Brand new for 2021: we introduced a series of Be Curious LATES events, exclusively for grown-ups!
Each night, we invited you to meet three of our researchers and get to grips with the world-leading and wondrous research that goes on inside a university.
Check out our highlights below and view all of our livestreamed LATES events in the Be Curious LATES YouTube playlist.
Be Curious LATES: inclusion and identity
Join us for an evening of exploration into impactful research, which focuses on sexuality, social inclusion, diversity and identity.
How would being LGBTQ+ have affected the career of someone like eminent broadcaster and natural historian, Sir David Attenborough? What do our words mean to us and others?
We’ll explore international work to promote inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ workers in research and beyond, learn how bilingual children experience the world, and spend some time celebrating our dialect diversity, considering where our words come from and how they shape our identity.
Speakers: Aydan Greatrick, Dr Drasko Kascelan, Dr Fiona Douglas.
Be Curious LATES: imagining sustainable futures
How can research help us to reduce waste, improve sustainable practices in industry and develop more environmentally conscious ways of living?
We’ll hear from three researchers from very different disciplines who share one common goal: to combat waste.
Explore the complexity of sustainability and fashion and the ways in which we can enjoy fashion, whilst minimising its impact for the environment and supply chain communities.
Visualise a future for ‘Active Buildings’, which can generate, store and release their own heat and electricity from solar energy, and how we might get there from the present, where buildings consume 40% of all energy produced.
And hear how researchers are taking inspiration from the first national lockdown of 2020, when household food waste in the UK fell by 34%, to reduce food waste, energy and harmful emissions.
Speakers: Dr Mark Sumner, Dr Mark Coleman (University of Swansea), Dr Gulbanu Kaptan.
Be Curious LATES: terahertz technology
You’ve heard of microwaves, X-rays and infra-red, but what about terahertz?
For over 100 years, scientists and engineers have harnessed different types of electromagnetic radiation to produce technologies with societal benefit, but terahertz has not been as well exploited so far. So, what can it do?
Learn about the exciting possibilities of terahertz and how in the future it could be useful in a wide range of fields – from medicine to arts and heritage.
We’ll delve a little deeper into some of its possible uses, from allowing us to see more of our galaxy and improve our understanding of the Earth’s climate, to helping us better study materials, save energy and create the materials and electronics of the future.
Speakers: Eleanor Nuttall, Lucy Hale (University College London), Nikita Almond (University of Cambridge).
Be Curious LATES: shaping clinical futures
How can research influence our health and wellbeing, change NHS practice and lead us to developing the treatments of the future?
Meet experts from the Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research Unit and find out how clinical trials (including trials for a COVID-19 vaccination) are designed and delivered. Find out how exercise influences our joint health and exactly what we can gain from being physically active. And explore how Artificial Intelligence is being used in healthcare to combat chronic illnesses and better diagnose and treat cancer.
Speakers: Dr Ai Lyn Tan, Kara-Louise Royle, Ellen Goodison.