It’s a Gas

On the evening of Wednesday 20 November 2024, we will welcome well-known material scientist and broadcaster Professor Mark Miodownik from University College London to talk to us about his new book ‘It’s a Gas’.

Subtitled ‘The Magnificent and Elusive Elements that Expand Our World’ Mark’s new book masterfully reveals an invisible world through his unique brand of scientific storytelling.

Why are most gases invisible, odourless and tasteless? Why do some poison us and others make us laugh? And why do some explode while others are content just to make drinks fizzy? Taking us back to that exhilarating – and often dangerous – moment when scientists tried to work out exactly what they had discovered, this talk shows that gases are the formative substances of our modern world, each with its own weird and wonderful personality. We will see how seventeenth-century laughing gas parties led to the first use of anaesthetics in surgery, how the invention of the air valve in musical instruments gave us bicycles, cars and trainers, and how gases made us masters of the sea (by huge steamships) and skies (via extremely flammable balloons). This talk reveals the immense importance of gases to modern civilisation.

A Financial Times Master of Science and chosen by The Times as one of the 100 most influential scientists in the UK, Mark is Professor of Materials and Society at University College London, where he is also Director of the Institute of Making. He is the author of the book Stuff Matters – a New York Times bestseller which won the Royal Society Winton Prize – and Liquid, which was shortlisted for the same prize. He presents BBC TV and radio programmes on science and engineering such as Everyday Miracles and How It Works.

The talk will start at 19h30, will be in the Brel Theatre at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren, and is free. A networking drinks reception will be held after the talk.

Registration

The event will be an in-person event at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren. Please register using this form: https://forms.gle/rxwUFPHXMZ88UCWq5.

Registration will close at noon on Tuesday 19 November 2024.