Pint of Science

About this Challenge Team

Pint of Science is the largest science festival in the world, held in over 400 cities across 24 countries. It is a 3-day festival that aims to make science more accessible to the public by running informal talks by researchers in pubs, with affordable tickets (£4!). We believe that this is a great way to get people more engaged and informed about today’s important scientific issues, and to help people understand what scientists actually do!

Our Challenge Team organised three nights of science communication in a pub in Chiswick, booking six fantastic speakers to talk about their research in environmental sciences and geoscience. On our Thames-themed night we learned about how we’re encouraging antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our rivers by flushing medications down the drain, and how much plastic is ending up in river wildlife; on the second night we learned about the environmental and health benefits of introducing insects to our diet, plus how we drove the elephant bird to extinction in Madagascar; and finally we turned our attention to the stars with a sold-out space-themed night, and learned about Mars missions and the secrets held by meteorites, giving us context for our own origins in the universe.

We wrote pub quizzes to entertain the guests for the first and last nights. On the second night, we had a special collaboration with another Challenge Team, the Anteaters, who brought along free samples of insects for the guests to try.

We sold over 250 tickets over our three nights which made us the best-selling team at Imperial College, which in turn was the largest Pint of Science university in the world.

Team Members

Phil Jervis (cohort 5)
Jackson Clive (cohort 5)
Tom Merry (cohort 5)
Chetan Nathwani (cohort 5)
Thomas Matthews (cohort 5)
Nerine Joewondo (cohort 5)
Sinead Lyster (cohort 4)
Peter Zheng (cohort 4)
Danny Kenna (cohort 4)
Susie Gold (cohort 4)
Jack Anderson (cohort 4)
Henrike Schulte to Buhne (cohort 4)
Jennifer Shelton (cohort 4)
Habiba Daggash (cohort 3)
Ashley Reaney (cohort 3)

Pint of Science in Action