logo
Guildford pubs to help host national science festival

Guildford pubs to help host national science festival

BBC News19-05-2025

A national science festival for researchers to share their discoveries is coming to a string of pubs in an area of Surrey.Pint of Science is taking place across the UK, including in Guildford, from Monday night until Wednesday.More than 15 scientists are to discuss topics including health, AI and the environment at pubs in the town.The non-profit festival, which launched in 2012, said its aim was to give a space to researchers and the public to talk about research in a relaxed environment outside of "mysterious laboratories or daunting dark lecture theatres".
Seven presentations are being held in Guildford as part of the event, at The Star, Pews Bar and Courtyard, and The Green Room in Wates House at the University of Surrey.Pint of Science is being held in 42 towns and cities across the UK, including Exeter, Cardiff, Belfast and Aberdeen.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Exhibition of prehistoric Giants to make UK debut
Exhibition of prehistoric Giants to make UK debut

The Independent

time4 hours ago

  • The Independent

Exhibition of prehistoric Giants to make UK debut

An exhibition of giant prehistoric animals will make its UK debut this year. Giants, developed by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and toured by Nomad Exhibitions, will open at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery on August 2. It will then move to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh in January 2026. The exhibition focuses on creatures such as the woolly mammoth, which roamed the Earth after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Giants spans a period of 66 million years to the present day, and highlights the need to protect existing giant species such as elephants and whales. It features life-sized 3D models and nearly complete skeletons, including giant shark Otodus megalodon; the Mammuthus primigenius or woolly mammoth, which weighed between six and eight tonnes; and Gigantopithecus blacki, an Asian primate the size of three orangutans. Visitors of all ages are encouraged to step into the shoes of palaeontologists and biologists, using interactive resources and engaging with the scientific processes behind fossil discovery and reconstruction. Immersive projections recreate the natural habitats of previous giant species, providing context to their existence and extinction. The exhibition also warns of the threat of extinction posed to elephants, rhinoceroses and whales and the 'urgent need' to protect endangered species. The announcement coincides with World Environment Day on Thursday, which this year is focused on ending plastic pollution. Zak Mensah and Sara Wajid, co-chief executives of Birmingham Museums Trust, said: 'We are delighted to welcome the Giants exhibition to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. 'This inspiring installation not only captures the imagination with its monumental scale but also delivers a vital message about sustainability and our shared responsibility to protect the planet. 'Birmingham Museums is committed to using storytelling to engage communities with the challenges of our time and Giants does exactly that in a powerful and accessible way.' Dr Nick Fraser, keeper of Natural Sciences at National Museums Scotland, said: 'We're really looking forward to bringing Giants to Scotland next year. 'Popular attention on prehistoric life tends to focus either on dinosaurs or on our own earliest human ancestors, which leaves a relatively neglected gap of around 60 million years of natural history. 'Giants is a striking invitation to us all to think about that period, to see how nature adapts over time, and also to reflect on the ways in which current human activity is denying that time to today's endangered giants.'

The British military base preparing for war in space
The British military base preparing for war in space

