If you’re interested in sharing your scientific research with a friendly public audience – complete our form.
We’re currently organising our series of Café Scientifique events for Sept 2022 – July 2023 and we’re looking for people interested in getting involved. Café Scientifique is a public event format, popular around the world, where anyone can come along to explore the latest research in science and technology in a casual café setting. Following a short presentation by a researcher, there is plenty of time for questions and discussion from a varied public audience.
Taking place on a weekday evening, Café Scientifique events run monthly from June (excepting August and January). They’re organised centrally by the BU Public Engagement with Research Team, part of Research Development and Support (RDS). It’s a fantastic opportunity to get experience in engaging with the public in a friendly atmosphere and gain surprising insights into your own work.
We welcome academics at all career stages, although this is particularly valuable for those just getting started in engaging with the public. We also encourage collaboration between less experienced and more experienced public speakers – to provide a valuable learning experience with the support to keep things going smoothly.
Regarding your research – although we use a broad definition of ‘science’, the audience do have certain expectations from the name, so we do not tend to feature research outside of the broad ‘science’ theme.
Whether we will be able to host your talk, and at the time you want, depends on several factors including the subject matter, timing and other events, so completing this form does not guarantee you will be able to take part. If everything does align, we will be in touch to invite you to speak at an upcoming event.
Other ways to get involved
We’re looking to involve a wider range of people from across BU to make our Café Scientifique series a success and a true BU community project. As well as speaking, you could get involved in a number of flexible ways;
Hosting events – every Cafe Sci event needs a host – to welcome the audience, introduce the speakers and keep the questions flowing. This is a great opportunity for someone to develop skills and experience interacting with the public, as well as being an enjoyable way to meet other people.
Helping to organise events – whether it’s finding speakers, helping polish a presentation, promoting these events far and wide and more – we’d welcome any BU staff or students who’d like to help out with various bits behind the scenes on these events. This is a great way to dip your toes in the world of public engagement, gain experience in organising events and work on a fun project with others across BU.
If you have any questions about speaking at, or are interested in helping to host or organise these events, then please get in touch with the public engagement team at publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk. There’s no commitment, we can start from there and see what would work best for everyone.
If you’re interested in sharing your scientific research with a friendly public audience – complete our form.
We’re currently organising our series of Café Scientifique events for Sept 2022 – July 2023 and we’re looking for people interested in getting involved. Café Scientifique is a public event format, popular around the world, where anyone can come along to explore the latest research in science and technology in a casual café setting. Following a short presentation by a researcher, there is plenty of time for questions and discussion from a varied public audience.
Taking place on a weekday evening, Café Scientifique events run monthly from June (excepting August and January). They’re organised centrally by the BU Public Engagement with Research Team, part of Research Development and Support (RDS). It’s a fantastic opportunity to get experience in engaging with the public in a friendly atmosphere and gain surprising insights into your own work.
We welcome academics at all career stages, although this is particularly valuable for those just getting started in engaging with the public. We also encourage collaboration between less experienced and more experienced public speakers – to provide a valuable learning experience with the support to keep things going smoothly.
Regarding your research – although we use a broad definition of ‘science’, the audience do have certain expectations from the name, so we do not tend to feature research outside of the broad ‘science’ theme.
Whether we will be able to host your talk, and at the time you want, depends on several factors including the subject matter, timing and other events, so completing this form does not guarantee you will be able to take part. If everything does align, we will be in touch to invite you to speak at an upcoming event.
Other ways to get involved
We’re looking to involve a wider range of people from across BU to make our Café Scientifique series a success and a true BU community project. As well as speaking, you could get involved in a number of flexible ways;
Hosting events – every Cafe Sci event needs a host – to welcome the audience, introduce the speakers and keep the questions flowing. This is a great opportunity for someone to develop skills and experience interacting with the public, as well as being an enjoyable way to meet other people.
Helping to organise events – whether it’s finding speakers, helping polish a presentation, promoting these events far and wide and more – we’d welcome any BU staff or students who’d like to help out with various bits behind the scenes on these events. This is a great way to dip your toes in the world of public engagement, gain experience in organising events and work on a fun project with others across BU.
