Sunday, May 08, 2011
Science, engineering and the Future
It's been a jet-setting month, if working around Europe still counts as jet-setting. In between training young scientists and engineers in communication skills as part of their FameLab Masterclass weekends, I've been invited to perform in some unusual settings.
Like the Beautiful Science programme on Bulgarian National Television, where I had simultaneous translation into Bulgarian. And at a Public Health Conference, where the delegates, alarmingly, left the dinner tables shortly after 10pm, leaving the jazz band playing and full bottles of wine on the tables. And not to go to the bar, either. Not quite the audience I got used to on the Edinburgh Fringe with Your Days Are Numbered, but my talk on alcohol and public health seemed to go OK.
My mother often says I think like a man, which I'm not sure she means as a compliment. So with all this talk about male and female brains, it was refreshing to read and review Cordelia Fine's book, Delusions of Gender. It seems what I have is a human brain, and an interest in things like mathematics, motorcycling and machines. Instead of frills, furbelows and, er, royal weddings? I'm with John Stuart Mill, that we don't need to look as far as an MRI scan for reasons why men and women are still - on average - different in so many ways.
Next, I'm off to Plymouth to talk about Elusive Armageddon on May 11th. Or the Future, and why we're so afraid of it, in the face of all the evidence that life continues to get better for most of us, most of the time.
Then it's all preparation for the Cheltenham Science Festival, where I'll be training some engineers again (still time to apply for this FREE training in public engagement) as well as chairing some stuff and performing Your Days Are Numbered: the maths of death with Matt Parker again in our biggest venue yet.
And after that? I need somebody to offer me some work in a place that's scenic, sunny and a long way off, towards the end of June. Because June 20th is National - and International - Ride to Work Day, and I'd hate to waste it by taking the motorbike a few miles across London. Surely somebody in the South of France, or Italy, or Southern Spain needs me to give a talk around then? Offers to the usual address, please.
Like the Beautiful Science programme on Bulgarian National Television, where I had simultaneous translation into Bulgarian. And at a Public Health Conference, where the delegates, alarmingly, left the dinner tables shortly after 10pm, leaving the jazz band playing and full bottles of wine on the tables. And not to go to the bar, either. Not quite the audience I got used to on the Edinburgh Fringe with Your Days Are Numbered, but my talk on alcohol and public health seemed to go OK.
My mother often says I think like a man, which I'm not sure she means as a compliment. So with all this talk about male and female brains, it was refreshing to read and review Cordelia Fine's book, Delusions of Gender. It seems what I have is a human brain, and an interest in things like mathematics, motorcycling and machines. Instead of frills, furbelows and, er, royal weddings? I'm with John Stuart Mill, that we don't need to look as far as an MRI scan for reasons why men and women are still - on average - different in so many ways.
Next, I'm off to Plymouth to talk about Elusive Armageddon on May 11th. Or the Future, and why we're so afraid of it, in the face of all the evidence that life continues to get better for most of us, most of the time.
Then it's all preparation for the Cheltenham Science Festival, where I'll be training some engineers again (still time to apply for this FREE training in public engagement) as well as chairing some stuff and performing Your Days Are Numbered: the maths of death with Matt Parker again in our biggest venue yet.
And after that? I need somebody to offer me some work in a place that's scenic, sunny and a long way off, towards the end of June. Because June 20th is National - and International - Ride to Work Day, and I'd hate to waste it by taking the motorbike a few miles across London. Surely somebody in the South of France, or Italy, or Southern Spain needs me to give a talk around then? Offers to the usual address, please.
