Lancaster University: Lancaster space scientist to appear at Blue Dot Festival

Lancaster University Professor Jim Wild is to give a talk at the Blue Dot Festival which takes place from July 21-24 at the iconic Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire.

The festival is billed as “four unique days of music, science and cosmic culture” with headline acts this year including Bjork, Groove Armada, UK astronaut Tim Peak plus physicist and BBC presenter Jim Al-Khalili.

Professor of Space Physics Jim Wild is a scientist studying the space environment and the links between the Sun, the Earth and other planets.

As a passionate science communicator, he has established himself as a popular speaker for public audiences and he also contributes to print and broadcast media.

He will be appearing on the Sunday afternoon on the Star Pavilion stage with a talk titled “Disaster! Space weather on the big screen” in which he will talk about the portrayal of solar storms and space weather in films.

“I’m really excited to be appearing at Blue Dot. It’s a brilliant festival and a great opportunity to explore science with family audiences. I’ll be discussing how nuggets of space science are used by movie-makers to build fantastic stories, as well as having some fun looking at where reality is stretched, sometimes quite comically.”

Professor Wild’s research investigates the physics behind the aurora borealis (northern lights), the impact of space weather on human technology and the interaction between the Martian atmosphere and the interplanetary environment. As well as exploiting an international flotilla of satellites, his research has regularly taken him to the high arctic to carry out experiments.