Physics Department News

Ally Caldecote gets audiences at the Royal Institution enthused about Christmas and the science behind snow and ice.

On Saturday 20th December, Ally Caldecote (Outreach Officer) delivered a lecture at the Royal Institution called ‘There’s no Business like Snow Business’ as part of their year-round lecture series. Ally was invited by the Royal Institution to host a lecture in December just before Christmas on the theme of snow.

Ally’s talk was aimed at families and she was joined by a sold out lecture theatre of 400 people on the day with 50 of these on the Tickets for Good Scheme, which are free tickets for people who wouldn’t otherwise attend. The lecture theatre was full of curiosity and laughter as Ally took the audience on a journey of exploring the frozen world of snow and ice, with a special appearance of the festive fluffy stuff!

The Royal Institution is known as the birthplace of the Christmas Lectures, founded by Michael Faraday and inspired Ally to begin the Warwick Christmas Lectures - our local version. The RI continues to host the annual BBC Christmas Lectures and is iconic for science outreach and making science accessible to all.

Hosting a lecture at the Royal Institution is a great honour, Ally says “This was a marvellous opportunity to share the joy of science with children and families in such an historic setting. It was a privilege to be invited and my favourite part was the many, many people who stayed behind to ask questions at the end."

Ally was joined by many curious guests from the lecture, wanting to find out more about the research of the department. On the busiest shopping day of the year, it was so encouraging to see how many people chose to spend their afternoon learning more about science.