Raise Your Glass to a Pint of Science

Published on: 11 May, 2016
Updated on: 14 May, 2016

Top doctors and professors from the University of Surrey will be bringing science to the people later this month.

Using the slogan, “Raise your glass to a pint of science”, they are going to be hosting pop-science presentations in pubs around Guildford on subjects as diverse as the myths around fats and sugar to how shift work affects our moods.

Kicking off the Festival on Monday, May 23, at The Stoke Pub and Pizzeria, Stoke Road, with doors opening at 7pm, will be Music, Sleep and The Brain.

Dr Nayantara Santhi and Sarah Campbell will discuss how music affects our emotions and the effects that shift work with their irregular sleeping patterns have on our emotional well being.

On Tuesday May 24, at The Star Inn on Quarry Street from 7pm will be All Things Tech led by Dr Radu Sporea and Dr Sujata Kundu.

Radu will also be presenting, Just Enough Doctorate to Perform, similar in style to TV’s Whose Line is it Anyway?. It will be a session where science and improvised comedy mesh together with the assistance of ‘Left Foot First’, a comedy group specialising in improvisation.

After discussing real-life science, Dr Sporea and Left Foot Forward will turn fact on its head with a series of improvised comedy games based around his area of expertise in computers and silicon chips.

Two pints of lager, a packet of crisps and a scientific experiment please.

Also being discussed throughout the evening for technology junkies will be ‘Engineering Superheroes’ and A Day in the Life of a String Theorist. String theory is a broad and varied subject used in physics which has been applied to a variety of fascinating issues within cosmology such as black holes.

Concluding the series of events, on Wednesday May 25 from 7pm at The Star Inn, will be Fats and Fiction.

A leading figure in his field, Professor Bruce Griffin will unearth the truth behind fats and sugars in our diet. We will also hear about how our body reacts to drugs and processes them in a session called. Bugs, Drugs and Alcohol.

Dr Radu Sporea, from university’s Advanced Technology Institute, said: “Pint of Science is part of a new wave of means engaging with scientists.

A Pint of Science session in a London pub.

“Science and engineering are expanding the limits of our knowledge and abilities to shape our world, but they are also very human activities, and for that they’re worth sharing.

“The university has a huge range of exciting activities going on, and letting Guildford and the world know about them in this way is something to look forward to.”

Tickets for these events, which are occurring for the first time in Guildford, are available for £4.00 each by booking through www.pintofscience.co.uk