Lectures by visiting speakers for adults, followed by a short planetarium show about this month's sky. No admittance to children under the age of 11yrs.
Running on the second Wednesday of each month, excluding August. Lectures start at 6:30pm, venue open from 5:00pm.
These lectures often sell out. We strongly recommend pre-booking as early as possible.
Scroll down for speaker list.
You may also be interested in our more general series of science lectures.
Tickets
Please pre-book your tickets - there may not be any available on the night (we do not sell extra tickets for no-shows).
£6 / £5 conc (seniors, full-time students and children aged 11-16).
This season, there will be a special 5-for-4 deal for our regular attendees. You will need to book all five tickets at the same time (specifying dates). The cheapest ticket will be free.
Telephone booking on (01962) 891925, available from 9:00am-10:00am and 2pm-4pm weekdays only (sorry, we are just too busy at other times!). Please have a credit/debit card ready for payment.
At particularly busy times (eg Half-term holidays), you may need to leave a phone number for us to call you back - really sorry about this, but as a charity we can't afford a dedicated bookings team. We're working towards a solution for this problem.
Alternatively you can come to INTECH to book your ticket in person.
Details
5:00pm Doors open. Come early to explore the upper-floor exhibition or visit the cafe (hot food available).
6:30pm Lecture by visiting speaker, followed by question and answer session
7:30pm Short break
7:45pm Planetarium Show
8:00pm End
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Schedule
Find details of past lectures here.
| 14th Apr |
Do we need a new Theory of Gravity? Lecture: For much of the twentieth century astronomers have believed that large quantities of unseen matter must exist in the universe. Their evidence for this ‘dark matter’ comes from the peculiar motions of some celestial objects. But why can’t we find the dark matter? Could it all be a mirage? If dark matter does not exist, astronomers and physicists will be forced to reappraise their understanding of gravity. This is a monumental undertaking, but perhaps there is a clue in the trajectory of two old NASA space probes – both currently off course for unexplained reasons. This talk will survey the mounting evidence that we do not understand gravity as completely as we thought we did, and that perhaps a revolution in gravitational physics is in the offing. Dr Stuart Clark is a former academic who turned to writing full time in 2001. He has a contract with the European Space Agency producing web stories, press releases, brochures and so on. His articles are printed in New Scientist and BBC Focus magazine and he has written for many other publications. He has broadcast on radio, TV and podcasts and he has given talks all over the world. Nearly twenty of his books have been published, ranging from text books to coffee table books; books for children as well as adults. One of his most successful is The Sun Kings, on which another of his lectures is based. It was shortlisted by the Royal Society for their general science prize. Stuart is currently writing a trilogy of novels based in fact about the men involved in the three greatest turning points in cosmology. His latest book Big Questions in Cosmology will be available after the talk. |
| 12th May |
The Science and Beauty of Nebulae Lecture: Carolin will discuss interstellar space; not truly a vacuum devoid of matter, but inhabited by vast large clouds of gas and dust that appear as glorious and complex multicoloured structures. She will showcase some of the most spectacular images of such 'nebulae', including many taken by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. A few of these may be familiar - such as the iconic 'pillars of creation' - but we shall look at them with new eyes, dissecting the pictures and learning how to 'read' what they tell us about the turbulent story of the birth and death of stars. Indeed, revealing the science behind the beauty. Dr Carolin Crawford researches the properties of the most massive galaxies in the Universe, using a combination of the largest ground-based and space telescopes. Carolin combines her research and teaching with her other passion, communicating her love of astronomy to as wide an audience as possible. She runs an ambitious outreach programme at the Institute of Astronomy (which inspired this lecture series), and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4. In 2009 she was noted as one of the UKRC's Women of Outstanding Achievement for the communication of science with a contribution to society. |
| 9th June |
The Mystery of Galaxy Formation Lecture: The universe is a cold place dominated by curious particles and forces such as dark matter and dark energy. Galaxies are the beacons that light up this darkness and make structure in the universe accessible to us. They are islands in a universe filled with invisible dark matter and are the sites where stars and planets form, live and evolve.
The beauty of the formation and evolution of galaxies is its mystery. Galaxies form in highly complex processes involving dark matter, complicated baryon physics, the formation of stars, the heating and cooling of gas, the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes, the enrichment of chemical elements, and even galaxy collisions. This lecture takes you from the very beginning of time when the first stars have formed through eras of vivid galaxy formation many billion years ago to the beauty of today's universe filled with a zoo of galaxies of different types, sizes, shapes, and colours. Dr Daniel Thomas studies the birth and death of stars in galaxies at various places and times of the universe, their stellar dynamics, and the activity of central supermassive black holes in galaxies. He is active in a number of large-scale international collaborations such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Dark Energy Survey and Galaxy Zoo with the aim to lift the mystery of galaxy formation by analysing the light emission not from ten, hundred or thousand but millions of galaxies. |
| 14th July |
Space for the Rest of Us Lecture: Piers will be discussing the latest developments in civilian space tourism and rocket exploration. Piers Bizony is the author of Atom, the best-selling book linked to the recent BBC TV series. His other books include The Man Who Ran the Moon, an investigation into the politics of the space age, and 2001: Filming the Future, an award-winning account of the making of the world's greatest space fiction film - Stanley Kubrick's 2001. |