Telegraph

time5 hours ago

  • Telegraph

The British military base preparing for war in space

In a fake village in Buckinghamshire, several members of Space Command are huddled around a computer screen watching a foreign missile approach to a Ministry of Defence communications satellite. It is just an exercise, but it is a scenario that is increasingly worrying military chiefs, who fear space is now the most important theatre of war. Modern life is largely space-based, with satellites controlling everything from EasyJet flight plans to Amazon deliveries and army advances. Taking out satellites would cripple society. Russia took down the country's satellite communications just hours before it began the land invasion. China and Russia have also both tested anti-satellite missiles, while Moscow is allegedly developing a programme to arm some of its satellites with nuclear warheads, meaning it could destroy enemy networks while in orbit. In recognition of this new orbital battlefield, Space Command was established at RAF High Wycombe in 2021, to 'protect and defend' UK interests in space, and is now home to the UK Space Operations Centre, which was officially opened by government ministers this week. The RAF base is the former headquarters of Bomber Command, a military unit responsible for strategic bombing during the Second World War. With its winding streets, faux church towers and manor house office blocks, was designed to look like a quintessential Home Counties village, should the Luftwaffe be passing over. The Bomber Command logo 'Strike Hard, Strike Sure' has been replaced with Space Command's 'Ad Stellas Usque' – Latin for 'up to the stars'. Where Bomber Harris's team had its eyes fixed firmly on the ground, Space Command's gaze is now turned skywards. Maria Eagle, minister for defence procurement, who helped open the operations centre this week, said: 'From a national security point of view, space is a contested and congested and competitive domain, and we need to make sure, as our adversaries advance their capabilities, that we're able to deal with what that throws up.' She added: 'It's an extension of the more earthbound worries that we've got. The usual kind of things that you worry about on Earth, it's just extended upwards, because that's now a domain that is as important as land, sea or air to the potential of war-fighting or defending national security. 'The National Space Operations Centre does vital work in monitoring and protecting our interests. It's a recognition of the fact that our adversaries are active there, and we need to know what's going on.' Although the United States performed the first anti-satellite tests in 1959, space warfare has largely been consigned to Hollywood and science fiction until recently. Fears began to ramp up in January 2007, when China shot down one of its own ageing weather satellites with a ballistic missile creating a cloud of space junk, which is still causing problems. In November 2021, Russia conducted its own direct-ascent anti-satellite test, destroying the Soviet intelligence satellite Kosmos-1408, and generating a debris field that forced astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter. However it is not just anti-satellite missiles that are causing concern. According to the latest Space Threat Assessment, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, nations are developing evermore elaborate space weapons. These weapons include electro-magnetic pulses, microwaves and lasers to fry electronics, dazzlers to blind optical sensors, and grapplers to latch on to satellites and pull them out of orbit. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea all have the capability of jamming and hijacking satellite signals and launching cyber attacks. A 10-second delay in Google Chrome loading may seem like a domestic internet glitch, but bad actors could also be behind it, Space Command has warned. 'Counter-space arsenal' Space Command is particularly worried about China, which in the past year has launched increasingly advanced and highly-manoeuvrable satellites for purposes that remain unclear. CSIS believes Beijing may be creating a ' formidable on-orbit counter-space arsenal ' and that manoeuvrability testing is allowing Chinese operators to develop 'tactics and procedures that can be used for space war-fighting'. US Space force commanders have also warned that Chinese satellites have been spotted 'dogfighting' in space, moving within less than a mile of each other. 'China continues to develop and field a broad set of counter-space capabilities,' a member of Space Command told The Telegraph. 'It's certainly one of the more capable adversaries. Space is no longer a sanctuary, it's a space of contest. It's the modern battlefield.' Russia's Luch satellites have also been spotted stalking European communications and broadcast satellites, moving close to their orbits for reasons not fully understood. Space Command fears they are probing the systems to find out how best to disrupt signals. Although Russia continues to deny it is developing an orbital nuclear anti-satellite weapon – which would breach the 1967 Outer Space Treaty – US intelligence suggests otherwise. Chris Bryant, minister of state for data protection and telecoms, said: 'There's a lot of stuff up there now … and the risks from deliberate bad actors, in particular from Russia and China, and the havoc that could be created either deliberately or accidentally, is quite significant. 'So we need to monitor as closely as we possibly can, 24/7, everything that is going on up there so that we can avert accidental damage, and we can also potentially deter other more deliberate, harmful activity.' Space Command currently employs more than 600 staff, roughly 70 per cent of whom are from the Royal Air Force with the remaining 30 per cent from the Army and Navy, plus a handful of civilians. Not only is it monitoring the sky for threats from foreign powers but it is also keeping an eye out for falling space debris, asteroids, and coronal mass ejections from the Sun which could wipe out power grids and satellites. When a threat is spotted, the team can contact satellite providers to warn them to reposition their spacecraft, or advise them to power down until a powerful jet of plasma has passed through. It also informs the government and the security services on the orbital movements of foreign powers. Space Command also launched its first military satellite last year, named Tyche, which can capture daytime images and videos of the Earth's surface for surveillance, intelligence gathering and military operations. It is part of the Government's £968 million Istari programme which will see more satellites launched by 2031 to create a surveillance constellation. Mr Bryant added: 'Lots of people think 'space' and joke about Star Trek and the final frontier, but actually the truth is you couldn't spend a single day of your life these days in the UK without some kind of engagement with space. 'The havoc that could be created, which might be military havoc, or it might be entirely civil havoc, could be very significant.'

