Launched July 2006
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Date: |
Monday 7th January 2008 |
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Title: |
A
twenty-first century transport system for
Leeds? |
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Speaker: |
Dave
Haskins (Metro)
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Why was Supertram cancelled?
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What are the options now and how will they
affect Headingley and the wider region?
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Find out about the Supertram replacement scheme
and new transport proposals for Leeds including
the Tram-Train concept.
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What is the business and political framework?
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How are European models affecting plans?
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Is it affordable and where will the money come
from?
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Date: |
February |
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Title: |
The
physics of Star Trek: could anti-matter power the
Enterprise? |
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Speaker: |
Ruth Gregory (University of Durham)
Ruth
is a member of the Centre for Particle Theory. Her
current research interest is in the interface
between fundamental high energy physics and
cosmology.
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Date: |
Monday 3rd March |
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Title: |
The
psychology of pain |
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Speaker: |
Stephen Morley
Stephen Morley is
Professor of Clinical Psychology at
the University of Leeds and holds an honorary
clinical appointment in the NHS. He is associate
editor of Pain, the journal of the
International Association for the Study of Pain and
section editor of the European Journal of Pain.
He will be speaking about the psychology of pain
(particularly chronic pain) and the treatment of
pain by psychological methods. What do these methods
aim to achieve? And how effective are they? |
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Title: |
Polymaths: who needs them? |
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Speaker: |
Alasdair Beal
Alasdair Beal is a consulting structural engineer
and former journals editor of the Society for
Interdisciplinary Studies. He asks: are polymaths a
brilliant and
entertaining irrelevance in the history of science -
armchair dilettanti who are jacks of all trades but
masters of none? Doesn't real progress come from the
sustained efforts of the specialists who concentrate
their efforts on a limited area of research in order
to make the real breakthroughs? I'd like to
challenge this view, drawing on the lives and work
of two of history's great polymaths: the Italian
Leonardo da Vinci and the Englishman Thomas Young.
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Date: |
Tuesday 6th May |
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Title: |
The world as structure: exploring the implications of
modern physics |
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Speaker: |
Steven French

"Most people think of the world as made up of objects,
which have certain properties and interact with each
other in certain ways. Even if modern physics tells us
that those objects behave in very odd and sometimes
baffling ways, this is typically how we regard the world
at its most fundamental level. I want to explore the
suggestion that the implications of modern physics are
even more radical than that - in effect they take
objects out of the picture, leaving only structures. I
shall look at these implications in (hopefully!)
accessible terms and then discuss what the world might
be like as nothing but structure."
Professor Steven French is Head of the Department of
Philosophy and Professor of the Philosophy of Science,
at Leeds University. His interests include the history
and philosophy of modern physics. He is currently
Editor-in-Chief of the reviews journal Metascience. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 2nd June |
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Title: |
Sex and drugs and
broken bones |
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Speaker: |
Jo Neill and Kay
Marshall
Evidence is accumulating for the existence of subtle
differences in the brain structure and neurobiology of
men and women; differences which may account
for differences in behaviour.
At least part of these differences may act through the
sex steroids, oestrogen,
testosterone and progesterone. There is also gathering
belief in the hypothesis that oestrogen has
neuroprotective properties which influence both normal
and disturbed behaviour, as observed in psychiatric
disorders such as schizophrenia.
Dr Neill is Reader in Psychopharmacology in the School
of Life Sciences at the University of Bradford and Dr
Marshall is Head of Division in the School of Pharmacy.
They are currently collaborating on research into gender
differences in cognitive function. Their presentation
will focus on the evidence for sex differences in brain
and behaviour shown by clinical and preclinical
studies. |
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Date: |
Monday 7th July |
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Title: |
Artificial Intelligence in Games – 1945 to 2045 |
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Speaker: |
Peter Cowling
Peter
is deeply interested in the use of games as a testbed
for the development of Artificial Intelligence
(AI). The
Universities of Bradford and Essex have teamed up with
Imperial College and with academics and games company
professionals from around the UK to create the
Artificial Intelligence and Games Research Network
www.aigamesnetwork.org
of which he is a leading member.
