The Times Cheltenham Science Festival 2010 brochure

9 – 13 June Box Office 0844 576 7979 cheltenhamfestivals.com

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WELCOME

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MARK LYTHGOE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

KATHY SYKES FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

WELCOME TO THE TIMES CHELTENHAM SCIENCE FESTIVAL 2010 We’re enormously proud of the breadth of this programme; there really is something for everyone. Whether you have a PhD in astrophysics or you haven’t done science since school; if you’re a chocoholic, an electric car enthusiast, an avid reader; whether you have a burning issue to discuss, simply want to know more about the world around you or are looking for an entertaining evening out, these pages will offer up some inspirational ideas to feast your mind upon.

So take a look at what’s on...

GUEST DIRECTORS

Check out our FREE activities in and around the Town Hall on pages 4 & 5.

Particle physicist Brian Cox and Michelin-starred super chef Heston Blumenthal bring their own unique views of science to Cheltenham.

Choose something to match your mood from pages 6 & 7.

Plan your day at the Festival with our full programme of events on pages 8 to 17.

If you’re coming with children, our family programme on pages 18 & 19 is just for you.

DECADENCE This year’s theme is provocative, luxurious, and dangerous. It has inspired us to create some events with powerful ideas about our behaviour, our impact on the planet and personal choice, as well as a bit of unashamed indulgence in the neuroscience of pleasure, rich chocolate and pure entertainment.

Heston joins us on Thursday (p11)

For a deeper look at our theme, visit cheltenhamfestivals.com/decadence

‘Science really is for everyone, no matter what your knowledge or experience, and I think this Festival programme really shows that. For me the Large Hadron Collider is genuinely the most exciting scientific experiment of the last few decades – there’s something incredibly profound about the amount of our Universe that we simply don’t understand yet. I’m really looking forward to the Festival and hope you have a wonderful time.’

Here are just some of our decadent events:

YOUR DECADENT HUMAN BRAIN S62, p14 SCIENCE, DECADENCE AND THE ENEMIES OF THE WEST S7, p8 THE DECADENT USE OF DRUGS S66, p14 CHOCOLATE S53, p13

Brian is here on Saturday and Sunday (p15 – 17)

LabOratory is one of our most exciting projects, bringing biomedical science to life at all four Cheltenham Festivals.

This year’s theme is Performance Under Pressure.

Check out our simulated operating theatre in Imperial Gardens (p4) and series of events (S49, S57, S58, S73, S79 & S80).

See p27 for more info about LabOratory.

Sign up online at cheltenhamfestivals.com/subscribe to receive updates and eNews

M

NEW for 2010: beat the queues!

A selection of our events now offer reserved seating (Res)

on sav BE te e 2 RS n e 0% H IP ve nt s

‘I’m really thrilled to have been invited as Guest Director for the 2010 Cheltenham Science Festival. I’ve been to the Festival four times, including the first in 2002, and it’s been great to see it grow and become so popular since then.

I’m really delighted that Harold McGee and Francis McGlone have agreed to join me for my events – I hope you enjoy them, and the rest of the Festival!’

BRIAN COX

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ME

HESTON BLUMENTHAL

FREE ACTIVITIES

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

DISCOVER ZONE

INTERACTIVE SCIENCE FOR ALL AGES ADMISSION FREE Daily 10am – 5pm Town Hall No previous science knowledge required!

ADULTS

Sat 12 June 6 – 7pm Escape the kids and the crowds in our adult only session!

MEMBERS AND PATRONS Thurs 10 June 6 – 7pm For details of how to become a member see p28.

cheltenhamfestivals.com/ discoverzone

OFFICIAL BOOKSELLER Daily 9.30am – Festival close The Waterstone’s Festival Book Tent stocks a range of science titles and is open for author signings.

Pillar Room

The Crucible Channel 4 ExperiTent

OPERATION! Sat 12 & Sun 13 June

Various times throughout the afternoon LabOratory Tent Free Over 10s only Watch a real surgical team cope with an emergency situation in our simulated operating theatre.

Not for the faint-hearted!

LITMUS PAPER

Fancy being a surgeon? Try one of our operation workshops. (p14 & p16)

The Festival’s daily independent news-sheet features reviews, interviews and the latest news.

Don’t forget to pick up your copy!

Could you cope with the pressure of being a surgeon? (S73, p15) This is just a taster of our exciting LabOratory project. Look out for more events at all of our Festivals. (p27)

cheltenhamfestivals.com/ litmuspaper

LabOratory 4

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THE TIMES CAFÉ & TALKING POINT Daily discussions and free events!

If an event leaves you wanting more, then head for the Talking Point with the speakers and other audience members to continue the debate.

FREE ACTIVITIES

SCIENCE QUESTION TIME Wed 9 – Sat 12 June The latest Festival gossip and the hottest science stories with The Times’ journalists and Festival speakers.

TURNING THE TABLES Fri 11 – Sun 13 June 2 – 3pm The scientists interview the journalists: if it has been in the headlines, it’s up for discussion!

THE IMPACT! GALLERY

16 EPSRC-funded research teams have been working with designers from the Royal College of Art. Visit the Impact! Gallery in Imperial Gardens to see some of their work.

PLUS BITESIZE SCIENCE Free short talks and performances

EDF Energy Arena

throughout the Festival.

BRITISH STEAM CAR Sat 12 & Sun 13 June Imperial Gardens

MARS ROVER Sat 12 & Sun 13 June Imperial Gardens

FAMILY FUN DAYS Sat 12 & Sun 13 June

From 11am Imperial Gardens Free Suitable for all ages. Join us in Imperial Gardens for free Science Festival fun, including…

DK BOOK ZONE

Spectacular science and mind-boggling activities for kids! Pick up your FREE DK goodie bag, find out how to get great discounts on DK books and enter their competition to win fantastic prizes for yourself and your school.

Find more online at cheltenhamfestivals .com/ extraportions 5

FESTIVAL GUIDE

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? PIONEERING SPIRIT

DARK MATTER S26, p10 Has this elusive substance finally been detected?

ENGINEERING HUMAN TISSUE

REAL LIFE

GET STUCK IN

SLEEP

WORKSHOP: ENDOSCOPY

S95, p17 Evan Davis talks to sleep expert Russell Foster about getting enough zzzzz.

S60 & S61, p14 Have a go at one of the most delicate medical procedures.

WORKSHOP: GADGET DISSECTION

S1, p8 Growing human tissue in the lab… could this emerging field of research revolutionise medical science?

STRESSED OUT?!

S49, p13 Stressed at work? How can we keep it under control?

S89 & S90, p17 Ever wondered what’s inside your mobile phone?

MAGNETIC ELECTRICITY

PARANOID?

WORKSHOP: FANCY YOURSELF AS A SURGEON?

S21, p10 New research finally proves Paul Dirac’s 1931 predictions right.

BIOFUELS: THE NEXT GENERATION S18, p10 Green energy without the problems?

S74, p15 Rational or irrational?

BLAME IT ON THE HORMONES S34, p11 Testosterone = aggressive; oestrogen = emotional. Discuss.

LUCKY DIP! ENVIRONMENT & NATURE

S57, S58, S79 & S80, p14 & 16 As close to the real thing as you can get.

A QUESTION OF SCIENCE S55, p13 Test your knowledge using your own personal keypad.

Kudos to the winner!

LUCKY DIP! PSYCHOLOGY BAD HABITS DIE HARD S13, p9 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING S15, p9 PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE: OPERATION LIVE S73, p15

THE PLIGHT OF THE HUMBLE BEE S2, p8 TRUST IN CLIMATE SCIENCE S35, p11 THE AIR THAT WE BREATHE S50, p13

LUCKY DIP! PHYSICS LASERS S83, p16 SOLAR SCIENCE S23, p10 CLIMBING THE TREE OF PHYSICS S69, p15

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FESTIVAL GUIDE

IDEAS TO GET YOU STARTED...

BIG THINKERS

UP FOR DEBATE

BILL BRYSON

A CARNIVORE’S DILEMMA

S44, p12 Legendary author speaks about new book Seeing Further.

S42, p12 Should we eat less meat to help the planet?

SCIENCE, DECADENCE AND THE ENEMIES OF THE WEST

POPULATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

S7, p8 Ok Pannenborg on fundamentalist attitudes to western decadence.

HESTON BLUMENTHAL IN CONVERSATION WITH HAROLD MCGEE S31, p11 Harold McGee: the man who inspired the chef.

PAUL DAVIES: ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? S51, p13 Cosmologist, astrobiologist, writer, broadcaster – meet the man who has suggested a one-way mission to Mars.

S45, p12 Are there too many people or are we just too greedy?

HOW TO TREAT DEPRESSION S81, p16 Are antidepressants as effective as we think they are?

ENGINEERING THE PARALYMPICS S4, p8 Could ‘superhuman’ Paralympians one day compete with, or even exceed, able-bodied athletes?

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

STOPPING THE SPREAD OF SUPERBUGS

S85, p16 The tale of a patient undergoing surgery: your decisions, their life.

OVER-AMBITIOUS DEMO CHALLENGE 2010

S52, p13 Four scientists compete: who will wear the demo crown?

2030: ENGINEERING OUR CLIMATE S29, p11

20 years from now and emissions targets have been missed: you decide whether geoengineering is the answer.

THE SCHOOL FOR GIFTED CHILDREN

S78, p15 What would happen if The Royal Variety Performance and The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures collided!

LUCKY DIP! HEALTH

LUCKY DIP! ENGINEERING

ASTHMA S48, p13 TO JAB OR NOT TO JAB? S6, p8 HEART ATTACK S59, p14

WILL WHITEHORN: SPACE TOURISM S38, p12 GLOBAL WATER SECURITY S24, p10 ELECTRIC DREAMS: THE FUTURE OF CARS S94, p17

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WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE ENGINEERING HUMAN TISSUE

S1 Town Hall 12 – 1pm £6 (£5) Could we one day be growing organs for people who need a transplant, or tissue to help those with spinal injuries walk again?

It is already possible to repair damaged blood vessels with lab-grown tissue.

