Imperial researchers join members of the local community to discuss science being explored at the Great Exhibition Road Festival (7-8 June).
Great Exchanges, a partnership between Imperial College London and Portobello Radio, recently returned with three new episodes exploring the impact of dancing on our health; plastic pollution, and what we can do about it; and a growing fascination with world's beyond Earth.
The radio series, now in its third iteration, connects members of the local community with Imperial scientists taking part at the upcoming Great Exhibition Road Festival. Together, they delve into exciting areas of Imperial research and how they can relate to our everyday lives.
Dancing for good health
Episode one saw host Piers Thomson interview Alice Gregory from the Helix Centre (a research lab co-founded by Imperial and the Royal College of Art) who is leading a project investigating the use of dance as a tool for promoting wellbeing. Alice, who was a competitive ballroom dancer, was joined by Sarah Evans, a professional dancer who also teaches children from across the local community at Portobello Dance & Performance Arts School.
Alice highlighted the multi-pronged impact that dance can have on wellbeing: "[it] can address all three: the physical, social, and mental wellbeing pieces at the same time. While other types of health intervention might only be able to address one of those things at a time." Reflecting on her experience teaching dance to children, Sarah remarked how it can improve "all aspects of a child's life." That the confidence gained through dance class manifests in other areas, like standing up in class and presenting in front of their peers or attending their first job interview and feeling comfortable meeting and engaging with somebody new.
Within healthcare, Alice remarked that she'd like to see more investment in prevention as opposed to a historical focus on treatment, so that people don't become unwell in the first place—and dance, as well as the arts more generally, can be a great contribution towards that prevention.
At the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Alice and her colleagues at the Helix Centre will be sharing the wellbeing benefits of dance, explored in their recent research project with local school children, by partnering with Speaker Box Street Party to get festival visitors moving in flash mobs throughout the weekend!
Cleaning up plastic
Carolina De Toledo Fattori from UrbanWise, who heads up a community volunteer programme to clean and green the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union canal, featured in episode two. The programme has collected around 425 kilos of rubbish from the canal waters and towpath, of which the majority is plastic waste—much of which cannot be recycled due to the condition it's in by the time it's collected from the water.
She was joined by Molly Parry and Katharine Welch from Imperial's Department of Chemistry, who are both working on ways to reduce the harmful effects of plastic. Their discussion highlighted the double-edged sword of plastic production, "would it be fair to say that all the things that make plastic great," noted Piers, "are also the things that make them a problem?". The panel agreed, as while plastics aren't intrinsically bad—their durability and versatility has made them a hugely valuable resource in things like the medical industry—these same qualities also mean plastics don't degrade easily and are often mass produced to increase profit, without consideration of the impact they have on the environment.
Katharine's research focuses on improving the synthesis of a biodegradable plastic material called Polylactic acid, which can be derived from natural biomass like corn or wheat, to increase its commercial viability. Approaching the problem from a different perspective, Molly's work looks at designing additives for polyethylene that will enhance the photodegradability of these types of plastics.
Observing our solar system
In the final episode, Piers speaks with Philippa Mason from Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, and amateur astronomer Ben Thorp Barnes, who both share an endless enthusiasm for gazing upward and pondering the skies and planets above.
Ben, who studied astrophysics at Queen Mary University, traces his interest in space back to family visits to the coast as a child, "where we spent pretty much every night looking up at the stars, looking at those dots shining down at you and thinking… surely there has to be something else out there? [it's been] a lifelong passion of looking up in wonder."
Philippa on the other hand started her career much closer to home, studying Earth Science and working as a geologist. During this, she discovered satellite imaging and remote sensing of the earth—which she now applies to other planets to understand them better.
Their discussion turns to Venus, a common target for city based amateur astronomers like Ben where its prominence in the dawn and dusk skies explains its dual nicknames of the Morning Star and the Evening Star. This planet is the primary focus of Philippa's interests, and she is currently on the science team of Envision, Europe's next mission to Venus. A question arises as to whether this planet has suffered the kind of climate change that we are starting to experience on Earth, causing the atmosphere we observe on Venus today.
"That is just one of the big questions we have about Venus", remarked Philippa. "Evidence suggests that Venus experienced a 'runway' greenhouse effect as it heated up. Current debate also focuses on whether it ever had a wet past." And whilst the new missions may not be able the answer this question, if liquid water was once present, there is the possibility that Venus was once habitable.
At the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Philippa wants to spark curiosity about these kinds of questions, through an "arts and science fusion event" titled Rocky Worlds: Beauty in Planetary Science, and hopefully introduce the idea of careers in space science and space engineering to future generations.
Countdown to the festival
There's less a month to go before the streets of South Kensington are teeming with hundreds of free events celebrating science and the arts. The Imperial scientists featured on Great Exchanges, as well as many more members of our Imperial community, are hard at work preparing for the weekend.
Portobello Radio will also be hosting the Main Stage of the Great Exhibition Road Festival, with Piers acting as Master of Ceremonies, as well as presenting performances from 'Kids on the Green' on Sunday afternoon (an arts centre created in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, providing young people opportunities to learn and develop creatively in a wide array of fields).
Whether you're coming with a family or as a group of adults there's plenty for everyone to enjoy—with tickets available now for certain events (although most festival activities are drop-in and run all day).
Remember to register to stay up to date with the latest Festival updates and be sent advance notice when more free tickets for popular events are released!
