Did you get a haircut or something?

Hello friends! Kicks from Science is back from a wee break and totally woke up like this. Shall we get to the listings?

• Take me to the answer to the question I saw on Instagram

This week’s kicks

(Note: All listings are correct at the time of send but are subject to change, so please check before you travel! Prices exclude booking fees where they apply.)

Monday 4 March

🐶 Spot a dog (or two) in the sky: Look south at about 8pm, following the three stars of Orion‘s belt south west, and you’ll arrive at the Sirius – aka the Dog Star – the brightest star in the night sky.

🐶🐶 It’s a double dog – Sirius is actually a binary system (two stars orbiting each other) comprising the Dog Star and a much smaller star called – yes – the Pup Star. The pup, or Sirius B to its parents, is a white dwarf packing the mass of the Sun into an Earth-sized package, so you’d need a telescope to see it.

Tuesday 5 March

🌌 Universes, multiverses and simulations, online lecture held by University College London, 13.00, free: Cosmology professor Andrew Pontzen considers how computer simulations have unlocked our understanding of the universe, including galaxies and black holes.

🍿 Mars vs Titan – A Battle!, online event held by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, 19.00, free: Ding-ding! Astronomers Anna Gammon-Ross and Patricia Skelton battle it out to answer the question: which is better, the red planet Mars or Saturn’s largest moon Titan?

🚀 Throwback, 1979: After 18 months in flight, Voyager I flies by Jupiter’s third-largest moon Io, showing us the volcanic hellscape for the first time. Get a Voyager I’s-eye view of the flyby in this 3-second clip, and see how far we’ve come in this article by Big Think featuring a very sexy gif courtesy of NASA’s Juno mission (scroll to the end).

Wednesday 6 March

🤓 Land on a Lecture: A brief history of rocket science, online event held by ESERO-UK, 11.00, free: How did humans go from the first powered flying machines to landing on the Moon in *under 60 years*? Join space scientist Simon Foster at this Mars Week event to find out.

🧪 Throwback, 1869: Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table – a version of which we still use today – is presented for the first time. Celebrate in style by testing your elemental knowledge with this Tetris-style game.

💪 Mention must be made here of Mendeleev’s mother, Maria Mendeleeva. In 1849 (so, you know, no roads. No trains) she travelled more than 2,000km across Siberia to Moscow with two children in tow, so determined was she to get Dmitri into a good university. The following year, Dmitri safely enrolled, she died of tuberculosis.

Thursday 7 March

❤️ Why we need to teach everyone about reproductive health, online lecture held by University College London, 13.00, free: Reproductive science professor Joyce Harper explains why everyone should understand reproductive health, from puberty to menopause, whether we’re planning to have children or not.

Friday 8 March

⏰ The Live Assembly, online event held by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, 09.30, free: To kick off British Science Week, curator of time (ikr) Emily Akkermans and The Dad Lab lead this assembly for primary school children about the origins of telling time and how time-telling instruments have changed with the ages. Don’t be late.

👽 Salty waters: Life’s origins and biological habitability on Earth and Mars, hybrid event held by the University of Oxford, 12.00, free: Are we alone in the universe? How did life begin? For the answer, we must “follow the water”, and it helps if that water is salty. Dr Benjamin Tutolo explains why, noting our study of hydrothermal systems, saline lakes in Canada, and the Curiosity rover’s exploration of the Gale Crater on Mars.

Saturday 9 March

👩🏾‍🔬 Women in Science Tour, Natural History Museum, 13.15, free: Mark International Women’s Day with this guided tour, hearing the brilliant stories of women scientists throughout history, including some who have worked at the museum. It looks booked out online but having done a few of these tours I’m almost certain they’ll allow walk-ups.

📷 Icons of Science, Royal Institution, 19.00, £7-£16: Professor Martin Kemp guides us through iconic scientific images, from the double helix to E=mc² , telling the stories behind them and how they came to represent entire fields of study.

Sunday 10 March

☎️ Throwback, 1876: Alexander Graham Bell transmits human speech for the first time, three days after filing a patent for the telephone device. The project could be described as a ‘labour of love’ for an all-too-literal reason – Bell’s financial backer refused to let the inventor marry his daughter until the telephone was a success.

But of course it was. In a letter to his father, Bell wrote: “...the day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas – and friends converse with each other without leaving home.” Wonder what he would have made of OnlyFans.

We need answers

Back in January (remember January?) I asked:

The answer is… a light bulb. See you next week! x