BA Festival of Science - events

Details of the History of Science Section events at this year's BA Festival of Science in Liverpool (6th-11th September) are now available on the Section webpage.

Topics addressed this year include a Presidential session on 'Maritime Liverpool: Knowledge and Power'; 'Race Matters: Rethinking Race and Identity'; 'The Local and the Global: Liverpool and International Health'; and, on the schools programme, a role-play activity about 'The Business of Bodies'. Of particular interest to members of the Reading Group is the following session:

Science Fiction and You

Monday 8th September 2008, 3pm to 6.30pm
Hearnshaw Lecture Theatre, Eleanor Rathbone, University of Liverpool

This session is organised by The BA History of Science Section and the BA Education Section

We would like to thank the Science Museum Futureworld Project for their support.

Book here

Join us for an afternoon of science fiction as we explore its place in culture, education and science communication. What role does sci-fi play in public understanding of, and hopes and fears around, science? How can we use science fiction in education, and to stimulate productive public dialogue?

Science fiction author Stephen Baxter, popular science analyst Jon Turney and others explore the relationship between science fiction, science communication and education.

3pm

Jon Turney: ‘Can you believe anything you learn about science in science fiction?’

Science facts in science fiction may be reliable, but they don’t have to be. But what about other things might you learn about science from fiction?

3.45pm

Stephen Baxter: ‘Populating an Empty Heaven. How science fiction has shaped our expectations regarding life in the universe, from public intuition to the scientific search for extraterrestrial life.’

The modern depiction of Mars in science fiction began with HG Wells. Since Wells, fictional models of Mars and Martians have stimulated the aspirations of space engineers, and have informed public perceptions of the threats and opportunities afforded by extraterrestrial life. Science fiction visions have replaced divine visions of the cosmos.

4.30pm Tea Break

4.45pm

Panel Discussion.

Members of the audience are invited to discuss the day’s issues with our panellists, who will each speak for a few minutes about their involvement with Science Ficiton. Our two opening speakers, Jon Turney and Stephen Baxter will be joined by:

• Professor Steven French (University of Leeds): ‘Fictional Philosophies of Science in Science Fiction’
  Science fiction not only draws on, reflects and projects scientific theories, it also presents certain views of how these theories are discovered, how they are developed and how they are supported by experiment and observation - how, in other words, science works. Are these presentations accurate? Or do they conform to certain stereotypes, often promulgated by scientists themselves? And if so, does science fiction help or hinder our understanding of science?
• Katie Claydon-Park (Ryburn Valley High School): ‘Science Fact or Fiction?’
  How can science fiction films augment the delivery of Science in secondary schools? Katie Claydon-Park, Assistant Head teacher at Ryburn Valley High School is part of a team who hove developed imaginative approaches to the use of film to engage students and enhance the delivery of difficult topics.
• Dr David Kirby (University of Manchester): ‘Big Screen Science: Scientists’ Backstage Role in the Production of Hollywood Films’
  I will elaborate on the role science consultants play in turning scientific facts into plausible cinematic scenarios for Hollywood filmmakers.
• Dr Irene Lorenzoni (Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research): ‘Seeing or believing: does watching “The Day After Tomorrow” influence our views on climate change?’
  I will focus upon narratives of climate change presented in the film “The Day After Tomorrow” and examine how viewing of the film may influence people’s perceptions and actions.

Designing Darwin Competition

Many congratulations to Science and Literature Reading Group member Simon Crowhurst for winning the 19+ category in the British Society for the History of Science Outreach and Education Committee's 'Designing Darwin' competition with this image. For details of all of the competition winners, and to download Simon's drawing for your own use, see here. For the University of Cambridge press release, which includes Simon's response to winning the prize, see here.

Conference - History of Science in France and Great Britain

The History of Science in France and Great Britain. Cross-Perspectives.

The Maison Francaise d'Oxford and the History Faculty of the University of Oxford are pleased to invite you to a one-day conference on the history of science in France and Great Britain, on the 3rd of July 2008. Papers will be given in English. Further information can be found on the Maison Francaise website, at the following link: http://www.mfo.ac.uk/event. The conference includes a panel on science and literature:

LITERARY USES OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE

Chairman: Dr Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (University of Oxford, Saint Catherine's College)

Dr Frédérique AÏT-TOUATI (University of Paris Sorbonne/University of Oxford, New College)
The optics of fiction in Kepler's Somnium

Liliane CAMPOS (Maison Française d’Oxford, University of Paris Sorbonne)
"Mathematics on stage in Paris and London: a comparative study of Jean-François Peyret's *Le Cas de Sophie K.* and Complicite's *A Disappearing Number*

Various Modes of Cooking

As prepared by Mrs Beeton


Carrots in the German way,

Minced veal and macaroni.

