What's On at ATOM Festival '24
March 16th - March 23rd
ATOM Science Market Day
Saturday March 16th 10am - 3pm
Abingdon Market Place
Free event
Science comes to the Market Place in Abingdon, with science exhibitors and communicators all assembled to show you why they love their scientific work! When you have looked around the Market Place don't forget that there are activities, talks and shows going on in the Museum and in the Guildhall, both a few steps away.
More details about this event including how to take part if you are a science organisation here
Science Market Day.....at the Guildhall
Saturday March 16th
While the Science Market is going on outside there is also a free programme of events taking place inside the Guildhall.
10am UKAEA talk - The JET Achievement
11am How to Create a Mini Supernova talk
12 noon Bento Lab talk/demonstration
1pm Oxford Nanopore Technologies talk/demonstration
2pm UKAEA talk - JET- the Future
3pm National Quantum Computing Centre talk
Science Market Day .....in the Museum
Saturday 16th March
Abingdon Museum
Free event
BEN G THOMAS livestreaming from the museum basement - the "Boneheads" palaeontologist will return to Abingdon Museum to live stream from the Kempster Room in the basement.
Further details on the museum website soon
ATOM Presents.....at the Amey Theatre
EVENT CANCELLED
Dr Roger Highfield
Virtual you: How building your digital twin will revolutionize medicine and change your life
Imagine having a digital copy of your body that can help you make better decisions about your health. That's the promise of digital twins, computer models that simulate every aspect of your body, from cells and tissues to organs and more. In this talk, Roger Highfield will share insights from his last book 'Virtual You', a panoramic account of efforts by scientists around the world - including his coauthor Peter Coveney - to build digital twins of human beings. He will explain how these virtual copies can usher in a new era of personalised medicine, one in which you can predict your risk of disease, participate in virtual drug trials, shed light on the diet and lifestyle changes that are best for you, and help identify therapies to enhance your well-being and extend your lifespan. The Financial Times made Virtual You one of the books of 2023.
Doors open at 6:30pm; talk starts at 7pm
£5 adults
£2.50 18-and-under
ATOM Presents.....at the Amey Theatre
Sunday March 17th, 7pm
The Amey Theatre, Abingdon School
Isabella Tree
How we can all rewild and save the world
The rewilding project at Knepp in West Sussex has become a leading light for conservation in the UK and around the world, demonstrating how letting nature take the driving seat can restore the land and its wildlife in a dramatically short space of time. Inspired by requests from people wanting to learn how to rewild churchyards, gardens and window boxes, rivers, ponds, public spaces and urban parks, Isabella shows how the lessons of rewilding Knepp can be applied at every level, to every available patch of land. We can all do our bit to restore the life-support system on which all species, including our own, depend.
Doors open at 6:30pm; talk starts at 7pm
£5 adults
£2.50 18-and-under
ATOM Presents.....at the Amey Theatre
Monday March 18th, 7pm
The Amey Theatre, Abingdon School
Fame Lab Academy Finals
ATOM celebrates our 10th anniversary by launching the Oxfordshire FameLab Academy. In this our first year three schools are entering the competition to be the best young science communicator.
Doors open at 6:30pm; starts at 7pm
Free event. No registration needed. Please just turn up at the Amey.
The ATOM Peagram Lecture
Tuesday 19th March, 7pm
The Amey Theatre, Abingdon School
Professor Cath Green OBE
The OxfordAstraZeneca Vaccine and Beyond
This is a double bill evening. Ticket price includes a short lecture about vaccines by Dr David Miles at 7pm followed by a refreshments break (bar in the foyer) before the Peagram Lecture.
Doors open at 6:30pm; first talk starts at 7pm
Tickets
£10 adults
£5 18 and under
Dr David Miles
A Short History of Vaccines from Cowpox to Covid
This is a short lecture to introduce the topic of vaccines and forms part of the Double Bill evening which includes the Peagram Lecture (see above).
