Submitted by aml95 on Tue, 12/05/2026 - 10:48
TV nutrition and health experts will take centre stage alongside astronomers, neuroscientists and AI experts at the annual Pint of Science festival next week, with public talks in the unlikeliest of ‘lecture theatres’ – local Cambridge pubs.
This year’s festival (18th – 20th May)_ will see twice as many events taking place across the city as last year and will be the largest edition of the festival since the pandemic including a special one off already sold out event A Conversation on Nutrition and Health (7:30pm, 3 June, Cambridge Junction), There, broadcasters Professor Chris van Tulleken (UCL, author of Ultra-Processed People) and Professor Giles Yeo (IMS-MRL, University of Cambridge, author of Why Calories Don’t Count) join Dr Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed (2017 winner of the BBC's MasterChef in 2017, author of The 20-Minute Gut Health Fix) to talk ultra-processed foods, weight management injections, nutrition and health.
One of the coordinators for this year’s festival is Dr Chris Bannon from the IMS-MRL, which is heavily involved in the three events at Calverley's Brewery*. He will be speaking at Gut Feelings (7pm, 19 May) – including a guest appearance by his life size knitted gut, which he uses to demonstrate how foods pass through (and out of!) our digestive systems.
Chris said: “Pubs have played a surprising role in Cambridge’s scientific history, from Francis Crick and James Watson announcing at The Eagle that they’d discovered ‘the secret of life’ to David Klenerman and Shankar Balasubramanian working out in The Panton Arms how to sequence our DNA faster than ever. So, it’s only fitting that Pint of Science should see dozens of our researchers taking their findings to pub crowds across the city.
“This year we have been very ambitious with our one off event in the Junction, and expanding venues compare to last year. We’ll be looking at everything from the evolution of life on Earth to the hunt for life beyond our Solar System right through to extreme weather events and even mapping the brain. Whatever you’re interested in, there’s bound to something here that will make you think – and possibly even make you laugh.”
The talks run from 18-20 May 2026. Tickets are available on the Pint of Science website, but are selling fast.
Story on the University of Cambridge website
* Sessions involving IMS-MRL researchers:
Mapping the brain (Brian Lam, Thomas Brown, Manon Barbot) – 18 May, Calverley’s Brewery (SOLD OUT)
Gut feelings (Coni Alcaino, Ana Parish and Ali Beladi, Chris Bannon) – 19 May, Calverley’s Brewery
Obesity from birth to old age (Laura Dearden, Laura Sheppard, Aggie Jakubowska) – 20 May, Calverley’s Brewery
Has obesity been cured by ozempic? (Giles Yeo) – 19 May, Sir Isaac Newton (SOLD OUT)
All molecules great and small (Albert Koulman) – 18 May, The Cambridge Brewhouse
Instructions for life: DNA insights and peptides (Richard Kay) – 19 May, The Cambridge Brewhouse
