Inspirational talk with finger buffet and hot drinks

Crocodiles once roamed the Arctic, during the Eocene about 50 million years ago. Polar regions were lush and warm. Greenhouse gas concentrations were higher than today, but at most about 4 times higher – not enough, according to current climate models, to have warmed the Arctic sufficiently. Something appears to be missing in current models to account for the warmth of the past.

The likely culprits are clouds, especially the low clouds that cover vast areas of tropical oceans. These clouds cool Earth by reflecting sunlight back to space. It is possible that the cloud cooling may have been absent or strongly diminished in past greenhouse climates, raising questions about our climate future. To predict our climate future more accurately, breakthroughs in the modeling of clouds and in the accuracy of climate predictions are needed. They are now within reach, thanks to advances in computing and Earth observations from space and our ability to fuse models with massive amounts of data.

An amusing talk and exploration of AI and the future of technology. Is the future more absurd than comedians can imagine? Will a driver-less BMW still cut you up? What do we do when a human doesn’t pass the Turing test? Computers have beaten chess masters but can they beat comedians?

We cannot end poverty without ending energy poverty. Ever since the world’s first power plants whirred to life in 1882, we have seen how electricity is the lynchpin for development in all of its forms.

Manufacturing and industrial productivity, agriculture and food security, nutrition, hygiene, water, public health, education, even community engagement, in other words, daily life in a modern economy, demand access to reliable energy.

And yet despite significant progress over nearly 140 years, more than 800 million people around the world live without access to electricity, and hundreds of millions more struggle with unreliable or unaffordable service. Families are deprived of the means to labour productively and their quality of life and status in extreme poverty goes unchanged.

We need urgently to fast-track sustainable power solutions, investments, and partnerships across the globe to catalyze an energy transformation and accelerate sustainable, reliable and modern electrification for economic development.

Join astrophysicist Becky Smethurst on a whistle-stop tour through space, stopping off to explore everything you need to know about the universe. Guiding you through the galaxies, explaining the mysteries of black holes, dark matter and what existed before the Big Bang. She provides evidence as to whether we really are alone and highlighting what we still have to learn. If you have big questions about space or just want to expand your mind join Becky as she provides us with some answers.

Becky’s book Space: 10 things you should know will be available to buy on the night and she will be signing.

‘Bite-sized, cutting edge science delivered with enormous enthusiasm – all you need to travel the cosmos’ CHRIS LINTOTT

Dr Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist and research fellow at the University of Oxford. Her current research is trying to answer the question ‘How do galaxies and black holes evolve together?’. Her Youtube channel Dr. Becky, where she explains unsolved mysteries, weird objects found in space and general space news each week, has 46k subscribers and counting. She also presents physics videos for YouTube channel Sixty Symbols and astronomy videos for Deep Sky Videos. She was shortlisted for the Institute of Physics Early Career Physics Communicator Award and was named Audience Winner of the UK National Final of the FameLab 2014 Competition.

Kajal Odedra has always been passionate about helping other people affect change.
She is Executive Director of Change.Org and author of ‘Do Something: Activism for Everyone’. Change.org is the world’s largest petition platform with 15 million UK users and 200 million globally.

We are delighted to be hosting a very special event with Randall Munroe at the Sheldonian Theatre on his latest book How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Real World Problems.

For any task you might want to do, there’s a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It’s full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.

Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you’re a baby boomer or a millennial by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the moon. And if you want to get rid of this book once you’re done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapour, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth’s mantle, or launching it into the sun.

By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn’t just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, he invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.

Randall Munroe is a former NASA roboticist, scientific theorist and creator of global online phenomenon xkcd. He is the author of best-selling books What If? and Thing Explainer.

Tickets for this event are £8 or £22 for a ticket and book bundle. Please note, the books will not be pre-signed, but Randall will be signing after the talk. Seating in the Sheldonian is unreserved and allocated on a first come, first served basis. For more information please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

In this book talk the Author, Carl Benedikt Frey, will discuss how the Industrial Revolution was a defining moment in history, but how few grasped its enormous consequences at the time. Now that we are in the midst of another technological revolution how can the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present?

