Connecting Science at the Cambridge Science Festival 2017

Date: 24 January 2017

View events hosted by Connecting Science's Public Engagement and Society and Ethics Research teams at the Cambridge Science Festival 2017

Every year scientists and science communicators from the Wellcome Genome Campus take part in the Cambridge Science Festival, the largest free science festival in the UK.

The Festival is a coming together of Cambridge science, providing the public with opportunities to explore and discuss issues of scientific interest and concern, as well as encouraging young people to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

This year’s Cambridge Science Festival is on 13-26 March, and Connecting Science’s Public Engagement is organising several events with the Society and Ethics Research team, EMBL-EBI, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and other Cambridge biomedical institutes.

our events:

Your DNA Your Say
6-7.30pm, Mon 13 March
Michaelhouse Café, CB2 1SU

Your DNA is more personal to you than an iris scan or a fingerprint. Discuss the issues of donating, accessing and sharing genetic data with experts from the Wellcome Genome Campus.

Mini-Me: How 3D Organoids are Revolutionising Research
6-8pm, Wed 15 March
Buckingham House Lecture Theatre, Murray Edwards College, CB3 0DF

Petri dishes filled with beating hearts and firing neurons — it’s the stuff of science fiction! Hear the real story from scientists growing ‘miniature organs’. How is it done? Why is it important? Followed by wine, nibbles and the chance to chat with researchers. Co-hosted by Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Gurdon Institute and Babraham Institute.

Level Up Human
6.30-8.30pm, Thu 16 March
Wellcome Genome Campus Conference Centre, CB10 1RQ

How would you improve humans? Join host Simon Watt, comedian Samantha Baines, and Wellcome Genome Campus researchers for Level Up Human, an optimistic podcast with ambition for the human race.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly… Antibodies, Microbes and Immunity
6-7.30pm, Thu 16 March
The Mill lane lecture theatres, CB2 1RW

Every day your immune system protects you from thousands of germs that can make you sick. It does its job so efficiently that you don’t even notice that it is at work. Join Dr Sam Forster, Dr Maike De La Roche, Dr Eoin McKinney and Professor Clare Bryant to discover how your immune system has developed its own personal defence

In.D.N.A. Jones and the Big Genetic Data Hunt
10am-4pm, Sat 18 March and 12-4pm Sun 19 March
The Guildhall, CB2 3QJ

Explore what we can find out about ourselves from our DNA through activities with staff from the Wellcome Genome Campus.

Epigenetics: DNA Does Not Account for Everything
6-8pm, Tue 21 March
Buckingham House Lecture Theatre, Murray Edwards College, CB3 0DF

The same script can result in many different productions of a play. Increasingly, we are coming to understand DNA in the same way. Find out what we are learning about the world beyond DNA and what remains to be discovered. Followed by wine and nibbles and the chance to chat with researchers. Co-hosted by the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Gurdon Institute and Babraham Institute.

What Makes You, You: Stories of Genetics and Human Identity
6-7.30pm, Thu 23 March
McCrum Lecture Theatre, Corpus Christi College, CB2 1RH

How does genetics relate to who ‘we’ are, as an individual, as a family and as a society? Social scientist Jonathan Roberts explores how films and books can help us think about our identity as we enter the genomic age.