In this talk Peter will review the role of AI in games
and then consider the large class of games where such AI
advances have proved impossible so far.
Can games represent an important step in the search for
general-purpose AI? |
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Date: |
Monday 4th August |
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Title: |
Biofuels: Global Challenge, International Response |
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Speaker: |
Catherine Rhodes
The recent rapid increase in the use of biofuels has
caused great controversy. Promoted as a means of rural
development and of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
dependence on carbon-based fuels, it has become clear
that expanded biofuels use could actually cause more
harm than benefit.
Catherine will outline the challenges for the
international community in managing increased
use so that negative impacts on food security,
biodiversity, climate change, etc. are minimised and she
will explore the issue of how the international
community can best respond to these challenges.
Catherine is a research fellow in Bradford University’s
Department of Peace Studies. Her research focus is
governance of biotechnology at the international level.
She maintains a website (www.genomics-gateway.net) and produces a quarterly online
report on developments in the international regulation
of biotechnology. |
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Date: |
Monday 6th October 2008 |
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Title: |
The Science of Weather Forecasting |
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Speaker: |
Doug Parker, Institute for Climate and
Atmospheric Science, Leeds University
Meteorology is a rather unusual scientific area, in
that
it is constantly being asked to predict the future.
Measuring and predicting the state of our chaotic
atmosphere is a big challenge.
In addition to the scientific challenges, meteorologists
are faced
with the problem of communicating complex scientific
results to the general public, every day.
In recent years, this communication has expanded
through the wide availability of measurements and
forecasts on the internet. The successful 5-day weather
predictions which we commonly make use of in the UK are
the result of remarkable scientific and operational
progress, mainly achieved in the 20th century.
Doug will give an overview of the scientific, computing
and logistical systems which produce scientific weather
predictions today. This will include a description of
the hot areas of research, and the ways in which we can
expect the delivery and quality of our forecasts to
change in the coming years, for example through
presentation of forecast probabilities. He will also try
to indicate how an informed person can use observations
and forecast products from the internet, to refine the
public weather forecasts for personal use or for special
applications. |
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Date: |
Monday
4th November |
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Title: |
Geophysical prospecting - finding rocks you can sell |
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Speaker: |
Alan Reid
has had extensive experience working as an
academic and consultant in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Now
based in the UK, he is an Honorary Research Fellow in
the School of Earth and Environment at the University of
Leeds but his current projects are world-wide.
Alan will be
illustrating the various methods of investigating and
imaging the structure of the earth. |
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Date: |
Monday 1st December |
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Title: |
Was
there a Darwinian revolution? |
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Speaker: |
As we approach the major Darwin anniversary of 2009 --
200 years since Darwin's birth, 150 years since the
publication of his Origin of Species - it is
widely believed that Darwin's evolution theory started a
'revolution'.
But
is that right? What is at stake in saying that Darwin's
work was or was not "revolutionary"? Taking opposite
sides on the reality of a Darwinian revolution, Jonathan
Hodge and Gregory Radick, coeditors of The Cambridge
Companion to Darwin (2003/2009), will explore some of
the challenges to historical understanding of Darwin and
his importance to science and society.
Jonathan Hodge and Gregory Radick are based at the
Centre for History and Philosophy of Science in the
Department of Philosophy at the University of Leeds.
Besides the Darwin Companion, their recent books include
Before and After Darwin (Hodge, 2008) and The Simian
Tongue (Radick, 2007). |
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Date: |
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Title: |
Diet
and cognitive function |
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Speaker: |
Louise
Dye is Reader in Biological Psychology in the
Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds
and a senior member of the Human Appetite Research Unit.

Her
research interests include functional foods for
cognitive performance and wellbeing as well as
hormone-food interactions and appetite/weight control,
e.g. the effects of soy isoflavones on cognition and
wellbeing in younger and older women; cognitive function
during the menstrual cycle and in altered hormonal
states, etc.