If you have any questions about speaking at, or are interested in helping to host or organise these events, then please get in touch with the public engagement team at publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk. There’s no commitment, we can start from there and see what would work best for everyone.
Café Scientifique will be returning to in-person events in Bournemouth from this June. We’re looking for people to get involved as organisers and speakers.
Following a long period of holding these events online, we’re happy to announce the return of BU’s Café Scientifique to the friendly, in-person format that makes it special.
For the unaware, Café Scientifique is a public event format, popular around the world, where anyone can come along to explore the latest research in science and technology in a casual café setting. Following a short presentation by a researcher, we provide plenty of time for questions and discussion from a varied public audience.
Taking place on a weekday evening, Café Scientifique events will run monthly from June (excepting August and January). They’re led centrally by the BU Public Engagement with Research Team, and we’re looking to involve a wider range of people from across BU to make them a success. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet other people, get experience in engaging with the public, gain surprising insights into your own work and enjoy some relaxed and friendly events.
You can get involved in a number of flexible ways;
Speaking at an event – share your research in anything science/technology related in a short presentation and engage in discussion with the public audience.
Hosting events – every Cafe Sci event needs a host – to welcome the audience, introduce the speakers and keep the questions flowing. This is a great opportunity for someone to develop skills and experience interacting with the public, as well as being an enjoyable way to meet other people.
Helping to organise events – whether it’s finding speakers, helping polish a presentation, promoting these events far and wide and more – we’d welcome any BU staff or students who’d like to help out with various bits behind the scenes on these events. This is a great way to dip your toes in the world of public engagement, gain experience in organising events and work on a fun project with others across BU.
If you have any questions, are interested in speaking at, and/or helping to host or organise these events, then please get in touch with the public engagement team at publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk. There’s no commitment, we can start from there and see what would work best for everyone.
Café Scientifique will be returning to in-person events in Bournemouth from this June. We’re looking for people to get involved as organisers and speakers.
Following a long period of holding these events online, we’re happy to announce the return of BU’s Café Scientifique to the friendly, in-person format that makes it special.
For the unaware, Café Scientifique is a public event format popular around the world, where anyone can come along to explore the latest research in science and technology in a casual café setting. Following a short presentation by a researcher, we provide plenty of time for questions and discussion from a varied public audience.
Taking place on a weekday evening, Café Scientifique events will run monthly from June (excepting August and January). They’re led centrally by the BU Public Engagement with Research Team, and we’re looking to involve a wider range of people from across BU to make them a success. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet other people, get experience in engaging with the public, gain surprising insights into your own work and enjoy some relaxed and friendly events.
You can get involved in a number of flexible ways;
Speaking at an event – share your research in anything science/technology related in a short presentation and engage in discussion with the public audience.
Hosting events – every Cafe Sci event needs a host – to welcome the audience, introduce the speakers and keep the questions flowing. This is a great opportunity for someone with some confidence in public speaking to develop skills and experience interacting with the public, as well as being an enjoyable way to meet other people.
Helping to organise events – whether it’s finding speakers, helping polish a presentation, promoting these events far and wide and more – we’d welcome any BU staff or students who’d like to help out with various bits behind the scenes on these events. This is a great way to dip your toes in the world of public engagement, gain experience in organising events and work on a fun project with others across BU.
If you have any questions, are interested in speaking at, and/or helping to host or organise these events, then please get in touch with the public engagement team at publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk. There’s no commitment, we can start from there and see what would work best for everyone.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Malika Feltonon Tuesday 1 March from 7.00pm until 8.30pm.
Deep breathing to lower blood pressure
High blood pressure affects around 1 in 3 adults in the UK and is a major risk factor for conditions such as heart failure and stroke. There are many treatments available, but deep and slow breathing could also help, with research suggesting that just ten minutes a day could reduce blood pressure with lasting effects.
Join us to discover more and try out slow and deep breathing for yourself.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Emilie Hardouinon Tuesday 1 February from 7.00pm until 8.30pm.