Sharing their vision for an emerging field of research that could revolutionise medical science are biomedical engineers Molly Stevens and Robert Brown and stem cell scientist Chris Mason.

THE PLIGHT OF THE HUMBLE BEE

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

ENGINEERING THE PARALYMPICS

THE PLIGHT OF THE HUMBLE BEE

S3 Town Hall 1 – 2pm Free The Sciencewise-ERC funded programme Low Carbon Communities Challenge will be supporting 22 communities in the UK to cut their carbon emissions.

Have your say about practical ways for tackling climate change and discuss how we can work together to improve energy efficiency, produce clean energy and reduce our carbon emissions.

THE PERFECT RACEHORSE

THE PERFECT RACEHORSE SPECIES ON THE MOVE

S5 Town Hall 2.30 – 3.30pm £6 (£5) Our changing climate is forcing many birds and insects to change their migration patterns and find new ecological niches in order to survive. However, not all are finding it so easy. Join ecologist Steve Willis to find out what the latest research shows us, and how we can use it to make sure that no species are lost in transit.

TO JAB OR NOT TO JAB? CARBON IN THE COMMUNITY

S7 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30pm £7 (£6) Western civilisation’s influence and power, and arguably its new patterns of decadent living, are derived from developments in science and technology. The Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other fundamentalist groups are the fiercest critics of the West’s decadence, and of its science. But is this a new threat? Ok Pannenborg, former Chief Health Advisor of the World Bank Group, draws powerful parallels between the fundamentalists’ modern battle with the West and Barbarian attacks on the highly sophisticated Roman Empire almost two millennia ago.

ENGINEERING THE PARALYMPICS

S4 Town Hall 2 – 3pm £6 (£5) Running blades, powered ankle joints and cutting-edge wheelchair design are just some of the technologies allowing disabled athletes to compete at the highest level and challenge perceptions of disability. Could ‘superhuman’ Paralympians ever compete with, or even exceed, able-bodied athletes?

How do we ensure a level playing field?

Sports engineer David James and the International Tennis Federation’s Mark Bullock debate the issues and discuss the benefits for the wider population.

S2 Town Hall 12.30 – 1.30pm £6 (£5) Bee decline threatens our food supplies and the countryside. But why are numbers falling and what can we do to help? Join Adam Hart from the University of Gloucestershire and Carlo Montesanti from The Global Bee Project to explore the world of bees. They’re so much more than just a source of honey!

SCIENCE, DECADENCE AND THE ENEMIES OF THE WEST

S6 Town Hall 4 – 5pm £7 (£6) Despite the success of mass vaccination against diseases like smallpox, TB and measles, many of us are still nervous of injections and distrustful of inoculations.

How dangerous does a disease have to be?

Should vaccinations ever be compulsory?

If you could be vaccinated against a disease like cancer, would you? Leszek Borysiewicz, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, and Margaret McCartney, GP and Financial Times columnist, explore the balance between personal choice and public health.

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S8 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30pm £8 (£7) What makes a winning racehorse?

All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from just 28 animals and understanding their genetics is key to breeding and training a champion. Equine health expert David Marlin and geneticist Patrick Cunningham come to the home of the famous Gold Cup for a glimpse into the winner’s paddock.

INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT

S9 Town Hall 5 – 6pm £7 (£6) Could intelligent systems one day mean an end to sitting in traffic jams or waiting at crowded station platforms? Would you climb into a driverless taxi? The way that we choose to travel can impact on our quality of life and the environment. David Bott from the Technology Strategy Board is joined by Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Transport Brian Collins and transport consultant Keith McCabe to discuss revolutionary technology that could totally change the way we move.

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SCIENCE QUESTION TIME

BAD HABITS DIE HARD

S10 Town Hall 5 – 6pm Free Explore today’s biggest debates, newest discoveries and favourite Festival moments with a selection of the day’s speakers, The Times’ journalists and the Festival team.

IS DEBT PUTTING BRITISH SCIENCE AT RISK?

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALING

S15 Town Hall 8.45 – 9.45pm £8 (£7) Psychological factors, such as stress and anxiety, may hinder your body’s healing mechanisms, and mean a slower, more painful recovery from injury or surgery. Health psychologists John Weinman and Kavita Vedhara discover how the way you think and feel affects your wound’s healing and whether treatments aimed at managing these factors can help to speed up the process.

In association with the British Psychological Society Division of Health Psychology

BAD HABITS DIE HARD

S13 Town Hall 7 – 8pm £8 (£7) Despite all the warnings and knowing what we ‘shouldn’t’ do, we continue to eat fatty foods, go out in the midday sun, drive short distances and leave our lights on. Jonathon Porritt talks to psychologist Stuart Derbyshire and sociologist Dale Southerton about why we consume in the way we do, why we find it difficult to change our behaviour and whether we can, and should, be trying to alter the way that others live their lives.

IS DEBT PUTTING BRITISH SCIENCE AT RISK?

S11 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.45pm £7 (£6) The UK has a proud history of excellence in the sciences and continues to lead the way but, with peak levels of national debt, are we entering a new age? Significant changes in the way that Government funds research have already been made, and the result of the general election could mean more. Is the future of British science at stake? Join a distinguished panel to discuss the value of science to our economic stability.

Speakers will be confirmed after the general election. For updates check cheltenhamfestivals.com/science

SHOULD COMPUTERS HAVE RIGHTS TOO?

JENNER’S LEGACY

S16 Town Hall 9 – 10pm £8 (£7) It is 30 years since the World Health Organization officially declared smallpox a thing of the past. One of the most successful public health initiatives of all time began with Edward Jenner’s discovery of the vaccine in 1796 in Gloucestershire.

Doctor Chris Burns-Cox, who worked to eradicate smallpox in Bangladesh, and Tim Wallington from the Edward Jenner Museum explore the life and legacy of one of Britain’s great scientists.

A member of the Society of Biology

INSIDE NATURE’S GIANTS

S14 Town Hall 8.30 – 9.30pm £8 (£7) Channel 4’s award-winning series invites a team of international experts to dissect some of the largest species on earth to uncover clues to their evolutionary past. Back by popular demand, series producer David Dugan and presenter Simon Watt take you to the frontiers of comparative anatomy.

Get under the skin of great white sharks, big cats and Burmese pythons, with clips from the forthcoming series.

INSIDE NATURE’S GIANTS

S12 Town Hall 7 – 8pm £6 (£5) Computers are now capable of composing symphonies, creating artworks, writing books and even inventing patentable products. Who, if anyone, should own the rights to these works? FameLab 2005 winner and patent examiner Mark Lewney discusses intellectual property in the digital age and the consequences of granting such rights to artificial intelligences.

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COMPUTER DOMINATION

S17 Town Hall 9 – 10pm £6 (£5) The last 50 years have seen a massive explosion in computer science, completely changing the way we live and work. From emotionally adaptive computer games to eye-tracking technology, join computer scientist Mark Read and neuroscientists Tim Smith and Guy Billings to explore how computers are shaping our world.

In association with NOISE

THURSDAY 10 JUNE BIOFUELS: THE NEXT GENERATION

S18 Town Hall 10.15 – 11.15am £6 (£5) Biofuels have received bad press in recent years as competitors for arable land, pushing up food prices and damaging ecosystems. But a new generation of biofuels could provide green energy without these problems.

Researchers Angela Karp and Katherine Smart discuss their potential with Jeremy Woods, who studies the effects of crops for fuel on the land.

CARBON TRADING

S19 Town Hall 12.15 – 1.15pm £6 (£5) Could carbon trading be the solution for cutting emissions? The idea is that a cap on total emissions is set and reduced each year. High polluters must either reduce emissions or buy credits from low-carbon businesses, which use the extra income to make their greener technology more financially viable. But how can we reliably measure emissions and can it really work? Discuss the issues with Mark Maslin, Director of the UCL Environment Institute, and Tony Grayling from the Environment Agency.

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

JIM AL-KHALILI

THE SECRET LIFE OF CHAOS

S22 Town Hall 2.15 – 3.15pm £6 (£5) Chaos theory has a bad name. It conjures up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to chaos that may be able to answer the question that humankind has asked for millennia: how did we get here? Join Jim Al-Khalili to explore how a universe that started off as dust ended up with intelligent life, and how order emerged from disorder.

SOLAR SCIENCE

CARBON IN THE COMMUNITY

S20 Town Hall 1 – 2pm Free The Sciencewise-ERC funded programme Low Carbon Communities Challenge will be supporting 22 communities in the UK to cut their carbon emissions.

Have your say about practical ways for tackling climate change and discuss how we can work together to improve energy efficiency, produce clean energy and reduce our carbon emissions.

MAGNETIC ELECTRICITY

S21 Town Hall 2 – 3pm £6 (£5) In 1931 physicist Paul Dirac predicted that the north and south poles of a magnet could exist independently and behave like electric charges. In 2009 Steve Bramwell and a team from UCL and ISIS finally proved those predictions right, but not quite in the way that Dirac imagined.

Join him to explore the science of magnetism and the exciting future possibilities for ‘magnetricity’.

LONDON 2012: THE MOST SUSTAINABLE GAMES EVER?

S25 Town Hall 4.15 – 5.15pm £6 (£5) Construction of the Olympic site is well underway, but is the sustainability agenda on course for a gold medal?

The Olympic Delivery Authority has made unprecedented promises for a Games with a lasting social, economic and environmental legacy for the UK. Its Chairman John Armitt joins Shaun McCarthy, Chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, the man charged with independently testing those promises.

DARK MATTER

S26 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30pm £6 (£5) The vast majority of our Universe is still a mystery. Dark matter is thought to make up 25% of its mass density, but has never been detected directly… or has it? The first tantalising hints may have been seen recently deep underground in the USA. Top cosmologist George Efstathiou and dark matter hunter Neil Spooner, from the Boulby Underground Laboratory in Yorkshire, introduce the theory of this most enigmatic substance and share the very latest results.