Dr Dye will be talking
about
breakfast and mental performance in children and adults;
omega 3s; ‘superfoods’ such as blueberries and soy, and
the short and longer term effects of the lack of them. |
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Date: |
Monday 2nd February |
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Title: |
Back to
Creation |
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Speaker: |

In spring
2009, the start button for the biggest scientific
experiment in the history of mankind will be pressed.
Using the energy
required to power Geneva, the
Large
Hadron Collider (LHC)
will investigate many of the mysteries surrounding the
smallest things in nature by recreating the conditions
immediately after the Big Bang. It may also reveal
secrets that the Universe has hidden since the early
stages of its birth.
Come along
to explore the immense scale of the experiment, find out
how the LHC works, and examine some of the big questions
it will address.
Pete
Edwards
is an
experienced science communicator who co-ordinates the
outreach programme of the Ogden Centre for Fundamental
Physics at Durham University. His previous research
interests included gamma ray astronomy and astro-particle
physics. He toured the UK in 2006 delivering the
Institute of Physics Schools’ Lecture ‘Gravity, Gas and
Stardust’ and provides regular talks for the Science
Events for Schools Programme of the Royal Institution. |
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Date: |
Monday 2nd March 2009 |
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Title: |
'The Birth of Cosmic Ray Astronomy on the Argentinian
Pampas' |
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Speaker: |

Alan Watson
helped build the observatory at Haverah Park near
Harrogate which was in some ways a forerunner of the
instrument he uses now. He spent 20 years looking for
high-energy cosmic rays there and then, after a brief
period heading a group working at the South Pole,
initiated with an American colleague the Pierre Auger
Collaboration which has built the instrument he will
describe.
He was
elected to the Royal Society in 2000 and is currently a
research professor at Leeds University.
Cosmic
rays were discovered in 1912 but we still do not know
where they come from. The most energetic have the
energy of a tennis ball hit by Andy Murray and can only
reach us from places about 200 million light years away,
quite close by on a cosmological scale. These very
energetic particles are also very rare and a massive
instrument (the Pierre Auger Observatory) covering 3000
square kilometres has been built in Argentina, at a cost
of $54M, by an international consortium from 17
countries.
Alan will describe how the Observatory was built and try
to explain how recent results hint that cosmic rays
might come from black holes. No knowledge of cosmic rays
will be assumed. |
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Date: |
Monday 6th April 2009 |
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Title: |
The 21st Century’s First Perfect Storm: A
View From Outside Economics’ |
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Speaker: |
Dr. Larry Brownstein
I will look at the
current financial crisis from the perspective of a
philosopher-psychologist-social scientist
(although I have studied and am quite at
home with the natural sciences). Although not an
economist, I have studied the field and argued with
economists over the years. It is now generally accepted
that economics is
the most myopic of all disciplines - Willem
Buiter has recently contended that academic economists
are particularly useless.
Economics has recently been trying to incorporate
contemporary psychological perspectives into its
theoretical endeavors, particularly in the field known
as behavioral finance. To many, this is a highly
contentious development. An assessment of it will form
part of my story.
I
will point out some of the mistakes economists have made
over the years and why they might have made them, taking
me into the history and philosophy of science - and the
Archbishop of Canterbury’s views on the current crisis.
This
story contains heroes and villains, geniuses and morons,
the psychologically healthy and the psychologically
unhealthy, all working in a socio-cultural context that
could reasonably be viewed as being deeply
pathological.
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Date: |
Tuesday
5th May 2009 |
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Title: |
Back to
creation |
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Speaker: |
Jennifer
Smillie
In
spring 2009, the start button for the biggest scientific
experiment in the history of mankind will be pressed.
Using the energy required to power Geneva, the
Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) will investigate many of the mysteries surrounding
the smallest things in nature by recreating the
conditions immediately after the Big Bang. It may also
reveal secrets that the Universe has hidden since the
early stages of its birth.
Come along to explore
the immense scale of the experiment, find out how the
LHC works, and examine some of the big questions it will
address.

