Launched September 2004

 

Date:	22nd September 2004 -launch event
Title:	'The Science of Cooking'
Speaker:	Peter Barham – molecular gastronomist
Description:	Café Scientifique presents the first of its four-part dinner series exploring cravings. This month, molecular gastronomist Peter Barham unravels the science of cooking, from pepper mill to palate - all over a delicious dinner. This evening costs £10 per person which includes a two-course meal and a drink.

Date:	20th October, 6-30pm
Title:	'The Battleground of Love and Lust'
Speaker:	Dr Petra Boynton – sex psychologist
Description:	Café Scientifique presents the second of its dinner series exploring cravings. This month, sex psychologist Dr Petra Boynton explores the battleground of love and lust - all over a delicious dinner promised to make you swoon. This evening costs £10 per person which includes a two-course meal and a drink.

Date:	17th November, 6-30pm
Title:	'The Battleground of Love and Lust'
Speaker:	Professor Russell Foster, biologist
Description:	Café Scientifique presents the third of its dinner series exploring cravings. In this dark and dreary month, come and discuss what you lack most: light. Professor Russell Foster, biologist and author of The Rhythms of Life, explores our hankering for sunshine, all over a delicious dinner.

Date:	19th January 2005, 6-30pm
Title:
Speaker:
Description:	Contemplating the spectacle that is the January sales, we explore the desire to shop. Do we have a biological urge to buy? Are shopaholics really addicted? Nigel Marlow, a Consumer and Business Psychologist at London Metropolitan University, leads the discussion while you dine.

Date:	18th May, 6:30pm
Title:	‘Stress in the workplace’
Speaker:	Eric Brunner - Senior lecturer in epidemiology at University College London.
Description:	Café Scientifique presents the fourth in its dinner series exploring the fragility of the human mind. This month, Eric Brunner will discuss recent research in stress and it’s relevance to our experiences in the workplace. He will explore the place of social status in how people respond to such stress.This evening costs £10 per person which includes a two-course meal and a drink.

Date:	15th June, 6:30pm
Title:	‘Criminal minds’
Speaker:	Annie Bartlett – Clinical Director of Forensic Sciences at Springfield Hospital.
Description:	Café Scientifique presents the fifth in its dinner series exploring the fragility of the human mind. The Victorian phrenologists claimed they could tell a criminal from a law-abiding citizen by the contours of their skull. In the age of brain scans and theories of criminal psychopathy are we any further on? This month, Annie Bartlett will discuss the differences between male and female criminals. This evening costs £10 per person which includes a two-course meal and a drink.

Date:	20th July, 6:30pm
Title:	‘Malicious migranes’
Speaker:	Dr Andy Dowson – Director of the Headache Service, Kings College Hospital.
Description:	Café Scientifique presents the sixth in its dinner series exploring the fragility of the human mind. Those who suffer from them will agree that a migrane is a great deal more than just a headache. Attacks can be completely disabling, forcing the sufferer to abandon everyday activities for days at a time. This month, Dr Andy Dowson will tackle the most common neurological condition in the developed world, which affects more people than diabetes, epilepsy and asthma combined.   This evening costs £10 per person which includes a two-course meal and a drink.

Date:	19th October
Title:	'Do fish fall in love?'
Speaker:
Description:	Or is their attention span too short for such complex emotion? Do plants feel pain? Or are they mearely cold masses of tissue? Professor Brian J Ford explores the notion that other animals may also be sensitive and sentient rather than simply passive and reactive. There will also be an opportunity to buy signed copies of his fascinating book, Sensitive Souls.

Date:	16th November
Title:	'Was Einstein right?'
Speaker:
Description:	It was Einstein who said, "To me, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." As Einstein Year draws to a close, we ask if he did fully comprehend the universe – or are there points at which Einstein fails?

Date:	14th December
Title:	'What Darwin can’t explain'
Speaker:
Description:	Evolution via natural selection was Darwin’s master theory. Yet while survival of the fittest can explain the shape of a finch’s beak, can it tell us how exploding termites came about? Dinner@Dana shows us how to create cooperation from selfish genes.

Date:	Wednesday 25th January
Title:	Cracking the Chemical Code
Speaker:	Philip Stewart, University of Oxford
Description:	Ecologist Philip Stewart of the University of Oxford talks about the development of the Periodic table - the visual display behind which the secrets of the elements chemical code lie. He discusses the inspiration for his Chemical Galaxy, an exciting new version of Mendeleev's masterpiece.