SCIENCE QUESTION TIME SOLAR SCIENCE

S23 Town Hall 2.30 – 3.30pm £6 (£5) The Sun is at its quietest for nearly a century, with very few sunspots and solar flares over the last two years. These observations are baffling astronomers, who expect activity to be heating up at this stage in its 11-year cycle. Explore our closest star with solar physicist Lucie Green and discover how we monitor the Sun and how it can impact us on Earth.

GLOBAL WATER SECURITY

S24 Town Hall 4 – 5pm £6 (£5) Water security is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. More than one third of the world’s population now lives in water-stressed areas, and in the fight for this precious commodity, regional ‘water wars’ are threatening stability. Engineer Roger Falconer, geographer Richard Taylor and governance specialist Sue Cavill discuss how the planet’s plentiful supply of water can be fairly distributed.

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S27 Town Hall 5 – 6pm Free Explore today’s biggest debates, newest discoveries and favourite Festival moments with a selection of the day’s speakers, The Times’ journalists and the Festival team.

THE SMOKING WORLD

S28 Town Hall 5 – 6pm £6 (£5) 60 years ago Richard Doll first reported links between smoking, lung cancer and heart disease. While many in the UK are desperately trying to give up, the developing world is seeing a rapid rise in cigarette sales. Health psychologist Robert West and former Chief Health Advisor of the World Bank Group Ok Pannenborg look at why people around the world still choose to smoke when the health effects are so well documented and the best ways to kick the habit.

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2030: ENGINEERING OUR CLIMATE

HIV

EUREKA LIVE BEATING THE BIG C: THE NEXT DECADE OF CANCER CARE

HIV

TRUST IN CLIMATE SCIENCE

S35 Town Hall 8.45 – 10pm £8 (£7) Public perception of climate change has been getting a battering recently, with headline stories challenging the validity of climate research and the coldest winter for over 30 years. The overwhelming evidence continues to support man-made climate change, but regaining public confidence is the challenge. Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government John Beddington, science journalist Toby Murcott and PR consultant Arlo Brady discuss the responsibilities of scientists and the media to get the message right.

S29 Town Hall 6 – 7.15pm £8 (£7) Imagine it is 2030. Regrettably, global carbon emissions targets have been missed and geoengineering techniques – to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or to block the Sun’s energy – may be the only option to prevent global temperatures from rising. Can you decide the way forward?

Earth system scientist John Shepherd guides you through the expert advice from engineer Stephen Salter, biogeochemist Richard Lampitt, and Professor of International Law Catherine Redgwell.

S31 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.45pm £14 (£12) Res Harold McGee’s seminal book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, published in 1984, questioned the fundamental rules of kitchen traditions and provided food lovers with a deeper understanding of their craft and their pleasure.

Heston Blumenthal talks to the man whose book was one of his greatest inspirations. Discover why it caused such an impact on the chef and made him ask even more questions.

HESTON BLUMENTHAL

THE ULTIMATE PIANO LESSON

S33 Parabola Arts Centre, Bayshill Rd 7.45 – 9pm £12 (£10) Since its origins in the late 18th century, the piano has become one of the world’s most popular instruments. David Owen Norris, distinguished pianist, broadcaster and academic, traces the piano’s technological journey from then until now.

To accompany his words, he gives a dazzling performance on an early piano from 1781 as well as the industry-leading Fazioli owned by Cheltenham Ladies’ College.

cheltenhamfestivals.com/music

HESTON’S SWEET SHOP

S36 Town Hall 8.45 – 10.15pm £30 Includes sweets from The Fat Duck to taste

A unique experience with the master of culinary alchemy! Heston Blumenthal brings some of his exquisite confectionary for you to taste as he and neuroscientist Francis McGlone play with your senses in the pursuit of gastronomic pleasure and reward.

BLAME IT ON THE HORMONES

S34 Town Hall 8.15 – 9.15pm £8 (£7) Testosterone is often associated with aggression, big muscles and brutish behaviour while oestrogen has a much more gentle and emotional image. But do they deserve these reputations? Explore human sexuality with John Bancroft and Vivienne Parry and discover how hormones affect our brains and ultimately our behaviour.

Supported by the Patrons of Cheltenham Festivals

A member of the Society of Biology

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FAKES AND DISCOVERIES: THE MADONNA OF THE PINKS

S37 Town Hall 9 – 10pm £6 (£5) Science can tell us a great deal about how paintings are made and can reveal their historical origins. Ashok Roy, Director of Science at the National Gallery, uncovers the science behind the rise and fall of two Renaissance Madonnas

by Raphael and Francesco Francia.

ME MB E m RSH £1 IP 5

HESTON BLUMENTHAL IN CONVERSATION WITH HAROLD MCGEE

S32 Town Hall 7 – 8pm £6 (£5) Over 33 million people live with HIV worldwide and its impact on those affected and on society, particularly in the developing world, has been huge.

Immunologist Andrew McMichael and Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health Anne Johnson are joined by a person who lives with HIV to discuss social and cultural attitudes and current research into its treatment and prevention.

fro

S30 Town Hall 6.15 – 7.15 pm £8 (£7) As the Human Genome Project celebrates its 10th anniversary, its insights are promising to change the way cancer is treated. Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, Mike Stratton, Head of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and Fran Balkwill, from the Centre for Cancer and Inflammation at Barts and the London Medical School, join Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The Times, to discuss how another decade of research could transform this field of medicine.

THURSDAY 10 JUNE

FRIDAY 11 JUNE SPACE TOURISM

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

TURNING THE TABLES: THE SCIENTISTS INTERVIEW THE JOURNALISTS!

BILL BRYSON

S41 Town Hall 2 – 3pm Free The Times’ award-winning science journalists are here to interview our scientists, but we couldn’t let them get away without going under the spotlight themselves! Today, Festival Director Mark Lythgoe turns the tables on Science Editor Mark Henderson: if it has been in the headlines it’s up for discussion.

A CARNIVORE’S DILEMMA WILL WHITEHORN: SPACE TOURISM

S38 Town Hall 10.30 – 11.30am £7 (£6) Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two will carry the first paying passengers into space, marking the beginning of a new age of human expedition.

Will Whitehorn, a lynchpin in Richard Branson’s Virgin empire and now President of Virgin Galactic, is overseeing one of the most ambitious commercial technology projects in the world. He talks to Quentin Cooper about the ultimate ‘out of this world’ experience.

FEED THE WORLD, SAVE THE PLANET

S39 Town Hall 12.30 – 1.30pm £7 (£6) With population growth and a changing climate threatening the future of global food supplies, how can we ensure that we will have enough food without adding to carbon emissions?

Plant scientists Nigel Halford and John Pickett discuss the challenges ahead with Professor of Agriculture & Land Use Gareth Edwards-Jones.

A CARNIVORE’S DILEMMA

S42 Town Hall 2.30 – 3.30pm £7 (£6) How much is our love of meat contributing to carbon emissions and climate change? What impact will the increasing demand for western diets in developing countries have?

Jonathon Porritt, Maggie Gill and Alan Dangour consider whether we should be cutting down to protect the planet and our health.

ROBERT WINSTON

S44 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.45pm £16 (£14) Res In Seeing Further some of today’s most distinguished writers offer reflections on the immense achievements – and disputations – of science during the 350-year history of the Royal Society. The book’s editor Bill Bryson talks to Roger Highfield, Editor of New Scientist, about the rich history of an organisation that continues to push back the frontiers of knowledge to this day.

POPULATION GROWTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE

S45 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30pm £7 (£6) With climate change seen as a real threat to the future of our planet, is population growth going to scupper all hopes of a solution? Or, rather than the number of people, is it really our consumption habits that lie at the heart of the problem? Journalist and author of Peoplequake Fred Pearce examines the ‘population crisis’ with development economist Stefan Dercon.

BREAKING THE GM TABOO

ROBERT WINSTON: BAD IDEAS? S40 Town Hall 2 – 3pm £7 (£6) We are born with the instinct to create and invent, but have our creative ideas always produced desirable results? Join Robert Winston as he discusses his new book celebrating the history of our extraordinary capacity for achievement, whilst warning that good intentions can sometimes end up as thoroughly Bad Ideas.

BILL BRYSON: 350 YEARS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY

MEMBERS’ BOOK GROUP: ROBERT WINSTON

S43 Town Hall 4 – 5pm £8 (£7) Members only Join us for this exclusive event especially for Cheltenham Festivals Members.

Share your views in a lively discussion of Bad Ideas?, exploring its themes of human creative endeavour and unintentional consequences, with the author himself Robert Winston.

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S46 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30pm £8 (£7) Through genetic modification, scientists have created microbes that can make medicines and biofuels, pest and herbicide-resistant plants and animalequivalents of human ailments that can help us understand certain diseases.

Cambridge University’s Naked Scientist Chris Smith, is joined by GM researchers Cormac Gahan, Chris Leaver and Ann Thompson. Everyone has an opinion on GM, join the discussion and air yours.

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SCIENCE QUESTION TIME

S47 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30pm Free Explore today’s biggest debates, newest discoveries and favourite Festival moments with a selection of the day’s speakers, The Times’ journalists and the Festival team.

ASTHMA

S48 Town Hall 5 – 6pm £7 (£6) Asthma affects over 5 million people in the UK and that number is increasing. Can air pollution, eating habits or super clean environments be blamed for the rising figures? Nazir Qureshi, who is living with asthma, joins researchers Clive Page and John Price to explore why some of us are struggling for breath and how we might be able to breathe easier in the future.

A member of the Society of Biology

STRESSED OUT?!

THE AIR THAT WE BREATHE

S50 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.30pm £7 (£6) There was a time when ‘pea soup’ smog in cities meant that you couldn’t even see the end of the road. Our air certainly looks cleaner than in the 1950s but is it really that much better? Get a breath of fresh air with environmental health expert Roy Harrison, atmospheric scientist Ally Lewis and toxicologist Ken Donaldson as they explore the links between ‘invisible pollutants’, the weather and our health.

THE TIMES INTERVIEW PAUL DAVIES: ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE?

S51 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.45pm £8 (£7) Paul Davies is a truly innovative thinker who tackles the big questions of existence. The theoretical physicist and cosmologist from Arizona State University, and author of many books including The Goldilocks Engima and The Eerie Silence, talks to Antonia Senior, Editor of The Times’ Eureka magazine, about 50 years of silence in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and what it tells us about the origins of life and the nature of time.

