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SUMMARY:'A function of the time': the Cavendish Society and its Postprandi
 al Proceedings - Jeff Hughes (University of Manchester)
DTSTART:20090312T173000Z
DTEND:20090312T190000Z
UID:TALK17228@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:3880
DESCRIPTION:A century ago\, research students in the Cavendish Laboratory 
 wrote and sang humorous songs about science at their annual dinner\, writt
 en to well-known tunes. This talk will explore what the 'Postprandial Proc
 eedings of the Cavendish Society' reveal about the culture of the Cambridg
 e physics research community\, and will include performances of these song
 s by the HPS chorus.\n\nAs the number of research students grew at the Cav
 endish Laboratory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries\, s
 o did their collective sense of social and professional identity. At their
  annual dinner\, the research students sang humorous songs specially writt
 en by members of the laboratory to well-known tunes or airs\, or even Gilb
 ert and Sullivan numbers. With teasing affection\, gentle parody and witty
  wordplay\, the songs celebrated the scientific work and social life of th
 e laboratory\, its exemplary past achievements and its iconic figures. Thi
 s talk will show how the 'Postprandial Proceedings of the Cavendish Societ
 y' helped constitute the research community\, and will explore what the so
 ngs reveal about the culture of the Cavendish Laboratory and Cambridge phy
 sics in the 'string and sealing wax' era of Rayleigh\, Thomson and Rutherf
 ord.\n\nThis event is part of the "Cambridge Science Festival":http://www.
 admin.cam.ac.uk/sciencefestival/ and has been made possible by a grant fro
 m the "East of England Museum Hub":http://www.renaissance-east.org.uk/ .
LOCATION:Whipple Museum\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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