Jennifer
Smillie is a research fellow in the physics department
at Durham University. Her research is centred on
the theories which will be tested at the LHC in
Cerne and which make this such an exciting time. |
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Date: |
Monday 1st June 2009 |
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Title: |
Policing at the frontiers of
science: the forensic use of DNA |
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Speaker: |
Carole McCartney
The discovery of ‘genetic fingerprints’ had a dramatic
impact on forensic science, leading to a DNA
‘revolution’ in policing. Strong government support, and
financial investment in forensic DNA technology, has
been bolstered by dramatic legislative change to police
powers, with the UK boasting the largest forensic DNA
database in the world. Scientists continue to work at
the frontiers of genetics to assist police, yet
questions are emerging concerning ethical issues and the
efficacy of taking, and permanently keeping, DNA
samples.

Dr
Carole McCartney is a lecturer in criminal law and
criminal justice at the University of Leeds. She
previously studied and taught at Bond University,
Queensland, Australia. She has written on Australian
justice, Innocence Projects, and DNA and criminal
justice, including Forensic Identification and
Criminal Justice: Forensic Science, Justice and Risk,
published in 2006. She established an
Innocence Project at the University of Leeds in 2005, of
which she remains Director. She was project manager for
the Nuffield Council on Bioethics report ‘The
Forensic Uses of Bio-information: Ethical Issues’
and is currently leading a Nuffield Foundation project
on ‘The Future of Forensic Bioinformation’ and
working on a project to teach forensic practice to law
students. |
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Date: |
Monday 6th July 2009 |
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Title: |
Stable plaques -
unstable memories |
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Speaker: |
Glyn Wainwright
The
current food and pharmaceutical lobbies encourage
ambitious long-term cholesterol lowering. The regulation
of cholesterol biosynthesis can affect the form and
function of every cell membrane.
Cell
morphology and membrane research increasingly highlights
new data on cholesterol-rich lipid membranes. The
clinical impact of long-term inhibition of cholesterol
biosynthesis now demands an urgent revision of advice
given.
Glyn
will make a mini-review of non-cardiovascular research
concerning cholesterol-rich rafts in lipid membrane
processes. He proposes there is an urgent need to
reassess the clinical advantages and disadvantages of
long-term statin use, and the ever-broadening criteria
of cholesterol reductions.
Glyn
Wainwright MBCS CITP CEng MSc is a member of THINCS - an
international group of doctors, pharmacists and related
scientists who are re-examining the cholesterol
hypothesis and lipid theories around heart disease. |
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Date: |
7.45pm Tuesday 20th October 2009 |
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Title: |
Enjoying the Night Sky |
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Speaker |
Paul Marchant and Ray
Emery |
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Details |
The
night sky contains a whole range of objects of interest.
The furthest thing that can be seen with unaided eye is
the Andromeda Galaxy some 2 million light years distant,
but with optical aid it is possible see many times
further.
The closest things within the usual ambit of astronomy
are meteors and noctilucent clouds, occurring in the
upper atmosphere. Beyond the Earth comes the Moon,
planets, asteroids, comets. Then stars of all varieties,
sizes and temperatures, many in multiple systems, some
varying in brightness. Also regions of star formation,
sites of stellar death and star clusters are of
interest.
Paul Marchant
has had an interest in cosmic matters since childhood
but learnt his way around the sky as relief from lab and
desk work when doing a PhD in astrophysics.
Ray Emery
began stargazing at the age of 7 (having been blessed
with the dark skies of Lincolnshire), and has been a
keen amateur astronomer ever since. Since coming to
Leeds in the mid-1970s he has been President of both the
Leeds University Astronomy Society and the (city) Leeds
Astronomical Society. He has organised the major
“Astromeet” conference in Leeds, and is particularly
interested in offering astronomy to as many people as
possible.
Other members of the Society will attend with items of
equipment. Hopefully there will be a clear sky and we
can do some observing in the garden of the venue. So
dress warm and bring binoculars if you have them. |
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Date: |
Monday 2nd November
2009 |
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Title: |
Decoding
reality |
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Speaker |
Vlatko Vedral |
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Details |
Vlatko
will consider some of the deepest questions about the
Universe and the implications of interpreting it in
terms of information.