Hashed partridges and jugged hare,

Hot crab and cucumbers.



Rolled loin of mutton, eel pie,

Veal pie (dish for a picnic).

Rich strong stock; medium stock;

Economical stock.



Sunderland gingerbread nuts

(an excellent recipe).

Rich bride, crimped cod, fried smelts, gruel.

Suckling pig, bullock’s heart.



Hodge-podge and Yarmouth Bloaters –

Red herrings – useful soup for

Benevolent purposes.

Universal pickle.

Clinical Signs

Found suppurating in D.J. Taylor, 'Pig Diseases' (4th edition)


A common inhabitant of the nasal

cavity of pigs, the organism grows

on MacConkey agar. No alternative

hosts of the organism are known.



Coughing is obvious when the animals

are disturbed. One or more animals in a

pen may be affected severely. Outbreaks

of sneezing occur in baby pigs.



Affected pigs appear hairy and growth may

be depressed. In severe cases they may scream

or walk on their knees. Short snouts may occur.

The role of vectors is uncertain.


Dead animals are usually in good

Condition. The spleen kidney and a long bone

should be submitted for examination.

Rodents should be eliminated.

Energy Flux at Earth

Observed slowly rotating in Binney and Merrifield, 'Galactic Astronomy'

The mean metallicity

of the stars: proper motion,

accepted distance, richness,

class, magnitude, position.

They will probably suffer.



It can be advantageous

To turn the procedure round.

We can use standard candles,

Plenty of cosmic rays and

Lots of cool gas, energy,

A source of noise, unity,

Rotating components and

Even vertex deviation.

Mistle-Thrush

Found nesting in T.A. Coward, ‘British Birds and Their Eggs’ (1920)


Early in the year when
The weather is broken
The bird perches high on a tall tree
And in exultant and ringing song
Defies the elements

Into the Microscope

Spied through 'A Popular Handbook to the Microscope' (1895)

Get the best stand you can, and remember
The double nosepiece is the most useful.
Join the Queckett Microscopical Club.
Learn to judge the sharpness of the image
And use no greater power than required.
Exquisite lilies start into being
Thin slices of the cuticle of leaves
Diatoms in equi-angular forms
And proper water-fleas or Daphniae
Marvellous changes in appearances
The eye needs educating as the hands
There is such desire to look into things
Bring it close to the eye and it blots out
Almost all we can see of earth and heaven

The Poetic Process

This year’s meetings were brought to a close with a wonderful poetry-writing workshop on Monday 9th June, led by Katy Price.

Katy introduced the session by commenting how she would have liked to have discovered more about the collaborative process behind Crawford’s Contemporary Poetry and Contemporary Science: how such works as Kinloch’s ‘The Organ Bath’ were crafted and drafted, unseating scientific vocabulary and ideas and making them do poetic work; becoming self-reflective as language was recruited to perform scientific functions. Attention to the activity of writing (and rewriting) poetry, she pointed out, also parallels the increased emphasis on communicating scientific methods, processes, and practices to wider audiences, as well as detailing experimental findings. She discusses this in more detail in her review of the volume for the BSLS website.

The workshop then gave us the chance to experience one particular poetic process ourselves, writing ‘found poetry’ from field guides and reference works. It was based on a similar seminar given by David Morley at the Poetry School in March 2007. Our chosen structure was syllabics: for inspiration in this relaxed form of verse, something of a half-way house between metre and free verse, we listened to Thom Gunn’s ‘Considering the Snail’. Diving into an eclectic range of texts, we tackled subjects including pig disease and microscopy, astrophysics and chordate evolution, birds and badgers, ending up with a wide range of styles, lengths, and approaches. Some examples of what we managed to ‘find’ in just over an hour’s searching should be appearing on the blog soon.

BSHS Dingle Prize Lecture - Elegant Solutions

Elegant Solutions - the BSHS Dingle Prize Lecture

Royal Institution, London

Thursday 10 July 2008, 7.00pm-8.30pm

Lecturer: Dr Philip Ball

Scientists frequently talk about 'beauty' in their work, but rarely stop to
think quite what they mean by it. What makes an experiment beautiful? Is it the
clarity of the design? The elegance of the apparatus? The nature of the
knowledge gained? There have been several recent attempts to identify
'beautiful' experiments in science, especially in physics. But Philip Ball
argues that, not only is chemistry often neglected in these surveys, but it has
its own special kinds of beauty, linked to the fact that it is a branch of
science strongly tied to the art of making things: new molecules and materials,
new smells and colours. He offers suggestions for ten particularly beautiful
experiments in chemistry, taken from his recent book Elegant solutions: Ten
Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2005).

This talk marks the book's receipt of the 2007 Dingle Prize for communicating
the history of science and technology from the British Society for the History
of Science.

Tickets cost £8, £6 concessions and £4 for RI Members.