Little Atoms 276 – Deadinburgh!

An unknown pathogen ravages Scotland’s capital, turning the unlucky souls into bloodthirsty ambling beasts. You are one of the last uninfected citizens in a city under martial law, cut off from the rest of the UK. Now, with help from real scientists, you have only hours to decide how to save Edinburgh, and perhaps the world. So begins Deadinburgh, the latest show in The Enlightenment Café series, from LAStheatre, which took place at the Summerhall Arts Centre in Edinburgh from 18 th to 21 st April. In this special edition of Little Atoms, Neil Denny talks to the creators of the show and to a number of the scientists taking part in the production. The show contains interviews with the following People:

Barra Collins is the director of Deadinburgh, and has worked as an actor, director, designer and in both production and technical management. He is artistic director and a co-founder of LAStheatre, along with creative producer Andy Franzkowiak. Andy’s professional career began at Battersea Arts Centre and has progressed through film, festivals, and immersive and staged theatre, and he is the producer of Deadinburgh.

Alan Faulkner-Jones is nearing the end of a PhD in Bioengineering at Heriot-Watt University, working on the development of an automated 3D live cell printer for tissue engineering, organ repair and construction.

Joanna Verran is Professor of Microbiology at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Matthew Crossley is in his final year of a PhD in Computer Science at MMU, working in nature-inspired algorithmics. Matthew and Jo were the founders of MMU’s Monsters, Microbiology and Maths group.

Conall Watson, (from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), and Kate Harvey & Nigel Field (from UCL) are all public health registrars. Both Conall and Nigel research infectious disease epidemiology while Kate specializes in the social causes of ill health.

Lewis Hou is a neuroscientist, a recent graduate in neuroscience, psychology and languages from the University of Edinburgh and McGill, and currently working at the Clinical Research Imaging Centre.