From the team that brings you the global science festival Pint of Science. We meet leading scientists around the country, get a pint in, and talk to them about life, their universe, and everything. See pintofscience.co.uk for more.
Episodes
Monday Apr 15, 2019
Monday Apr 15, 2019
Life can be unpredictable, but one thing we can all be sure of is that one day, it’s going to end... according to this week’s guest though, that needn’t be something to worry about too much! To say that we were chuffed with this week’s episode is a bit of an understatement. We sat down for a drink and a chat at The Borough Pub in Lancaster with none other than Dame Professor Sue Black, world-renowned forensic anthropologist and strong contender for a ‘most productive person ever’ award.
Over a delightful couple of hours, we dissected (pun intended) some fascinating topics, including what it’s like to study human anatomy using human cadavers, how to keep your cool when presenting evidence in court, and how to cope with the emotional and physical demands of disaster victim identification. Dark as some of this subject matter can be, Sue’s refreshingly down-to-earth attitude, sensitivity and sense of humour helped to bring out the inspirational and fascinating aspects of the work. We also got to hear about some cutting-edge forensic work Sue’s team have pioneered, and a grisly story about a medieval murder case that left us feeling light-headed…
Welcome back to the Pint of Science podcast. Each week, we meet scientists in pubs around the UK to find out about their lives, their universe, and everything. From *how* fruit flies love to *why* humans love, via jumping into volcanoes, winning Olympic medals, where we came from and more!
Like what we do? Be sure to subscribe to us and rate us on your favourite podcasting platform!
The Pint of Science podcast is a part of the Pint of Science Festival, the world's largest science communication festival. Thousands of guests and speakers descend on pubs in hundreds of cities worldwide to introduce science in a fun, engaging, and usually pint-fuelled way.
This podcast is made possible with the help of our sponsors Brilliant.org. Do check them out, and visit www.brilliant.org/pintofscience/ where the first 200 people who sign up will get 20% off a Premium plan!
About Sue Black, this week's guest:
Professor Dame Sue Black is a globally renowned anatomist and forensic anthropologist, and presently Pro-Vice Chancellor of Engagement at Lancaster University. From 2005 to 2018 Sue was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee where she oversaw the running of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, a world-leading centre responsible for training the UK national disaster victim identification unit and for creating the first forensic anthropology programme in the UK. Sue has led forensic teams specialising in disaster victim identification across the world, in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Grenada, Iraq and Thailand, work that has led to her receiving her DBE in 2016 for services to forensic anthropology and education. Since August 2018, Sue has been overseeing the engagement strategy for Lancaster University as part of a newly created role.
Sue’s autobiography ‘All that Remains: A Life in Death’ recently won the Saltire Book of the Year Award. She reads a great audiobook version of it too.
You can follow Sue on twitter: @ProfSueBlack
And just because we liked the video, here’s Sue performing an ‘alien autopsy’ at Dundee’s Being Human Festival.
More about Pint of Science at pintofscience.co.uk
Monday Apr 08, 2019
Monday Apr 08, 2019
How did the dinosaurs die out? What is Deep Time? Why are there so many insects? And is dental microwear just tiny orthodontics (spoiler alert: it isn’t). These are just a few of the big questions we sat down to ask Anjali Goswami, Professor of Paleobiology and Research Leader in the Life Science Vertebrates Division at the Natural History Museum. This week, the beautiful Imperial Durbar in Tooting served as our setting, a venue that turned out to be very suitable for the podcast content! Please be warned, this week’s episode contains a large number of tigers.
Welcome back to the Pint of Science podcast. Each week, we meet scientists in pubs around the UK to find out about their lives, their universe, and everything. From *how* fruit flies love to *why* humans love, via jumping into volcanoes, winning Olympic medals, where we came from and more!
Like what we do? Be sure to subscribe to us and rate us on your favourite podcasting platform!
The Pint of Science podcast is a part of the Pint of Science Festival, the world's largest science communication festival. Thousands of guests and speakers descend on pubs in hundreds of cities worldwide to introduce science in a fun, engaging, and usually pint-fuelled way.
This podcast is made possible with the help of our sponsors Brilliant.org. Do check them out, and visit www.brilliant.org/pintofscience/ where the first 200 people who sign up will get 20% off a Premium plan!
About Anjali Goswami, this week's guest:
Anjali Goswami is a Professor of Paleobiology and Research Leader in the Life Science Vertebrates Division at the Natural History Museum. Her research has taken her on a fascinating journey through evolutionary history, and she’s published on everything from echolocating whales through to birds of the Mesozoic, via mole and dolphin skulls (a bit like Dr DoLittle, but with more… skeletal animals). Her most recent work focuses on carrying out a huge 3D scanning and analysis effort to reconstruct vertebrate evolution at extremely high resolutions, to help us understand how things like developmental pathways shape variation, and then how the environment acts on this variation to produce the diversity of life. Pretty big questions! Anjali has an excellent website you can visit and see some of the amazing images her lab produces.
You can also follow her on twitter: @anjgoswami
More about Pint of Science at pintofscience.co.uk
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Monday Apr 01, 2019
Ever wondered how many ways you can die on a volcano? Or perhaps you're more interested in impressing your geoscientist friends with geeky party tricks? This week's episode has it all; we found ourselves a cosy corner at The George and Dragon in Acton, then directed our microphones and curiosity towards salt-loving organism Chris Jackson, Professor of Basin Analysis at Imperial College London.
In an almost alarming display of energy, Chris arrived to record this podcast straight off the back of an 18 mile run, proceeded to grab a pint and then provided fantastic insight into both his research and some of the wider structural issues with academia. Get yourself comfy and dive in!