This talk will be followed by a book sale, signing and drinks reception. All welcome.

Astrophysics is the science of the stars, and more widely the science of the Universe. During this stellar event, Prof James Binney will present extracts from his Very Short Introduction to Astrophysics (OUP). You will learn about the rapid expansion of the field in the last century, with vast quantities of data gathered by telescopes exploiting all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the great advance of computing power, which has allowed increasingly effective mathematical modelling.

Data-driven micro-targeted campaigns have become a main stable of political strategy. As personal and societal data becomes more accessible, we need to understand how it can be used and mis-used in political campaigns and whether it is relevant to regulate political candidates’ access to data.

This book talk will be followed by a drinks reception and book sale, all welcome

Visual Artist Dr Clair Chinnery interprets the ‘shapeshifting’ capabilities of human bodies as they emerge, grow, mature and die, informed by the physical materials left behind when such changes occur. With Digital Developer Gerard Helmich she has produced giant 3D printed sculptures of infant milk teeth and has also collaborated with the Parkinson’s Brain Bank at Imperial College London, working with microscopic images of diseased neurons. Discover how this ‘autoethnographic’ project reaches forwards and backwards in time, considering the irretrievable pasts and unknowable futures of ‘intergenerational’ experiences.

This is the 100 year journey to fusion: an award-winning documentary that follows the story of dedicated fusion scientists working to build a small sun on Earth, which would unleash perpetual, cheap, clean energy for mankind.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A session featuring fusion researchers.

UPP Members receive a further £2 off listed prices.

This film is rated 15.

Grab a pint and join us for a cabaret with a difference as six stellar acts take you out of this world with their entertaining riffs on life at the edge of existence. From outer space to the dinosaurs, we’ll be rocketing through a medley of music, comedy and creativity that’ll keep you weightless with laughter all night. If you love science, solar systems and stand up, this cabaret should be right up your Milky Way.

Featuring Chris Lintott (BBC Sky at Night), Lucy Rogers (Robot Wars) and many more.

This event is part of the IF Oxford Science and Ideas Festival 18-28 October 2019. IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation when you book.

There may be tickets available on the door – spaces may be reallocated if ticket holders are late.

IF Oxford science and ideas festival 18-28 October #IFOx2019

In this fascinating and accessible overview, renowned paleontologist Michael J. Benton reveals how our understanding of dinosaurs is being transformed by recent fossil finds and new technology. Secrets locked in prehistoric bones including the colour of dinosaurs, the force of their bite, their top speeds, and even how they cared for their young have now been revealed. Will we ever be able to bring them back to life? Although extinct, dinosaurs are still very much a part of our world.

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

Big data and AI are starting to feature in cancer research today, and will will play an even greater role in the future. Join researchers from Cancer Research UK to discover the technologies and methods they use to help find, prevent and treat cancer, and what big ideas they have for the future.

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

Scientists need your help! As we get more information about the Universe, we risk becoming overwhelmed but – as Oxford astronomer Chris Lintott explains in his new book, you can help. Hear from Oxford scientists who have worked with volunteers to find planets, and to count penguins, and even hunt aliens.

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

Blackwell’s are delighted to be joined by astrophysicist and YouTuber, Dr Becky Smethurst on her first book, Space: 10 Things You Should Know.

Synopsis

Written by Oxford astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst and composed of ten simple essays, this title guides you swiftly through the galaxies, explaining the mysteries of black holes, dark matter and what existed before the Big Bang, presenting the evidence as to whether we really are alone, illuminating what we still don’t know, and much more besides. If you have big questions about Space, this volume will provide you with the answers in an engaging and succinct way.

Becky Smethurst is a research fellow at Christ Church College, Oxford with a special interest in how galaxies and their central supermassive black holes evolve together. She is also a science communicator through her YouTube channel, Dr. Becky, which has over 45,500 followers.

This event is free, but please do register if you plan on attending. For more information please call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Join Erín Moure for a workshop on translating poetry, part of the QTE Residency and Poets Translating Poets series.