A Shallow Gene Pool – Red Squirrels in the South of England
The red squirrel is an enduring symbol of British wildlife but survives in the South of England only on islands – the Isle of Wight and in Poole Harbour. Join Dr Emilie Hardouin to discover what genetics can tell us about where these last surviving populations came from, and how they can be protected from extinction.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Marin Cvitanovicon Tuesday 7 December from 7.00pm until 8.30pm.
Wildfires and Us
Every year wildfires engulf 3.4 million square kilometres of Earth’s surface – approximately the size of India. These fires have massive economic, social and environmental impacts and, due to climate change, are expected to increase in the future. However, wildfires are also a naturally occurring global phenomenon that many ecosystems depend on.
Join us to discover how scientific research at Bournemouth University could fill in some of the gaps in this complicated relationship between humans and wildfires.
Coinciding with COP26, we thought we’d share some of the environment and climate-themed events we have coming up.
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2021
Spot the Greenwashers
Monday, 15 November Online
How can we tell when companies are lying to us about how environmentally friendly they are? In this workshop, our media experts will explain how you can see through the tricks used to miscommunicate climate science in the media, bust dodgy claims and spot misinformation.
We won’t just deconstruct media techniques either, we’ll also learn how to construct better communication. Using innovative techniques such as storytelling, text adventures and choice-based games, we’ll learn how play can be a powerful tool for creating imaginative stories.
Connecting with nature: for wellbeing, sustainability and the environment
Monday, 15 November & Wednesday, 17 November Online
Connecting with nature can have benefits not only for our own wellbeing, but for the environment too. Join BU researchers and local nature organisations for a selection of talks over two days, to learn more about forest bathing, volunteering for nature, sustainable living and other ways to engage with and protect the natural environment.
We’ll also discover what social science research tells us about the sustainable choices people make throughout their life. Set against the backdrop of COP26, this event will explore how the choices we make could address the climate and ecological crises, and how Bournemouth University targets and supports these.
Every year wildfires engulf 3.4 million square kilometres of Earth’s surface – approximately the size of India. These fires have massive economic, social and environmental impacts and, due to climate change, are expected to increase in the future. However, wildfires are also a naturally occurring global phenomenon that many ecosystems depend on.
Join Dr Marin Cvitanovic to discover how scientific research at Bournemouth University could fill in some of the gaps in this complicated relationship between humans and wildfires.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Marin Cvitanovicon Tuesday 7 December from 7.00pm until 8.30pm.
Wildfires and Us
Every year wildfires engulf 3.4 million square kilometres of Earth’s surface – approximately the size of India. These fires have massive economic, social and environmental impacts and, due to climate change, are expected to increase in the future. However, wildfires are also a naturally occurring global phenomenon that many ecosystems depend on.
Join us to discover how scientific research at Bournemouth University could fill in some of the gaps in this complicated relationship between humans and wildfires.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Luciana Esteveson Tuesday 2 November from 7.00pm until 8.30pm.
Climate change and coastal flooding – relocate before it’s too late?
For an increasing number of people, coastal flooding and erosion are a real threat to property, the local economy and, in some cases, life. With the effects of climate change, this threat is quickly growing.
Should coastal communities at risk be relocated before they are forced from their homes? Or could engineering and nature-based solutions provide the defences they need?
Join us to discover the challenges faced by coastal communities in an uncertain climate future, and what society could do to address them.
Dr Sue Thomas shares her experience of presenting at a BU Café Scientifique event on 6 July 2021.
For my talk at Café Scientifique I took a fresh look at the topic of my 2017 book “Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age: How to feel better without logging off”, which has new relevance in the age of digital wellbeing during COVID-19. This continued the theme of my previous book, “Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace”, which looked at the prevalence online of nature-derived metaphors and imagery, and which I discussed at Café Sci in 2013.
My talk topic – Technobiophilia
Intuitively we all know that Nature is good for us. Research has backed that up, showing that contact with nature can support emotional wellbeing and better concentration, as well as reduce stress and lower heart rate and blood pressure. Sometimes even simple psychological connectedness to nature can produce the same effects.
