THE Free Radicals

June 20, 2019

Guest speaker for this show was Mark Robbins on the subject of the dark side of everyday gadgets.

Inspired by the talk, the Free Radicals improvised a world where agreeing to Alexa's Terms and Conditions leads to you losing everything you own. Our heroine embarks on a journey to shutdown the Internet and overthrow Alexa. With the help of cyber-sidekicks Clippy (the Microsoft Paperclip) and Jeeves (the pre-Google search engine) she battles goats, anonymous hackers and mafia thumb-peddlers to achieve her goal.

​

Mark Robbins, IT Expert

May 16, 2019

Guest speaker for this show was Martin Millmore on the subject of bias in Artificial Intelligence.

Inspired by the talk, the Free Radicals improvised a story of a family and their strange social experiment. Scientist parents send their two daughters out into the world - Abbie to Slough and Allie to the jungle - with little more than their wits to help them.

Abbie forges a career at the biggest Tesco in Europe being paid only in Skips. Allie gets terrible food poisoning and must visit the witch doctor.

Martin Millmore, AI Expert

April 19, 2019

Enrico Petrucco spoke on the subject of battery materials.

Based on themes in the talk, the Free Radicals were inspired to create a series of improvised comedy sketches.

They went on set with the Great British Battery Bake, discovered why the local cobalt mines went bankrupt, and met the calendar pinup who appears on every calendar for 30 years straight.

Enrico Petrucco, Battery Materials Scientist

March 15, 2019

Guest speaker for S03E05 was research scientist James Leech.

James' talk was entitled "Artificial Intelligence: Power drill for the mind" where he described his first foray into the brave new world of AI and machine learning. ​

The troupe had fun with the talk and led the audience into learning AI from Latvian video tutorials, a field guide to duck spotting, and coping when a robot takes your job after 60 years.

James Leech, Research Scientist

January 18, 2019

Medical writer Rebecca Diez gave a presentation on spatial memory.

​

When you close your eyes and imagine your home, you should be able to imagine the layout of the rooms and furniture, and where these things are in relation to each other.

The Free Radicals explored the phenomenon of memory. They built a mind palace containing two conservatories and a broom cupboard; went down memory lane with a serial killer; and met Robert Barratt Browning - the founder of the Barratt Memory Palace Co.

Rebecca Diez, Medical Writer

November 16, 2018

Dr. Sophie Kain - formerly a Quantum Physicist, candidate on BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ and stand-up Comedian - is now a People’s Science presenter.

​

The title of Sophie's talk was "Nanotechnology - is it a curse?".

The players created from this a world where nanotechnologists learn to build a nanotech house of cards using Meccanano sets. Where the inventor of nanosex technology goes onto Dragon's Den for investment. And we visit a restaurant where the food changes flavour as you eat it!

Sophie Kain, People's Science Presenter

October 18, 2018

Guest speaker for our show on October 19th was Rose Turner, doctoral researcher in psychology. Rose  uses experimental methods to examine the effects of engaging with fictional worlds on real world social cognition and behaviour.​​

​

The Free Radicals players created a one act improvised comedy play inspired by Rose's talk. The play showed us the secret world of illegal fiction. We saw what happens when the illegal book dealers cut Oscar Wilde with Lewis Carroll. And we discovered what Pip from Great Expectations really gets up to in his bedroom.

Rose Turner - doctoral researcher in psychology

September 20, 2018

Guest speaker for our September 21 show was principal software engineer, Christopher Hoult, talking about the 'graph' data structure.

The players were inspired to create a world where trolls live under every bridge and travellers get stuck in limbo if they don't have the correct change. And we see what happens when trolls get too old and need to go into a home.

Christopher Hoult - Principal Software Engineer