You will learn about the movement of meaning across languages, and how it’s not just dictionaries that determine meaning, but also cadence and structure.
Foreign language knowledge is not essential. Curiosity is the big prerequisite..

Sign up on the Eventbrite page to register!

Join us to learn about the progress being made in biomaterials, the next generation of innovative solutions that aim to tackle current health challenges, and what it takes to start your own venture. The event will feature talks from two prominent individuals, Dr Nick Skaer (CEO of Orthox) and Dr Nick Edwards (Co-Founder of MedInnovate and Chairman of Satie8). Dr Skaer has over 25 years’ experience in life science and materials research, and 14 years as a medtech CEO, raising over £18m. Dr Edwards has over 30 years’ experience in supporting pharmaceutical companies as ex- Global Lead of Accenture’s Pharmaceutical R&D business and current Chairman of Prescient Healthcare Group. He is a Founder of MedInnovate and an investor and supporter of life-science start-ups as well as current Chairman of Satie8.

There will be a networking & drinks reception after the event.

The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today on:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-next-generation-of-medical-devices-tickets-76955848013

The Night Sky Show will take you on an epic journey from our celestial back yard and across the cosmos.

Comedy, astronomy and so much more. A show for anyone with a slight interest or more in the night sky. A night for those who want to laugh, learn and enjoy.

A fun, entertaining and memorable evening which will help you understand and enjoy the heavens above and universe beyond. Helpful for the next time you’re stargazing, or when you just look up and wonder.

We’ll skip the heavy going science and hard to follow explanations. The Universe and everything within will be presented in an entertaining and easily absorbed way.

AN AMAZING SHOW FOR EVERYONE

This won’t be a boring astronomy talk, it will be a spectacular astronomy talk anyone can enjoy!

Learn about the constellations, stars, planets and the deeper cosmos. The sheer scale of the universe and the mythology and stories of the night sky.

Presented by Adrian West – A passionate and experienced astronomer. Better known as VirtualAstro on Twitter and Facebook. He has one of the largest independent astronomy and space accounts on social media. He’s passionate about the night sky and inspiring people to look up by being interesting, down-to-earth and fun!

Adrian has written many astronomy and space related articles for various popular online science magazines. He has also written guides and articles for the BBC, Met office and National Trust to name a few.

If you look up and wonder, The Night Sky Show is for you.

SO LETS EXPLORE!

This is an exclusive event brought to you by the SIU in partnership with the Oxford Pharmacology Society. The application of big data and genomics in healthcare is vast, with tremendous opportunities to revolutionise current methods of diagnosing and treating diseases. Although, patient specific data is a powerful tool that can accelerate the development and translation of novel drugs and therapeutics, there are limitations to overcome. This event will take a closer look at the role of industries, academics, clinicians and healthcare policy makers in encouraging the translation of ideas into real-world solutions and the challenges within each sector. To discuss this, we will be hosting Dr Jeffrey Barrett (CSO and Director of Genomics Plc), Dr Michelle van Velthoven (Sir David Cooksey Fellow in Healthcare Translation at the University of Oxford) and Dr Amitava Banerjee (Associate Professor in Clinical Data Science at University College London).
The event will be on the 20th November at 17h30pm – 19h00, in the Department of Pharmacology. There will be a free networking & drinks reception after the event.
The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pharma-and-big-data-the-healthcare-revolution-tickets-80628276345

Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom meets Modern Psychology in the Contemporary World
Willem Kuyken
University of Oxford

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Dr Matt Perkins, CEO of Oxford University Innovation, describes how Oxford University’s technology and research commercialisation company has helped launch over 150 spinout companies.. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

New technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines.

In the past, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. Yet in A World Without Work, Daniel Susskind shows why this time really is different. Advances in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.

Susskind will argue that machines no longer need to reason like us in order to outperform us. Increasingly, tasks that used to be beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts – are now within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is real.

So how can we all thrive in a world with less work? Susskind will remind us that technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of mankind’s oldest problems: making sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenge will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the centre of our lives.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, book sale and signing, all welcome.

