Pint of Science: 'World's largest festival of public science talks' including dark matter in the pub coming to Sheffield

Pint of Science aims to bring scientists out of the lab and into your local pub by hosting a series of insightful talks by academics in pubs across the city,

Tickets are now on sale for the festival, which will see more than 30 scientists from the University of Sheffield take to the stage in venues across the city from Monday, May 9, to Wednesday, May 11.

Sheffield is one of nearly 500 cities around the world taking part in the tenth year of the global festival. Participating venues include The Sheffield Tap, Dina, Tamper Seller’s Wheel and Sidney & Matilda.

One of this year’s presenters, Professor Ed Daw, of the University of Sheffield’s department of physics and astronomy, said: “Pint of Science is an excellent way for Sheffield residents to get involved in the real research being conducted at the University of Sheffield.

“The festival's success is down to the friendly and informal settings in which our outstanding academic and research speakers can chat about their work and its impact on all of our daily lives with festival-goers.”

Highlights include Prof Daw leading a discussion around his ground-breaking research into dark matter – material that exists in space and affects matter around it but cannot be seen directly.

In addition, Dr Rhiannon Kennard will be talking about creating sustainable batteries, Dr Michael Smith is to demonstrate how to trace bumblebees, Dr Aimee Paskins discusses from science fiction to science fact: how Star Trek changed the world and there will be a talk by Prof Joanna Gavins about plastic pollution.

Professor Daw added: “Dark matter is one of physics' and astronomy's greatest mysteries. In a nutshell, we don't understand 90 per cent of the matter in our Universe and an experiment run by a UK consortium of eight universities is being built at the University of Sheffield to detect these elusive objects.

“My talk will introduce the people of Sheffield to this apparatus, which involves cooling a metal box to within a hundredth of a degree centigrade above absolute zero, and instrumenting this very cold room, about the size of a catering size food can, with the most sensitive radio receiver electronics in the world!”

Alongside the main talks, this year audiences will go head-to-head in the largest ever multi-city pub quiz, in association with interactive quiz company Kwizzbit.

Teams in each venue will compete against others across the city and the rest of the UK as they tackle a series of science-themed questions to prove which city has the strongest trivia knowledge.

Pint of Science founders Dr Praveen Paul and Dr Michael Motskin were UK research scientists in 2013 when they decided they wanted to bring back the personal touch to science.

From three cities back then to nearly 500 cities this year, the festival continues to showcase the brilliant work happening on our doorsteps.

Tickets are only £5 and can be purchased now at pintofscience.co.uk, which has further event details.