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Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2016 - BBC Four


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Old 30-12-2016, 11:29
drillbit
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All UK schools are eligible.
really well come you don't get any from working-class areas?? too disruptive during recording?
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Old 30-12-2016, 11:35
Bob_Whinger
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Thought they were boring and unchallenged this year. Children can handle the latest theories and if they do not fully understand they will appreciate being given the latest information.
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Old 30-12-2016, 11:35
njp
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really well come you don't get any from working-class areas?? too disruptive during recording?
Here's a radical thought for you. Perhaps "disruptive" kids don't feel the need to travel to the Royal Institution in order to be disruptive. Perhaps they have other outlets.
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Old 30-12-2016, 11:38
iamian
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Here's a radical thought for you. Perhaps "disruptive" kids don't feel the need to travel to the Royal Institution in order to be disruptive. Perhaps they have other outlets.
Though all schools may be eligible one presumes that the school selects which pupils get the tickets.
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Old 30-12-2016, 11:51
lundavra
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it always seems to be posh kids that get invited, why not some rough inner city kids???
How many rough inner city kids applied for tickets?

By the way, the World Record Lemon Battery. They showed a meter with a thousand on it and "don't worry about the units", what were they measuring? Was that the output in MilliVolts? I presume the lemons were all in series. Was the record for largest number of lemons, highest voltage, highest current ........
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Old 30-12-2016, 11:54
njp
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Though all schools may be eligible one presumes that the school selects which pupils get the tickets.
Presumably. And presumably no pupil is forced to go, so everyone who is there wants to be there. And RI members are also eligible for the ballot, further skewing the demographic towards kids who are interested in science.
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Old 30-12-2016, 12:12
iamian
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Presumably. And presumably no pupil is forced to go, so everyone who is there wants to be there. And RI members are also eligible for the ballot, further skewing the demographic towards kids who are interested in science.
I see nothing wrong in inviting those children interested in science. The problem we have in this country is we are failing to educate and train enough scientists. Many of those pursuing science to degree level go into finance/accounting and the like and further the sciences are seen as 'nerdy'. Look at how many in the media and arts are proud to admit that they were 'never any good at maths and science' and wear it like a badge of honour. I have met very few scientists who are proud at their lack of knowledge of art, literature or music, indeed many scientists have a love of those things too.
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Old 30-12-2016, 13:55
Rooks
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really well come you don't get any from working-class areas?? too disruptive during recording?
Why are you assuming that all those kids were from posh schools? Because they weren't disruptive? You'll probably find that those kids were from a variety of backgrounds.

I went to one of these lectures about 20 years ago when I was at school and I'm from a working-class area. Only those of us who expressed an interest in going went. Students who attend are normally those with a strong interest in science and actually want to be there.
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Old 30-12-2016, 17:20
tim123
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Though all schools may be eligible one presumes that the school selects which pupils get the tickets.
when we went to an RI lecture the whole class went

It wasn't a Christmas one though, no idea how the selection for that works

tim
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Old 30-12-2016, 17:29
Galaxy266
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At my school they did receive a small number of RI tickets for lectures but they were never for the Christmas ones.

There were never enough for everyone who wanted to go to be able to go, either. I think it was decided by names out of the hat, or a similar method.
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Old 30-12-2016, 17:32
iamian
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At my school they did receive a small number of RI tickets for lectures but they were never for the Christmas ones.

There were never enough for everyone who wanted to go to be able to go, either. I think it was decided by names out of the hat, or a similar method.
Both my father and wife were teachers. There is nothing random about how children are selected!
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Old 30-12-2016, 18:15
jonbwfc
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Many of those pursuing science to degree level go into finance/accounting and the like and further the sciences are seen as 'nerdy'.
To be fair, it's not as if accountancy or finance is any less 'nerdy' than science, it just pays any awful lot better. You'd be amazed how much more 'cool' a profession becomes when you stick an extra digit on the pay packet.

