It was a busy weekend at SLCU, with several events associated with the Festival of Plants happening inside and outside the Laboratory. On Friday, the Laboratory hosted a panel discussion on sustainable agriculture. Caroline Drummond, Chief Executive of Leaf UK, Jane Hill from the University of York and Charles Godfray from the University of Oxford discussed ‘sharing or sparing’, a current debate within the sustainable agriculture community. The event, moderated by Ottoline Leyser, led to a nuanced and wide ranging discussion with members of the audience, covering topics as far ranging as government agricultural policies, public health, housing and human behaviour.
On Saturday, SLCU staff were involved in a range of events in the Botanic Garden. Devin O’Connor and Firas Bou Daher gave talks in the ‘Talking Plants’ tent. Yrjo Helariutta and Jing Zhang gave a tour exploring the birch and bamboo growing in the Garden, and several members of staff helped out in the Pop Up Science Tent, encouraging members of the public to learn their ‘ABCs’ (of flower development), try their hand at computer modelling, decipher microscopy images and various other activities. The Laboratory hosted a well-attended talk by Professor Andrew Balmford on ‘Saving the planet without costing the earth'.
The Lab’s next public engagement activities will include participating in Open Cambridge and the Big Biology Weekend.