Glasgow City of Science has supported Aye Write! to satisfy a thirst for more STEAMMS-related talks across this year’s festival which runs 10 – 20th March 2016.
The team here have helped organisers pull together a number of chairs for sessions with speakers and audiences that’ll cover subjects as diverse as light, architecture, space exploration, computing, genetics, evolution, the mind, and science fiction. Take a peek at our mini-guide of must-attend events for inquisitive creatives below. Tickets are on sale now!
Watch a short clip of Dr Susie Mitchell talking about Aye Write! and Glasgow City of Science…
Dr Susie Mitchell of @cityofscience talks science, technology & innovation @AyeWrite 10-20 March pic.twitter.com/CK3P6ufspM
— Aye Write! (@AyeWrite) February 18, 2016
The STEAMMS Sessions…
Download the Aye Write! 2016 STEAMMS events flyer (390.71 kB)
Jump to the featured speaker(s) in our mini-guide: Cara Ellison & Keza MacDonald | Marcus Berkmann | Rowland White | Edward Lucas | Kat Arney and Oliver James | Dean Burnett | Robert Newman | Jo Marchant | Dr Melanie Windridge & Dr Lucie Green | William Davies | Owen Hopkins | Christopher Beanland | James Crawford
Cara Ellison & Keza MacDonald – More Info | Book
Inside the Minds of Gamers and Game Creators | Friday 11 March | 18.00 – 19.00 | £6
In 2014, Cara Ellison, a ‘cyberpunk hair-dyed Attenborough’ rather flippantly pledged to the internet she’d leave home, become itinerant, and travel around the world to live with and write about some of the most interesting game developers and their cultural outlook. Her book Embed With Games talks about the way our game creators express the culture around them. The book has exclusive introduction from Kieron Gillen, a cover from Irene Koh, She will be joined by Keza MacDonald one of the most respected gaming journalists around. Her work has been published by IGN, Edge, VG/247, Eurogamer and The Guardian. Chaired by Craig Steele.
Marcus Berkmann – More Info | Book
Set Phasers to Stun: 50 Years of Star Trek | Saturday 12 March | 16.30 -17.30 | £9
Published to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the most iconic sci-fi series of all time, and boldly going where several other people have been before, Marcus Berkmann’s book maps the course of the series from its first five-year mission (rudely curtailed to three), through the dark years of the 1970s, the triumphant film series and The Next Generation, to the current ‘reboot’ films.
With wit, insight and a huge pile of DVDs, he seeks to answer all the important questions. Why did Kirk’s shirt always get torn when he had a fist fight? And what’s the worst imaginable insult in Klingon? (Your mother has a smooth forehead). Chaired by Russel Mclean.
Rowland White – More Info | Book
Into the Black | Sunday 13 March | 16.30 – 17.30 | £9
A trip to the high frontier of space exploration and the dangers it brings.
On 12th April 1981 a revolutionary new spacecraft blasted off from Florida on her maiden flight. NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built –the world’s first real spaceship. Yet less than an hour after its spectacular departure it was clear that all was not well. Tiles designed to protect Columbia from re-entry were missing from the heatshield. Into the Black is a gripping high stakes cold-war story, and a celebration of a machine that, hailed as one of the seven new wonders of the world, rekindled our passion for spaceflight. Chaired by Steve Owens.
Edward Lucas – More Info | Book
Cyberphobia: Identity, Trust, Security and the Internet | Tuesday 15 March | 18:00 – 19.00 | £9
Edward Lucas is a senior editor at the Economist. He is a regular contributor to the Today programme and Newsnight, where his expertise includes energy, cyber-security, espionage and the politics and economics of Eastern Europe. In his book Cyberphobia he lays bare the issues surrounding internet security and with our ever increasing dependence on smart-phones this threat is unlikely to diminish. He also explores the most successful defensive cyber-strategies, options for tracking down transgressors and argues that we are moving into a post-digital age where once again face-to-face communication will be the only interaction that really matters. Chaired by Peter Ross.
Kat Arney and Oliver James – More Info | Book
Understanding Genetics | Thursday 17 March | 19.30 – 20.30 | £9
The language of genes has become common parlance. We know they make your eyes blue, your hair curly or your nose straight. The media tells us that our genes control the risk of cancer, alcoholism or Alzheimer’s and gene-based advances in medicine hold huge promise.
So we’ve all heard of genes, but how do they actually work? Is it all in our genes or is it all due to our upbringing? Join Kat Arney, authour of Herding Hemingway’s Cats: Understanding How Our Genes Work and Oliver James Not In Your Genes: The real reasons children are like their parents, as they unravel the truths and contradictions of nature verses nurture. Chaired by Adrian Searle.
