THE Northern Lights, solar flares and the Big Bang are just some of the specialist talk topics which will be on offer at this year’s bluedot festival – a weekend of music and cosmic culture at Cheshire’s Jodrell Bank.
The festival, taking place between July 20 and 23, has revealed its first wave of science, joining already-announced musical headline appearances from Grace Jones, Roisin Murphy, Pavement, Leftfield and Max Richter.
There will be headline talks from BBC Sky At Night’s Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock, representatives from the UK Space Agency, NASA collaborators Hassell Studio, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, Jodrell Bank, Open University’s Monica Grady, and many more.
For more than 75 years, Jodrell Bank has been at the heart of ground-breaking discoveries and world-leading research.
Professor of astrophysics and associate director of Jodrell Bank, Tim O’Brien, will present the latest discoveries from the team’s work at this year’s festival, accompanied by Jodrell Bank’s team of researchers and students.
Alongside Tim, bluedot favourites Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Lintott of BBC’s The Sky At Night will return to the festival, with Lintott performing alongside Hackney Colliery Band’s Steve Pretty as part of Lintott and Pretty’s Universe (Of Music), a special audio-visual evening show exploring the intersections between space and music.
Professor of planetary and space sciences and space expert at the Open University, Monica Grady, will present her Faraday Prize winning lecture, Astronomy By Microscope.
Jodrell Bank also welcomes 'Our Fragile Space' to bluedot, a photography exhibition and accompanying panel discussion about the reality of space debris, led by renowned science communicator and space photographer Max Alexander.
Jim Wild, professor of space physics at Lancaster University, will explore our planet’s intimate relationship with the sun and reveal the science behind the wonder in a captivating discussion entitled, The Northern Lights: A Rough Guide.
Other speakers announced include solar physics expert Philippa Browning, Federico Di Vruno and Aris Karastergiou from the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, and international architectural studio Hassell Studio — who have worked with NASA on designing human habitation on Mars and in 2021 received funding from the European Space Agency to develop similar concepts for lunar habitation.
Teresa Anderson, director at Jodrell Bank Centre for engagement and science curator for bluedot has said: “We’re thrilled to announce such a wide ranging bill of space speakers for this first wave of science at bluedot 2023, curated by the team here at Jodrell Bank.
“We’re really looking forward to welcoming so many ground-breaking speakers, scientists, research teams, exhibitors and science communicators to bluedot.”
bluedot was recently named Line-Up Of The Year at the UK Festival Awards, and Festival of the Year at the Live Awards, and has hosted headline performances from the likes of Bjork, Kraftwerk 3-D, New Order, The Chemical Brothers, Mogwai, Pixies, The Flaming Lips, Underworld and Jean-Michel Jarre, plus high-profile talks from Tim Peake, Brian Cox, Helen Sharman, Alice Roberts and Richard Dawkins and an array of ground-breaking arts and family experiences.
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