Biophilia is a hypothesized hidden programme which runs in the background of our lives. The term was first coined by Erich Fromm but became more popular when the eminent biologist EO Wilson described it as “the innate attraction to life and lifelike processes”. Wilson believes that biophilia may have the ability to lie dormant for periods of time until something triggers it into action again.
The notion of biophilia led to my own definition of ‘technobiophilia’ as “the innate attraction to life and lifelike processes as they appear in technology”. Technobiophilia connects our lives in nature with our lives in the digital, and this process has been very evident during the Covid-19 Lockdowns. Here are some examples:
In October 2020, the Metro newspaper declared that “Nature documentaries are ‘perfect lockdown viewing and make people happier’ in an article about the TV programme “Seven Worlds, One Planet” which highlighted the story of the last two northern white rhinoceros left alive on the planet.
On Instagram, thousands of RSPB #breakfastbirdwatch watchers shared their photos. Sussex_sara posted “Is anyone else feeling in a state of suspended animation these days? 😕 Living alone, the only tangible sense I have of days passing are the changes in nature as our lives are put on hold.”
Country Life magazine, perhaps not the most techie of periodicals, listed the best live animal webcams to get you through lockdown. Their Top 3 were: Little penguins, Phillip Island Nature Parks, Australia; Folly Farm, Pembrokeshire (sheep, goats, newborn lambs) and Edinburgh Zoo (Panda cam, Penguin Cam, Koala Cam and Lion Cam)
The BBC launched a collaboration to bring virtual soundscapes of music and nature directly to audiences with Radio 3, 6 Music, and BBC Sounds, and also embarked on The Virtual Nature Experiment with The University of Exeter, a ground-breaking study exploring how virtual experiences of nature might impact wellbeing.
Nintendo relaunched its old online game “Animal Crossing” and it was soon dubbed ‘the game of the pandemic’. Slate Magazine said “Animal Crossers new and old found comfort in exerting control over their islands’ virtual terrain as the world outside grew more and more chaotic” and the MIT Technology Review reported that “Gentle, comforting games like Nintendo’s latest hit are perfect escapist entertainment, but they’re also helping us to connect in these strange times.”
This last observation was born out by a study conducted before the pandemic and published in 2020, which reported a significant increase of feelings of connectedness to the community after watching digital nature. Interestingly, they also found that tended nature scenes elicited more social aspirations than wild nature scenes.
In 2020, Natural England surveyed the changing relationship with nature during lockdown. It reported that 41% of people said that visiting natural spaces had become even more important to them than before. Also in 2020, in a study conducted before the pandemic, the University of Exeter found that the best way of delivering virtual nature for improving mood was computer-generated virtual reality, which proved more effective than high definition TV or 360° video.
During the lockdown pause, Nature was busy regenerating. As early as April 2020, carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide fell by up to 40%. Air traffic fell 50%. UK road traffic fell 70%. And during that year, wildlife came closer – wild goats wandered the empty streets of Llandudno, coyotes walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, there were deer in Washington DC, and wild boar in Spain and Italy. Everyone heard more bird song. By April 2021, marine noise pollution had decreased so much that the seas had become measurably quieter.
So, what has lockdown taught us about digital nature and wellbeing? It seems that we have learned that we can connect with nature in many different ways, both physically and digitally. We have been reminded that we can live more of our lives outdoors, and that nature can help connect our local communities.
But individual nature connection is not enough. Covid has taught (some of us) to better connect with nature, but has that process sedated us? Distracted us? Separated us even more from what else is happening? This year, floods and fires around the world have reminded us that there are other disasters too, most of them a result of the global warming.
While we in the First World are busy self-soothing with nature, many millions of people have no access to vaccines. In January 2021, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO Director-General, warned “The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure – and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”
Of course, this moral failure can be seen in the climate emergency too. In his 2020 film ‘A Life on Our Planet’ David Attenborough delivered his Witness Statement and told the story of ‘our greatest mistake’. The film begins and ends in Chernobyl which, although still devoid of humans, has seen the return of many thriving animals and plants. This allows Attenborough to make his final message one of hope. ‘We have’, he says, ‘the opportunity to become a species in balance with nature’.
