In my Tuesday lunch talk, I will discuss the basics of what galaxy colour and galaxy shape can tell us about galaxy formation and evolution. I will then present the results of my recent research project calculating galaxy luminosity functions, as functions of both optical colour and galaxy zoo 2 morphological classifications. In particular, I will focus on ‘unusual’ galaxy populations, such as red spirals and blue elliptical galaxies, and how these objects fit into the overall blue and red galaxy populations.

I will then move on to a description of my current work on ‘The Tactile Universe’, an innovative outreach project at the ICG which is developing props and activities to teach some of the very visual science discussed above to the blind and partially sighted community. If there is time at the end, audience members will be welcome to test out some of our tactile models.