Place and Time: Abingdon, Thursday 15 June 2017  from 19:00 for 19:30

Barn Room, Crown and Thistle (18 Bridge St, Abingdon OX14 3HS)

TITLE: Deep Underground Science

The surface of our planet is continuously bombarded by high energy cosmic rays from outer space, creating a deafening noise in sensitive particle detectors and making precision measurements impossible. In search of the ultimate quiet, physicists have travelled underground and set up labs deep within the Earth’s crust. Here we run experiments studying elusive particles like neutrinos, and searching for signs of dark matter, the mysterious substance thought to make up the majority of the mass of the galaxy.

Yet a kilometre or so below the surface is also the place to study a range of natural phenomena, such as the enigmatic movement of groundwater, possible earthquake warning signals, and the exotic microbial life in deep rock layers. Away from the electromagnetic noise on the surface, precision magnetic measurements let us monitor the space weather going on high above our heads.

I will tell my story of working at the Gran Sasso laboratory beneath the mountains of central Italy, the Rustrel laboratory in a former nuclear command centre in the South of France, and the Boulby Underground Laboratory in a North Yorkshire salt mine. This talk will explain why the deep underground frontier is one of the most interesting environments to do science.

Speaker: Sam Henry

Sam Henry is a Detector Development Scientist at the University of Oxford, working on instrumentation for the next generation of particle physics experiments. He also likes to dabble in geophysics and science outreach.

Place and Time: Abingdon, Thursday 18 May 2017  from 19:00 for 19:30

Barn Room, Crown and Thistle (18 Bridge St, Abingdon OX14 3HS)

TITLE: Micrographia Revisited: Looking at Hooke’s work through today’s eyes!

Robert Hooke’s Micrographia was a revolutionary book in the 17^th Century since it revealed a completely new view of the world to the general public. It was used by the Royal Society to demonstrate that its members were engaged in practical enquiry using new technology. It addressed topics such as the sharpness of a pin-head or a razor, the nature of peacock feather displays, what insects (such as flies, fleas and lice) really looked like, and the nature of materials such as wood, cork and charcoal.

2015 marked the 350^th anniversary of its publication and, in order to commemorate this, we initiated a project to produce a new version of Micrographia showing how Hooke might re-examine his subject matter using modern technology. This talk will explore some of these topics from a modern perspective.

Speaker: Dr Martin Grossel

Since retiring in 2013, Martin was elected an Emeritus Student of Christ Church, Oxford, having been a Student (or Fellow) of Christ Church from 1993.  His research interest is in supramolecular Chemistry, molecular electronics, crystal engineering, and nanochemistry. More information about the speaker can be found here.

Place and Time: Abingdon, Thursday 20 April 2017  from 19:00 for 19:30

Barn Room, Crown and Thistle (18 Bridge St, Abingdon OX14 3HS)

Double Act: Two 30 min presentations

• Self versus foreign – how does the immune system learn?
• Colloidal Polymers

FIRST TALK:   Self versus foreign – how does the immune system learn?

The immune system is the general line of defence for the body against bacterial infections and viruses.

The immune system is made up of a variety of different tissues such as the spleen or lymph nodes. Several cell types produce different proteins such as antibodies which are contributing to immune responses.  This talk will focus on the thymus, the organ responsible for ‘educating’ certain types of immune cells, known as T cells.  Through this ‘education process’, a response of immune cells against the body’s own tissues (termed autoimmunity) is prevented.  In this talk I will discuss the discovery of autoimmunity and the remaining mysteries surrounding the processes which the body has developed to prevent it from occurring.

Speaker: Kathrin Jansen

Kathrin Jansen is a PhD student in “Genomic Medicine & Statistics” at the University of Oxford (Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology).  After degrees in Biochemistry and Cancer Biology, her current research is focussed on single-cell RNA sequencing of thymic epithelial cells.  For more information, see: https://www.kennedy.ox.ac.uk/team/kathrin-jansen

SECOND TALK: Colloidal Polymers

Understanding the formation, ageing and failure of particle gels is both of fundamental interest and industrial importance. Numerous commercial products contain active ingredients, which contain colloidal polymers. Polymers or clays are routinely added to such systems as thickening agents. The addition of these often results in the formation of particle or colloidal gels, the lifetime and behaviour of which can be difficult to predict.

Speaker: Michael Mordan

Michael Mordan is a PhD student at the University of Oxford, working in the Oxford Colloid Group.

Don’t miss our ATOM Festival of Science & Technology March 22-26, 2017.