Report - Investigation Day March 14th 2023
REPORT ON INVESTIGATION AND DISCOVERY DAY MARCH 14TH 2023
This event was the 10th Anniversary of Science and Society’s I&D Day. I have been fortunate to attend everyone, where were you? It takes place every year during science week and promotes topics of importance relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, (STEM) subject areas. You missed a very informative, interesting, and educational day. Members of the S&S team plus our Climate Change Ambassadors were on hand to answer queries and a raffle completed the day.
There were 3 speakers, the first, Richard Hollis, author, broadcaster, professional actor, and a freelance journalist talked about Ray Harryhausen, an American –British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animator known as ‘Dynamation’. Amongst the best-known films that he did visual effects for were the Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts; Clash of the Titans was his last film in 1981. In 2016 BFI compiled a list of filmmakers who claim to have been inspired by Harryhausen, including Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Joe Dante, Tim Burton, Nick Park, James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro. The film, Million Years BC with Racquel Welch and King Kong were also amongst his work: Ray was amazed at animators in the future who numbered many in a film as he worked totally alone in his era! The story about Ray was accompanied on screen for us by many colourful posters depicting these films and he reminded us that we got a double bill when we went to the cinema, those were the days!
The second speaker was Tom, ‘The Blowfish’ Hird. Tom is a heavy metal Marine biologist and ocean Ambassador for the Marine Conservation Society. We should really be calling our planet, planet wet not planet earth as 71% of our planet is water and only 29% is earth! He is an enthusiastic, charismatic and inspiring speaker to listen to, best known for his work on BBC’s Worldwide’s Fishing Impossible. What can we do as WI members? Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We are being urged to plant sea grass to protect the erosion on our coastlines, an unbelievably cheap way to protect and conserve. There is an app, Good Fish Guide which I have downloaded which advises on fish to eat, which are sustainable etc – Marine Conservation Society.
Finally Professor Clara Mancini , the founding head of the Animal Computer Interactive {ACI) laboratory at the Open University, carrying out research into the interaction between animal and technology. I felt quite guilty that at Stuart Lodge in HW we had installed a nasty row of spikes outside the building to deter the pigeons from dropping their necessaries over the building. Clara pointed out that animals had their rights too.
Diary date for next year Tuesday 11th March 2024
Pat Poole
Vice Chair Science & Society
