Head­ing the bill for the blue­dot 2022 sci­ence pro­gramme are astro­naut Tim Peake, physi­cist Jim-Khalili, Mon­i­ca Grady, Sheena Cuick­shank and Pro­fes­sor Chris Lintott. 

After beat­ing 8000 appli­cants to be select­ed as a Euro­pean Space Agency astro­naut, Tim Peake spent sev­er­al years in inten­sive train­ing final­ly join­ing the crew of the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion in 2015 for two con­sec­u­tive mis­sions totalling over six months. Peake’s appear­ance at blue­dot will include an explo­ration of his time aboard the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion, and the role of the Euro­pean Space Agency in the future of space travel.

Chris Lin­tott of BBC’s The Sky At Night will return to blue­dot for 2022. Chris will take to Mis­sion Con­trol on Sat­ur­day to dis­cuss ‘How to be sur­prised by the uni­verse’ and why we should keep our eyes peeled for the unusual.

Aca­d­e­m­ic physi­cist, author and broad­cast­er Jim Al-Khalili will appear on Sun­day. Host of Radio 4’s The Life Sci­en­tif­ic and pres­i­dent elect of the British Sci­ence Asso­ci­a­tion, the pro­fes­sor will dis­cuss how think­ing sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly can help us nav­i­gate today’s world.  

Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Research Fel­low work­ing in the Depart­ment of Mate­ri­als at Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Lon­don, Dr Jess Wade also joins the bill on Sat­ur­day. Fierce­ly com­mit­ted to improv­ing diver­si­ty in sci­ence, out­side of the lab Jess is heav­i­ly involved with sev­er­al sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion and out­reach ini­tia­tives. Dr Wade will appear along­side illus­tra­tor Melis­sa Cas­tril­lón to dis­cuss ‘The very (very) small mate­ri­als that will save the world’. Expect great sci­ence facts, draw­ing tips and thoughts on how reward­ing it can be to work in science.

Also fea­tur­ing on the bill is green ener­gy indus­tri­al­ist and founder of green ener­gy com­pa­ny Ecotric­i­ty, Dale Vince. Own­er of the first ever veg­an foot­ball club and a pio­neer for envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, the pas­sion­ate entre­pre­neur has also been appoint­ed a UN ambas­sador for cli­mate issues. 

Return­ing speak­ers to the fes­ti­val include Open Uni­ver­si­ty’s Mon­i­ca Grady, Plan­e­tary sci­en­tist Sarah Crowther and Pro­fes­sor of Evo­lu­tion­ary & Devel­op­men­tal Psy­chol­o­gy, Gillian For­rester.

Oth­er sci­ence speak­ers announced today include astro­physi­cist John Ilee, Martha Hilton, astronomer Leah Mora­bito, Kat Coyte, space sci­en­tist Jim Wild, Shari Breen, Pro­fes­sor of Immunol­o­gy Daniel M. Davis, Sheena Cruick­shank, Christo­pher Jack­son, and Richard Betts.

Fam­i­lies can enjoy a host of sci­ence shows, hands-on activ­i­ties, pop-up exhi­bi­tions, and inter­ac­tive work­shops. High­lights include Man­ches­ter Girl Geeks, The Wood­land Trust, British Antarc­tic Sur­vey, and a host of research teams from The Uni­ver­si­ty of Manchester.

Cel­e­brat­ing the icon­ic set­ting of the fes­ti­val, vis­i­tors will also be able to get up close to the mighty Lovell Tele­scope, take in late-night Stargaz­ing ses­sions and explore the Jodrell Bank site includ­ing the ever-pop­u­lar Whis­per­ing Dish­es and the Arbore­tum

Tere­sa Ander­son, Direc­tor at Jodrell Bank Cen­tre for Engage­ment and sci­ence cura­tor for blue­dot has said: “We’re thrilled to announce such a full sci­ence line-up for this summer’s blue­dot. We’re real­ly look­ing for­ward to wel­com­ing so many new and return­ing speak­ers, sci­en­tists, research teams, exhibitors and sci­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tors to Jodrell Bank.”

blue­dot has also announced addi­tions to Out­er Space, a unique area filled with breath­tak­ing art­work in a wood­ed cor­nu­copia of fire, light and ambi­ent sound.

GAIA – the huge Earth instal­la­tion by artist Luke Jer­ram – is wel­comed back to blue­dot. Mea­sur­ing sev­en metres in diam­e­ter, Gaia fea­tures high­ly detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s sur­face and will pro­vide a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to see our amaz­ing plan­et on this scale, float­ing in three dimensions.

Com­ple­ment­ing GAIA, bluedot’s arts and cul­ture pro­gramme will also be enriched with an appear­ance from SUN. A col­lab­o­ra­tion between artist Alex Rinsler and lead­ing solar physi­cist Pro­fes­sor Robert Walsh, the 7m float­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion of our clos­est star is cer­tain to wow the crowds against the back­drop of the awe-inspir­ing Lovell Tele­scope.

Award-win­ning out­door arts organ­i­sa­tion Walk the Plank will bring its huge­ly pop­u­lar Immer­sive Fire Gar­den to the fes­ti­val, pro­vid­ing vis­i­tors with a mag­i­cal oppor­tu­ni­ty to wan­der around a series of enchant­i­ng fiery instal­la­tions in this unique experience.

Also appear­ing as part of the arts pro­gramme is The Nec­tary, a light and sound instal­la­tion which will high­light the impor­tance of pol­li­nat­ing insects. 

blue­dot 2022 is the fifth chap­ter of the unique fes­ti­val, named Best Medi­um Fes­ti­val at the UK Fes­ti­val Awards.
For tick­ets and info Dis­cov­er the Bluedot

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