Here’s a question: what is reverberation? Don’t worry, this isn’t a test (it sort of is). Not sure? Okay, here’s another: what keeps the sun alight? No? Right, well this one’s easy: what does the Large Hadron Collider actually do? Alright, maybe not so easy after all. But anyway, you can relax, because none of this really matters that much. Right? After all, it’s great that there’s all this science stuff going on everywhere, but none of us everyday folk really need to know about it. Or do we?
Perhaps you loathed science at school. Perhaps it bored you to tears. Perhaps you were one of the lucky ones and you just seemed to get it. But even if you did, and the thought of prime numbers or the highly reactive qualities of magnesium brought you out in goose bumps, you’d probably have thought twice about calling either of these things ‘cool’.
Now, the days of neglected geometry sets and inedible school dinners are for many of us but haunting memories, but the clichés of science are harder to escape. Nerdy, abstract, soulless, or just baffling; with viewpoints like this it’s no wonder we’re so quick to plead incomprehension when faced with the great questions and discoveries of our time. The Higgs Boson, climate change, the human genome; let’s leave such tricky, chilly things to the experts shall we? And get back to our lovely Wave Pictures albums and Philip Larkin poems; our cosy art galleries and DVD box-sets. The sciences are necessary, we’ll admit, but it’s elsewhere that we seek thrills, comfort – even meaning.
In which case, thank – if not God, then certainly goodness – for Brighton Science Festival, which for the ninth year running brings its wonderful blend of academe and anarchy, of fun and furrowed brows to the city’s streets. Outspoken in its aim to appeal to all ages, the festival’s month-long run offers a ludicrous amount for both children and adults alike: family workshops in robotic Lego and forensic science rub shoulders with performances like When Science And Magic Collide, a blend of science, comedy, and – you guessed it – magic, so popular with Brighton’s youngsters it earns an extra date in the schedule.
For older visitors the now well established Skeptics In The Pub offer an ambitious fusion of beer and analytical thought at multiple events, while a clear week after their sell-out appearance Festival Of The Spoken Nerd are still gaining praise for their pioneering scientific-musical-comedy. Not to be overwhelmed by such choice, SOURCE commits itself to a whirlwind tour of the festival’s climactic weekend.
First up is Trevor Cox’s Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey Of Sound, in which the University of Salford Professor makes a vivid countdown of his favourite acoustic wonders, deconstructing the unearthly reverberations of cold war listening stations and the amplifying qualities of Stonehenge as he goes. Some of Cox’s examples are now well known, but there are still surprises; sand dunes are heard to trumpet and sing, while the profound silence of the anechoic chamber – where even gunshots are reduced to a gentle ‘phut’ – is shown as the inspiration behind John Cage’s famous ‘4’33”’; proof there is a place where scientific enquiry and the musical avant-garde coalesce – you just have to look for it.
Suitably primed, we’re off the following day to Big Science Saturday. The Blind Tiger Club has done its bit, with a number of free demonstrations including a Blue Peter style introduction to spectrometry – happily overrun by tipsy young men at the time of our arrival – and a neat explanation of the Large Hadron Collider. However, it’s the programme of talks at The Sallis Benney Theatre opposite that is the real draw of the day.
Kicking off the afternoon run is Martin Birchall of UCL, whose Bringing Bodies Back To Life examines the past, present and future of transplants and regenerative therapies. It’s surgery at its most miraculous; from skin and organs purpose-grown from a patient’s own tissue – at which the more squeamish of those present gasp – to stem cells as a possible cure for age related blindness. While always cautious in his claims, Birchall speaks optimistically of things to come, when certain advances could offer near limitless powers for healing in the everyday person. As he later points out: “The Frankenstein’s monsters of the future might not just look like me and you, but be me and you.”
From humanity’s future to the distinctly prehistoric, as Bristol University’s Dave Hone explores startling developments in our understanding of dinosaurs: they had feathers, were brightly coloured, and as if that weren’t enough, could see in UV. As with modern birds, these attributes were probably connected with sexual selection, where bigger and brighter was almost certainly better. More than any Hollywood movie, it’s knowledge like this that really brings the dinosaurs back to life, feels Hone, but it also shapes our view of the living world; with flight seen as an evolutionary byproduct, the birds of the air just became all the more incredible.
Rounding up the afternoon, Frank Close of Oxford University tells the remarkable story of the Higgs Boson, from its prediction in 1964, to its eventual discovery at CERN in 2012. Though one of the more challenging topics on offer, Close’s clear and passionate explanations show the apparent obscurities of particle physics for what they truly are: beautiful, mysterious and fundamental to, well, everything.
There’s just time for us to ponder the profundities of matter over a welcome mug of beer, before heading back for one of the star turns of the festival: Simon Singh and The Simpsons And Their Mathematical Secrets. Drawing the youngest crowd we’ve so far seen, Singh unpicks the often highly complex mathematics the show’s makers have long hidden in plain sight. Freeze frames reveal mathematical gags of great sophistication – serving to increase the ‘comedic density’ of an episode, in the words of Simpsons‘ pioneers Al Jean and Mike Reiss – and prime, perfect, even narcissistic numbers are seen to make an appearance.
It’s all very charming and witty, but there are some sensitive points to be made too. Singh suggests that, for any young mathematical outcast, the presence of such obscure knowledge in a popular show could be hugely reassuring, while a spaceship serial number in sister-show Futurama prompts a moving account of the self taught genius of mathematics Srinivasa Ramanujan. Was his talent divine, as he believed, asks an audience member, or just hard work? “Certainly not divine,” Singh laughs good naturedly, an unsurprising response from the confirmed humanist.
Which brings us neatly to our last event of the weekend, as St Andrew’s Church opens its doors to The Sunday Assembly, a secular celebration of life and community ‘free of the trappings of magic and myth’. It’s an unashamedly positive affair, with both singalongs to Queen and Diana Ross and the opportunity for silent reflection. Even if such things aren’t for you, then the various speakers just might be.
Popular physics broadcaster and President of the British Humanist Association Jim Al-Khalili makes a funny and eloquent appeal to reason and humanity, but really, it’s physics teacher and Sunday Assembly regular Russell Arnott who makes the greatest impression. Sharply outlining some of the greatest buffooneries of arch-nemesis Michael Gove’s science curriculum (students are currently taught how to decode their gas bill, but not the science behind global warming), Arnott inspires great sympathy in the congregation, not least among its smattering of exam-weary teenagers.
It’s a fitting close to our time at the festival in many ways. For all the optimism on display, for all the wit and popularity of every speaker, there’s a serious message to take home. With science funding ever dwindling, and an education system under increasing strain, there’s never been a more important time to engage the public, particularly the young, in all things scientific; never a better time to prove the sciences can move and inspire as well as simply explain. In a seemingly irrational age of celebrity culture and hysterical headlines, where the eccentric is shunned and the anodyne is idolised, cultural events that treat us as intelligent and emotional beings are more vital than ever. It seems there’s a very cheerful battle for hearts and minds in full swing, and Brighton Science Festival is firmly at the front line.
Brighton Science Festival
Various Venues, 6th February – 2nd March 2014
Words by Paul Ord
Photos by Ashley Laurence and Jack Beard