OVER-AMBITIOUS DEMO CHALLENGE 2010

S52 Town Hall 7 – 8pm £8 (£7) Roll up, roll up for the annual Cheltenham Science Festival Demo Challenge! Four scientists compete to see who can deliver the most spectacular, impressive and showstopping science demo. Our host Steve Mould is joined by last year’s champion Andrea Sella and challengers James Soper, Mark Miodownik and Maggie AderinPocock. Who will win your vote tonight?

FRIDAY 11 JUNE TONY ROBINSON

BLITZ STREET

S54 Town Hall 8.45 – 9.45pm £10 (£8) Res Channel 4’s Blitz Street marks the 70th anniversary of the ferocious bombing campaign that Germany unleashed on Britain. Presenter Tony Robinson and Executive Producer Paul Wooding talk about their experiences making the series and what they and scientists learned when a specially-built row of terraced houses was subjected to a range of bombs and explosives. With impressive high-speed footage and personal testimony from survivors, explore the psychological effects of living under constant bombardment.

A QUESTION OF SCIENCE

S55 Town Hall 9 – 10.30pm £7 (£6) The bar will be open during this event

Test your knowledge against teams from New Scientist, The Times and our own team from Cheltenham Science Festival.

Join quizmaster Quentin Cooper and use your own personal keypad to give your answers. No revision required, conferring almost certainly allowed and watch out for answers that are unexpected and even downright odd!

In association with New Scientist

Includes Thorntons chocolate tasting

LabOratory A member of the Society of Biology

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S56 Town Hall 9 – 10pm £6 (£5) Four researchers, each working at a different scale of the micro world, explore the possible applications of their blue sky research for solving real world problems.

From batteries that use the energy in the nuclei of atoms to carbon nanotubes that could provide a novel way of filtering water Radu Sporea, Charles Opoku, Samantha Shaw and Emma Suckling share their fascinating stories.

en ts

In association with Thorntons

MICRO WORLD TO REAL WORLD

SA VE 2 ev 0%

As well as tingling our tastebuds, chocolate has the power to ignite the pleasure centres of our brains. For a melt in the mouth experience join Clive Page, Mark Miodownik, Andrea Sella and Thorntons’ Master Chocolatier Keith Hurdman to explore the history, science and sensations of this most prized global delicacy.

te n

S49 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.30pm £8 (£7) Many of us are familiar with stress at work – the adrenalin buzz of a hectic schedule and tight deadlines as well as that scary out-of-control feeling when it all gets too much.

Leading experts on workplace stress Cary Cooper and Doug Carroll explore how it affects our minds and bodies and look at positive ways to improve wellbeing in the workplace.

S53 Town Hall 8.45 – 10.15pm £12 (£10)

on

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE: STRESSED OUT?!

CHOCOLATE

SATURDAY 12 JUNE WORKSHOP: FANCY YOURSELF AS A SURGEON?

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

YOUR DECADENT HUMAN BRAIN

S62 Town Hall 12 – 1pm £7 (£6) Are emotions such as happiness and sadness a luxury? The human brain evolved to be over three times as large as equivalently-sized mammals’. What do we do with all this extra neural power, and do we need it? Evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar and neuroscientists Ed Bullmore and Morten Kringelbach discuss whether our brains are the ultimate decadent possession.

CHEMISTRY: A VOLATILE HISTORY S65 Town Hall 2 – 3pm £8 (£7) Just 92 elements make up our entire world – the earth we walk on, the air we breathe, even us. From fiery phosphorus to pure untarnished lustrous gold, the explosive story of chemistry comes alive as Jim Al-Khalili and the Festival’s demo king Andrea Sella tell stories of the pioneers who cracked the elemental secrets.

THE DECADENT USE OF DRUGS WORKSHOP: FANCY YOURSELF AS A SURGEON?

Town Hall £6 Over 10s only S57 10 – 11am S58 11.30am – 12.30pm This is your chance to experience surgery first hand in our simulated operating theatre. Guided by surgeon Roger Kneebone and his team take part, as either surgeon or patient, in a simulated minor operation using real surgical instruments. This is as close to the real thing as you can get!

YOUR DECADENT HUMAN BRAIN

THE TIMES DEBATE IS THIS THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE WRITING?

LabOratory HEART ATTACK

S59 Town Hall 10.30 – 11.30am £8 (£7) Heart disease is the most common cause of death in the UK and, for some, a heart attack is the first sign that they are affected. Led by pathologist Suzy Lishman, a team of doctors and scientists explore the health of our hearts, including a virtual autopsy and a live dissection of a pig’s heart.

In association with the Royal College of Pathologists

S66 Town Hall 2.30 – 3.30pm £7 (£6) Throughout history the use of recreational drugs, from opium and alcohol to ecstasy and cocaine, has been a decadent addition to many lives. David Nutt investigates our relationship with these potentially dangerous substances with risk expert David Spiegelhalter.

WORTH THE RISK?

S63 Town Hall 12.30 – 1.30pm £7 (£6) For some, the perceived risk of going on a plane is enough to put them off flying. We read in the papers that bacon can give you cancer so we consider erasing it from our diet. Even getting in the car in the morning puts us at risk, but how can we carry on living our lives without being crippled by the worry of endless threats? David Spiegelhalter helps us interpret the news headlines and get the measure of risk.

S67 Town Hall 4 – 5pm £7 (£6) Great writing captures the beguiling nature of science, the thrill of discovery and the energy of those whose ideas defy the limits of our knowledge.

Join Graham Farmelo, who won the Costa Book Award for his biography of Paul Dirac, The Strangest Man, Rebecca Skloot, whose US bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has just been published in the UK and comedian and Eureka columnist Ben Miller – currently writing his first science book – as they discuss with Erica Wagner, Literary Editor of The Times, how understanding science is as much about the written word as the numerical equation.

WORKSHOP: ENDOSCOPY

Sandford Education Centre, Keynsham Rd £7 Over 16s only S60 12 – 1.30pm S61 2.30 – 4pm Discover what its like to look deep inside the human body using real endoscopes and realistic bodies with Hugh Barr and his team from the Royal Gloucestershire Biophotonics Research Unit. Entering through the mouth, can you avoid the airway and snake your way down the food passage, turning left (or is it right?) into the stomach to identify an abnormality before heading on down to the intestine?

In association with Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

THE GENIUS OF BRITAIN TURNING THE TABLES: THE SCIENTISTS INTERVIEW THE JOURNALISTS!

S64 Town Hall 2 – 3pm Free The Times’ award-winning science journalists are here to interview our scientists, but we couldn’t let them get away without going under the spotlight themselves! In today’s interview, Alice Roberts gives Health Editor Sam Lister a check up.

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S68 Town Hall 4 – 5pm £7 (£6) Channel 4’s new series celebrates the great thinkers and remarkable achievements in British science, from Newton to the present day.

With clips from the series, presenters Robert Winston, Olivia Judson, Kathy Sykes and Jim Al-Khalili and Channel 4’s Science Editor David Glover share their vision for the future of British science, exploring how, as a nation, we can build upon the legacy of the great scientists who feature in the series and ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of scientific endeavour.

Box Office 0844 576 7979

CLIMBING THE TREE OF PHYSICS

ALICE ROBERTS

CLIMBING THE TREE OF PHYSICS

S69 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30pm £6 (£5) The Universe, our brains, even tiny atoms… they seem so complex that we wonder if we can ever come close to understanding what is going on. But the Tree of Physics is here to help, breaking reality down into simple ideas. From sturgeons to stars, quarks to quasars, trombones to traffic, 2009 FameLab finalists Andrew Pontzen, Tom Whyntie and Matt Baker discover physics in the most unexpected of places.

SCIENCE QUESTION TIME

S70 Town Hall 5 – 6pm Free Explore today’s biggest debates, newest discoveries and favourite Festival moments with a selection of the day’s speakers, The Times’ journalists and the Festival team.

BIPOLAR

S75 Town Hall 8.30 – 9.30pm £6 (£5) We all have good and bad days, but for those with bipolar disorder mood swings are far more intense and can last for several weeks or months. With her personal experience of living with bipolar, author of Dark Clouds Gather Katy Sara Culling discusses its causes and treatments with Professor of Psychiatry Nicol Ferrier and Rebecca Elliott, who uses brain imaging to study mood disorders.

FAMELAB INTERNATIONAL COAST

S72 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.30pm £8 (£7) Join the team from the award-winning Coast series as they tell the stories from behind the scenes. Anthropologist Alice Roberts is joined by friends from the series to follow Britain’s coastline, revealing its hidden science secrets, historical tales and wildlife gems.

Chosen Hill School

S76 Town Hall 8.30 – 10.30pm £6 (£5) Doing more for international relations than any UN conference, this year’s FameLab competition took place in 11 countries, including first-timers Hong Kong, Egypt, Libya and Morocco.

Hot-footing it to Cheltenham, the winners do battle with the UK’s Matt Parker in the final to end all finals hosted, as ever, by the entertainingly diplomatic Quentin Cooper.

SLAM THE ATOM

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE: OPERATION LIVE

THE INFINITE MONKEY CAGE

SATURDAY 12 JUNE

S73 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.30pm £8 (£7) Could you cope with the pressure and responsibility of being a surgeon? With a live link to our simulated operating theatre, a full surgical team is joined by BBC The One Show’s Michael Mosley to perform an emergency operation.

Surgeon Roger Kneebone provides expert commentary before the team give their personal reflections on the experience and discuss how they perform under pressure.

S77 Town Hall 9 – 10.30pm £6 (£5) The bar will be open during this event

In a debauched night of profligate performance poetry, fifteen decadent declaimers vie with verse and verve to become the Festival’s exceller par excellence.