When my book ‘Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace’ was published in 2013, some thought the idea of using technology to connect with nature was contradictory, even harmful. But the last 18 months of the pandemic have shown the benefits of nature in the digital age, for some of us at least. But there is much more work to do. Perhaps digital nature can play a part in helping humanity to finally, to quote Attenborough, “become a species in balance with nature” – if there is time.
My Café Scientifique experience
I enjoyed my second Café Scientifique session. It went very well and was followed by a lot of positive feedback and a lively exchange of ideas, which brought the July lecture to a successful conclusion, slightly over the scheduled two hours.
The audience asked some excellent questions and we were pleasantly able to deepen our exchanges. It was interesting to hear from those providing opportunities for engaging with digital nature, especially Radio Lento https://radiolento.podbean.com/ who produce entrancing virtual nature tours in the form of weekly sound postcards from beautiful places. Find them on Twitter @RadioLento where they regularly share some wonderful sounds. There was a lively exchange of views about the relative values of visual, audio, VR and analogue nature experiences, especially when created from the same sources.
It was a great experience with people from all over the world, including old friends. My talk was recorded and is available to watch on the Café Sci YouTube channel. I hope that it inspires you to think and act on the relationship between nature, digital nature and our well-being.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Ashok Patnaikon Tuesday 5 October from 7.00pm until 8.30pm.
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened children’s mental health, which was already in decline. Researchers have observed increased levels of anxiety, depression and other psychological distress. However, children with poor mental health do not always receive the support they need from schools and mental health services.
Stormbreak is a new programme that combines simple, fun movements with well-being techniques such as talking therapies and mindfulness, to help children care for their mental health. Join us to discover what happened when Stormbreak was trialled in several local schools, and where it could go next.
Café Scientifique presents such an interesting opportunity to discuss academic research with a diverse and extraordinary audience. With events currently taking place online, there were members of the public in the audience from several countries. This public engagement pushed the boundaries of my creativity in trying to be as clear as possible, particularly in ensuring that the public can interact with my research without much complexity.
I discussed the application of some machine learning tools (ARIMA, Prophet model, Long Short-Term Memory and Recurrent Neural Network) to predicting the macroeconomic trend for the UK and what the post-pandemic future looks like. This is because, amidst the noise and confusion about the future, new and advanced scientific tools let us have a glimpse of the future, as well as the potentials for swift economic recovery. Overall, I asked the question: when compared with another similar economy like the US, is there something the UK can do differently?
I agreed to participate in this public engagement, for my personal development, and because I love to receive feedback, new directions and insights on the why what and how of my research. While there are several economic reports from the news and government agencies, it is important to provide some evidence-based discussions around how the happenings in the economy can affect everyone at an individual level.
Before the event, I practised discussing my research with my wife who is a care worker and has no clue what machine learning algorithms mean. That helped me discover several ways to represent the ideas during the talk.
The event went well. There was a great turnout and lots of fantastic questions at the end. I think as a researcher we may get caught up in the ‘how’ of our research and not go deep in dissemination and public engagement. Therefore, constantly thinking and rethinking about the implications and interpretation of research findings and what it means for everyone should be a skill we all develop as researchers.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Sue Thomas and Dr Hiroko Oe on Tuesday 6 July, from 7.00pm until 8:30pm.
In 2013 Dr Sue Thomas spoke at Cafe Sci about her book “Technobiophilia”. At that time, when ‘digital detoxing’ was popular, the idea of using technology to experience nature seemed transgressive. But the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that experiencing the natural world via our computers, phones and TVs can contribute to wellbeing in many ways. Whether it’s watching animals on live-streaming webcams, sharing beautiful photos, or viewing nature programmes like Blue Planet, we have learned how to achieve a satisfying tech/nature balance. Dr Sue Thomas asks whether COVID-19 will change our view of digital nature and Dr Hiroko Oe reports from a Japanese perspective.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Sue Thomas and Dr Hiroko Oe on Tuesday 6 July, from 7.00pm until 8:30pm.
