A Pint of Science is a science festival that takes place every May and brings researchers to your local pub to present their scientific discoveries. You don't need any prior knowledge, and this is your chance to meet the people responsible for the future of science - and - have a pint with them.  So Cheers and here's to Science and Knowledge!

Tonights pint -  20th May

Pint of Science – Lost in Translation

People rely on language to communicate with each other and to explain complex ideas, thoughts and emotions.  This series of talks explores misunderstandings and how language can also be used against us. 

Talks of the night:

House of Wax: Mysteries words solve… and create. Dr. Lauren Ackerman (English Literature, Language & Linguistics, Newcastle University.)

"A person enters a wax museum and sees themselves. They're so startled that they fall over, knocking themselves down in the process." Can you imagine this situation? The way we use words to describe different situations paints a picture that can sometimes be rather confusing. However, there are clues in the structure of language to help us untangle the mystery. Some of these clues come from the way we order words, other clues come from our world-knowledge and the context of the sentence. Since everyone has different experiences, our understanding can vary dramatically.

How easily are consumers persuaded? Dr. Joan Harvey (Psychology, Newcastle University)

Persuasion of consumers is big business and is largely based on psychology. Joan will talk about the techniques advertisers use to do this - how people, especially children are persuaded, and how this feeds into our shopping habits. If you can remember an advert then you’ve learned it. Adverts use: product placement, colour, typeface, jingles, taglines etc - all these create strong links to encourage you to choose one product over another. Joan will also consider if we are now bombarded with too many advertising messages and whether this is making them less effective.

Doors open at 7pm. Event starts at 7:30pm.