MC2 Sara-Jane Arbury and Marcus Moore collect the data, while random judges rate the writing, assess the performances and gauge whose lines will decline or shine. In the wanton world of competitive slam poetry, excess equals success…

BEN MILLER

LabOratory THE INFINITE MONKEY CAGE

S71 Town Hall 6 – 7.30pm £3 Festival Fee In this live version of their Radio 4 show, Robin Ince and Brian Cox are joined by special guests for a witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists’ eyes. Share this unique chance to take part in the first ever recording in front of a live audience. The guests will be confirmed nearer the time, for details check cheltenhamfestivals.com/science

PARANOID?

S74 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.30pm £8 (£7) Terrorists, child abductors, muggers, delinquent teenagers, malicious colleagues… who wouldn’t be worried?

Recent research has revealed that suspiciousness is much more common than previously thought. Join psychologist Daniel Freeman to discover whether we are letting paranoia get the better of us, and how social and cultural factors skew the way we think and feel.

You can hear The Infinite Monkey Cage on Mondays at 4.30pm from 14 June, or listen again at bbc.co.uk/radio4

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THE SCHOOL FOR GIFTED CHILDREN S78 Town Hall 9.30 – 11pm £12 (£10) Res Robin Ince returns with a fabulous night of debate, polemic and glorious comedy that shows what would result from the collision of The Royal Variety Performance and The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. This year’s guests include Ben Miller, Ray Tallis, Kate Lancaster and Steve Mould.

SUNDAY 13 JUNE WORKSHOP: FANCY YOURSELF AS A SURGEON? Town Hall £6 Over 10s only S79 10 – 11am S80 11.30am – 12.30pm This is your chance to experience surgery first hand in our simulated operating theatre. Guided by surgeon Roger Kneebone and his team take part, as either surgeon or patient, in a simulated minor operation using real surgical instruments. This is as close to the real thing as you can get!

LabOratory HOW TO TREAT DEPRESSION

S81 Town Hall 10.15 – 11.15am £8 (£7) Antidepressant drugs have been hailed as the miracles of modern medicine but are they really that effective? Are there other ways to treat depression?

Robert Winston joins author of The Emperor’s New Drugs Irving Kirsch, who questions the efficacy of drugs, to discuss the treatment of depression with psychopharmacologist and consultant psychiatrist Hamish McAllisterWilliams and GP Iona Heath.

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

LASERS

STOPPING THE SPREAD OF SUPERBUGS

LASERS

S83 Town Hall 12.15 – 1.15pm £7 (£6) When the first laser was fired up 50 years ago, it was a solution looking for a problem. Since then it has been developed for many different uses including medicine, telecommunications and scientific research. Physicists David Payne, Steve Bown and Kate Lancaster discuss the history of lasers and their future, and find out why they have never lived up to their sci-fi reputation as a means to fry your enemy!

WONDERS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM HEALTH IN THE HEADLINES

S82 Town Hall 12 – 1pm Free Join Robert Winston and UK experts to explore the science behind the latest health headlines as the newest drugs, the links between disease and lifestyle and the latest advice about what’s good for you, and what’s not, come under the spotlight.

S85 Town Hall 2 – 3pm £7 (£6) A patient is admitted to hospital for a routine operation and is concerned about the risk of contracting a superbug such as MRSA. You, the audience, make decisions that will determine the outcome for this patient, under the expert guidance of microbiologist Anthony Hilton, clinician Tony Berendt and Consultant Nurse for Infection, Prevention and Control Martin Kiernan. Follow the patient’s story and explore the challenges that hospitals face on a daily basis.

TURNING THE TABLES: THE SCIENTISTS INTERVIEW THE JOURNALISTS!

S86 Town Hall 2 – 3pm Free The Times’ award-winning science journalists are here to interview our scientists, but we couldn’t let them get away without going under the spotlight themselves! Today Raymond Tallis shares a Eureka moment with Editor Antonia Senior.

MALARIA

S84 Town Hall 2 – 3pm £9 (£8) Since childhood, physicist Brian Cox has been consumed by a fascination with worlds beyond our Earth, from the giant ice fountains of Enceladus to storms twice the size of Earth and the giant supervolcanoes on Io. With some dramatic images and spell-binding footage, he and Executive Producer Andrew Cohen paint a breathtaking picture of a solar system that we are only just beginning to understand.

BRIAN COX MALARIA

S87 Town Hall 2 – 3pm £6 (£5) Malaria affects 250 million people a year and nearly one million die from the disease, mostly African children under five. But it is preventable and curable.

Colin Sutherland and Steve Lindsay from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Chris Hentschel from Medicines for Malaria Venture explore the latest in the battle to eradicate this deadly disease, and discuss whether our changing climate could mean its return to UK shores.

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FUEL EFFICIENT FLYING

Box Office 0844 576 7979

SUNDAY 13 JUNE

FUEL EFFICIENT FLYING

CALL MY SCIENTIFIC BLUFF

S93 Town Hall 4.15 – 5.15pm £7 (£6) We all enjoy travelling to exotic foreign places but, as we try to reduce our carbon emissions, another plane journey may seem like a decadent pursuit too far. Take a flight into the future with aerospace engineer John Green, of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Greener

by Design group, and Ben Evans, who uses computational modelling to design fuel efficient aircraft. Could we one day fly with a clear conscience?

S96 Town Hall 6.15 – 7.15pm £6 (£5) An event horizon, in which six intrepid pioneers cross the frontiers of human knowledge… only to discover the delights of fabrication, hyperbole and downright fibbing. Timandra Harkness, Quentin Cooper, Robert Winston and Robin Ince dive headlong into a seething quagmire of obscure scientific words and phrases, under the careless direction of expedition leaders Kathy Sykes and Mark Lythgoe. Tour guide Marcus Moore spells out the risk assessments.

HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?

S88 Town Hall 3.30 – 4.30pm Free An opportunity to give Festival Directors Kathy Sykes and Mark Lythgoe your views about this year’s Cheltenham Science Festival and contribute ideas for next year.

WORKSHOP: GADGET DISSECTION

Town Hall £6 S89 4 – 5pm S90 5.30 – 6.30pm “But how does it actually work?” If this is the type of question that you ask, then here is your opportunity to get an insight into the workings of some familiar gadgets. With precision, accuracy and careful dissection skills, Mark Miodownik guides you through the incredible technology inside your mobile phone as well as some other gadgets that have seen better days.

THE WAVEWATCHER’S COMPANION

ELECTRIC DREAMS: THE FUTURE OF CARS

ROBERT LLEWELLYN

S94 Town Hall 6 – 7pm £6 (£5) Cars are as much a symbol of status and identity as a means of getting from A to B. With the promise of real reductions in carbon emissions, urban air pollution and noise levels, the car’s future is almost certainly electric. Bright spark engineer Roger Kemp and psychologist Harry Witchel join electric car enthusiast Robert Llewellyn to explore the future of battery power and dispel the image of the dawdling milk float.

STAND UP MATHEMATICS

S97 Town Hall 8 – 9pm £7 (£6) Comedian and mathematician Matt Parker mixes his two passions with hilarious, statistically accurate results (regardless of your maths ability or level of intoxication!). Taking the topical and the daft in equal measure, expect anything from Sudoku abuse to the mysterious patterns in the locations of ancient Woolworths shops. Mathematical and number-phobic hecklers welcome!

EVAN DAVIS

S91 Town Hall 4 – 5pm £7 (£6) Take a trip of wave discovery with bestselling author of The Cloudspotter’s Guide Gavin Pretor-Pinney. Explore what traffic jams, heartbeats and a butterfly wing’s shimmer have in common with ocean waves, Mexican waves, brain waves and all the rest of life’s undulations.

In association with the Royal Meteorological Society

RICHARD FORTEY: THE HIDDEN LANDSCAPE

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S95 Town Hall 6 – 7pm £8 (£7) Why do some people only need five hours sleep while others need more than eight? How can some people fall asleep anywhere, while others need total silence and pitch black? Does an hour before midnight count for two after? Sleep-deprived presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme Evan Davis discusses these questions and more with sleep researcher Russell Foster.

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–2

S92 Town Hall 4 – 5pm £8 (£7) Despite its initial trials and tribulations CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is finally up and running. Join the Festival’s Guest Director Brian Cox to discover what we know, and don’t yet know, about our Universe, where we came from and where we are going.

With the very latest from the LHC, explore the real value of the most expensive experiment in history.

S98 Town Hall 8 – 9pm £7 (£6) Geologist, palaeontologist, author and Royal Society Fellow Richard Fortey is your guide to The Hidden Landscape of the British Isles. Travel through our geological past to the age of the trilobites, and discover how our landscape and plants, the characteristics of buildings, even Scottish malt whisky, thatched cottages and Harris Tweed have been influenced by the tumultuous events of millions of years ago.

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BRIAN COX: OUR UNIVERSE

SLEEP

BO OK E 8 M ARL ar Y

FAMILY EVENTS

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE

SATURDAY 12 JUNE

THE REAL SCIENCE OF THE CIRCUS

WORKSHOP: WATER ROCKETS

SF1 Town Hall 6.30 – 7.30pm All ages £6 Juggling Guinness World Record holder James Soper joins us to show off some of his most amazing circus skills. With his unicycle and juggling balls and plenty of audience participation, discover the science behind some spectacular circus tricks.

FRIDAY 11 JUNE WORKSHOP: WATER ROCKETS

SF2 Cheltenham College Sports Centre, Thirlestaine Road 5 – 6.30pm Age 8 upwards £7 Have you ever wanted to become a rocket scientist? Now is your chance!

With some help from the National Physical Laboratory, come and design your very own water rocket.

Test it at our launch site and make modifications to improve its flight.

Whose rocket will hit the target?

These workshops will be outside

DR HAL

Cheltenham College Sports Centre, Thirlestaine Road SF3 10 – 11.30am SF4 12 – 1.30pm Age 8 upwards £7 See event SF2 for details

INTELLIGENT MACHINES

SF5 Town Hall 10 – 11am Age 10 upwards £5 Computers are capable of incredible tasks that no human can compete with, but can we build a computer that can learn like us? With spectacular demonstrations and lots of audience participation, including a computer racing game which is controlled by movements of the entire audience, Chris Bishop, from Microsoft Research and presenter of The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2008, explores the surprising science of uncertainty to find the answer.

