Silk, Dr Aarathi Prasad
Recorded at Ada Lovelace Day Live at the Royal Institution on 10 October 2023
From the ancient uses of silk to the biologists who learned the secrets of silk-producing animals: manipulating the habitats, physiologies, and threads of moths, spiders and molluscs, this talk will explore the work of some of the women who have been key to understanding the natural history or developed technological applications of a unique material that has fascinated the world for millennia.
About Dr Aarathi Prasad
Dr Aarathi Prasad is a writer, broadcaster, and researcher interested in the intersection of science and technology with cultures, history, health, and the environment. She is the author of Silk: A History in Three Metamorphoses (2023), In The Bonesetter’s Waiting Room: Travels Through Indian Medicine (2016) which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and won the Popular Medicine Award at the BMA Awards 2017, and Like A Virgin: How Science is Redesigning the Rules of Sex (2012).
Aarathi has a PhD in genetics from Imperial College London and is an honorary research fellow at University College London’s department of genetics, evolution and environment, where she is part of an international team excavating and analysing ancient DNA from archaeological sites in Valencia, Rome, and Pompeii.
About Ada Lovelace Day
Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths which aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and create new role models for both girls and women studying or working in STEM.
Ada Lovelace Day Live 2023 was held at the Royal Institution on Tuesday 10 October. It was hosted by comedian Helen Arney, and featured Prof Jennifer Rohn, head of the Centre for Urological Biology UCL; Dr Azza Eltraify, senior software engineer at Ultracell Networks Ltd; Dr Sophie Carr, mathematician, Bays Consulting Ltd; Dr Aarathi Prasad, writer, broadcaster, and geneticist; Dr Anjana Khatwa, Earth scientist and presenter; Dr Antonia Pontiki, biomedical engineer at King’s College London; and Rosie Curran Crawley, presenter at L’Oreal Young Scientist Centre.
About the Royal Institution
The Royal Institution brings the public and scientists together to share their interest and passion for science, empowering people to explore and get involved.
An independent registered charity, the Ri provides science education, public engagement, and heritage activities for people of all ages and backgrounds across the UK and around the world. These activities include the world-famous Christmas Lectures; public talks from the world's greatest thinkers in its historic lecture theatre and livestreamed online; a successful YouTube channel with over 1.3 million subscribers, a national programme of Ri Masterclasses for young people in mathematics, engineering and computer science; hands-on science workshops in its L'Oréal Young Scientist Centre; award winning animations and films; and the preservation of its scientific legacy through the Faraday Museum and archival collections.
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