Incredible Machines and the Royal Society
350 years ago, the founding of the Royal Society marked the end of the old superstitions and the beginning of the new science. What a revelation it was when Newton proved that the laws of physics which worked on Earth also applied throughout the heavens. The whole Universe was a great, big, incredible machine.
Newton’s ‘toys’ (his scientific models) will be on display at Bright Sparks, recreated and demonstrated by Jonathan Hare. And your whole family can have a go at making things, from bees homes to wind turbines to cars to spaghetti towers, at the Family Fun weekend. In fact there will be lots of incredible things there to kick off your half term at the start of the Festival. Saturday and Sunday, Feb 13-14
At the other end of the Festival ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ will reveal the very latest discoveries, that all the complexities of life, from the snapdragon’s flower to the chanting of a football crowd, is due to a few simple laws. Even evolution is an incredible machine. 28th Feb.
Andrea Sella gives us a preview of this on Big Science Saturday. In ‘How the Zebra Got its Stripes' he demonstrates how the patterns of nature – the leopard’s spots, the zebra’s stripes, even the regular beat of the heart -- can be created by simple laboratory processes, live on stage. Feb 27th.
The exhibition in the Jubilee Library shows how amazing we are – 'Microbes and Me', 7-25th Feb.
What happens when our machine falters? The Lions Face, an opera about Alzheimers, will premier at the Brighton Arts Festival later in the year. We hold a seminar on the condition and how the writing and composing was achieved, illustrated with extracts of the opera. Sunday Feb 27th.
The romantic poet Keats hated science, denouncing Newton’s experiments into the spectrum as 'unweaving the rainbow'. He was wide of the mark. Far from removing the magic and mystery of nature by unravelling the spectrum, we have added to it. Beyond the ends of visible light we have found vast new visions of the cosmos. We can celebrate Hubble’s 20th birthday this year with a billion trillion new candles on the cake – the new stars that Hubble has discovered. ‘Unweave the Rainbow’ on Wednesday 24th.
You can develop your machine-making skills at the weekend Skills Swaps, Feb 20-21st.
Or watch the malicious machines chew up the human soul in Terry Gilliam's masterpiece, Brazil. Sunday Feb 21st.
What about that famously huge Large Hadron Collider? The biggest machine in the world, searching for the smallest particle in the Universe. By Big Science Saturday Tom Whyntie, who is working on the LHC, may have something to report. But, as he points out, if there is nothing to report, then that in itself tells us something… The Hero of Zero, Feb 27th.
Did you believe any of that? Don't forget ...
TAKE NOBODY’S WORD FOR IT!
That was the Royal Society’s motto – a challenge to make us all sit up and think. At the Festival we find a healthy scepticism all over town.
Robert Winston wonders whether many of the inventions we celebrate were actually Bad Ideas. Weapons? no doubt. The atom bomb? Absolutely. But what about agriculture, medicine and writing? Robert argues his case cogently on Monday the 22nd.
Polly Toynbee addresses the government’s inability to be advised by its own scince advisers, in the aftermath of Professor David Nutt’s sacking, at Big Science Saturday, Feb 27th.
Members of the Flat Earth Society, past and present, are exposed at the Catalyst Club on Tuesday 23rd.
In various cosy pubs around Brighton people will be 'taking nobody's word for it' through the fortnight: Skeptics-in-the-Pub, Philosophy-in-Pubs, the Catalyst Club, Café Scientifique, encourage debate about what is right and what is wrong. In the Energy Debate we let off steam about wind turbines, climate change, Copenhagen, etc
The original name for scientists was ‘natural philosophers’. Perhaps we should restore that title.
To find out more about the Royal Society, head over to their website by clicking here.
