Festival Lectures 2018

Join Doctor Turner from the BBC hit-drama Call the Midwife – actor Stephen McGann (pictured above) – for a lively discussion about the medical maladies that have shaped his life and that of his ancestors. Expect puss, pox and pestilence!

Take a trip through new research showing that magic mushrooms may 'reset' the minds of depressed patients leading to reduced symptoms. With Robin Carhart-Harris, Head of Psychedelic Research

From cloaking devices to alien civilizations, from warp drives to transporters, find out from astrophysicist Roberto Trotta how sci-fi has boldly gone where no scientist has gone before – yet.

Find out why a more holistic approach to reducing air pollution could reclaim our streets as places to live, explore, interact, discover and play.

Join our Fire Scientist, Guillermo Rein, to explore how fires start, spread and destroy

Following the Cassini spacecraft’s final dive into the gas giant, reflect on one of the great space missions of all time and how we can hope to follow it up. With Mission Scientist Michele Dougherty

Sunday 13:30 – Robotic surgeons. An AI babysitter. Thrishantha Nanayakkara asks if we could ever trust robots with the things we care about most – our lives and our families?

Find out how listening to Martian tremors could help us understand Mars’ past habitability for life, and why our solar system neighbour turned out so different to Earth. With NASA mission scientist Tom Pike

A temperamental Sun and the Earth’s wobbly journey around it, violent volcanoes, melting ice caps, cow farts, car engines and Donald Trump. Jo Haigh discusses the likely candidates