Would you want a quarry near your house? Driven by EU law, environmental impact assessment is now a requirement for developers planning mineral extraction, waste disposal sites and major housing schemes. Initially, the emphasis lay on the prevention of environmental damage, but very rapidly this shifted into the language of ‘sustainability’, and what might be […]
Water is all around us – most of the planet’s surface is covered with it and it is the main ingredient in you. In this exciting demonstration lecture, Peter Wothers, star of the 2012 CHRISTMAS LECTURES, will show you some of the surprising properties and reactions of this substance you thought you knew so well. […]
Groundwater is an important source of drinking water in London and elsewhere, but the legacy of the UK’s industrial revolution includes contamination at an extreme and increasingly widely-realised scale. Drawing on research in the English Midlands, the lecture will explore how mining, metal-based manufacturing, and the oil industry have produced an environmental conundrum that is […]
The bodies of murder victims, either whole or in pieces, often finish up in rivers and canals. For the last fifteen years or so, Carolyn Roberts has worked as an Expert Witness with various UK police forces to apply the principles of environmental science in murder investigations. In these most tragic and gruesome settings, environmental science can help […]
Emma Brown looks at how new genetic research on the mysterious and fragile world of the American eel might help conservation projects
Sarah Gaunt on how we know whether it’s safe to go for a swim
Water is the most every day of substances, but on closer examination it also one of the strangest. To celebrate the launch of his latest book, Alok Jha will tell the story of this fascinating molecule which takes us back to the beginning of the Universe.