Cafe Scientifique

Where :	The Horse and Trap, 3 Enfield Street, Mount Eden
When :	Wednesday 27th August, 6:30pm
Web Site:	Auckland Museum - what's on
Contact:	Jessica Costa

Auckland Museum Institute (The Royal Society of New Zealand - Auckland Branch) presents…

On Little Bangs and Big Bangs

David Krofcheck
Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics
University of Auckland

In September, 2008, the initial testing of the world's largest and highest energy particle accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider, will begin at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. This is a device that is designed to push our current understanding of fundamental physics to the limit - from chasing the Higg's Boson to probing quark-gluon plasma - by smashing together protons in head on collisions. New Zealand is involved with the Large Hadron Collider project as part of one of the huge research teams assembled to build the particle detectors and to analyse the collision data.

Dr Krofcheck is an experimental nuclear physicist and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics at The University of Auckland. His speciality is the study of high energy nuclear reactions and the bulk properties of nuclear matter. He leads the New Zealand effort in the Compact Muon Solenoid group at CERN. He has said that the Large Hadron Collider is also a kind of "time machine" as it will permit physicists to recreate conditions believed to have existed in the nascent universe.

How much do our thoughts and

feelings affect our health?

Roger Booth

Assoc. Prof of Immunology and Health Psychology

University of Auckland

How I think, feel and behave is related to the operation of my nervous system which, in turn, is connected to the operation of my immune system. These connections are much more extensive and pervasive than was appreciated until recently. This means not only that what I think, feel and do, might affect how my immune (and healing) system functions but also that immune activity within my body influences my thought, feelings and behaviour. These psycho - neuro - immune relationships help us better understand lifestyle and health relationships and have important implications for what we might consider to be healthy environments.

Roger Booth is Associate Professor of Immunology and Health Psychology and Academic Director of the School of Medical Sciences. He has a passion for teaching and also for investigating the health consequences of mind-body relationships where his research includes studies into how expressing emotions and constructing meaning in our lives relate to our physiology.