Date:	15th February 2006; 6.30pm to 9pm
Title:	Bletchley Park and the Enigmas
Speaker:	Christopher Little, Bletchley Park
Description:	Top-secret codes, ciphers and the dark art of cryptography the story of Bletchley Park still pushes our buttons. Join us for a cracking Café Scientifique evening as we unscramble how the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers were broken. Bletchley Park was the top secret WWII British codebreaking centre, home to the world's first programmable digital electronic computers invented specifically for codebreaking. Find out what made the Enigma and Lorenz machines so formidable and how Bletchley's brilliant mathematicians broke the ciphers.

Date:	22nd March 2006; 6.30pm to 9pm
Title:	Decoding the mind
Speaker:	Seth Grant, Sanger Institute
Description:	In the aftermath of the human genome project the race is on to discover how our 25,000 genes work together to create the people we are. Professor Seth Grant of the Sanger Institute talks about his work decoding some of the key genes involved in cognition and behaviour, explaining how the power of our minds may be 1,000 times greater than we formerly predicted. He discusses how these developments could offer new insights into how the brain evolved, how it functions and how it is affected in disease.

Date:	27th April 2006; 6.30pm to 9pm
Title:	How feathers saved the dinosaurs
Speaker:	Matt Wilkinson
Description:	Contrary to popular belief, dinosaurs almost certainly did not become extinct 65 million years ago. At least not quite.  There is now overwhelming evidence that one group, including dinosaur superstars like Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, developed feathers and eventually gave rise to modern birds.  Dr Matt Wilkinson, zoologist from the University of Cambridge and FameLab runner-up, explains how the lords of the Earth conquered the skies in one of the most extraordinary and controversial evolutionary stories.

Date:	Wednesday June 21st
Title:	Midsummer dreams ...
Speaker:	Peter Naish, The Open University
Description:	Take a trip into the subconscious and explore the science of hypnosis. Does hypnosis really work? If so, what makes the brain susceptible? Peter Naish will try to separate science from fiction. More information on the Dana Centre website

Date:	Wednesday 13th September
Title:	Gastro-thrills!
Speaker:	David Loong
Description:	In the first of our series on the science of food, Dinner@Dana gets experimental in the kitchen. Take your taste buds on a thrilling ride as we serve a special gastro-science menu, designed in collaboration with our guest scientist. Dr David Loong, FameLab 2006 finalist from Imperial College, will guide you through the chemistry of aroma and flavour and explain the science behind what we eat. How does the way you chew and swallow your food affect its taste? Why do some unusual flavours just seem to work so well when we put them together? But food sensations aren’t all about aroma and flavours – prepare to go beyond the five taste sensations on a gastro thrill! Why does chilli make us feel ‘hot’, and mint feels ‘cool’? Can peppercorns cause a numbing effect, and why should you drink milk after eating curry? Come experiment with your taste buds and hear the chemistry behind what we eat.

Date:	Thursday, 2nd November
Title:	Gastro-science extra!
Speaker:	David Loong
Description:	Owing to the massive popularity of the Gastro-Science series, Dinner@Dana is coming back for a second helping of chemistry and cooking. Everything you wanted to know about food but were too afraid to ask! Do you have a food question for Dinner@Dana food chemist David Loong? No matter how obscure or silly they are, e-mail them to talk@danacentre.org.uk, and David will research the answers to the ones that tickle his taste buds. Come along to the event and listen to the answers while you dive into a delicious meal. Why are chicken-flavoured crisps suitable for vegetarians? How do you get children to eat broccoli? Could we use Pavlov’s famous dog experiment to train ourselves to eat food we don’t like? Why do pregnant women get cravings? David will take on any question you can think of!

Date:	Wednesday 8th November
Title:	Extreme Science
Speaker:
Description:	Join Dinner@Dana as we begin a season of extreme science. Café Scientifique has sought out scientists and survivors working in some of the toughest conditions on the planet. Come explore the limits of human endurance over dinner and drinks.

Date:	Tuesday 12th December
Title:	Life in the deep-freeze
Speaker:
Description:	Hostile, yet breathtakingly beautiful, the Antarctic is full of extremes. Discover how scientists from the British Antarctic Survey live and carry out vital research in the coldest, highest and windiest continent on the planet. Engineer Mike Rose works for the British Antarctic Survey at the sharp end - designing and running the scientific equipment that is crucial for a complete understanding of Antarctica and its importance to our planet. His work has taken him to Antarctica 11 times, once for 27 months straight! Join Dinner@Dana as Mike shows us the reality of life in the Antarctic with some dramatic images, and explains why science in this most remote of places is essential to us all.

