SAVILE SCIENCE – DR ANDREW SZYDLO will give a talk and demonstration on: “SCIENCE MAGIC: THE ART OF THE SCIENCE DEMONSTRATION”

The historical introduction will be followed by a series of chemical experiments/demonstrations involving some bangs, flashes and smoke effects.

The speech will commence with references to historical events – 1867, Michael Faraday, one of the greatest scientists and science educators, died, 1868 – founding of the Savile Club in Piccadilly. A tribute will be made to Numa Edward Hartog (a senior Wrangler of Trinity College, Cambridge) who tragically died of smallpox in 1871 (exactly 150 years ago), at the age 24.  An original handwritten letter from Numa to his parents will be read.  Today, thanks to vaccination, which was developed by Edward Jenner during the first half of the 19th century (but not universally available until much later), we live in a smallpox free society.

With the current coronavirus pandemic, vaccines have once again returned to the forefront of scientific attention.

Dr Andrew Szydlo was awarded his PhD at UCL in the History and Philosophy of Science.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.  He has given several hundred science lecture/demonstrations during the past 40 years.  These have taken him far and wide: from the Royal Institution in London, to Mauritius, Namibia, France, Austria and Poland.  Andrew has taught chemistry at Highgate School in North London since 1975.