Distant moon could have aliens on it – and experts just spotted a ‘mysterious motion' in its atmosphere
Distant moon could have aliens on it – and experts just spotted a ‘mysterious motion' in its atmosphere

The Sun

time6 hours ago

  • The Sun

Distant moon could have aliens on it – and experts just spotted a ‘mysterious motion' in its atmosphere

A DISTANT moon in our solar system might mirror Earth's seasons, according to scientists, who also believe it could be a candidate for finding nearby alien life. And scientists just spotted a mysterious motion in its atmosphere. 6 Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is home to sprawling rivers and lakes of liquid methane, icy boulders and dunes of grains that resemble coffee grounds. It even has an ocean hiding beneath its surface. Some 746million miles (1.2billion kilometers) away from Earth, the distant moon is thought to have rain clouds just like Earth. Unlike seasons on Earth, Titan has a much longer seasonal cycle, with each year on the moon lasting nearly three decades on our planet. Despite its brutally cold temperatures, which average around -179C (-290F), this strange, alien world appears to have the organic ingredients for life. Titan is the only moon in our solar system with a significant atmosphere, making it a top candidate for exploration. Nasa's $3.35billion (£2.48billion) Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon is set to explore the possibility of past or present water-based life, particularly in subsurface oceans and liquid reservoirs. The mission just passed its critical design review - meaning engineers can begin building the helicopter-like robot ahead of its scheduled launch in July 2028. Dragonfly, which was officially selected as a viable mission in 2019, is expected to reach Titan sometime in 2034. 6 6 'Strange' motion In late May, researchers found that Titan's hazy atmosphere wobbles like a gyroscope in line with its seasons, as opposed to spinning in line with its surface. The "strange" motion was detected following analysis of archival infrared data gathered by Cassini probe. "The behavior of Titan's atmospheric tilt is very strange," Dr. Lucy Wright, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, said at the time. "Titan's atmosphere appears to be acting like a gyroscope, stabilising itself in space. "We think some event in the past may have knocked the atmosphere off its spin axis, causing it to wobble. "Even more intriguingly, we've found that the size of this tilt changes with Titan's seasons." 6 But understanding how the atmosphere wobbles with the seasons is crucial for calculating the landing trajectory of Dragonfly. The rotorcraft will be carried by Titan's fast-moving winds as it descends through the atmosphere. Winds on Titan's upper atmosphere can be tempestuous, with speeds reaching up to 270mph (430kmph). Near the surface, however, the winds are much weaker. The tilt of the planet affects how Dragonfly's payload - a suite of scientific instruments designed to search for alien life - will be carried through the air. So research into the atmospheric motion can help engineers better predict where Dragonfly will touch down on the lunar surface. 6 6 Food for thought There appears to be plenty of organic material on Titan to support alien lifeforms, according to a study published in The Planetary Science Journal last month. Its lakes and its subsurface ocean believed to be 300miles deep, is thought to be filled with cold, oily methane and ethane - which is organic material. "There has been this sense that because Titan has such abundant organics, there is no shortage of food sources that could sustain life," Antonin Affholder, of the University of Arizona and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. The world exceeds even Earth's oil reserves. However, scientists remain skeptical, and while Titan could harbour life, it's likely only to be a small amount. "We point out that not all of these organic molecules may constitute food sources, the ocean is really big," added Affholder. "And there's limited exchange between the ocean and the surface, where all those organics are, so we argue for a more nuanced approach."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store