Inspiring talk with hot drinks and buffet.

Do you want to improve your digital security? Do you keep putting it off? We’re a group of cybersecurity researchers and activists, and we want to help you access free tools and resources to protect your data. Join us for a *free*, practical, hands-on workshop exploring how digital security affects your life. This project is a form of “action research”—a type of research which combines research with activism to understand a problem and find solutions. In other words, we want cybersecurity to be more open, fair, and inclusive, and we’re “learning by doing.”

No prior experience or knowledge of cybersecurity required! As a feminist organisation, we want to *reconfigure* the assumption that digital security is for technical experts only. While the workshop is open to all, we particularly welcome women and other groups which are underrepresented in cybersecurity discussions.

Pizza and drinks will be provided!

Presenting 101 is an interactive workshop designed to help you flex your presenting muscles. Whether you have been presenting to the public for a long time or have just started, this workshop will help you hone the skills you need to be able to perfect your style and adapt to different situations. Presenting 101 also gives you the opportunity to network with other presenters in your local area, so you can share your best and worst practice. There will also be an opportunity to explore the exhibits in our brand new science centre!

The session will consist of a one hour facilitated workshop followed by a one-hour facilitated group discussion.

PLEASE NOTE: This event is open to members of The Presenter Network only. If you are not a member, but are actively involved in presenting in museums, science and discovery centres, visitor centres, educational institutes, other public spaces and in the media, you can join for FREE here: https://scienceoxford.com/the-presenter-network/

What’s it like to be haunted? Writer Jay Bernard’s augmented reality installation explores this question – unpicking how we can be haunted by our histories and our everyday lives.

Listen to a reading while exploring alternative realities in an AR experience that looks at how the past and present are closely linked.

The installation is based on their debut collection, ‘Surge’, which considered the aftermath of the 1981 New Cross Fire. Jay Bernard is the winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work Poetry and has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize.

Part of The Think Human Festival
Everyone welcome

One estimate suggests that $2.3trillion was invested in infrastructure worldwide last year.

That vast investment has provided roads, power plants, mobile phone networks, dams and recycling plants. Whether those investments have been sustainable is questionable.

As well as providing essential services that people need, infrastructure too often locks in carbon emissions, fragments habitats and opens them up for exploitation, appropriates land and exacerbates inequalities. In many respects, choices about infrastructure investment are a remarkable point of leverage, when the future course of development is set, literally, in concrete.Too often these decisions are subject to political patronage, rent seeking and worse.

This lecture will examine the many impacts that infrastructure can have on sustainable development, for better or for worse. Professor Hall will share experiences of establishing long-term plans for sustainable infrastructure in many countries around the world.

Part of the Oxford Martin School Lecture Series: ‘Shaping the future’

It’s such a strange experience: you’re in the place you want to be, researching a topic of great interest to you, you have time and space for research that senior academics often envy, and yet for (sometimes long) periods of time, you find yourself able to do almost anything other than your research.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone! Come along to this meet-up to try to put your finger on what’s triggering your procrastination, and to develop and commit to a personalised approach to addressing it.

Series background

As PhD and early career researchers, we all have ups and downs. If and when the downs get very bad, it might become clear to us that we need support. But there’s a world of space between being happy and fulfilled in our work, and that point at which we might, finally, admit there’s a problem and seek help.

Many – perhaps even most – researchers are working in that space. Most of us live with conditions and experiences that can have profound impacts on our capacities as researchers.

Experiences like imposter syndrome and academic anxieties are incredibly common. Common enough that we should be talking about them. A lot. So why the silence?

The Thriving Researcher is a new initiative that creates space and time for researchers to come together and break the silence. We’ll be building an inclusive community, discussing our shared experiences, and learning how to work – and how to thrive – in the face of challenges that can feel overwhelming and isolating.

These are free, informal, supportive events, with a focus on validating your experiences, reflecting on your responses to common challenges, and arming you with practical tips and tools to help you feel better equipped to do what you do best.