8:00pm-9:00pm on Monday 25 March
Times shown are in GMT (UTC +0) up to the 26th March. For events on or after 27th March times are in BST (UTC +1).
Cambridge Union Society, 9A Bridge Street, CB2 1UB
What is the relationship between science and science fiction when it comes to our knowledge of the life, the universe and outer space? Astronomer Royal Professor Martin Rees is in conversation with Una McCormack, best-selling author of sci-fi novels, including novels set in franchises such as Dr Who and Star Trek, and former Anglia Ruskin lecturer.
Public Astronomer Matt Bothwell from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy will chair.
*This event will be live streamed via the Cambridge Festival YouTube channel. Booking is only required if you plan to attend in-person. You can set a reminder here for when we go live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKT5lOFJjzA*
Lord Martin Rees is an astrophysicist and cosmologist, and the UK's Astronomer Royal. He is based at the University of Cambridge where he has been Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Institute of Astronomy and is co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. Martin is a Fellow, and was the former Master, of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was President of the Royal Society from 2005 to 2010. His main astronomical research interests have been galaxy formation, cosmic jets, black holes, gamma ray bursts, along with more speculative aspects of cosmology – in particular, whether we live in a multiverse – and the prospects of detecting extraterrestrial life. His awards include the Templeton Prize and the Dirac Prize. His ten books include 'Just Six Numbers', 'Our Cosmic Habitat', ‘Gravity’s Fatal Attraction’, and the recently-published 'If science is to save us' and 'The end of astronauts' . His forthcoming book 'The shape of wonder: how scientists think, work and live’, co-authored with Alan Lightman, will appear later this year.
Dr Una McCormack is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling science fiction writer who has written more than twenty novels based on TV shows such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Firefly. Her academic interests include women’s science fiction, transformative works (‘fanfiction’), and JRR Tolkien. She has co-edited (with Regina Yung Lee) a collection of essays on Lois McMaster Bujold, and is on the editorial board of Gold SF, an imprint of Goldsmith’s Press which publishes intersectional feminist science fiction. A former lecturer in creative writing, she continues to mentor writers, particularly those embarking on their first novel. Find her online: https://linktr.ee/unamccormack