In 2013 Dr Sue Thomas spoke at Cafe Sci about her book “Technobiophilia”. At that time, when ‘digital detoxing’ was popular, the idea of using technology to experience nature seemed transgressive. But the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that experiencing the natural world via our computers, phones and TVs can contribute to wellbeing in many ways. Whether it’s watching animals on live-streaming webcams, sharing beautiful photos, or viewing nature programmes like Blue Planet, we have learned how to achieve a satisfying tech/nature balance. Dr Sue Thomas asks whether COVID-19 will change our view of digital nature and Dr Hiroko Oe reports from a Japanese perspective.
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Dr Festus Adedoyin on Tuesday 1 June, from 7.00pm until 8:30pm.
Amidst the noise and confusion of the present, new scientific tools enable us to forecast the future. Advanced machine learning algorithms are tracing what the future could look like for countries with high death rates from COVID-19 and their potential for economic recovery. Comparing the UK with other similar economies like the United States, what can we learn, and is there anything we can do differently?
This talk for Cafe Scientifique was designed to launch a new book that I’ve just written, called ‘Ecosystem collapse and recovery’. This is the first scientific monograph that explores these phenomena, and has just been published by Cambridge University Press. Ecosystem collapse has been in the news a lot recently, with major environmental catastrophes including the bleaching event in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and unprecedented fires in Australia, California, Indonesia and the Amazon. Indeed, as I was writing the book, new examples of major changes in the world’s ecosystems seemed to be happening every week.
Although ecosystem collapse could clearly have major implications for human society, it has only recently become the focus of scientific attention. I became interested in the topic through my research on ecosystems near to Bournemouth, specifically the New Forest National Park and the county of Dorset. In the New Forest, we found that the ancient beech woodlands are collapsing throughout the Park, which is having a devastating effect on the wildlife associated with them. The main cause appears to be climate change, although high herbivore pressure is adding to the problem. In Dorset, we found that a number of ecosystems have been dramatically transformed over the past 80 years or so. Back in the 1930s, there were extensive areas of species-rich chalk grassland, for example, which has now largely disappeared, owing to the spread of arable agriculture. So the problem of rapid environmental change is happening everywhere, including on our own doorstep here in Dorset.
For the talk, I decided to focus on some of the most interesting stories I came across while writing the book. I learned a great deal from the writing process; I really enjoyed digging into the literature on topics I knew little about. For example, what happened to the world’s ecosystems after the asteroid strike at the end of the Cretaceous – how long did it take them to recover? And how did extinction of megafauna at the end of the last Ice Age affect the world’s ecosystems? I also came across some epic human stories, such as the colonisation of Australia by boat perhaps as long as 60,000 years ago, and the colonisation of Madagascar by a boatload of fisherfolk from what is now Indonesia, around 3000 years ago. Perhaps the most startling is the idea that the Sahara desert might largely have been created by people, after they introduced livestock to the area around 7,000 years ago, when it was still a grassland landscape with lakes and rivers.
I thought the talk went really well, and I have since received a lot of positive feedback about it. I always find it challenging to answer questions from the public, as you have to think on your feet, but I really enjoyed the discussion after the talk – the audience asked some great questions. It certainly felt a bit strange giving my talk on-line, just speaking to my laptop rather than to an audience in a room, but I really liked the way that people from all over the world were able to attend, including some old friends. Some of the comments I received were along the lines of “I never knew that anything like this was happening”, so if my talk has helped raise awareness of how rapidly the world’s ecosystems are changing right now, it will have done its job.
Professor Adrian Newton’s book ‘Ecosystem Collapse and Recovery’ can be purchased here
At Café Scientifique, you can explore the latest ideas in science and technology in a relaxed online setting. Enjoy listening to a short talk before engaging in debate and discussion with our guest speaker and audience.
We’ll be joined by Professor Adrian Newton on Tuesday 4 May, from 7.00pm until 8:30pm.
Figures including David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg have recently drawn attention to the risks of ecosystem collapse. But what do we know about this process? What might cause an ecosystem to collapse, and what are the consequences? Join us to review our current understanding of ecosystem collapse, and how it relates to subsequent ecological recovery, drawing on examples from throughout Earth’s history.
Attendance is free but booking is necessary.
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