Professor Russell G. Foster CBE, FRS

Professor Russell Foster is the Head of Oxford’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, the founder and Director of the Sleep and Circadian Research Institute and is a Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford. His research addresses how light regulates multiple areas of biology, but especially how light regulates our circadian rhythms and sleep. Russell has published over 300 scientific papers and received multiple national and international awards. He established and led for six years the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee. Russell was the Chair of the Cheltenham Science Festival for six years, a Trustee of the Science Museum for eight years, and currently he Chairs the Board of Visitors at the History of Science Museum in Oxford. Russell frequently appears in the media. His TED Talk has been viewed over 9 million times, and radio appearances include: What’s Up Docs, Titans of Science, Just One Thing, Dr Chatterjee, Desert Island Discs, In Our Time, Life Scientific, and Start the Week. 

Professor Foster has given a talk at ATOM Festival before which was sold out on the night therefore we advise advance booking for this talk.

Most of us think about light in the same way that fish might think about water. Meaning, the most obvious and important realities are often the most difficult to appreciate. Light is ubiquitous, and its immense importance is largely overlooked. This talk will step back and take a fresh look at the awesome power and varied roles that light plays in our lives and for almost all life on Earth. My hope is that after this talk, you will think differently about light. It is an energy that transforms just about everything. Light gives us life, and this talk will explain how.

But what is sunlight? This question has remained a mystery for millennia. The good news is that today a fairly complete answer is now possible, and this talk will explain how light it is generated in the Sun, and what sunlight does when it reaches the Earth. Light drives photosynthesis which generates the energy for most food-chains, and the ‘waste product’ of photosynthesis is oxygen, which drives super-efficient respiration and the evolution of complex, multicellular life. Oxygen forms atmospheric ozone, which protects us from the high-energy UV light that would otherwise destroy much of the life that thrives today.

The rotation of the Earth on its axis generates the 24-hour day, and the passage of the Earth around the Sun gives us the seasons. These changes in sunlight energy must be anticipated, and appropriate responses adopted for survival and reproduction by plants and animals. We humans also show seasonal rhythms, but are the mechanisms the same in us as in other mammals? All will be revealed!

Light detected by our eyes and processed in the brain gives us our awesome and precious sense of vision. But we see the world very differently from other animals. This talk will explore how this special sense works and why the evolution of eyes helped “kick-start” the evolution of varied life-forms and our ancient ancestors some 450 million years ago.

Our perception of different colours influences how we respond to others, affects our mood, alertness, and even the food we might want to eat. Welcome to the world of “colour psychology” and how we can be manipulated into what we buy, eat and taste based on colour. But colour can have different meanings in different cultures, and sometimes this can cause confusion or indeed even problems!

When vision is augmented by artificial lenses that bend light, we can see other worlds, both the vast and the microscopic. Telescopes and microscopes have changed our understanding of both life on Earth and of our place within the immensity of the universe. The transformative power of the lens is one of the greatest achievements of humankind.

Sunlight kick-starts the synthesis of vitamin D, a molecule that is crucial for many areas of health. Sunlight exposure during childhood is important for eye development and too little sunlight can cause short-sightedness (myopia), a condition that affects 90% of adolescents in some parts of the world. But getting too much sunlight can trigger skin cancer. So, sunlight can be both an essential ally and potential enemy, and getting the balance right can be complicated. We all need to know how to achieve this happy medium. 

Human ingenuity and creative brilliance developed glass to allow light into our built spaces. Today we take windows for granted, but since Roman times they have brought sunlight into our lives and have transformed how we live and work. But humankind has also sought to become entirely independent of the Sun by developing artificial light. Our invasion of the night has led to immense benefits, but has also had unforeseen consequences. We have subjugated darkness, and in the process are causing harm to both the natural world and ourselves. We now need to understand what we are doing with artificial light, and find ways to use this knowledge for the benefit of the entire biological world.

The retina of the eye.

Light detected by our eyes and processed in the brain gives us our awesome and precious sense of vision. But we see the world very differently from other animals. This talk will explore how this special sense works and why the evolution of eyes helped “kick-start” the evolution of varied life-forms and our ancient ancestors some 450 million years ago.

Our perception of different colours influences how we respond to others, affects our mood, alertness, and even the food we might want to eat. Welcome to the world of “colour psychology” and how we can be manipulated into what we buy, eat and taste based on colour. But colour can have different meanings in different cultures, and sometimes this can cause confusion or indeed even problems!

When vision is augmented by artificial lenses that bend light, we can see other worlds, both the vast and the microscopic. Telescopes and microscopes have changed our understanding of both life on Earth and of our place within the immensity of the universe. The transformative power of the lens is one of the greatest achievements of humankind.

Sunlight kick-starts the synthesis of vitamin D, a molecule that is crucial for many areas of health. Sunlight exposure during childhood is important for eye development and too little sunlight can cause short-sightedness (myopia), a condition that affects 90% of adolescents in some parts of the world. But getting too much sunlight can trigger skin cancer. So, sunlight can be both an essential ally and potential enemy, and getting the balance right can be complicated. We all need to know how to achieve this happy medium. 

Human ingenuity and creative brilliance developed glass to allow light into our built spaces. Today we take windows for granted, but since Roman times they have brought sunlight into our lives and have transformed how we live and work. But humankind has also sought to become entirely independent of the Sun by developing artificial light. Our invasion of the night has led to immense benefits, but has also had unforeseen consequences. We have subjugated darkness, and in the process are causing harm to both the natural world and ourselves. We now need to understand what we are doing with artificial light, and find ways to use this knowledge for the benefit of the entire biological world.