Date:	Tuesday 13th June
Title:	Angels, demons, anti-matter
Speaker:	Rolf Landua, CERN
Description:	Antimatter is a real substance that has fuelled the plots of many fictions. In the novel 'Angels and Demons' by bestselling author Dan Brown, a secret society want to destroy the Vatican using an antimatter bomb. The antimatter was said to have been stolen from CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics. Its physicist Leonardo Vetra (a fictitious character) was horrifically murdered in mysterious circumstances. Could any of these things ever happen? Antimatter physicist Rolf Landua, CERN's 'real-life Leonardo Vetra', will be jetting in from Switzerland to explain the science that fiction cannot imagine (possibly taking the X-33 spaceplane). In 1995 CERN became the first place in the world to successfully create antimatter. Since then, its physicists have been routinely producing it in the 'antimatter factory'. How do they make this stuff? Where do they keep it? And what is it used for? Brace yourself for some strange science and an imaginative menu inspired by the talk!

Date:	Wednesday 11 July
Title:	Birth of the World Wide Web
Speaker:	Robert Cailliau, co-developer of the World Wide Web
Description:	It's not every day that you meet someone who revolutionised your life. Rarer still is someone who achieved this for populations on a global scale. Meet Robert Cailliau. According to web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, 'At the marriage of hypertext and the Internet, Robert was the best man.' In 1989, when convincing others of the excitement of the web was an uphill struggle, Cailliau was its ultimate evangelist. His 'genius for spreading the gospel' and a fastidious eye for detail complemented Berners-Lee's creative grand vision. Together, they formed a synergetic partnership to bring an ambitious idea into our everyday reality. In the grand finale of a series of Dinner@Dana with speakers from CERN (the European laboratory for particle physics in Switzerland, and the place where the web was born), hear the first-hand account of how Berners-Lee, Cailliau and other collaborators fought passionately for the web and nurtured its development. Theirs was not the only idea around at the time, so how did they succeed where many others failed? Also, find out why the web still has some way to go before achieving Berners-Lee's original vision and dine on a special menu inspired by the web!

Date:	Wednesday 23rd January
Title:	It's only a game!
Speaker:	Jonathon Parke, Centre for the Study of Gambling, University of Salford
Description:	Wanna play? Dinner@Dana's new series explores the science and psychology behind fun and games. We start by looking into the psychology behind one of the world's biggest addictions: gambling. Jonathon Parke, psychologist and lecturer in gambling studies, joins us to discuss what gambling and gambling addiction really are. Britons make up a third of online gamblers in Europe, so are we as a nation becoming more addicted? Find out why gambling is so addictive and analyse the traits of people who are more likely to get hooked. Perhaps it's not all down to us … what about the game creators? Is it possible to design a game with the purpose of making it addictive? How do game designers go about it? Or maybe it's our environment that contributes to the addiction? The number of people gambling in the UK is increasing every day. Join us at Dinner@Dana to find out why, and what we can do to prevent ourselves becoming hooked on the buzz of winning.

Date:	Wednesday 20th February
Title:	The game of love
Speaker:	Davina Bristow
Description:	Wanna play? Dinner@Dana's new series explores the science and psychology behind fun and games. Dinner@Dana wltm single, fun-loving individuals for a night of food, wine and love. GSOH/sociable/an interest in science a plus. Must be tolerant of silly games and not be afraid to laugh at oneself. Allow us to meddle with your love life in the name of science! As part of our Fun and Games series, Dinner@Dana gets together with Dr Davina Bristow to create a singles night inspired by the science of love. Join us for an evening of food, wine and more... If the best way to the heart is through the stomach, then our two-course dinner will help you fuel your amorous appetite. Davina will delve into the neurochemistry of love and lay down the ‘rules of attraction’ according to scientific research. We’ve even devised a few games based on her talk to help you get acquainted with your fellow diners. At the end of the night, it’s up to you to decide if the chemistry is right. This is a dating event designed especially for singles aged 21 to 36. To attend you must be single and be able to stay for the duration of the event. Please include the following information at the time of booking: Your name Your sex The craziest thing you’ve ever done for love (one that you wouldn’t mind sharing with the rest of us!). This event starts at promptly 18.30; please arrive 20 minutes early for registration. Places are limited to 30 men and 30 women.