The nature of information, the idea of entropy and the
roots of this thinking in thermodynamics, the bizarre
effects of quantum behaviour - effects such as
'entanglement', which Einstein called 'spooky action at
a distance', harnessing quantum effects in hyperfast
quantum computers and how recent evidence suggests that
the weirdness of the quantum world, once thought limited
to the tiniest scales, may reach into the macro world.
And what about the ultimate question: where did all of
the information in the Universe come from? The answers
Vlatko considers are exhilarating, drawing upon the work
of distinguished physicist John Wheeler. The ideas
challenge our concept of the nature of particles, of
time, of determinism and reality itself.
Vlatko Vedral studied undergraduate theoretical physics
at Imperial College London, where he also received a PhD
for his work on 'Quantum Information Theory of
Entanglement'. Since June 2009, Vedral has been
Professor of Quantum Information Science at Oxford
University. He has held a number of visiting
professorships at different international institutions
and published more than 150 research papers and two
textbooks. He has written for popular science journals
and major daily newspapers, as well as doing extensive
radio programmes and television interviews. His book is
due to appear in February 2010 (OUP). |
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Date: |
Tuesday 2nd February 2010 |
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Title: |
How to build a zero-carbon house |
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Speaker |
Matthew Hill |
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Details |
Matthew examines what the Government's target of
building zero-carbon homes by 2016 actually
means
and what options we have to achieve that target. This will be a practical
science presentation rather than a theoretical one, and
will aim to generate discussion on what steps people can
take to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from their own
homes.
Matthew is a Consulting Engineer with Leeds
Environmental Design Associates who specialise in the
design of low energy buildings. He is also a local
consultant for the Carbon Trust, teaches "green issues"
to architecture students in Leeds and assisted
in drafting the Climate Change Strategy for Leeds City
Council.
Following on from this talk and discussion, at 9.30 pm,
there will be a special extra event:
Almost
Everything Explained –
the nearly complete guide to the
universe.
How the world
started and what to do when it ends; how traffic wardens
evolved and where to go on holiday in the Bronze Age.
Featuring Steve Skinner:
song
writer, cartoonist and Leeds-based community worker, who
has created an original act using extracts from his
cartoon book. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 2nd March 2010 |
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Title: |
Standards: the boring stuff that shapes virtually
everything we do |
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Speaker |
Lawrence Busch |
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Details |
You're probably reading this on the screen of
your
standard laptop computer, which is plugged into standard
current. The light overhead comes from a standard bulb.
The shoes you are wearing are of a
standard size. Your dinner was of a standard variety in
a package of standard weight. Perhaps you recently took
a standard exam for a driving licence.
Although they're normally invisible, we live in a
world
largely created by standards. They are the recipes
by which we cook up everyday life. Everything from
global trade, to terrorist activities, to responses to
climate change depends on standards. Standards exert
enormous power, even as we cannot do without them. They
provide us with rules to follow as well as set the range
of possible choices we make.
But
who makes these standards? How are they enforced? Come
and peek behind the curtain to find out how this
seemingly boring stuff shapes everything and everyone.
Lawrence Busch is Professor of Standards and Society
at the Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of
Genomics, Lancaster University and University
Distinguished Professor of Sociology at
Michigan State University. He is a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and
a Member of the Académie d’Agriculture de France.
He has written or edited eleven books, and more than 150
other publications, on the politics and ethics of food
and agricultural standards, and on scientific and
technical change. |
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Date: |
30th March 2010 |
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Title: |
The hunt to find the genes that make us human |
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Speaker |
Jeremy Taylor |
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Details |
How many gene mutations does it take to make a human out
of something that looked very much like today's
chimpanzee? It is a question frequently posed by the
popular science media ever since the publication of the
full read-out of the chimpanzee genome, less than five
years ago.
The real story, however, is much more complicated - but
also much more interesting - than the simplistic notion
that "human-ness" can be accounted for by a mere 1.6%
difference between the genetic code of humans and
chimps. It involves the genetic foundations of language
and the huge relative size of the human brain, our
immune systems, our diet, and aspects of our behaviour.
