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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The UCL Festival of London and Literature held on Friday 15 June was an occasion that honoured not only the literature that comes out of London, but also the city itself and the ways in which it has influenced and inspired authors for centuries.

Alan Hollinghurst PHOTO: Maria Laura Antonelli/Rex

The final event of the day saw acclaimed writers and Booker Prize winners Alan Hollinghurst and A. S. Byatt discuss the ways in which it has inspired their own writing.

Led by the very animated head of UCL English, Professor John Mullan, the authors were prompted to discuss the ways in which their personal relationship with London has changed over the years and how their feelings have evolved as they have come to know the city better.

Neither Hollinghurst nor Byatt hail from London, and so they spoke about how they came to know the city first and foremost through the descriptions found in children’s stories, detective novels and through the music that was coming from the capital during their childhood.

Charles Dickens appears to have been hugely influential for both Hollinghurst and Byatt in the shaping of their sense of London before they had a chance to forge a personal relationship with the city. Excerpts from Great Expectations and The Uncommercial Traveller were read, and it became clear that although much has changed, Dickensian London is not far from the bustling metropolis that we know today. (more…)

The Brain Scan Live offenders line up

Behind the Scenes at Cheltenham is a daily blog from the UCL CABI team at Cheltenham Science Festival. Every day, a member of the team will be talking about their experiences of running a stand.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |

Orchestrating and conducting a live MRI scan for an audience of more than 600 people is very hard. Very, very hard.

On the penultimate day, our boss and director of the Festival, Mark Lythgoe, phoned me. He was due to present a show the following day titled Brain Scan Live: Lies and Deception, and he wanted me to take an integral role behind the scenes.

The idea of the show was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate that your brain doesn’t lie when presented with images that evoke a memorable response.

I was primarily tasked with constructing a crime scene where a volunteer from the audience would commit theft. The participant would then be taken to the nearby Cobalt Imaging Centre where they would be presented with pictures of the crime scene while undergoing an fMRI scan. In theory, photos from the crime scene would evoke a strong ‘lighting-up’ of the brain in the scans whereas photos of unfamiliar rooms would have little effect.

The first challenge was finding a room for the crime scene: we located a small office in the Cheltenham Town Hall. There was a distinct sense of irony when I had to explain to a stranger that I was rearranging her office and sifting through her desk drawers for a science experiment.

Despite her raised eyebrows, I convinced her I was telling the truth. Quickly I set about rearranging the room and planting some visual cues designed to evoke the volunteer’s recognition response during the scan. These included some crates of Coke cans, a mask replete with glowing green hair, some deliberately placed indoor plants, a dirty plate and a giant foam thumb pointing at the bounty. Furiously I photographed the office along with another four different control rooms before bed.

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