Events for October 8, 2026 › Monday 9 September

Festival Club at The Reel

Stars and planets, people and poems come together in a sparkling collaborative new book and talk between the 10th Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Prof. John C. Brown of Glasgow University, and Rab Wilson, Scriever in Residence at Burns Birthplace Museum, Alloway. There are images of misty nebulas and blazing supernovas, stories of Scottish astronomers like Mary Somerville and Williamina Fleming, and poems – from Ayont the Sun to The Star o’ Hope. Sponsored by Loganair

Our atmosphere is a turmoil of chemical activity, says Prof. Dudley Shallcross of Bristol University. Some of the most powerful agents of change are molecules so short-lived that they have only been discovered in recent years. Formed when gases from plants react with ozone, they attack nitrogen and sulphur pollutants and turn them into fine aerosols which screen against the sun. What might this mean for atmospheric pollution and for climate change?