On Monday, I took Particulart into the unfamiliar territory – The Ship Inn in the middle of Exeter – as part of the annual worldwide Pint of Science festival.
The talk was one of three on the theme of Sustainable Science, to a goodly crowd squeezed into the Ship’s upstairs room. The pub claims to have been Sir Francis Drake’s favourite watering hole, but I’m not sure what Drake would have made of our talks on solar energy, knitting and cellulose. Maybe he’d have related them to navigation, and the Golden Hind’s rigging and timbers.
Particulart also provided one of the interval activities, as the audience were challenged to assemble molecules from piles of coloured disks nobly cut out by a volunteer. That was followed by a nigh-on impossible quiz about the three subjects.
A key feature of the evening was of course the trip to the bar beforehand, during the interval, and afterwards, which enabled some good discussions. This is one of the main points of Pint of Science, of course.
The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver interesting, fun, relevant talks on the latest science research in an accessible format to the public – all in the pub! We want to provide a platform which allows people to discuss research with the people who carry it out. The main festival takes place annually over three days in the month of May simultaneously in pubs across the world.
Next year’s festival will be on 23-25 May 2016.
