9th February - Children of the Sun

Our first meeting of term takes place in the No.1 Newnham Terrace Upstairs Seminar Room at Darwin College from 7.30-9pm. We will read Maxim Gorky's ‘Children of the Sun’ (1905), the first of our pair of plays. You can find the play in the University Library, or in the Whipple Library box file from Monday 2nd February. All welcome!

Narrative & Proof

An extract from Marcus du Sautoy's recent Oxford lecture on mathematics and storytelling can be found here; the full video of the talk is available here.

'The AI Revolution'

Attendees of last term's session on 'Beyond the Brain' might be interested in this post discussing Artificial Intelligence. Part II is available here.

Call for submissions - Enlightened Perspectives: An Exhibition Working through Science and Art

In the light of National Science Week, Churchill College is putting on an exhibition which explores the relationship between Science and Art. The theme is intentionally vague - is a scientific instrument a piece of art? What about your electron micrographs? Could science be understood from what we would normally regard as just a painting or drawing? We are looking for pieces which put art and science into dialogue with one another: what can this relationship reveal? If this is something you think about, or want to explore more, then please send photographs of your work here.

Information on the inaugural exhibition from last year can be found here. Please specify dimensions and medium. We are open to anything; photographs, paintings, drawings, sculpture, models, films, notebooks, works in progress… this is an opportunity to have your work shown during National Science Week! We don’t want to tell you where the similarities are, but encourage you to show what you think putting Art and Science together can reveal.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: March 1st; Exhibition Date: Monday 9th March.

Musical - The Origin of Species

Saturday 14th March, 7.30pm, The Junction

Tangram Theatre present The Origin of Species by means of natural selection or the survival of (r)evolutionary theories in the face of scientific ecclesiastical objections: being a musical comedy about Charles Darwin (1809-1882).

A show for young and old alike, The Origin of Species... tells the incredible story of how Charles Darwin came to discover the secrets of evolution and why it took him over twenty years before he plucked up the courage to publish his remarkable idea. It’s a show packed with big ideas, terrible puns, brilliant physical comedy and six cracking original songs about everything from blasted boring barnacles to the perils of marrying your cousin. Edinburgh Fringe sell-out & international smash hit. Bring your monkeys!

Part of Cambridge Science Festival.

Recommended for ages 9+

Details here.

Workshop - Performing Laboratories

The Cambridge Interdisciplinary Performance Network and Civic Matter Faculty Research Group are holding an afternoon workshop entitled Performing Laboratories next Monday, 19th January. The event brings together speakers from Performance Studies, Visual Arts, Medicine, History, and Anthropology and includes keynote papers from Mike Pearson and Roger Kneebone, together with a panel on laboratories in Africa.

Contributors share an interest in science and performance. From the performance of landscape in contemporary archaeological excavation and  site-specific theatre, to taking seriously the operating theatre as a performative space by re-enacting 1970s surgical practices; from the well-marketed reality-TV thrills of contemporary emerging virus science, to the quiet stage of an abandoned research station in the rainforest, and its reanimation by aged protagonists, the participants will engage in a conversation about the contact zones of science and theatre, and the possibilities and pitfalls of performance, staging and re-enactment in the history and anthropology of science.

Further details, including the schedule of events, are available here.

Radio - Self Orbits CERN

Will Self goes on a 50-kilometre walking tour of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, just outside Geneva. Listen here.

Evolution - Cambridge University Dance Society show

Tue 20 - Sat 24 January 2015, ADC.

"Evolution. To develop, progress, metamorphose.

Join Cambridge University Dance Society for a kaleidoscopic evening of creative dance collaboration, featuring electric fusions of contemporary, ballet, Fosse, Charleston, hip-hop, Rock’n’Roll, ballroom, belly-dancing, folk-dancing, Indian and Bollywood."

Further details and booking here (ignore the quotation, falsely attributed to Charles Darwin!).

Oxford research seminars in literature, science and medicine - Hilary Term 2015

Tuesday 20 January 2015 (Week 1)
Alison Byerly, President of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania.
Virtuality and Presence: Victorian Media and the Attenuation of the Self
5.30 – 7.00, Seminar Room 1, St Anne’s College

Wednesday 4 February 2015 (Week 3)
Clare Pettitt, Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture, King’s College London
Mermaids, Cables and the Deep Sea: The Fin de Siècle and the Telegraphic Imaginary
5.30 – 7.00, Seminar Room 3, St Anne’s College

Wednesday 18 February 2015 (Week 5)
Laura Marcus, Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford
‘Rhythmics': The Work of Rhythm in the Nineteenth Century
5.30 – 7.00, Seminar Room 3, St Anne’s College

Tuesday 3 March 2015 (Week 7)
Bernard Lightman, Professor of Humanities, York University, Toronto
Lost in Translation: Scientific Naturalists and Their Language Games
5.30 – 7.00, Seminar Room 1, St Anne’s College

(from the litsciox blog)

Reproduction on Film - Outlaws

This term sees the fourth 'Reproduction on Film' series, 'Outlaws', organised by the 'Generation to Reproduction' group in the HPS department. Full details here.

CFP - Underwater Worlds

Underwater Worlds: Aquatic Visions in Art, Science and Literature

An interdisciplinary conference at the University of Oxford, 15-16 September 2015

See call for papers here.

Science & Education - special issue on Literature, Science and Science Education

The March 2014 issue of Science & Education can be found here.

Lent Term 2015 - A pair of plays

This term we will read a pair of plays which in different ways address the role and responsibilities of the man of science. Both readings are available in the University Library, and copies will also be placed at the beginning of term in the Whipple Library box file.

We meet at Darwin College on Monday evenings from 7.30–9pm. All are very welcome to join us!

9th February - Maxim Gorky, ‘Children of the Sun’ (1905)
Meet in the No.1 Newnham Terrace Upstairs Seminar Room

2nd March - Stephen Poliakoff, ‘Blinded by the Sun’ (1996)
Meet in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room