ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY LUNCHTIME LECTURES

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ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY LUNCHTIME LECTURES

Listen to leading scientists talk about their work in the Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington House (opposite 'Fortnum & Mason' on Piccadilly).

These 45-minute popular lectures, for non-specialists, start at 1300. Tickets can be purchased for £3 from the reception of the RAS, from 1030 to 1215 on the morning of the lecture. After that time any remaining seats will be allocated for free on a 'first come first served' basis. Doors open at 1215 when a film on an astronomical topic will be shown until the lecture itself begins.

Place: Lecture Theatre, Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington House, London
Tube: Green Park

For further information call 020 7734 3307 / 4582

Please check the web site before going as events can change
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1364&Itemid=146
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The Big Bang Machine: The Large Hadron Collider at CERN
Date: Tuesday 11 November 2008
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Dr Alan Barr

What is Dark Matter? Why do particles have mass? Why is there no anti-matter? These are some of the fundamental questions that will be addressed by the Large Hadron Collider, a 27 kilometre-long accelerator which has just begun operation in a tunnel 100m beneath the Swiss-French border. This lecture will give a flavour of what it's like to work at the European particle physics laboratory and discuss how we can use the biggest experiment in the world to solve the some of these intriguing puzzles in physics.
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Universe or Multiverse?
Date: Tuesday 9 December 2008
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Professor Bernard Carr
Modern cosmology suggests that we can only observe a tiny part of the universe and this might itself be just one member of a "multiverse". But what is the evidence for this and are such speculations part of science?
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The new science of astrobiology and the search for life in the Universe
Date: Tuesday 13 January 2009
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Dr Ian Crawford

This talk will summarise present scientific efforts to locate life elsewhere in the Universe. It will begin by explaining how an understanding of the history life on Earth informs our searches for life elsewhere, and will then discuss the likelihood of finding life elsewhere in our Solar System (e.g. on Mars and Europa) and on planets orbiting other stars
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Sir William Herschel FRS: the first big-telescope astronomer
Date: Tuesday 10 February 2009
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Dr Allan Chapman

Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline are two of the most fascinating people in the history of astronomy. Starting out as a musician, William rose to international fame after he discovered Uranus in 1781. He later discovered infra-red radiation and made detailed observations of nebulae and what we now know to be external galaxies. All of this work was made possible by constructing the biggest telescopes the world had ever seen. Fittingly, Sir William became the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820, a mere two years before his death.

Dr Chapman's lecture will set out Herschel's achievements and how they fit in with the 'Romantic Age' he lived through.
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Astronomy and Poetry
Date: Tuesday 10 March 2009
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell

As a hobby Professor Bell Burnell, President of the Institute of Physics, 'collects' poetry with an astronomical theme. In this talk she will review the field, look at which astronomical topics have caught the attention of poets, and how they have handled them. There will be readings (volunteers appreciated!) of selected poems.
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Imaging the Universe
Date: Tuesday 14 April 2009
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Dr Robert Massey

2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the telescope. In this talk, Robert Massey will outline how telescopes give us a brighter and clearer view of the cosmos and how they progressed from being unwieldy primitive tubes to state-of-the-art space observatories. The talk concludes with a look at the monster telescopes being planned that just might let us find the first hints of life elsewhere in the Universe.
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Afar, Ethiopia: a new ocean in the making?
Date: Tuesday 12 May l 2009
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Professor Kathy Whaler

The paradigm of plate tectonics is widely accepted, but we have little understanding of the processes and controls involved because they operate on geological timescales that are rarely amenable to human observation. A recent volcanic eruption and rifting episode in the Afar region of northern Ethiopia is providing a unique opportunity to study the transition from continental break-up to seafloor spreading in an active setting, to document and model the magmatic and tectonic processes occurring, and to determine how the crust grows at divergent plate boundaries. This talk will present the recent event and our current state of knowledge, and outline experiments being performed by a number of scientific groups to investigate further, with their preliminary results
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The science and beauty of nebulae
Date: Tuesday 9 June 2009
Time: 13:00-14:00 (doors open 12:15)

Dr Carolin Crawford
Carolin Crawford takes you on an illustrated journey through our Galaxy, showcasing some of the most spectacular images of the dust and gas that lies between the stars. She will show you how to read the turbulent story they reveal of the lives of stars, explaining the science behind the beauty.