Books from speakers involved in events at the British Science Festival

Event: Who’s influencing your health? 15:00-16:00 on Saturday 19 September, Mayflower Studios- Studio 1 (BSL)

The speakers in this panel will explore how social media helps and harms our health, how we can distinguish between fact and fad and what can be done to stop influencers from hijacking our health.

• Ctrl Hate Delete: The New Anti-Feminist Backlash and How We Fight It- Cécile Simmons

CTRL HATE DELETE takes a deep dive into how a collection of misogynists and their allies have turned male supremacist ideology from a niche set of beliefs into a mainstream movement.

• HONEST: Everything They Don’t Tell You About Sex, Relationships and Bodies- Milly Evans

HONEST is a fresh and much-needed inclusive guide to sex, relationships and bodies, by a young person, for young people.

Event: Music for Climate Action 12:30-13:30 on Saturday 19 September, Mayflower Studios- Studio 1  (BSL)

From grassroots movements to major festivals, live music is engaging new audiences with the climate crisis.

Join climate justice activists Dominique Palmer and Tori Tsui and music industry leaders to explore the power of live music to drive climate action.

• It’s Not Just You | Book by Tori Tsui

The term ‘eco-anxiety’ has been popularised as a way to talk about the negative impact of the climate emergency on our wellbeing. In It’s Not Just You, activist Tori Tsui reframes eco-anxiety as the urgent mental health crisis it clearly is.

• Planet Protectors- Dominique Palmer

Join leading climate activist Dominique Palmer as she shares the stories of young people around the world taking action for our planet — proving that anyone, anywhere, can be a planet protector.

Event: Future AI: Reflect and Debate, 15.00-16.00, Saturday 19 September, Sir James Matthews Building

• AI Explained by Dame Wendy Hall and Pete Rai

AI Explained: A Guide for Non-Technical Readers builds understanding of artificial intelligence from first principles rather than diving in at the top. Written by incoming British Science Association President, Dame Wendy Hall, and Pete Rai, experienced policy and technical experts, the book walks through rules and logic-based approaches, statistical methods, neural networks, machine learning, and generative models in accessible, structured terms.

Further recommendations from the British Science Festival team on some of their favourite science-themed books:

Stu Payton, our Festival Engagement Officer recommends
Everything is Tuberculosis – John Green

An eye-opening history about humanities oldest and deadliest disease. Part heart-breaking call to action, part personal journey, part dive into the science of illness and medicine. I can’t stop thinking about this book since I put it down.

and

Wilderlands, the Human History of Wild Britain – Elosie Kane

A thought-provoking snapshot of what ‘wild’ means throughout history. How have people changed the animals and plants that make up our landscape and how have they in turn changed what we consider ‘wild’. It really made me look at the UK in a different light.

Katie Fish, our Festival Operations Officer, recommends:

An Immense World by Ed Yong (2022)
I experience the world through five senses, but this book showed me how many different ways animals perceive it using their own senses, and it completely blew my mind.

The Dance Cure by Peter Lovatt (2020) 

A book that genuinely made me want to dance! Part memoir, part science, it’s a fascinating insight into the surprisingly powerful ways dancing can benefit our health and wellbeing.

James Brown, our Festival Director, recommends:

Orbital by Samantha Harvey
A beautiful, poetic and very human book about how scientific exploration and investigation is not separate from our everyday lives, hopes, fears, and dreams. Understanding our universe is awe-inspiring and endlessly inspiring.

The secrets of our DNA by Prof Turi King

From the award-winning scientist who identified the bones of Richard III in a Leicester car park and led the project to sequence Hitler’s genome, this is a book of extraordinary stories – mysteries that were solved using the power of DNA.

Professor Turi King takes us on a journey to understand the real science behind some of the world’s most famous crimes, from dead kings to modern murders, showing how DNA can both convict and exonerate.

Bella Spencer, Festival Engagement Manager, recommends:  

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This book explores what animals and plants can tell us about our world. Through her beautiful writing she shares stories from her experience as a scientist, a mum and a indigenous person that helped me to understand how when we heal nature, nature heals us.