Written by Emily Burns, a UCL PhD student working in the Structural Biology laboratory at the London Research Institute.

The surface of the Sun is a searing 5,500 degrees Celsius, with an ionised atmosphere that is brimming with magnetic fields. As activity levels rise, this giant ball of gas hurls its matter towards Earth, altering our own magnetic field and atmosphere.

Solar flares on the surface of the Sun.
Image courtesy of NASA Goddard Photo & Video.

The threat of extreme space weather wreaking havoc on our world all sounded a tad science fiction to me, until Dr Lucie Green explained all at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

As the audience was shown videos of the Sun releasing huge amounts of energy and expelling its atmosphere towards us, it became apparent that solar super storms – discussed a great deal in the media recently in light of a report released by the Royal Academy of Engineering – are a very real threat.

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Sleep illustration by Matteo Farinella

Have you ever wondered what happens the moment you close your eyes and go to sleep? Did people give you this vague understanding of ‘it’s the time when your body gets to rest’?

Well, following Hans Berger’s invention of the Electroencephalogram (EEG) in 1924, we have been able to measures brain activity and we can now see that the brain is actually very active during sleep.

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Perhaps I’m experiencing a bit of the post-festival blues. I’m sitting on the train itching to check my festival programme and see what talk I’m signed up to next, whether I’ve got time to dash into the discover zone or the book tent, but sadly the whole thing has already flown by.

Cheltenham Science Festival has been an inspiring week. It has given me the chance to get out of my niche and look at issues across the whole spectrum of science, not just from a researcher’s perspective but from that of the general public. And it definitely takes all types.

It was heartening to see so many members of the public with little science background, young and old, coming to events simply out of interest, and often viewing things from a less detached perspective. (more…)

The tent was buzzing. Literally. There was a box of bees sitting on the table on stage. I was at the late night ‘Science of Honey’ talk. Despite being on at the same time as the England-Sweden match, the place was packed.

This event was to be a combination of fascinating bee facts and ridiculous honey experiments. On stage was the experimental comedy duo of Andrea Sella and Mark Miodownik. Experimental in the sense that they had fire, giant molecules and a charging wand on stage. And they made a mess. Complementing this side of things was Daniel Basterfield, keen apiarist and knower of all things bee and honey related.

Daniel began by introducing us to the history of honey and beekeeping. There are cave paintings from 9,000 years ago showing humans taking honey from bees. Beehives provided pollen for protein, wax for fat and, perhaps most importantly, honey for sugar and energy.

It makes sense that, eventually, humans would realise the importance of having bees around and would begin to work with the bees to gain their honey, rather than ransacking hives like their ancestors would have.

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