13 June 7.30pm • Dr Jim Geach
The formation and evolution of galaxies: a 14 billion year story
I will discuss the state of the art of our understanding of
how hundreds of billions of galaxies, of which our own
Milky Way is but one, came to be.
Herts • Wednesday 26 April 7pm • Dr Chris Woolston
What is this thing called quantum theory? A chemist’s perspective
Quantum theory is one of the great foundations of modern physics. It also provides
the basis for our understanding of chemical bonding and, hence, all of modern
chemistry. In this talk Chris will outline the development of quantum theory from the
time of Newton onwards.
May 2017
Milton Keynes • Tuesday 9 May 7.30pm • Dr Jonathan Hays
News from the LHC
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has recently been
upgraded, and the accelerator and particle detectors
have both been improved. The beam energy has nearly
doubled compared with the previous run. New results will
be presented on the search for signs of physics beyond the
Standard Model.
London • Wednesday 17 May 6.30pm • Professor Lloyd Peck
Information
All our lectures are free to all and last about one hour. There is usually 10–15 minutes
afterwards for the audience to ask questions. School parties are most welcome but
please register numbers beforehand with the relevant venue organiser. All venues are
wheelchair accessible. Details herein are subject to possible alteration. Any views
expressed here are not necessarily those of the IOP.
Follow us on:
Twitter: @IOPLSE
Facebook: facebook.com/ioplse
Web: london.iop.org
Lecture venue information and times are as follows:
London
Lectures held at 6.30pm, Franklin Room, Institute of Physics, 80 Portland Place,
London W1B 1NT. Refreshments are served from 6pm on the day of the lecture.
Please register online to attend lectures. For further information, email
[email protected] or tel +44 (0)20 7470 4938.
Surviving Antarctic extremes
Herts
This talk investigates the physics of the problems faced by humans and other animals
in surviving in the coldest, driest, windiest places on Earth, and the solutions they
have to those problems.
Lectures usually held at 7pm in the Lindop Building, University of Hertfordshire,
College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB. To book a place or for further information on this
season’s events, please contact Dr Diane Crann (email [email protected],
tel +44 (0)7770 444614).
Herts • Wednesday 31 May 7pm • Professor Alan Davies
Sewage pipes and glass corridors: the mouhefanggai
Please see the London lecture on Wednesday 1 February.
London • Wednesday 31 May 6.30pm • Professor Didier Queloz
Kent
Unless stated otherwise, lectures held at 7.30pm in Rutherford Lecture Theatre 1,
University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NZ. Further information can be obtained from
Dr Cyril Isenberg (email [email protected], tel +44 (0)1227 823768).
Exoplanets and the nature of other worlds
Milton Keynes
The discovery of exoplanets sparked a revolution in astronomy and captured our
imagination. Today, about 1,000 such objects have been found. We have learned
that planets are common, and that their properties are much more diverse than
originally predicted. Their nature remains mysterious. Our solar system is just one
solution to nature’s problem of making planets. This talk will present the main results
of exoplanet work.
Lectures held at 7.30pm in the Berrill Lecture Theatre, Open University, Walton Hall,
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA. For further information, contact Professor Ray Mackintosh
(email [email protected]). No need to register.
London & South East Branch
Public Events – Spring 2017
IOP London and South East Lecture Programme
January 2017
Kent • Tuesday 17 January 7.30pm • Professor Jon Butterworth
Smashing physics: latest news from the energy frontier
What have we learned from the ATLAS and CMS experiments, in addition to the
discovery of the Higgs boson, at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN?
Herts • Wednesday 25 January 7pm • David Freeman
Wax lyrical
The transmission of most of our data is digital these days, but we are still an analogue
life form. Newspapers and books arrive as digital files but have to be converted into
something our analogue eyes can understand. It’s the same with music. This talk is
about how sound waves were first captured on fragile spinning wax cylinders and how
this beautiful simple technology evolved into shellac disc records.
Kent • Tuesday 31 January 7.30pm • Dr Silvia Ramos
Inside matter
Kent • Tuesday 14 February 7.30pm • Professor Anthony Mann
Puzzles in maths and physics
Vitrectomy – tools, design and limitations
The talk will explore the role that paradoxes play in physics and mathematics, using a
wide range of puzzles, illusions and paradoxes.
A vitrectomy is an eye operation in which the vitreous gel, an internal structure in the
eye, is removed. It is used to treat retinal detachments and other retinal conditions.