Dean Burnett – More Info | Book
The Idiot Brain | Saturday 19 March | 13.30 – 14.30 | £9
Neuroscientist and a stand-up comedian Dr Dean Burnett’s The Idiot Brain tells us everything we ever wanted to know about our grey matter. From attention mechanisms to memory processing, the neuroscience of sleep and the psychology of superstition, the surprising workings of the brain and the bemusing behaviours these cause in everyday life. Unpredictable and entertaining, Burnett explains why memory is like a doting mother, why tall people are more intelligent, why criticism is more powerful than praise, how glass of wine can refresh your memory, and why you can’t be ‘a little bit OCD’. Chaired by Professor Dave Wyper.
Robert Newman – More Info | Book
The Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution | Saturday 19 March | 18.00 – 19.00 | £9
In this witty, fact-packed A-Z, Robert Newman takes the reader on a whirlwind tour from caring, sharing vampire bats to intelligent slime-mould; from pacifist baboons to Richard Dawkins wrestling naked with his postman; from the invisibility cloak of the Hawaiian bobtail squid to Francis ‘DNA’ Crick’s belief that life on earth began with alien spaceships.
The host of a popular Radio 4 series, the first comedian (with David Baddiel) to play Wembley Arena and the only comedian ever credited in a paper published in the science journal Nature, Newman explores how stunning scientific breakthroughs have turned received ideas of evolution upside-down. Chaired by Professor Kevin O’Dell.
Jo Marchant – More info | Book
The Science of Mind Over Body | Sunday 20 March | 12.00 – 13.00 | £9
The field of mind-body medicine is plagued by wild claims that mislead patients and instil false hope. But that doesn’t mean the mind plays no role in health. By taking a scientific approach to understanding how our mental state influences our physiology, can we finally live in tune with our bodies in a way that is based on evidence, not fantasy? In her book Cure, Dr Jo Marchant delves deep into the latest scientific research and offers a new and thought-provoking view of what it means to be human. Chaired by Margaret McCartney GP.
Dr Melanie Windridge & Dr Lucie Green – More Info | Book
An Illuminating Look at Light | Sunday 20 March | 15.00 – 16.00 | £9
Explore star light with two of Britain’s leading physicists. Dr. Melanie Windridge’s Aurora: In Search of the Northern Lights explores the visual beauty, legends and science of the northern lights – including the developing threat of space weather – and challenging the popular paradigm of how the lights are formed. In 15 Million Degrees, Dr. Lucie Green takes us on a journey of millions of miles from inside the Sun to the Earth discovering how the Sun works (including what it sounds like), the latest research in solar physics and how a solar storm could threaten everything we know. Chaired by Peggy Hughes.
William Davies – More Info | Book
The Happiness Industry | Sunday 20 March | 16.30 – 17.30 | £9
Why was a Buddhist monk at the 2014 World Economic Forum in Davos lecturing the world’s leaders on mindfulness? Why do many successful corporations have a chief happiness officer? What can the chemical composition of your brain tell a potential employer about you? In the past decade, governments and corporations have become increasingly interested in measuring the way people feel. Join William Davies on World Happiness Day (No, really!) as he talks about The Happiness Industry, a shocking and brilliantly argued warning about the new religion of the age: our emotions. Chaired by Brian Meechan.
Owen Hopkins – More Info | Book
Breaking the Mould of British Architecture | Saturday 12th March | 15.00 – 16.00 | £9
The history of architecture is a story of continual innovation, and yet at certain points within that story comes an architect whose vision completely defies convention. Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture focuses on twelve such figures from the history of British architecture, including Charles Rennie Mackintosh, James Stirling RA, Sir John Vanbrugh, Sir John Soane RA, Cedric Price, FAT and Zaha Hadid RA. Owen Hopkins is a writer, historian and curator of architecture. He is the Architecture Programme Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Christopher Beanland – More Info | Book
Concrete Concept: Brutalist Buildings Around the World | Saturday 12th March | 12.00 – 13.00 | £9
No modern architecture movement has aroused so much awe and so much ire as brutalism and Glasgow has seen its fair share of examples of the form. Christopher Beanland has written about architecture for The Independent, Guardian and Telegraph and his book Concrete Concept takes architecture admirers on a tour of the world’s most impressive, celebrated and controversial Brutalist buildings. Featuring 50 existing international examples, built between the 1950s and the1970s, it skips from one country to the next to illustrate why concrete buildings grew to become both the most hotly contested and fashionable architectural style in history. This is architecture at its most aggressive, compelling and sometimes terrifying!
James Crawford – More Info | Book
Lost Buildings – from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers | Thursday 10th March | 19.30 – 20.30 | £9
Buildings are just like us. They can be born into wealth or poverty; They have parents – gods, kings, emperors, governments, visionaries and madmen – and friends and enemies. They have jobs, duties and responsibilities. They can succeed and fail. They can live. And they can die. Moving from the very beginnings of civilisation, right up to the digital horizons of cyberspace James Crawford will present a fascinating illustrated talk based on his incredibly well received book Fallen Glory which pieces together the stories of twenty of the world’s most fascinating lost and ruined structures, stories which are packed with drama and intrigue.
Links
You can download a full copy of the Aye Write! 2016 programme!