Earthquake model to leave Royal Society summer visitors shaken and stirred

Earthquakes are rare in the UK, but not unknown: the remnants of old tectonic faults run across the country, and still occasionally have twinges – the British Geological Survey detects about 200 to 300 earthquakes per year, of which 10 per cent are strong enough to be felt by the public.  Equipment used at Bristol University to test the resilience of structures against earth tremors will be visiting London for the Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition, which runs this week at the venerable organisation’s headquarters.

The exhibition is a free event at which universities, companies and other organisations involved in STEM invite the public to view and ask questions about some of their most interesting projects.

This year’s event has 22 exhibits, covering subjects including autonomous vehicles (courtesy of the University of Leicester); how mathematical modelling is used to produce images of and improve drug delivery to tumours (University College London); the possibilities of building wooden skyscrapers (University of Cambridge); the progress of lunar science since the Apollo landings and how it might lead to humans living and working on the moon (a collaboration involving the Open University, Natural History Museum, and Birkbeck, Manchester and Oxford Universities).