Welcome back to the Pint of Science podcast. Each week, we meet scientists in pubs around the UK to find out about their lives, their universe, and everything. From *how* fruit flies love to *why* humans love, via jumping into volcanoes, winning Olympic medals, where we came from and more!
Like what we do? Be sure to subscribe to us and rate us on your favourite podcasting platform!
The Pint of Science podcast is a part of the Pint of Science Festival, the world's largest science communication festival. Thousands of guests and speakers descend on pubs in hundreds of cities worldwide to introduce science in a fun, engaging, and usually pint-fuelled way.
This podcast is made possible with the help of our sponsors Brilliant.org. Do check them out, and visit www.brilliant.org/pintofscience/ where the first 200 people who sign up will get 20% off a Premium plan!
About Chris Jackson, this week's guest:
Chris Jackson completed his undergraduate degree and PhD training at the University of Manchester in 2002. After a brief 2 year stint in Norway working for Norsk Hydro, Chris returned to the UK to take up an academic position at Imperial College London where he is now a Professor of Basin Analysis in the Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering. Chris has received awards in recognition of both his lectures and his writing, and in possibly the most niche complement of all time has been described by the Geological Society of London as ‘the leading and most productive interpreter of three-dimensional seismic reflection data of his generation’.
Alongside his work at Imperial, Chris has also made several exciting television appearances, including BBC Two's Expedition Volcano which saw him descending into a live volcano. Honestly, these Earth Science types...
Follow Chris on twitter: @seis_matters
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Monday Mar 25, 2019
Do you wanna know what love is? Is love all you need? What is love? How many song titles can you feasibly get into an opening paragraph? We answer all these questions and more in this episode of the Pint of Science podcast. We caught up with evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin in The Old Thatched Inn in Adstock, Buckinghamshire, and asked her about her research on romantic love, the role of the father, and her media work on the likes of Channel 4’s Married at First Sight. Oh, and using ancient hand axes to do unspeakable things in a garage...
Welcome to the second episode of the Pint of Science podcast. Each week, we meet scientists in pubs around the UK to find out about their lives, their universe, and everything. From *how* fruit flies love to *why* humans love, via jumping into volcanoes, winning Olympic medals, where we came from and more!
Like what we do? Be sure to subscribe to us and rate us on your favourite podcasting platform!
The Pint of Science podcast is a part of the Pint of Science Festival, the world's largest science communication festival. Thousands of guests and speakers descend on pubs in hundreds of cities worldwide to introduce science in a fun, engaging, and usually pint-fuelled way.
This podcast is made possible with the help of our sponsors Brilliant.org. Do check them out, and visit www.brilliant.org/PintOfScience/ where the first 200 people who sign up will get 20% off a Premium plan!
About Anna Machin, this week's guest:
Dr Anna Machin is an evolutionary anthropologist, writer and broadcaster. Her work is about the very nature of 'being human'. She is world renowned for her pioneering work exploring the science and anthropology of fatherhood and her cross-disciplinary interpretation of human parental and romantic love. She is regularly called upon to share her knowledge about human social relationships and behaviour with the media, public and policy makers. As one of the most visible female scientists in the media today she has brought her knowledge and infectious enthusiasm for the human sciences to the TV screen in two seasons of Married at First Sight (Channel 4) and alongside Michael Moseley on Meet the Humans (BBC Earth).
Her first book, ‘The Life of Dad’, was released last year.
Click here for more info on the Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson work we breifly discuss in the episode.
Watch Anna's incredible Tedx talk
More about Pint of Science at pintofscience.co.uk
Monday Mar 18, 2019
Monday Mar 18, 2019
Professor Steve Haake is a sports scientist whose research has been responsible for over 60 Olympic medals. We met up with him at The Hallamshire House in Sheffield for a pint, and a chat about the incredibly interesting world of sports science - from chasing the perfect performance to calculating the way gold balls bounce (and trying not to eat what's inside them).
Welcome to the pilot episode of the Pint of Science podcast. Each week, we meet scientists in pubs around the UK to find out about their lives, their universe, and everything. From *how* fruit flies love to *why* humans love, via jumping into volcanoes, winning Olympic medals, where we came from and more!
Like what we do? Be sure to subscribe to us and rate us on your favourite podcasting platform!
The Pint of Science podcast is a part of the Pint of Science Festival, the world's largest science communication festival. Thousands of guests and speakers descend on pubs in hundreds of cities worldwide to introduce science in a fun, engaging, and usually pint-fuelled way.
This podcast is made possible with the help of our sponsors Brilliant.org. Do check them out, and visit www.brilliant.org/PintOfScience/ where the first 200 people who sign up will get 20% off a Premium plan!
About Steve Haake, this week's guest:
Steve Haake is Professor of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University. He is a physicist who has worked with companies such as Adidas, Puma, Callaway Golf and Ping, as well as the governing bodies of sport such as FIFA, the International Tennis Federation and UK Sport. He has worked on football boots, golf clubs, golf balls, and tennis equipment of all types. Since 2008, his team has developed around 100 performance-analysis systems for the UK’s Olympic teams, supporting them to over 60 medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
He is Chairman of the parkrun Research Board. He is currently working on a survey of parkrunners to see how it has their running habits and their health: they received 100,000 survey returns making it the biggest of its kind in the world. Data analytics is the new sports technology.
He's also got a book out: Advantage Play: Technologies that Changed Sporting History.
More about Pint of Science at pintofscience.co.uk