What’s the risk of getting out of bed?

The lecture, entitled ‘What’s the risk of getting out of bed?’ is part of the Cambridge Science Festival and will be given by David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk.

Professor Spiegelhalter argues that we are constantly being forced to change our behaviour to reduce the chances that things will turn out badly for us, with governments continually intervening to make societies ‘safer’.

Professor Spiegelhalter will examine if we are being overly cautious, and will present information on how big the risks that we face really are.

He says that one way of comparing deadly risks is through the Micromort, which is a one-in-a-million chance of death. He suggests using this measurement would allow us to have a simple number to compare, say, for example, the daily risk faced by heroin users with those serving in Afghanistan.

As some risks accumulate over time, he will examine how our lifestyles may be putting our long-term health at risk. He will investigate what a diet of battered burgers might be doing for your future and ask how we might portray these chronic risks in a vivid way.

As well as being Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk, Professor Spiegelhalter is a Senior Scientist in the MRC Biostatistics Unit. His work focuses on the appropriate use of quantitative methods in dealing with risk and uncertainty in the lives of individuals and society.

The event will begin at 7:30pm at the Babbage Lecture Theatre on the New Museums Site and is free and open to all above the age of 14.

The Cambridge Science Festival is the UK's largest free science festival offering adults and children alike the chance to get involved in some of the University's cutting edge research between 8 and 21 March.

For more information and the full programme for the Cambridge Science Festival please follow the link top right of the page.