THE BIGGER BANG

SF6 Town Hall 10 – 11am Age 6 upwards £6 Dr Hal brings his giant chemistry set to Cheltenham to show off the incredible colourful and explosive power of chemistry! From hot ice to exploding ostrich eggs, join him for a unique blend of spectacular science demonstrations and audience interaction.

WORKSHOP: HOT AIR BALLOON

For free family activites see pages 4 and 5 Family events sponsored by

Town Hall SF7 10 – 11am SF8 11.30am – 12.30pm SF9 1 – 2pm SF10 2.30 – 3.30pm Age 7 upwards £6 Travel back to 18th century France and find out how the Montgolfier brothers and their farmyard friends flew into the history books. Discover the science behind hot air balloons with the team from the Science Museum and make your very own to test and fly. How high will yours go?

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GASTRONUTS

SF11 Town Hall 12 – 1pm Age 5 upwards £6 Back by popular demand, food fanatic and CBBC presenter Stefan Gates and gastronutty chemist Andrea Sella take you on a wild culinary adventure. Join them as they indulge in harebrained experiments, crazy cooking and eat the world’s weirdest food. Who said we shouldn’t play with our food?

SKY AT NIGHT

Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Porter’s Lodge entrance, St George’s Road SF12 1 – 2pm SF13 2.30 – 3.30pm SF14 4 – 5pm Age 8 upwards £6 Crawl inside the Cheltenham Ladies’ College inflatable STARLAB to explore the beautiful night sky and the wonders of space. Discover star constellations and spot hidden characters from Greek and Roman mythology before making your very own planisphere to take home.

Developed by Cheltenham Ladies’ College

ROBERT WINSTON: WHAT GOES ON IN MY HEAD?

SF15 Town Hall 2 – 3pm Age 8 upwards £6 Join Robert Winston for a mindbending trip into the most amazing and powerful computer that exists – your brain. Learn how your brain works and how it will change as you grow up. Discover why we all need to sleep and what makes us yawn. Packed with fascinating facts and fun brainteasers!

DO TRY THIS AT HOME

SF16 Town Hall 4.30 – 5.30 pm Age 6 upwards £5 The Punk Science team from the Science Museum love doing experiments and they want to show you how to do them! Join them for explosions, jokes, fizz, bubbles and much more. Amaze your friends and try some out at home. Mess likely, fun guaranteed!

Box Office 0844 576 7979

FAMILY EVENTS

SUNDAY 13 JUNE UP, UP AND AWAY

SF17 Town Hall 10 – 11am Age 4 upwards £4 Kevin is a tiny speck of dust, who wants to go places. Join him and his special guest 2007 NESTA FameLab winner Nicholas Harrigan, as they travel high up into the sky to discover the dusty secrets behind rainbows, clouds, snow and beyond.

SCIENCE VS MAGIC

SF18 Town Hall 10 – 11am Age 11 upwards £5 Is science better than magic? With stunning demonstrations and illusions, Alom Shaha claims that he can convince even the most avid Harry Potter fans that science can beat magic hands down when it comes to delivering excitement and wonder. Can he convince you?

DEMO’S FROM THE BLUE PETER SCIENTIST

SF19 Town Hall 10 – 11am Age 7 upwards £6 Ever seen a light bulb made out of a pickle or an indoor sunset? Steve Mould isn’t Blue Peter’s resident scientist for nothing; he spends his time creating spectacular demo’s that will wow your socks off! Join him to see extended versions of some of the impressive experiments that you saw on screen, plus some brand new ones. Here’s one he made earlier!

EXPLORING THE OCEANS

SF20 Town Hall 12 – 1pm Age 10 upwards £4 From glowing octopuses to enormous whales, the ocean is an amazing world of weird and wonderful creatures. Explore the startling science behind some of nature’s most secretive and amazing creations with NESTA FameLab 2007 finalists. Plumb the depths of the deep blue and discover what happens when millions of fish work together.

WHEN IS A GAS NOT A GAS?

SF21 Town Hall 12 – 1pm Age 8 upwards £6 With spectacular demonstrations, festival favourite Andrea Sella explores the fascinating science of gases, liquids and solids. With exploding coke bottles, balloons, dry ice, bubbles that sink, liquid nitrogen, icebergs, petrolbergs… this interactive chemistry show will have you on the edge of your seat!

SCIENCE JUNKIE

SF22 Town Hall 2.15 – 3.15pm Age 11 upwards £5 Avid adventurers and science junkies Huw James and Greg Foot get your blood pumping in an hour of adrenaline-filled extreme sports action. With plenty of demos and audience participation, surf a huge wave in Hawaii, jump building to building, cycle through a spectacular alpine pass and hurtle toward earth in freefall… all before tea time!

ANDREA SELLA STEFAN GATES

ME

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Fo MBE r R famall SH I ily the P

ROBERT WINSTON

SCIENCE FOR SCHOOLS

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE

THURSDAY 10 JUNE

FRIDAY 11 JUNE

THE REAL SCIENCE OF THE CIRCUS

CODE CRACKING AND COMMUNICATIONS

WATER ROCKETS

SS1 KS1 10 – 11am SS3 KS2 12 – 1pm

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

KS3 SS10 9.45 – 11.15am SS11 11.45am – 1.15pm SS12 1.45 – 3.15pm

CHEMISTRY WITH A BANG!

BENDING IT LIKE BECKHAM – WORLD CUP SCIENCE

SS2 KS2 10 – 11am SS4 KS2 2 – 3pm

YOUR INSIDES ON YOUR OUTSIDES KS2 SS5 10 – 11am SS6 11.15am –12.15pm SS7 12.30 – 1.30pm SS8 1.45 – 2.45pm SS9 3 – 4pm

SS13 KS3 10 – 11am

KS1 SS25 9.30 – 10am SS26 10.30 – 11am

THE BIGGER BANG

SS14 KS3/4 10 – 11am

SS27 KS3 10 – 11am SS28 KS2 12 – 1pm

CHEMISTRY WITH A BANG!

IT TAKES GUTS

SS15 KS3 12 – 1pm

ROCK GUITAR IN 11 DIMENSIONS

THE WIND POWERED VEHICLE CHALLENGE

KS3 SS17 10 – 11am SS18 11.15am – 12.15pm SS19 12.30 – 1.30pm SS20 1.45 – 2.45pm SS21 3 – 4pm

With thanks to

THE GOLDEN COCONUT

AMEOBA TO ZEBRA

SS16 KS4 12 – 1pm Science for Schools events sponsored by

KS3 SS22 9.45 – 11.15am SS23 11.45am – 1.15pm SS24 1.45 – 3.15pm

SS29 KS3 12 – 1pm

GLORIOUS BLOOD SS30 KS2 2 – 3pm

EARTH SUN AND MOON KS2 SS31 10 – 11am SS32 11.15am – 12.15pm SS33 12.30 – 1.30pm SS34 1.45 – 2.45pm SS35 3 – 4pm

Please visit cheltenhamfestivals.com/education for booking details and to download a full education pack, or phone 01242 775 822.

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Photograph courtesy of Conor Cahill

EDF Energy is proud to be Cheltenham Science Festival’s Education and Principal sponsor in 2010. We hope our continued support of the festival will inspire young people to become the scientists and engineers of the future.

The Pod is an interactive online resource for teachers of Key Stages 2 and 3 children, designed with the help of Eco-Schools, the Eden Project and the London 2012 Education Programme - and sits at the heart of EDF Energy’s Programme for Greener Schools.

Any teacher can join the Pod and receive resource packs, lesson plans, activities, games and more, all for free. Join the 7,700 schools already registered to the Pod by visiting

www.jointhepod.org Visit us at the Discover Zone

EPSRC AT THE CHELTENHAM SCIENCE FESTIVAL 9-13 JUNE 2010

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

IMPACT! TRAIL

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Follow the IMPACT! trail around the Discover Zone: explore the impact of science on society by looking for the exhibits marked by the IMPACT! signs.

A selection of design projects from the IMPACT! exhibition, offering a powerful insight into how today's research might transform our experience of the world.

IMPACT! GALLERY

Tissue Engineering Wednesday 9th June Fakes and Discoveries – the Madonna of the Pinks Thursday 10th June Lasers – the 50th Anniversary Sunday 13th June Visit our stand in the Discover Zone or go to our website at www.epsrc.ac.uk to find out more about us.

EPSRC is the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and physical sciences, investing around £800 million a year in research that ultimately impacts on society and the way we live.

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THE MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL DISCOVERY SCIENCE FOR HEALTH From molecular biology and clinical research to population studies, our focus is on funding science that improves human health. From identifying the flu virus to establishing the links between smoking and cancer, our scientistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; research has led to some of the most significant discoveries in medical history and benefited millions of people in the UK and around the world.

We are proud to support the 2010 Cheltenham Science Festival.

To find out more about the MRC go to

www.mrc.ac.uk

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Model shown iQ 1.0 VVT-i 3 door manual £9,975, metallic paint £408.70 extra. Price correct at time of going to press and includes VAT, delivery charge, number plates, one year’s road fund licence and £55 first registration fee. Subject to availability.

iQ 1.0 VVT-i Official Fuel Consumption Figures in mpg (l/100km), Urban 57.7 (4.9), Extra Urban 72.4 (3.9), Combined 65.7 (4.3). CO2 Emissions 99g/km

LEXUS LAUNCHES THE

CT 200h

THE WORLDS FIRST FULL HYBRID COMPACT

LEXUS CHELTENHAM 179 Tewkesbury Road, Cheltenham GL51 9DT T 01242 230 303 www.lexus.co.uk/cheltenham

leading the way in innovative science As the leading discoverer and developer of ground-breaking new medicines, Pfizer engages in innovative science to help address major unmet medical need around the world.

Whether it is using the human genome to identify new drug targets or pioneering novel approaches to Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s disease and cancer, our scientists are always at the cutting edge of medical research.

Here at Pfizer, science is in everything we do and we are proud to support the Cheltenham Science Festival.

