Twelve LMB scientists, from PhD student to Group Leader, have taken part in this year’s Cambridge Pint of Science, an annual festival that brings brilliant scientists to local pubs to discuss their latest research. Ten venues across Cambridge were filled with scientific chatter and discussion for three days during May, with LMB scientists involved in the organisation, publicity and co-ordination of the events, and as speakers.
Ross Hill, PhD student in the LMB’s PNAC Division, was one of the co-ordinators for the ‘Our Body’ themed talks at Pint of Science. Ross said, “I regularly get involved in school outreach programmes and public engagement events as I believe science is something we can all be interested in. But sometimes science has to be taken out of the classroom. Pint of Science allowed me to be involved in a public engagement movement on a much larger scale. Myself and several other volunteers, including Sophie Morgan (a postdoc in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division) who was ‘Team Leader’, organised the ‘Our Body’ talks at the Grain & Hop Store. Local scientists explained their research on a range of topics from the study of the immune system to the development of whole organisms. Our event lasted for three evenings with all tickets being sold. The scientists delivered wonderful talks and prompted much interest from the public.”
Pint of Science was established in 2012 by two research scientists at Imperial College London, with the aim of bringing scientists and their research out of the lab and to the public. This year the Pint of Science Festival took place in nearly three hundred cities across twenty-one countries and involved thousands of scientists. The festival offers a unique line-up of talks, demonstrations and live experiments and gives members of the public the opportunity to ask questions, take part in activities and quizzes.