We are delighted to announce our new season of events, including the Chelmsford Science Festival, social meet-ups and FREE evening lectures at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford!
We have searched near and far for speakers and once again we have a varied and fascinating mix of topics so there is bound to be something of interest for everyone. We would say, though, don't just come to the talks that appeal to you, often the most interesting topics are those you may think are "not my thing".
So, what's in store?
We commence in September, unusually for us on a Thursday, with one of our favourite speakers. Damian Bevan will return to tell us about the advances in satellite technology which might allow us all to have uninterrupted coverage on our smart phones, wherever we are.
October will be a busy month, beginning with our traditional start-of-season curry (more social dates to come soon).
The October talk will be a presentation about the invention of the whooping cough vaccine and what it has led to today, including addressing vaccine scepticism. With the recent return of whooping cough deaths to the UK this is a particularly apposite topic.
Rounding off the month, we will be at the annual Chelmsford Science Festival, including the ever-popular Family Science Days with our usual mix of fun, hands-on activities for all the family.
In November we will hear from Grace Dickinson about human-animal relationships, including her work training animals for film work. Whether you adore pets, love looking at animals in a zoo or on the farm, or if you run a mile when confronted by our animal friends, we know this will be a really fun evening.
As we approach Christmas, we have two lectures in December! The first is our annual Christmas Lecture for schools and students when we will host around 700 students to hear about the importance of Manufacturing to all our lives. The second, which is open to all as usual, will explore the origin of the universe and how the Big Bang is still being "heard" billions of years later.
Moving into 2025 we start, in January, with a two-part lecture about the development of so-called electric jet engines, and how methods used in their development have also been used to investigate the science of cricket ball swing.
In February we will hear a fascinating presentation on "reverse engineering the violin", and why and how musical instruments make the beautiful sounds we all love to hear. With help from an accomplished musician, this will be another really interesting evening.
March brings with it another returning speaker as Gabriela Druitt tells us more about the amazing technology which is invented and manufactured here in Chelmsford at Teledyne e2v.
In April, in another of our ever-popular medical talks, we will hear about the Vision and Eye Research Institute and the work they do on eye conditions, prevention and treatments.
Finally, we will close our season in May with a local farmer and ARU Writtle lecturer, Henry Matthews, who will tell us about the benefits of regenerative farming.
We hope you agree that this is a great mix of subjects and we urge you to attend as many as you can. The talks will, of course, be accompanied by tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits – all totally free of charge. Details of all of these lectures, and those of our colleagues at IMechE, IOP and IET, can be found at cses.org.uk/events.
We look forward to seeing you there.