To find out more about PďŹ zer, visit www.pďŹ zer.co.uk 10115

Your monthly magazine dedicated to science, life and the planet

Free inside The Times on the first Thursday of every month For more information visit thetimes.co.uk/eureka

OUR NATIONAL COMPETITION TO FIND NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Funded by the Wellcome Trust over three years, LabOratory draws on the knowledge and expertise of all four Cheltenham Festivals – in Jazz, Science, Music and Literature – to create innovative, high impact events about biomedical science.

13 previous finalists – from the first winner in 2005 Mark Lewney to the latest in 2009 Tom Whyntie – are taking part in this year’s Festival.

Our theme for 2010 is Performance Under Pressure.

We traditionally associate performance with actors and musicians, but there is an element of it in so many roles, from surgeon to parent. We explore the impact of fear or stress, and how our bodies respond, on different types of performance.

Don’t miss the FameLab International final (S76, p15), when the winners from 12 countries compete for the ultimate FameLab crown!

At this year’s Science Festival, the LabOratory Tent in Imperial Gardens hosts a simulated operating theatre.

Normally used to train surgeons, this is its first major public outing. Watch a live operation (S73, p15) and have a go at some minor surgery yourself (p14 & 16). You can also explore how your performance at work is affected by stress and the best ways to combat it (S49, p13).

Don’t forget to look out for LabOratory events at all of our upcoming Festivals!

famelab.org

With thanks to the LabOratory ThinkTank: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Quentin Cooper, Maggie Gee, Daniel Glaser, Anthony Grayling, Robin Ince, Mark Lythgoe, Kathy Sykes, Raymond Tallis, Aaron Williamon, and to Robert Winston.

cheltenhamfestivals.com/laboratory

2010 Dates Barclays Cheltenham Jazz Festival 28 April – 3 May The Times Cheltenham Science Festival 9 – 13 June HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival 2 – 17 July The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 8 – 17 October SOUND MIND

Check out cheltenhamfestivals.com Sign up to receive the latest updates and enews.

HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival 2 – 17 July 2010 Look out for a fascinating series of events focusing on Music, the Brain and the Mind.

Go to cheltenhamfestivals.com/music for full information

Twitter twitter.com/cheltfestivals Facebook facebook.com/cheltenhamfestivals 27

BOOKING INFORMATION

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

Book online at cheltenhamfestivals.com

Discounts & Concessions Concessions Concessionary prices are shown in brackets and apply to those who are under the age of 25, full-time students, registered unemployed or registered disabled. Please be prepared to show proof of eligibility at the Box Office and upon admission to events.

Members’ tickets on sale from 9am Monday 22 March 2010

Membership Members are entitled to a 20% discount on full price tickets at their choice of ten events. Discounted tickets can only be used by the Member, and cannot be applied on tickets which include food or drink in the price. Visit the Town Hall Box Office or cheltenhamfestivals.com/membership to find out more.

Tickets on sale from 9am Monday 29 March 2010 Don’t miss out – book early!

Festival Box Office

Disabled Patrons & Support Workers/Assistants Disabled patrons are entitled to the concessionary ticket price and a free ticket for their support worker/assistant.

Please be prepared to show relevant ID at the box office or upon admission to events. For information about access please see our website for venue contact details.

Online cheltenhamfestivals.com Get the latest and most complete information online and book 24hrs a day (no concessions are available online).

Phone

Group Booking Book 10 tickets for any one event and get the 10th absolutely free!

0844 576 7979

Cheltenham Festivals reserves the right to offer last minute promotions and discounts.

22 March – 3 April Mon – Fri 9am – 8pm, Sat 9.30am – 6.30pm, Sun 11am – 4pm From Tuesday 6 April Mon – Fri 10am – 8pm, Sat 9.30am – 5.30pm, Sun closed

Additional Information for Families Please adhere to the age range specified for family events.

Children under 12 years must be accompanied by a responsible person aged 16 or over, approved by the parent/ guardian, and prices are kept as low as possible to allow for this. Any such person can accompany a maximum of 6 children to an event. Cheltenham Festivals maintains a Child Protection Policy, but cannot act in loco parentis or take responsibility for unsupervised children. If your child is disruptive you may be asked to leave the event.

Please check cheltenhamfestivals.com for bank holiday opening hours.

In Person Town Hall, Imperial Square, Cheltenham GL50 1QA Public Opening Times Mon – Sat 9.30am – 5.30pm (Mon 22 & Mon 29 March, Box Office opens at 9am) Other options available until 48hrs before the event Email boxoffice@cheltenham.gov.uk Fax 01242 573902 using booking form (opposite) Post using booking form & including a SAE

Lost children will be taken to the Info Point.

Please ensure your children have your mobile phone number; wristbands are available from the Info Point if required

Refunds The Festival cannot refund money or exchange tickets, except in the case of a cancelled performance.

If you require a copy of this brochure in large print format please call 01242 775866.

Treat yourself to Cheltenham Festivals Membership privileges from £15 a year Enjoy Membership at all four Festivals: Jazz, Science, Music and Literature Save 20% on any ten events* Book ahead with priority booking Enjoy exclusive Members’ events Save with discounts from Festival partners Relax in our special Members’ Area

Join today at cheltenhamfestivals.com/membership or visit the Members’ Area during the Festival. * Discount not available on events which include food in the ticket price.

28

F EA ROM CH £ YE 15 AR

Plus you’ll be kept up to date on Festival news and exclusive offers throughout the year..

BOOKING FORM

Box Office 0844 576 7979 Event Number

Date

Time

Number of Tickets

Concession Code

Price

Total

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

Membership Level

Total

I/we would like to join the Cheltenham Festivals Membership Scheme (see cheltenhamfestivals.com/membership or page 28 for full details) Concession codes U Under 25 D Registered disabled M Member

S Full-time student SW Support worker

R Registered unemployed G Group booking

Subtotal £

SUPPORT YOUR SCIENCE FESTIVAL

Make a donation £

Add £1 postage or enclose an SAE

Membership levels Associate £15 (Priority booking only: does not include discounts) Concessionary £15 (Under 25, registered disabled and unemployed) Individual £31 Joint £47 Family £52

Total £

Surname Initials

Title

Address (registered cardholder)

Postcode

Tel Day

Tel Eve

Email I prefer to receive correspondence via email I enclose a cheque for a sum not exceeding £

Cheques made payable to Cheltenham Borough Council.

Or please debit my card Visa

Mastercard Solo

Card no.

Expiry date

/

Maestro

Valid from

/

Security no.

Issue no (Maestro only)

Cardholder’s signature Please return to The Times Cheltenham Science Festival, Box Office, Town Hall, Imperial Square, Cheltenham GL50 1QA Fax 01242 573 902

29

THANK YOU

PATRONS For further information on the Patrons’ Scheme please contact Arlene McGlynn, Patrons Manager 01242 775857 arlene.mcglynn@cheltenhamfestivals.com Life Patron Charles Fisher Graham and Eileen Lockwood Corporate Patron HSBC Willans LLP Solicitors Platinum Patron Peter and Anne Bond Jennifer Bryant-Pearson Dominic Collier in memory of Karen Hood Michael and Angela Cronk Jeremy Hitchins Jonathan and Cassinha Hitchins Steven and Tania Hitchins Simon and Emma Keswick Howard and Jay Milton In memory of Jørgen Philip-Sørensen Gold Patron Anonymous David and Clare Astor Jack and Dora Black Sue and Mark Blanchfield Eleanor Budge Charlie Chan Clive Coates and Ann Murray Stuart and Gillian Corbyn Janet and Jean-François Cristau Michael and Felicia Crystal Wallace and Morag Dobbin Mr and Mrs P J Elliott Lord and Lady Hoffmann Elizabeth Jacobs Sir Peter and Lady Marychurch Fiona McLeod Sir Michael McWilliam The Helena Oldacre Trust Esther and Peter Smedvig Fiona and David Symondson Giles and Michelle Thorley Janet Wedge and Charles Middleton Steve and Eugenia Winwood Peter and Alison Yiangou

The Times is one of the UK’s most trusted quality newspapers, with 1.7 million readers. We are committed to covering all aspects of science and on the first Thursday of every month publish Eureka, a free 60-page magazine dedicated to science, life and the planet.

We are proud to be the title sponsor of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival and will cover the festival in detail, both in print and online at www.thetimes.co.uk

Festival Patron Kate Adie Anonymous Chris Baylis Mark and Maria Bentley Stephen and Victoria Bond Jonathan and Daphne Carr Robert Cawthorne and Catherine White Simon Collings Christopher Dreyfus Viscount and Viscountess Esher James Fleming Kate Fleming Professor A C Grayling Huw and Nicki Gwynn-Jones Marianne Hinton Stephen Hodge Anthony Hoffman and Dr Christine Facer Hoffman Richard and Peta Hoyle Michael and Elizabeth Jones Martin Knight Lady Elaine Marriott Rosamund and Geoff Marshall Mark McKergow and Jenny Clarke Mary and Timothy Mitchell Professor Angela Newing Robert Padgett Sir David and Lady Pepper Leslie Perrin Maggie Phillips Hugh Poole-Warren Jonathon Porritt Patricia Routledge CBE Keith Salway Lavinia Sidgwick Jonathan and Gail Taylor Professor Lord Winston Anne Wood Michael and Jacqueline Woof

As a research based pharmaceutical company, science is in everything we do. We have over 12,000 scientists discovering and developing medicines for the world’s most serious diseases including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDS. We hope and believe that Cheltenham Science Festival will not only engage people in the excitement of science but also inspire pupils and students to become the scientists of the future.

EPSRC is delighted to return to the Cheltenham Science Festival as sponsor for a second year with the aim of helping to communicate the importance and impact of science on the world around us.

EPSRC is the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences, investing around £800m a year in world class research and training to promote future economic development and improved quality of life. For more information visit www.epsrc.ac.uk

The Medical Research Council improves the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science and investing in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. Today, MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. We are extremely proud to support the Cheltenham Science Festival 2010.

LEAVE A LEGACY A legacy left to Cheltenham Festivals is a gift to future generations of Festival goers.

