NISF: From Rocket Science to Ironman: Exploring the Realm of Possibility.

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NI Science Cafe presents:

What if the only way to discover what’s possible is to try?

In From Rocket Science to Ironman: Exploring the Realm of Possibility, aerospace engineer and endurance athlete Emily Bond draws unexpected parallels between two worlds that seem worlds apart: designing systems to withstand extraordinary conditions, and training a human body to swim 3.8km, cycle 180km, and run a marathon back to back.

From engineering constraints and feedback loops to experimentation, failure and optimisation, Emily explores how we discover the boundaries of what is possible – not by assuming we know our limits, but by venturing into the realm of possibility and finding out. Along the way, she explores why sometimes the most valuable result of an experiment isn’t proving that you can do something, but discovering what becomes possible when you try.

Alongside the science, Emily shares her own journey from her first 5k into endurance sport and her ambitious attempt to become the first woman to complete every UK Ironman race in 2026. Asking – what happens when the carefully engineered plan meets an unpredictable human body? What can failure reveal about the boundaries we’re testing? And how do we know when we’ve reached a true limit – versus a limit we simply believed existed?

A story about rockets, racing, resilience and the science of finding out what’s possible.