Calendar of events

Jeff will talk about his latest book, `The Quantum Universe', which he co-authored with Brian Cox. He will introduce the key ideas in quantum physics and emphasise the importance of quantum physics in everyday life.

Viking boat burials in the UK are very rare indeed and almost all are found on the islands around Scotland's north and west coasts. However in summer 2011 the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project found the first intact boat burial on the UK mainland, in a remote and very beautiful part of western Scotland. In this talk I will outline our findings of this 1000 year old boat and discuss their significance. What can this tell us about the Vikings in Britain? What did they believe about life and death? And why did they choose this remote location on the Ardnamurchan peninsula?

credit: Dan Addisson

  Early life stress, such as childhood abuse and neglect significantly increase the risk for developing depression later in life. The brain during early life is moulded by the environment to shape stress-responses during adulthood. Epigenetic mechanisms can modify the activity of genes without changing the order of their DNA sequence. This could explain how early life experiences can leave indelible chemical marks on the brain and influence both physical and mental health later in life even when the initial trigger is long gone. I will discuss clinical and animal studies that have investigated how adversity shapes stress systems to sustain the effects of early life experiences.

Graphene is the world's first 2-dimensional material, and was made in Manchester for the very first time in 2004, by Prof. Andre Geim and Prof. Kostya Novoselov. They were of course awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, and Knighthoods in the 2012 New Year's Honours. So what is it about Graphene that won them the Nobel prize, and has generated worldwide excitement and investment into research? I will briefly tell you about the history of graphene, explain what graphene looks like with some models and describe some of the properties and applications of graphene. I will also introduce you to some games and apps which we have developed which will hopefully both entertain and educate people using the science behind graphene. Finally, I will show each of you how you can make your own graphene using nothing by some pencil lead and Cellotape, just like the Nobel laureates did.