EDF Energy is delighted to be Principal and Education partner of the Cheltenham Science Festival. The festival is a tremendous event, which inspires young people, helping them to understand how science works. In sponsoring Cheltenham Science Festival Schools’ programme, we are continuing the partnership started with British Energy, now part of EDF Energy. We employ high performing engineers and scientists and want to play our role encouraging young people today to become the scientists and engineers of the future.

For more information contact Rose Wood in confidence.

Rose Wood, Legacy Officer Cheltenham Festivals, 109 Bath Road, Cheltenham GL53 7LS rose.wood@cheltenhamfestivals.com 30

SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS Associate Sponsors

Local Media Partner

Chosen Hill School

COLOUR PRINTERS

Photography Credits Conor Cahill Festival Photographer

CHELTENHAM

Cheltenham Festivals Board Sir Michael McWilliam Chair Donna Renney Chief Executive Peter Bond Lewis Carnie Jonathan Carr Christopher Cook Peter Elliott James Heneage Virginia Isaac Martin Knight Gill Samuels David Wood Keep in Touch To contact us with ideas or feedback please email science@cheltenhamfestivals.com

HJK Images The Perfect Racehorse Jim Koepnick Space Tourism

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Oriel Road

Imperial Gardens

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Keynsham Road

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Prom enad e Rege nt St reet

Mark Lythgoe Kathy Sykes Gill Samuels Jim Al-Khalili Quentin Cooper Timandra Harkness Mark Henderson Roger Highfield Mark Maslin Mark Miodownik Vivienne Parry Alice Roberts Andrea Sella Elaine Snell

2

Montpellier Gardens

Montpellier Terrace

Sandfo

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Andover Road

Suffolk Road

Park Place

The British Association for Psychopharmacology BBC The British Neuroscience Association Cheltenham College The Daffodil The Daphne Jackson Trust EADS Astrium EnergySolutions The Fat Duck GKN Driveline Glide Media Marketing L’Oreal Mercure Queen’s Hotel MRG Systems National Physical Laboratory Nelson Thornes Olympus KeyMed Reading University The Royal College of Pathologists The Royal Meteorological Society Spice Lodge Thorntons Waterstone’s

Advisory Group

Baysh ill Roa d Montp ellier S tr e Mon et tpell ier W alk

Individual Event & In-kind Sponsors

Thirlestaine Road

3

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1 TOWN HALL GL50 1QA 2 SANDFORD EDUCATION CENTRE GL53 7PY 3 CHELTENHAM COLLEGE SPORTS CENTRE 4 CHELTENHAM LADIES’ COLLEGE, PORTER’S LODGE 5 PARABOLA ARTS CENTRE For full map visit cheltenhamfestivals.com/visitorinformation

Cheltenham Science Festival is presented by Cheltenham Festivals, a company limited by guarantee.

Registered Office 28 Imperial Square Cheltenham GL50 1RH Registered No. 456573 Charity No. 251765 VAT Registration No. 274184644

AT A GLANCE

For more info and to book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE

SATURDAY 12 JUNE Engineering Human Tissue

S1

12 - 1pm

S2

12.30 - 1.30pm

S3

1 - 2pm

Carbon in the Community

S4

2 - 3pm

Engineering the Paralympics

S5

2.30 - 3.30pm

S6

4 - 5pm

S57, S58 10 - 11am, 11.30am - 12.30pm Workshop: Fancy Yourself as a Surgeon?

The Plight of the Humble Bee

Species on the Move

p8

To Jab or Not to Jab? Science, Decadence and the Enemies of the West The Perfect Racehorse

Heart Attack

S59

10.30 - 11.30am

S60, S61

12 - 1.30pm, 2.30 - 4pm

S62

12 - 1pm

S63

12.30 - 1.30pm

S64

2 - 3pm

Turning the Tables

S65

2 - 3pm

Chemistry: A Volatile History

S7

4.30 - 5.30pm

S8

4.30 - 5.30pm

S66

2.30 - 3.30pm

S9

5 - 6pm

Intelligent Transport

S67

4 - 5pm

S10

5 - 6pm

Science Question Time

S68

4 - 5pm

S11

6.30 - 7.45pm

Is Debt Putting British Science at Risk?

S69

4.30 - 5.30pm

S12

7 - 8pm

Should Computers Have Rights Too?

S70

5 - 6pm

S13

7 - 8pm

Bad Habits Die Hard

S14

8.30 - 9.30pm

Inside Nature's Giants

S15

8.45 - 9.45pm

S16 S17

Workshop: Endoscopy Your Decadent Human Brain Worth The Risk?

The Decadent Use of Drugs Is this the Golden Age of Science Writing?

The Genius of Britain Climbing the Tree of Physics Science Question Time The Infinite Monkey Cage

S71

6 - 7.30pm

S72

6.30 - 7.30pm

The Psychology of Healing

S73

6.30 - 7.30pm

9 - 10pm

Jenner's Legacy

S74

6.30 - 7.30pm

Coast Performance Under Pressure: Operation Live Paranoid?

9 - 10pm

Computer Domination

S75

8.30 - 9.30pm

Bipolar

S76

8.30 - 10.30pm

FameLab International

S77

9 - 10.30pm

Slam the Atom

S78

9.30 - 11pm

The School for Gifted Children

p9

THURSDAY 10 JUNE S18

10.15 - 11.15am

Biofuels: The Next Generation

S19

12.15 - 1.15pm

Carbon Trading

S20

1 - 2pm

Carbon in the Community

S21

2 - 3pm

Magnetic Electricity

S22

2.15 - 3.15pm

The Secret Life of Chaos

S23

2.30 - 3.30pm

Solar Science

S24

4 - 5pm

S25

4.15 - 5.15pm

S26

4.30 - 5.30pm

S27

5 - 6pm

S28

5 - 6pm

S29

6 - 7.15pm

S30

6.15 - 7.15pm

S31

6.30 - 7.45pm

S32

7 - 8pm

S33

7.45 - 9pm

The Ultimate Piano Lesson

S34

8.15 - 9.15pm

S35

8.45 - 10pm

S36

8.45 - 10.15pm

S37

9 - 10pm

S79, S80 10 - 11am, 11.30am - 12.30pm Workshop: Fancy Yourself as a Surgeon?

10.15 - 11.15am

How to Treat Depression

S82

12 - 1pm

Health in the Headlines

S83

12.15 - 1.15pm

S84

2 - 3pm

Wonders of the Solar System

S85

2 - 3pm

Stopping the Spread of Superbugs

S86

2 - 3pm

Turning the Tables

Science Question Time

S87

2 - 3pm

Malaria

The Smoking World

S88

3.30 - 4.30pm

S89, S90

4 - 5pm, 5.30 - 6.30pm

S91

4 - 5pm

The Wavewatcher's Companion

S92

4 - 5pm

Brian Cox: Our Universe

S93

4.15 - 5.15pm

S94

6 - 7pm

Electric Dreams: The Future of Cars

S95

6 - 7pm

Sleep

Blame it on the Hormones

S96

6.15 - 7.15pm

Call My Scientific Bluff

Trust in Climate Science

S97

8 - 9pm

Stand Up Mathematics

Heston's Sweet Shop Fakes and Discoveries: The Madonna of the Pinks

S98

8 - 9pm

Richard Fortey: The Hidden Landscape

p10

2030: Engineering Our Climate Beating the Big C: The Next Decade of Cancer Care Heston Blumenthal in Conversation with Harold McGee HIV p11

WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE

FRIDAY 11 JUNE

SF1

S38

10.30 - 11.30am

Will Whitehorn: Space Tourism

S39

12.30 - 1.30pm

Feed the World, Save the Planet

S40

2 - 3pm

Robert Winston: Bad Ideas?

S41

2 - 3pm

Turning the Tables

S42

2.30 - 3.30pm

S43

4 - 5pm

S44

4.30 - 5.45pm

S45

4.30 - 5.30pm

Members' Book Group: Robert Winston Bill Bryson: 350 Years of the Royal Society Population Growth and Climate Change

S46

4.30 - 5.30pm

Breaking the GM Taboo

S47

4.30 - 5.30pm

Science Question Time

S48

5 - 6pm

S49

6.30 - 7.30pm

S50

6.30 - 7.30pm

S51

6.30 - 7.45pm

S52

7 - 8pm

S53

8.45 - 10.15pm

Chocolate

S54

8.45 - 9.45pm

Blitz Street

S55

9 - 10.30pm

S56

9 - 10pm

Official Car

A Carnivore's Dilemma

Micro World to Real World

6.30 - 7.30pm

Lasers

p16

How was it for you?

Workshop: Gadget Dissection

Fuel Efficient Flying

p17

FAMILY EVENTS The Real Science of the Circus

p18

Workshop: Water Rockets

p18

FRIDAY 11 JUNE SF2

5 - 6.30pm

SATURDAY 12 JUNE p12

Asthma Performance Under Pressure: Stressed Out?!

The Air That We Breathe Paul Davies: Are We Alone in the Universe? p13 Over-Ambitious Demo Challenge 2010

A Question of Science

p15

SUNDAY 13 JUNE S81

Global Water Security London 2012: The Most Sustainable Games Ever?

Dark Matter

p14

Workshop: Water Rockets

SF3, SF4

10 - 11.30am, 12 - 1.30pm

SF5

10 - 11am

Intelligent Machines

SF6

10 - 11am

The Bigger Bang

SF7 SF10 SF11

10 - 11am, 11.30am - 12.30pm, Workshop: Hot Air Balloon 1 - 2pm, 2.30 - 3.30pm 12 - 1pm

Gastronuts

p18

SF12 1 - 2pm, 2.30 - 3.30pm, 4 - 5pm Sky at Night SF14 Robert Winston: SF15 2 - 3pm What Goes on in My Head?

SF16

4.30 - 5.30 pm

Do Try This at Home

SUNDAY 13 JUNE SF17

10 - 11am

Up, Up and Away

SF18

10 - 11am

Science vs Magic

SF19

10 - 11am

Demoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s from the Blue Peter Scientist

SF20

12 - 1pm

Exploring the Oceans

SF21

12 - 1pm

When is a Gas Not a Gas?

SF22

2.15 - 3.15pm

Science Junkie

p19