July 29, 2010

SGP: Waking The Dead

Neuroscientist Adrian Owen held our audience captive for a staggering hour and a half with the story of how he learned to speak to people in vegetative states using brain scans, state of the art technology, and patience.

It appears that about 17 per cent of people in comas are actually conscious, and some of these do eventually wake up and find new lives. Incredible. Terrifying and moving.

Most of the time people find me in the science tent, I’m smiling my head off – the job is such a joy. But during Adrian’s talk I spent most of the time blubbering in a corner.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to lie in the dark, unable to move or speak, ignored by everyone around you until one scientific team took the time and the energy to see that you really were in there?

By Zoe

July 22, 2010

Secret Garden Party, Saturday July 24: Escape

See the electricity in your skull, shed all inhibitions, show us your secret places,learn to love pain, and set yourself free. 

11am Visualising the mind, Luciana Haill, The Institute For Unnecessary Research, with Magician Darius Ziatabari

See the brain brought to life with soundscapes and optical treats woven from the electricity inside your head with neurofeedback artist Luciana. Darius will add live hypnosis demonstrations to show what happens under mastery of the mind.

12pm The Synaesthesia game, Coney & Guerilla Science

The Professor needs your help! After making a musical brain that mixes the senses, he needs to feed it with visual stimuli hidden around the Secret Garden. Transform colour into sound and learn through play with Guerilla Science and agency of adventure Coney.

1pm Learn To Love Pain With Sampa von Cyborg

Explore how body artist Sampa von Cyborg transcends the pain threshold with a session of live piercing, cutting, hooking, dragging and burning while hooked up to biomonitoring equipment so you can see his heart race (as yours does too). Take a ride to the event in a car – dragged by Sampa himself. What a way to start the day.

2pm Body Mapping  and the Science of Sex, Petra Boynton, UCL

Show us where you like to be touched with sex educator Petra, who will explore your intimate places with intimate questions. Shed your inhibitions, open your mind and share your secrets. Then jump in our boat for an extra intimate chat on the way out to science island.

3pm Pink  My  Poop,  James King & Daisy Ginsberg

Give yourself a health check with The Scatalog. Speculative designers Daisy and James will show how synthetic biology could be used to help monitor disease with E. chromi, a yogurt drink designed by Cambridge biologists that turns your poop pink if something plagues you. Help us make magenta manure.

4pm Mastering Memory, Ed Cooke

Explore the nooks and crannies of your mind and improve your powers of recall at the same time with memory maestro and Times columnist Ed. Learn to keep the unforgettable unforgotten.

5pm Science Pub Quiz, Frank Swain, Science Punk

Bring your grey matter for a workout in this pub quiz with a twist. Our quizmaster is back with the fan favourite: tricky trivia, boistrous heckles and witty drunkards await. Learning is fun, especially with beer.

And out and about…

10am The  Miniature  Zoo,  Tim  Maynard of the Living Classroom

Snakes. Tarantulas. Chameleons. Scorpions. Stick insects. Oh yes.

11am Kitchen Science, Nikolai & Pete

Discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.

1:30pm Flavour feast, Rachel Edwards-Stuart & Becki Clarke

Celebrate the manifold facets of flavour with a sensory smorgasboard.

1pm Photography in Five Dimensions, Anab Jain & Jon Ardern of Superflux

If parallel universes exist, what would they look like?

3pm Rosie The Organ Grinder With Physics Maestro Steve Mould

Discover the secrets of sound with a hand-made street organ.

Dusk-2am The Traveling Observatory, Elisa Kraus

Explore the night sky with top-notch telescopes.

July 7, 2010

Lovebox: Exposed To The Elements, July 16-18

Photograph yourself in another dimension, eat some brain and learn to lie. Catch us all weekend rain or shine at a smattering of shaded picnic benches near the Gaymer’s bandstand at the Lovebox music festival in London’s Victoria Park.

Photography in Five Dimensions, Friday July 16 1430-1500

If parallel universes exist, what might they look like? Anab Jain and Jon Ardern of cutting edge design collective Superflux explore the possibilities with their 5th dimensional camera.

Flavour Feast, Friday July 16 1500-1530, Saturday July 17 1300-1330, and Sunday July 18 1300-1330

Come celebrate the manifold facets of flavour with our sensory smorgasbord. Sample from our menu of taste tests with expert food scientists and explore the tantalizing mysteries of your senses.

Liars Picnic, Friday July 16 1530-1600, Saturday July 17 1330-1400, Sunday July 18 1400-1430

How good are you, really, at spotting a lie? Forensic psychologist Lynsey Gozna will teach you to spot the telltale signs. Then put your newfound shifty skills to the test in a lying match. Prizes for the finest fibbers. Cheating is compulsory – no exceptions.

Jelly Brain Dissection, Friday July 16 1600-1630, Saturday July 17 1230-1300, Sunday July 18 1230-1300

Get to grips with the most complex thing in the known universe: jelly, set in the shape of your marvellous cerebrum. Neuroscientist Zarinah Agnew will be on hand to help you dissect, discuss and digest it.

Biohacking Live! Friday July 16 1630-1700, Saturday July 17 1430-1500, Sunday July 18 1430-1500

What does synthetic biology have in store for us? Will super slime moulds take over the earth? Designer Tuur and synthetic biologist James will give us an idea, performing live biohacking with yoghurt and electricity.

August 8, 2009

Music and the Brain

“Some of you may have come to the festival to have the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, and I’d like to talk a bit about what might be happening in your brain when you do those things.”

“Does anybody here like music? That’s an easy question.”

“Not every society has writing or agriculture – but every single one on the face of the earth has music.”

“Music can bring you into an altered reality where you lose track of time, track of sense, and gain that real emotional connection to the task you are carrying out.”

“We all have endorphins and adrenaline running through our bodies right now – you’re smiling so you must be feeling good.”

Featuring Jessica Grahn, Mortem Kringelbach, Gianna Cassidy, Zoe Cormier, Richard Bowdler, Jenny Wong, Adrian Owen, the Beatbox Laboratory, and Accelerated Learning with MC Inja.

Recorded at Latitude and the Secret Garden Party in July 2009 by Tom Mustill.