Cafe Sci are going on tour!

We are sponsoring one of the talk at the upcoming HookeFest

Saturday 23rd July starting at 7 pm

We’re luck enough to get Professor Adam Scaife of the Meteorological Office / Exeter.

He’ll be talking about ‘The Climate in Hooke’s Era: the Little Ice Age and extreme winters’.

The Mediaeval warm period was followed by the tendency for colder winters and cooler, wetter summers from approximately 1450 to 1850 and occurred on a global scale. Though we are now concerned about global warming, the climate is unpredictable and anomalies can occur, e.g the eastern Antarctic appears to becoming colder.

Venue
The Planetarium, Fort Victoria Country Park, Westhill Lane, Freshwater. As usual, no need to book, just turn up.

Verdi’s Cafe at Fort Victoria will be prepared to stay open until before the talk, but you must book in advance for a meal. Tel: 761777.

Professor Scaife has very kindly provided this biography which you may find interesting, and you will find a pdf poster for the event at the end of this email.

Prof. Adam Scaife – Head of Monthly to Decadal Prediction
Adam leads research and production of long range forecasts at the Met Office. His group issues climate forecasts on a regular basis and carries out world leading research to improve forecasts for adaptation to climate variability and change.

Adam’s personal research is focused on climate variability. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed articles on the predictability, mechanisms and computer modelling of climate variability. His research group recently made an important breakthrough in seasonal forecasting for winter which allows many new applications of long range forecasts for Europe and North America.

Adam was recently awarded the Royal Meteorological Society’s Adrian Gill prize, the Met Office LG Groves prize for meteorology and the Lloyds of London Science of Risk Prize in the Climate Change category.

On 13th June starting at 7pm

Colin Palmer who is one of our members and Chairman of ‘Wight Community Energy’ will be talking about how solar power is coming of age, “Solar Power: a Bright Future.”

Prices are falling rapidly and in many places power from the sun is cheaper than from fossil fuels. Investment in solar power is now much greater than in conventional power sources.

How has this happened and what challenges do we face in moving to a solar powered world?

Colin will explain how photovoltaics work, how the dramatic price reductions have happened and how the combination of solar power and storage could power the world.

On Monday 9th May 2016 starting at 7pm.

Dr Myron Christodoulides from the Division of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Molecular Microbiology, Southampton University will be talking about bacteria.

He will give a definition of bacteria before talking about pathogenic bacteria and how they can defeat the immune system, so the need for antibiotics.

He will explain what antibiotics are, and hence how antibiotic resistance occurs, and will look particularly at antibiotic resistance in farming, which is a serious problem.

On Monday 14th March, 2016 starting at 7pm.

Dr. Richard Crowder from Southampton University, Department of Computing and Electronic Engineering, will be talking about ‘Termites, Bees and Robots.’

Over the last ten years the direction of robotics research has changed significantly, the trend is to exploit biological inspiration to inform the design and applications.

Many early robots tended to have as anthropomorphic configurations, including multi-fingered grippers. However, the development of swarm robotics has allowed us to develop strategies that allows us to explore how bees forage or termites build their nests.

Richard will bring a number of swarm robots, so that the audience can see real hardware.

February meeting CANCELLED due to the bad weather.

Instead it is being rescheduled to be held on Monday 11th April starting at 7pm.

Dr. Chris Warrick from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy will be talking about “What is Fusion Energy and the latest Developments.”

More details to follow.

The first talk for 2016 will be 11 January 2016 starting at 7pm.

Dr Jeremy Lockwood, Chairman of the Friends of Dinosaur Isle Museum and Research Associate in Vertebrate Palaeontology at Southampton University, will give a talk on: “Dinosaurs and Sex”.

This is a very entertaining, but informative talk on a subject most people don’t know anything about.

You will never look at Dinosaurs the same way again, especially ducks!

The third talk of the season is on Monday 9th November starting at 7pm.

Dr Martin Christlieb from the Oncology Department at Oxford University will give a talk on: “Modern Medical Imaging: getting the right treatment to the right patient”.

All talks are held in the Regency Suite at Shanklin Conservative Club. For those who do not know The Regency Suite, it is above the Conservative Club in Shanklin in Palmerston Road, just off The High Street. The nearest car parks are in Landguard Road and Orchardleigh Road, both only two or three minutes walk away. Parking is free after 6pm.

As we have to pay a rent for the facilities, we have to ask for a donation of at least £3 on the door to make sure we cover all our expenses. i.e. the rent, cost of speakers’ travel expenses and a meal, plus overnight accommodation if needed.

The second talk of the season us on Monday 12th October starting at 7pm.

Dr Jennifer Gupta is the Outreach Officer for the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth. Her interest is in astrophysics and she will be talking about developments in “Radio Astronomy, Quasars and Black Holes”.

All talks are held in the Regency Suite at Shanklin Conservative Club. For those who do not know The Regency Suite, it is above the Conservative Club in Shanklin in Palmerston Road, just off The High Street. The nearest car parks are in Landguard Road and Orchardleigh Road, both only two or three minutes walk away. Parking is free after 6pm.

As we have to pay a rent for the facilities, we have to ask for a donation of at least £3 on the door to make sure we cover all our expenses. i.e. the rent, cost of speakers’ travel expenses and a meal, plus overnight accommodation if needed.

The autumn season begins on Monday 28th September starting at 7pm.

Professor John Coleman from the Phonetics Department at Oxford University will give a talk on: “Voices from the Past” How do present day languages sound compared to those spoken by our ancestors?

An audio journey into the spoken words of the past.

Discover the deep cultural connections we share with our linguistic cousins across Europe and Asia and hear reconstructions of ancient words, last spoken over 6,000 years ago.

All talks are held in the Regency Suite at Shanklin Conservative Club. For those who do not know The Regency Suite, it is above the Conservative Club in Shanklin in Palmerston Road, just off The High Street. The nearest car parks are in Landguard Road and Orchardleigh Road, both only two or three minutes walk away. Parking is free after 6pm.

As we have to pay a rent for the facilities, we have to ask for a donation of at least £3 on the door to make sure we cover all our expenses. i.e. the rent, cost of speakers’ travel expenses and a meal, plus overnight accommodation if needed.

It’s currently the Isle of Wight Cafe Scientifique summer break now, but we will return, as usual, in September.