“Do we need a brain?” “Can you ever stop thinking?” “Why does depression come on so quickly?”
One sign of success with a public Q&A session is that the public mob the panel afterwards with the questions they couldn’t ask during the main event. Thank you to all the scientists who hung around for ages after the events last weekend.
Congratulations to Sarah Jarvis and Mark Horowitz our I’m a NeuroScientist – Live Weekender Heat winners.
The events at the Barbican last weekend were a real blast. The place was packed. People queueed to take part in science activities about the brain.
It was a great feeling on both days to come out of the green room to find a large audience of about 150 people already sat down waiting for our show to start. Saturday had a distinctly youthful feel to it. they were excitable, noisy and ready to wave their voting cards around.
Once Helen Arney, our MC, warmed up the crowd our five scientists, Esha Massand, Thomas Butts, Martin Coath, Irene Jacobsen and Sarah Jarvis marched on stage and introduced themselves. Clad in Red, White, Blue, Green and Yellow they then amazed us with their Science Facts and Fiction. Questions from the audience followed. The answers were fabulous, the audience were rapt. People joined the crowd and spread out into the wings and filled the gaps at the front of the stage. As the time for the vote approached my over-riding thought was, “How can the audience choose between them?” As the photo shows they couldn’t. Getting the audience to cheer in addition to waving their voting cards gave Sarah a slight edge and she ended up with the cup for that heat.
Sunday saw a slightly older crowd. Perhaps less excitable, but certainly no less inquisitive. Questions rained in about thinking, depressions and metaphysics of reality. Mark Horowitz, Eva Feredoes, Amy Birch, Jonathan Webb and Catherine Loveday amazed, answered and argued for 45 minutes before Helen called a vote.
Voting cards were raised showing a sea of yellow meaning Mark Horowitz gets a place in the final on April 9th. Tickets, £5 each, can be booked here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/education/event-detail.asp?ID=14614
Thank you to @LiveSkeptic for a detailed live report of the event: http://storify.com/LiveSkeptic/i-m-a-neuroscientist-get-me-out-of-here
