Wednesday 11 March 2009

A Function of the Time - reminder

A reminder that tomorrow evening Jeff Hughes will be speaking at the Whipple Museum for the History of Science on: ‘A Function of the Time’: The Cavendish Society and its Postprandial Proceedings.

As the number of research students grew at the Cavendish Laboratory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so did their collective sense of social and professional identity. At their annual dinner, the research students sang humorous songs specially written by members of the laboratory to well-known tunes or airs, or even Gilbert and Sullivan numbers. With teasing affection, gentle parody and witty wordplay, the songs celebrated the scientific work and social life of the laboratory, its exemplary past achievements and its iconic figures. This talk will show how the ‘Postprandial Proceedings of the Cavendish Society’ helped constitute the research community, and will explore what the songs reveal about the culture of the Cavendish Laboratory and Cambridge physics in the ‘string and sealing wax’ era of Rayleigh, Thomson and Rutherford.

The 'HPS chorus' will be singing 'Ions Mine', 'Isotopes', and 'hv' as part of his presentation.

The museum will open from 5.30 with the talk beginning at 6 - you are advised to arrive early to ensure a place.

This event is also part of the Cambridge Science Festival.

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