After a year's absence, Egham's beloved Pint of Science festival is back and bigger than ever.
Researchers will be swapping the lab for the pub for three nights of talks, debates, and big ideas.
The event will be held at the Red Lion pub, Egham from 18 to 20 May and will cover everything from whether art can make us kinder to strangers to what Corn buntings are really singing about.
There will be ten scientists taking to the stage, with Egham joining hundreds of towns and cities around the world taking part in this global festival.
Tickets costs £5 and are on sale now.
Highlights will include subjects such as:
- What do birds really tweet about? Dr Rob Lachlan and Marianne Sarfati will reveal the song of the humble corn bunting, an unremarkable-looking farmland bird, turns out to be one of the most sophisticated vocal cultures in the animal kingdom, second only to the humpback whale.
- Can art change how we treat others? Dr Roberto Rozzi will share the results of a striking experiment in Siena, where exposure to medieval frescoes depicting hospitality led to a nearly 50% increase in generosity toward migrants; raising profound questions about what art can quietly do to our moral intuitions.
- Are we any good at spotting a liar? Professor Amina Memon, drawing on decades of deception research, will show why the cues we instinctively look for (shifty eyes, fidgeting) are far less reliable than we think, and what verbal clues might actually give liars away.
Dr Carl Hodgetts, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, said: “This will be our third Pint of Science in Egham and it’s a special event.
“It's always great to share our research with the local community.”
Dr Irena Arslanova, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, added: “I was one of the speakers in 2023 and I help organise it every year, because it is so important to make science accessible to the local community and continue to learn from each other.
“The feedback we’ve received from the attendees from previous events has been incredibly positive and I am really excited to be back in 2026.”
Alongside the talks, audiences can go head-to-head in the largest ever multi-city pub quiz, in association with interactive quiz company KwizzBit, competing against other Pint of Science venues across the UK.
Pint of Science was founded by Dr Praveen Paul and Dr Michael Motskin with a simple but powerful mission: to reconnect people with the human stories behind scientific discovery. What began in three cities in 2013 now spans hundreds of cities worldwide.