Look at how many in the media and arts are proud to admit that they were 'never any good at maths and science' and wear it like a badge of honour. I have met very few scientists who are proud at their lack of knowledge of art, literature or music, indeed many scientists have a love of those things too.
Quite. The main difference I find is actually curiosity. I've met artists, musicians etc. who are entranced by science and maths and even incorporate it into their works. I've met scientists who love going to the theatre or an art gallery. The people who impress me less are mainly those who have no interest in anything outside their own 'bubble' of expertise. They actually tend to be quite... boring, whether a sculptor or a chemist..
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Old 30-12-2016, 19:19
lundavra
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I see nothing wrong in inviting those children interested in science. The problem we have in this country is we are failing to educate and train enough scientists. Many of those pursuing science to degree level go into finance/accounting and the like and further the sciences are seen as 'nerdy'. Look at how many in the media and arts are proud to admit that they were 'never any good at maths and science' and wear it like a badge of honour. I have met very few scientists who are proud at their lack of knowledge of art, literature or music, indeed many scientists have a love of those things too.
As an engineer I am proud that I do not waste my time reading novels (and I class any fiction as a 'novel').
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Old 30-12-2016, 19:28
njp
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As an engineer I am proud that I do not waste my time reading novels (and I class any fiction as a 'novel').
Bizarre.
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Old 30-12-2016, 19:38
Paul_Culloty
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As an engineer I am proud that I do not waste my time reading novels (and I class any fiction as a 'novel').
So Dickens, the Brontes, Orwell, Hugo, and Ian McEwan (for the sake of a shortlist) are all "a waste of time?
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:08
mark_beach
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As an engineer I am proud that I do not waste my time reading novels (and I class any fiction as a 'novel').
As a engineer for some 35 years now I can identify with that, I can read any technical manual front to back but a novel holds no interest for me whatsoever & to date I have never read one.
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:16
petely
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I have met very few scientists who are proud at their lack of knowledge of art, literature or music, indeed many scientists have a love of those things too.
The thing about the arts is that they are really only hobbies. Anyone can pick up a book and use their spare time reading it - then quote passages from it to anyone who will listen. Or sit and ponder the inequities of working-class life in Dicken's era - but to what end?

Same with paintings. I took a science degree and didn't even bother going to art classes at school. Is my life lacking because of that? Absolutely not. I can spot the odd Caravaggio or Monet when it appears on University Challenge just as easily as the teams can. But is it worth 3 years of your life and £tens of thousands in debt? Not at all.

Vastly overrated.
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:37
Brian The Dog
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Very poor I thought.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell: You put hydrogen in and out comes electricity.
Not even the simplest explanation of how one works. Where was the science?
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:42
njp
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As a engineer for some 35 years now I can identify with that, I can read any technical manual front to back but a novel holds no interest for me whatsoever & to date I have never read one.
It's really not something to be proud of.
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:42
Brian The Dog
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Perhaps he would not be acceptable as he isn't an academic but James May would make an excellent presenter on the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. It is well worth remembering that the BBC's front man on NASA's space program and the moon landings, James Burke had no science qualifications.
Maybe that's a good idea. If the presenter doesn't understand what it is he/she is presenting, then they ask questions until they feel able to explain it to the viewing public.
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Old 30-12-2016, 22:47
lundavra
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So Dickens, the Brontes, Orwell, Hugo, and Ian McEwan (for the sake of a shortlist) are all "a waste of time?
Good luck to people if they want to read those (apart from the last) but I always think it ridiculous when people claim to learn more about conditions in Victorian Britain from reading Dickens then they would from reading a proper factual account of which there are many.
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Old 30-12-2016, 23:09
Brian The Dog
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How many rough inner city kids applied for tickets?

By the way, the World Record Lemon Battery. They showed a meter with a thousand on it and "don't worry about the units", what were they measuring? Was that the output in MilliVolts? I presume the lemons were all in series. Was the record for largest number of lemons, highest voltage, highest current ........
That's a very good point. As someone from an electronics background of course I know the difference between parallel and series and volts, amps, watts and ohms, but not a single thing was explained. It was like "Oh that isn't important. We don't need to explain how the lemons were wired up just that it was a 1000!!! whatever that was a 1000 of don't matter either."

How was this science in any way when science of any form is the meticulous study and recording of details. "It was 1000 somethings or other" doesn't cut it at all.
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Old 30-12-2016, 23:16
gomezz
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It was another demo where they were not specific about the unit of measurement, not the lemon battery record breaking one.
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Old 30-12-2016, 23:31
Brian The Dog
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It was another demo where they were not specific about the unit of measurement, not the lemon battery record breaking one.
Maybe it was AA batteries as that is the only dumbed down measurement we morons can cope with, apparently!
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Old 30-12-2016, 23:35
gomezz
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That said, I am confused why a AAA battery holds less energy than a AA battery. You would expect it to hold 50% more?
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