ATOM Presents.....at the Guildhall
Wednesday March 20th, 7pm
Roysse Room, Abingdon Guildhall
Megan Jacobs
Discovering Abingdon’s gigantic Jurassic sea creature
Megan Jacobs is a palaeontologist and PhD student at the University of Portsmouth. In May 2023, Megan and her colleague Professor David Martill, whilst visiting Abingdon Museum to research the ichthyosaur skeleton on display, discovered an enormous backbone in a drawer at Abingdon County Hall Museum belonging to a creature that swam in the seas that covered Oxfordshire 150 million years ago. After speaking to museum staff, it was discovered there were 3 more in the museum stores!
After looking at all the bones with Dr Steve Etches MBE, the team realised their suspicions were correct, these huge bones were vertebrate from a pliosaur – a marine reptile that could have been twice the size of a killer whale. These were found during excavations at Warren Farm in the River Thames Valley in Oxfordshire. Megan will talk to us about the discovery and about her ongoing palaeontology research of the marine reptiles in the Abingdon Collection.
Doors open at 6:30pm; talk starts at 7pm
£5 adults
£2.50 18-and-under
ATOM Presents.....at the Guildhall
Thursday March 21st, 7pm
Roysse Room, Abingdon Guildhall
Professor John Tregoning
Infectious – a short history of how we are successfully defeating pathogens
Nature wants you dead. Not just you, but your children and everyone you have ever met and everyone they have ever met; in fact, everyone. It wants you to cough and sneeze and poop yourself into an early grave. It wants your blood vessels to burst and pustules to explode all over your body. And until relatively recently, it was really good at doing this. In 1900, the average life expectancy of a human was 31 years. Really, I should be dead already.
But thanks to the advancement of scientific understanding, better hygiene and the miracle of modern medicine, I am not dead – and presumably neither are you, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. In this talk I will explore how human ingenuity has led to amazing breakthroughs in controlling, preventing and treating infectious disease. I will explain how the approaches work, where they originated, and why if given the choice, you should use them.
Doors open at 6:30pm; talk starts at 7pm
£5 adults
£2.50 18-and-under
ATOM Presents.....at the Guildhall
Saturday March 23rd
Roysse Room, Abingdon Guildhall
ATOM's Science Activity Day
Bright Sparks Science Activities (morning)
and
ibrick Sessions with House of Fun (afternoon)
Science for kids between 9.30am am and 3.30pm.
These activities are free - please check the webpage about each activity to find out if booking is required.
More information about Bright Sparks Science Activities in the morning is available by clicking here
More information and registration for ibrick sessions with House of Fun is now open- please click here
ATOM Presents.....at Harwell Campus
Saturday March 23rd 11am
Harwell Campus
THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED
The Harwell Campus Heritage Trail
Guided Walking Tour starting at 11am
ATOM Festival is delighted to be participating in the official launch of this exciting Heritage Trail by offering a guided walk under the leadership of one of the team who put the trail together.
ATOM Presents.....at the Guildhall
Saturday March 23rd, 7pm
Roysse Room, Abingdon Guildhall
Professor Russell Foster
LIFE TIME: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health
Most of us assume that we are above the grubby world of biology, and that we can do what we want, at whatever time we choose. This assumption is wrong. Our biology is governed by a 24-hour biological (circadian) clock that advises us when it is the best time to sleep, eat, think, and undertake a myriad of other essential tasks. This daily internal adjustment allows us to function optimally in a dynamic world, “fine-tuning” our biology to the profound demands imposed by the 24-hour day.
Progress in understanding the fundamental nature of circadian biology has been astonishing, and certainly, this knowledge has added to our wonder and appreciation of the biological world. However, in parallel with this appreciation there has been an emerging realisation of the fundamental importance of circadian rhythms to our health and wellbeing. What we do when really matters. The time of day will influence our: Decision-making skills and the chance of making a mistake; Our vulnerability to infection – we are more vulnerable to infection at night; The chances of having a stroke or heart attack – There is a 50% greater chance of having a stroke between 6am and 12 noon than any other time of the day; Because our body changes so profoundly over the day, the effects of our medications and treatments also change. Taking heart medications before bed rather than in the morning, can reduce your chances of having a stroke. And the time of delivering anti-cancer drugs can mean the difference between life and death. In this talk I will unpack the science of circadian rhythms, and how this new biology can be used by each of us to make more informed decisions to improve our lives.
Doors open at 6:30pm; talk starts at 7pm
£5 adults
£2.50 18-and-under
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