Birmingham Cafe
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Launched October 2002
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Date:
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10th October |
| Title: |
"The
Ancient
Mariner -
perception and narrative"
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Speaker:
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Paul Davies
(radio and film script writer) |
| Description: |
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Date:
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7th November |
| Title: |
"The Unbalanced Mind: Depression and Human Relationships".
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Speaker:
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Prof. Julian
Leff |
| Description: |
Antidepressant pills are the stock in trade for professionals treating
depression, on the assumption that it results from biochemical changes in
the brain. However there is increasing evidence that people suffering from
depression have experienced significant losses and lack the social support
to deal with these experiences. Attempts to provide better support for
people with depression have achieved success in relieving the symptoms.
Furthermore a view across cultures suggests that traditional societies have
means of helping people deal effectively with losses. We in the West no
longer benefit from traditional resources to assist with loss. Is there any
way of making up for this?
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Date:
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5th December |
| Title: |
"What
Shape is a Snowflake?"
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Speaker:
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Prof. Ian
Stewart, University of Warwick |
| Description: |
Six-sided, of course---though not always. But why are snowflakes so
symmetric, yet so varied? The story takes us by way of a New Year's Gift
from Johannes Kepler to his sponsor, via the mathematics of repeating
patterns, to the atomic structure of ice crystals. Chaos, represented
through its influence on the weather, also plays a key role. So the variety
and regularity of snowflakes is a clue to two deep mathematical principles
of order and chaos, which between them govern a great deal more than just
the shape of a snowflake.
And, in addition, to give a further level of interaction to the talk, Ian
proposed a set of questions on which you muse and amuse - under a more
general perspective of: "What other puzzling patterns are there?". Try to
prepare for something like:
1. Have you ever looked closely at snowflakes? What do you see?
2. Are ALL snowflakes 6-sided? (no.) Are they ALL different? (pretty much
so.)
3. Kepler tried to work out, off the top of his head why they were 6-sided.
Can we do the same with the benefit of hindsight?
4. What about other patterns in nature? Can we use similar ideas on them?
5. Kepler never even tried to explain why they can be regular yet all
different. Can we?
I hope you'll enjoy the challenge and marvel at the implications. Ian is a
mathematician of some standing, but maths will be only the backdrop against
which you'll enjoy the patterns and the flow of discussion.
Non-mathematicians are particularly encouraged to participate and appreciate
the seasonal feeling of the talk...
Please don't forget to book your tickets (£4) through the MAC box-office on
0121 440 3838.
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Date:
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6th
February 2004 |
| Title: |
'Ethical
Business'
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Speaker:
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Sir Adrian
Cadbury |
| Description: |
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Date:
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5th
March 2004
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| Title: |
'Leading
from the wings: the UK and the EU'
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Speaker:
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Professor
Anand Menon, European Research Institute, Birmingham
University
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| Description: |
Professor
Menon will argue that, contrary to what much press comment and political
rhetoric claim, the UK has played a leading role in the development of the
EU and has been one of the member states to benefit most from membership of
it. Paradoxically, Professor Menon believes this situation may be undermined
by Tony Blair's apparently more positive approach towards the Union. |
Date:
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2nd April 2004 |
| Title: |
'Does
religion have an evolutionary history?'
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Speaker:
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Professor Robin Dunbar |
| Description:
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Religion
as a phenomenon has received rather little attention from an evolutionary
point of view. Yet it is probably the single most important feature of human
behaviour. Professor Dunbar will explore religion in terms of the functions
it seems to serve in contemporary societies, the cognitive demands that it
places on believers and the alternative possible scenarios that might be
envisaged for its evolutionary history. He will argue that, taking these
various lines of evidence together, it is possible to argue that religion
evolved originally as a mechanism for bonding society (in particular, for
controlling freeriders in the context of very large dispersed social groups)
and that it probably arose at a relatively late stage in hominid
evolutionary history (perhaps as recently as 200,000 years ago). |
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