{"id":5211,"date":"2024-07-31T10:31:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T10:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/?p=5211"},"modified":"2024-07-31T10:32:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T10:32:20","slug":"inside-westminsters-pint-of-science-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/inside-westminsters-pint-of-science-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Westminster’s ‘Pint of Science’ event"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Guest blogger Dr Bradley Elliot from the School of Life Sciences takes us inside Westminster’s first ever Pint of Science Event.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cOne pint of bitters, and a side of knowledge please.\u201d<\/p>

Imagine a group of scientists giving lectures on their hyper-specialized areas of research, maybe cardiovascular physiology of Greenland Sharks, macro-nutritional deficiencies and athletic performance, or even radiation absorption of differing rock types. You might picture stuffy lecture theatres of somnolent students arrayed in tiered rows before some ageing professor monotonously droning on while clicking through seemly endless slides.<\/p>

What if we could do it differently? Well, on the evenings of the 13th <\/sup>– 15th<\/sup> May 2024, the University of Westminster played host to Pint of Science talks for the first time in this institution\u2019s history.<\/p>

Running since 2012, Pint of Science aims to deliver engaging talks, workshops and experiences in the more informal venue of pub and bars, as researchers passionately pitch their research to interested (or soon to be interested) members of the public. Over three nights, a team of academics and PhD researchers from the School of Life Sciences coordinated and delivered events in The Ship Pub<\/a><\/span>, taking over an upstairs function room and bringing the science and the enthusiasm to sell out audiences.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Life on Mars<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Night one was entitled \u201cLife on Mars\u201d and had Sinead Roberts with a Matt Damion \/ The Martian inspired discussion of \u2018Can you live on Potatoes Alone?\u2019 (Spoiler. Yes for a while, but it will be unpleasant. And then no, because \u00a0you\u2019ll die of micronutrient deficiencies<\/em>), Cathy Moore on \u2018Growing Drugs on Mars\u2019 and how you could make your own pharmaceuticals by genetically engineering plants, and then Lewis Dartnell on how to find Life on Mars and his research on trying to find bacteria or other forms of life clinging to some sub-terranean rock on the surface of Mars.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Longevity Pub quiz<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Night two was \u2018The Longevity Pub quiz\u2019 and had host Bradley Elliott ablely assisted by PhD researcher Noemi Cherestes. Over the course of a few hours, mortality themed pub quiz questions were asked and longevity myths were dispelled. The \u2018songs about living longer\u2019 round was a highlight and involved Danial Brayson and his acoustic guitar gamely learning and playing several longevity-themed songs while pub quiz teams attempted to guess them. You\u2019ve not lived until you heard someone learn to play Bob Dylan\u2019s Forever Young. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Fish are Friends, not (just) Food<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Night three was \u2018Fish are Friends not (just) Food\u2019 and had PhD researcher Stefania D’Alessio on fish skin for human wound healing (yes, really!<\/em>), and then Danial Brayson talking about his intrepid research in the Greenland Sea studying the Greenland Shark\u2019s heart and why they live for ~300 \u2013 600 years (we\u2019re not sure exactly how long, no one has ever really sat around and counted!<\/em>)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Overall, our first go at hosting Pint of Science was a roaring success. We had sellout crowds every night, incredibly engaging speakers, and an always enthusiastic audience. A huge thanks to The Ship Pub, who donated the space we used for free, the British Society for Research on Ageing<\/a> <\/span>who supported the Longevity Pub Quiz event, and to Pint of Science<\/a><\/span> for supporting it all. We\u2019re already planning for Pint of Science 2025!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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About Westminster<\/strong><\/p>

As one of the most diverse universities in the UK, we are a global university with London energy, with more than\u00a0<\/span>19,000 students<\/span> from 169 countries. To find out more about our courses, visit the <\/span><\/span>University of Westminster website<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest blogger Dr Bradley Elliot from the School of Life Sciences takes us inside Westminster’s first ever Pint of Science Event. \u201cOne pint of bitters, and a side of knowledge please.\u201d Imagine a group of scientists giving lectures on their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":5216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5211"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5225,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5211\/revisions\/5225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/wearewestminster\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}