By Elaine Gao, Department of Earth Science & Engineering
Over 3 evenings from 19 – 21 May, a team of 5 PhD and MSc students organized a Planet Earth themed science-outreach event under the global Pint of Science 2025 festival. Pint of Science is a non-profit organization that aims to connect the general public with the scientific community. The festival aims to provide a unique platform for science communication that is informal, broadly accessible, and fun for scientists and non-scientists alike.
This year’s event was held at the White Hart Brew Pub in central London. We had a great variety of speakers from early career scientists to established scientific leaders and industry experts. A summary of each night’s talks can be found on the Pint of Science website. Dr Nathan Johnson talked about the feasibility of climate change mitigation strategies, with an emphasis on what individuals can do; Dr Tim Blackburn shared on the incredible diversity of Moths in London and their pivotal role as nighttime pollinators; Professor Tina van de Flierdt brought us to Antarctica, sharing on the realities and rewards of fieldwork on ice; Arunne Sarasetsiri explored how filmmaking and climate storytelling can influence collective climate action; John Morley talked us through battery technology and the potential of mining waste as a resource; and finally, Dr David Jones talked about the wonderful ecology of earthworms and their importance to the health of the ecosystem.
Over 100 people attended the event, and on most evenings our venue was fully packed, with not a spare seat left in the room. It was heartening to see how engaged the audience was throughout the event – the allocated 10min for Q&A turned out to be woefully short, and many of the attendees had stayed back after the event to chat with the speakers. Given the Planet Earth theme, many topics naturally segued into climate change. Speakers shared about the importance of individual action in mitigating all scales of climate change, from aiding the global effort to achieve net-zero emissions, to increasing the diversity of moths and earthworms in our back gardens. Each evening ended with a short general knowledge trivia quiz, and though we did not top the global Pint of Science rankings, our audience enjoyed the opportunity for friendly competition (and the prizes) tremendously.
It was a highly successful event and a fantastic iteration of the Pint of Science festival. We hope the audience left the venue with just a bit more understanding about our natural environment, and a continuing curiosity to attend next year’s festival!
