Partnering with the arts at the Oxford Literary Festival

23 February 2012

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Uncertain futures is the theme of the Science and the Future discussions to be hosted by the Oxford Martin School at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on March 24. The School’s Director, Professor Ian Goldin, will introduce three panel discussions that explore questions about how we deal with uncertainty in science.

Bringing together well-known figures from the world of art and literature with eminent scientists and academics, the panels aim to provide a forum for new perspectives on crucial future challenges. How do we begin to investigate the unknown? How can we make better predictions? How do we measure and deal with risk? Tackling such questions from the hard science and from perhaps more creative angles, what can we learn from each other? The discussions will be chaired by local science writer, Georgina Ferry.

This event kicks off the Literary Festival’s 9 days of presentations, discussions and events featuring well known authors and speakers, including Vikram Seth, Anne Tyler, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Sir David Hare, Sir Alan Parker, Peter Carey, Michael Morpurgo and Craig Brown.

Taking part in the Science and the Future event will be Professor Tim Palmer, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Modelling and Predicting Climate and Dr Anders Sandberg, James Martin Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology.

In a fusion of stand-up comedy and science, James Martin Fellow from the Programme on Computational Cosmology, Dr Andrew Pontzen will be among a group of “science comedians” taking a look at the known and unknown universe in Unknown Unknowns