Last year I was lucky enough to receive a bursary from UCL which allowed me to go to Cheltenham and attend the Science Festival for the week. It was an incredible experience, I saw some fantastic talks and debates, and also got a chance to catch some less well executed events. I had a chat to a few of the speakers and had a superb time. I am debating now whether or not to sign up to volunteer this year to ensure I can go again…
Whilst thinking about it, I realised I didn’t share any of the blogs I wrote whilst at the festival. So here they are!
The first: “Thinking about robots thinking” is a piece on the debate about the legal implications of robots becoming ever more intelligent. The debate covered a vast range of topics from robots that are able to kill, to robots that are able to experience pain.
The second blog is about a topic very dear to my heart: bees. The title of the blog is very witty and intelligent, “Who knew honey could BEE so interesting. Get it? Get it?“. This blog recounts the brilliant interactive talk about the Science of Honey (and features an illustration drawn specially by Matteo Farinella of neurocomic). It was a fantastic event, combining information about the chemical composition of honey, with the maths of honeycomb creation, to the history of human’s relationship with bees. It was absolutely fascinating.
Oh gosh, I need to go again this year don’t I?