It all takes place in the Westfields Shopping Centre and will run all day.

Everyone who attends will be entitled to receive a free e-book of ghoulish Halloween experiments they can perform at home.

The Jonty Farmer Science Pub Quiz is…

a) A farmer
b) A pub
c) A quiz

If you answered a) or b) then DON’T BOTHER coming to our science-themed pub quiz at 9 pm on Thursday 31 March.

If you answered c) then you will pay only £1 entrance fee and you could win a great prize (something both biological and topical – can you guess what it is?)

And of course you will have a hell of a lot of fun!

Register for your free drinks voucher at http://www.jontyfarmerpub.co.uk/

Organised by the Derbyshire Branch of the British Science Association.

We are all living longer, but is this a good or a bad thing? Does the quality of an extended life always match its length? What is causing longevity to increase and what future changes can we expect?

This is your chance to let policy makers know what you think about our ageing society. The results from this discussion will be fed into a database which will be made available to officials and politicians when they seek for formulate new policies.

Jane Seymour is the Sue Ryder Care Professor of Palliative and End of Life Studies at the University of Nottingham. She will be summarising the current situation, explaining why we are living longer, and using her experience to make some educated guesses about where future trends might be leading us.

After a break for supper you will then have a chance to express your point of view and discuss these issues with others. Finally you will be able to record your views which will then be input into the SciDemocracy database. This will be retained and act as a resource for future policy makers.

Who should attend?

This event will be of interest to members of the public, especially those who are ageing or have elderly relatives, as well as social and palliative care workers involved with the elderly.

How To Book

Visit http://livinglonger.eventbrite.com/

The event is free. Voluntary contributions invited to cover cost of refreshments and supper.

Venue and Date

18:15, Tue 22 March

Quad
Market Place
Cathedral Quarter
Derby
DE1 3AS

SciDemocracy

This event is part of a pilot aiming to design a mechanism by which members of the public attending a science event can feed back their views to policy-makers and help influence the future of science. The pilot project is looking at ‘Human Development’ – the ethical issues surrounding the influence of science and technology on the future of humanity.

The SciDemocracy project is run by Sciencewise, the British Science Association and Dialogue By Design.

It all took place in the Westfields Shopping Centre and ran all day. As well as providing entertainment, inspiration and a little science education for hundreds of children (and their parents) the event produced an astonishing 89 new members for the Branch!

Many thanks to all those who took part!

The Human Factors Research Group at the University of Nottingham are experts in this field and they will be hosting a free discussion and demonstration on human factors of transport systems organised by the British Science Association at 15:00 on Tuesday 15 June 2010.

Intelligent Infrastructure, environmental sustainability in rail, and the Horizon car sharing project are some of the topics that will be discussed in this session. You will also have the chance to visit the train simulator in the Human Factors Transport Simulation laboratory.

Places are strictly restricted so please book your place by emailing
philip.brown@britishscienceassociation.org
or telephone 024 76 71 72 75

When an enormous interactive model, demonstrating the principal behind the construction of the Forth Bridge was delivered, we knew we were under starter’s orders to begin our NSEW event!

Construction Day was designed to get people in Derbyshire thinking about Bridges (and have some fun along the way) in advance of he Bridging the Gap Exhibition opening at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery in April. As part of the exhibition the museum had already been working with STEMPOINT on a schools competition to design and build a large interactive bridge to form the centrepiece of the show. Through our ongoing contact with schools we were able to distribute a large number of posters and fliers (see attached) and were therefore looking forward to a busy day.

Lawrie Peck, our contact from STEMPOINT, arrived on Saturday morning with a car loaded with equipment, including a vast array of construction materials. Assisted by his son George we unloaded and spread out a dozen boxes of assorted k’nex components, a large, inviting pile of Lego and other, more basic, construction bits and pieces based around rolled paper, nuts and bolts, dowelling and elastic bands. Lawrie also bought two large hands-on interactives that demonstrated how to make an arched stone bridge and a suspension bridge.

When everything was laid out all we had to do was wait. At 11.00 we were quickly swamped and in the first hour we had almost 150 visitors, mainly made up of family groups with primary school aged children. The visitors were mainly from the local area, but we also welcomed families from across the county and as far a field as Belper, Ashbourne, Chesterfield and Duffield. Lawrie demonstrated a way of making your own construction kit simply by rolling A4 paper, punching a hole at each end of the roll and bolting the pieces together. Throughout the day, this low-tech approach to construction proved just as popular as the familiar plastic kits and many parents said they would try this method at home.

Although we attempted to get people to follow the basic theme of bridges, with a dinosaur exhibition still on in the main exhibition gallery we inevitably got a variety of strange creatures and subjects like Harry Potter and Transformers were obviously in some of the children’s minds. At lunch time, Lawrie and I were joined by Ed, an engineer from the County Council Environmental Services Department, who has been working on the schools project. Ed was able to demonstrate some of his bridge building skills and also help with a competition. As participants were not allowed to take their constructions home, people were encouraged to be photographed with what they had made. Ed has agreed to judge the constructions and two age group prizes of K’Nex kits will be awarded to the best entries. There will also be a number of consolation prizes.

By three o’clock, when Construction Day finished, we had welcomed 408 visitors. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves, and if there was a criticism, it was that there was simply not enough space and equipment. The NSEW event seems to have been a great success and shows what can be achieved with a small amount of money, a simple idea and plenty of imagination!

This event was supported by an East Midlands National Science and Engineering Week Grant

The Derbyshire Branch of the British Science Association are working with Derby City Council in running a series of events during National Science and Engineering Week.

The events are based largely at local libraries across the city.

Saturday 20th March 10am to 4pm: Our Big Science Day

Saturday 20th March 7pm to 9pm: Who Dunnit
A “Who Dunnit” family workshop with real evidence and analysis suitable for adults, young people and children of all ages.  You will be divided into teams of 5 or 6 and each team will become a of crime scene investigators with a separate crime scene to examine.
Venue: Central Library
Cost: Free

Food allergy affects around 5% of children and the incidence has increased dramatically in recent years.  There is currently no cure for food allergy and management is restricted to avoidance of the implicated food and emergency treatment of symptoms caused by accidental ingestion.  The constant vigilance required to avoid food allergens has a huge impact on the daily lives of patients and their families.

This talk will cover the issues faced by families living with food allergy and review the latest research focusing on the quality of life of patients and their families.  Ways in which quality of life is currently being assessed will be discussed alongside possible methods of improving quality of life for those living with food allergy.

13^th October 2009
18:45 to 20:00
Room N103
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby
DE22 1GB

Prof. Greg O’Hare, Retired Professor of Geography

Will the UK be frozen or fried over the next few years? Our ideas about the Gulf Stream collapse and the future of our climate are radically changing.

Come and hear climate expert Professor O’Hare explain how and why current thinking is in as much turmoil as the climate itself.

22nd September 2009
18:45 to 20:00
Room B122
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby
DE22 1GB

Prof. Trevor Brown, Department of Biology, Forensic and Sport

The flow of time is relentless; our lives pass by as remorselessly as a ticking clock. As we age our memories dim and important occasions in our lives can no longer be recalled and fade from view. In more recent times events have been recorded in written documents; how factually correct are these and how can we glimpse pre-historic cultures?

Objects, artefacts and buildings have memories; they are more truthful than written documents, but how can we ‘read’ them without corrupting the information that they contain? Materials will some times share their bibliographic secrets with us, but we have to be ethically disciplined in our approach so that future generations will be able repeat the process with more sophisticated technology.

1st September 2009
18:45 to 20:00
Room B122
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby
DE22 1GB