Luke Herbert is a vitrectomy surgeon. He will discuss the history of the subject, the
equipment used and the future of the subject.
London • Wednesday 15 February 6.30pm • Professor Ellie Highwood
Global warming and climate change – what’s the difference?
Global warming is a term used widely in the media as
shorthand for climate change. Sometimes this can lead to
misunderstandings as regional changes can be somewhat
different. In this talk I will present the science behind
climate change, going beyond global warming to discuss
what we know and don’t know about the complex ways in
which our climate system has changed, and what we can
learn from projections into the future.
The lecture will explain how X-rays, neutrons and muons are used to probe the
structure of materials.
February 2017
London • Wednesday 1 February 6.30pm • Professor Alan Davies
March 2017
London • Wednesday 1 March 6.30pm • Professor Anthony Barker
What have intersecting sewer pipes and the glass corridors
in the gardens of les Halles de Paris have in common? They
both give rise to a common volume of intersection that the
ancient Chinese called the mouhefanggai. Such volumes
are nowadays evaluated using calculus, but the Chinese
had an ingenious method based on slicing. We shall see
how elementary school geometry can be used to find this
volume together with the volumes of other interesting
shapes such as beach balls.
Milton Keynes • Tuesday 14 February 7.30pm • Dr Colin Snodgrass
Where next after Rosetta? Comets, asteroids, and some confused
objects in between
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission has been a spectacular success,
orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for two years, releasing the Philae
lander, and finally descending to the surface of the nucleus itself. I’ll look back at
some of the highlights of the mission, but also ahead to possible future missions that
will continue ESA’s exploration of the small bodies of our solar system.
London • Wednesday 15 March 6.30pm • Garrod Musto
Euclid’s Elements and crop circle theorems
This talk seeks to explore the books of Euclid’s Elements
that focus on aspects of the geometry of circles, and how
the phenomenon of crop circles can be explained using
aspects of maths.
Herts • Wednesday 22 February 7pm • Stephen Pattison
The revolutionary potential of the Internet of Things
Sewage pipes and glass corridors: the mouhefanggai
Kent • Tuesday 7 March 7.30pm • Luke Herbert
Please see the London and South East Branch website for further details.
Magnetic stimulation of the brain – reaching the parts other
stimulators cannot reach
Kent • Tuesday 21 March 7.30pm • Professor Hugh Griffiths
Reflections on the history of radar
Radar has a long and fascinating history, with some surprising twists and turns. The
lecture will give an account of radar, from its first demonstrations and development in
World War II to the present day.
Herts • Wednesday 29 March 7pm • Patrick Griffin
Nerves carry signals around the body and can be
electrically stimulated for diagnostic and therapeutic
purposes. However, the brain is difficult to stimulate
because of the high electrical resistance of the skull.
Magnetic stimulation uses large pulses of magnetic field
to induce currents directly in the brain. A UK invention,
the technique is now widely used throughout the world.
Tony Barker will describe the history of the technique, its
physics principles, some clinical applications, and give a practical demonstration.
Crossrail – moving London forward
Milton Keynes • Tuesday 7 March 7.30pm • Professor Timothy Leighton
April 2017
London • Wednesday 5 April 6.30pm • Dr Kathryn Harkup
The acoustic bubble: carbon budgets; sound in space; dolphins;
cold water cleaning and antimicrobial resistance
This lecture covers research into the interactions between bubbles and sound fields,
covering particular topics involving the climatically important gas exchange between
atmosphere and ocean, the implications of bubbly ocean water to marine mammals
that use sound, and the opportunities afforded by incorporating acoustical sensors
onto probes launched to investigate other worlds in our solar system. It closes with
recent data on the opportunities of bubble acoustics to investigate methods of cold
water cleaning, and the implications of this for antimicrobial resistance.
All free, all welcome! Please join our Facebook group facebook.com/ioplse
Crossrail will be an urban high-frequency metroservice
and will run from Heathrow Airport and Reading in the
west through the centre of London to Canary Wharf,
Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east. The new line will
connect 37 stations and will operate 24 trains an hour in
each direction in the central underground section at peak
time, offering faster, easier and direct ways to get into and
across London.
Poison
Many compounds we now consider to be poisons were once found on pharmacy
shelves. Before the 20th century people often got better in spite of their doctors
rather than because of them. This talk examines the chemistry behind four former
medicines, and their effects on the body – with some killer case studies.