It also shows the fallacy of campaigning for human
rights for chimpanzees based on limited - or spurious -
scientific arguments regarding their supposed genetic
and cognitive proximity to us. Chimpanzees are proving
useful to our quest to find out how we became human,
why, and when, but they are NOT watered-down versions of
us and we are NOT chimps with a genetic tweak!

Jeremy Taylor has been a broadcaster of popular science
all his working life and has recently turned to science
writing with his first book "Not A Chimp: The Hunt To
Find The Genes That Make Us Human." He has produced a
number of television programmes for the BBC’s flagship
series ‘Horizon’ and made many others informed by
evolutionary theory including two with Richard Dawkins. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 4th May 2010 |
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Title: |
Synthetic biology – a brave new world? |
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Speaker |
Bruce
Turnbull |
|
Details |
Imagine a
world in which we could make fuels or pharmaceuticals in
the same way we ferment malt to make beer. A world
in which materials as strong as steel are made without
industrial waste, or artificial viruses can be used to
administer anti-cancer drugs without the usual
side-effects of chemotherapy. Synthetic biology promises
new technologies that could change our lives through the
construction of new biological parts and devices, and
the redesign of existing biological organisms for new
purposes.
So, how
can we redesign living organisms to perform useful
functions? Are we on the point of creating artificial
life in a laboratory?

Dr Bruce
Turnbull, a synthetic chemical biologist from the
University of Leeds, will provide an overview of
synthetic biology – the possibilities, practicalities,
perils and potential profits. |
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Date: |
Monday 7th June 2010 |
|
Title: |
The
psychological
and physiological effects of meditation |
|
Speaker |
Peter
Malinowski |
|
Details |
Meditation is becoming an
increasingly studied
topic
within psychology and cognitive neuroscience. More and
more beneficial effects of meditation practice are being
described and different meditation-based interventions
have already been implemented in clinical as well as
non-clinical contexts. Meditation research spans a broad
range of aspects, including meditators who spent up to
50,000 hours in meditation as well as the application of
mindfulness meditation adjunct to cognitive behavioural
therapy for helping people with depression.
So, what happens in the
brain when meditators sit around and do nothing? How can
this be beneficial and what are the effects of regular
meditation practice?
Dr Peter Malinowski,
Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Liverpool John Moores
University, will introduce the
latest developments in this emerging field. His
main research focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of
meditation. As he is a practicing Buddhist and has been
teaching Buddhist meditation for more than 15 years he
also understands how meditation feels from inside.
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Date: |
Monday 5th July 2010 |
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Title: |
Chips, Crime and Cancer: What Have Ion Beams Ever Done
for Us? |
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Speaker |
Melanie Bailey and Roger Webb |
|
Details |
Using a particle
accelerator to generate “ion beams”, researchers at the
University of Surrey Ion Beam Centre are making new
generations of computer chips, fighting crime and
helping develop new cancer treatments. This talk will
discuss how ion beams are generated, accelerated to
speeds approaching 10% of the speed of light and used in
a variety of applications. High speed particles interact
with materials in ways that give clues about their
composition, enabling analysis of items as diverse as
gunshot residue, fingerprints, works of art and
biological materials. Ion beams are used in the
processing and manufacture of every silicon chip found
in mobile phones, laptop computers etc. They also
affect the biological properties of materials and this
“particle therapy” is being used in a small number of
hospitals around the world for the treatment of certain
types of cancer.
Dr Melanie Bailey
is a research fellow at the Surrey Ion Beam Centre and
works with users of the facility from across Europe to
design and carry out their experiments. She is
currently developing analysis procedures for samples
recovered from forensic investigations and is working
with various different institutions and policing bodies
to achieve this aim.
Prof Roger Webb
is the Director of the Surrey Ion Beam Centre, providing
resources for academic and industrial users throughout
the world. He has been researching the interaction of
ion beams with materials for more than 30 years for a
diverse set of applications from superconductors to
biology through coatings and radiation damage. |
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