Programme of Cafés for 2012
Tues March 20th
Professor Chris Ponting,
Professor of Bioinformatics,
MRC Functional Genetics Unit, University of Oxford.
"The Human Genome: Who Do You Think You Are?"
Traces of our evolutionary ancestry are readily apparent within the 2 metres of DNA in each of our cells. This talk will highlight recent surprises from genetics and genomics research, including how each one of us carries dozens of defunct genes.
Tues 17th April
Professor Roderick Hunt
University of Exeter, School of Biosciences
“Ecological challenges and evolutionary solutions”
'All the biosphere's a stage, and all the organisms merely players'. This adaptation of Shakespeare's famous aphorism well encapsulates the responses of life on earth to the external pressures which it faces. In the case of plant life, these responses can lead to clear outcomes that are independent of scale, time and location. And maybe the story does not end there, for certain parallels also show up within the human domain.
Tues 15th May
Professor Geoffrey Allen,
Director, Materials Centre South West
Interface Analysis Centre, University of Bristol
“The UK’s Energy Policy”
The talk will present an overview of the British Nuclear programme in relation to that of France and will discuss the status of alternative energy sources - tidal, wind, coal, oil etc. in meeting National needs over the next few decades.
Tues 19th June No meeting
Tues 17th July
Professor Mike Ashfold FRS
Head of Department, School of Chemistry,University of Bristol
“Growing diamonds in the laboratory.”
The presentation will describe: Some properties and applications of diamond;
How diamond films can be grown in the laboratory by a technique called
chemical vapour deposition (CVD); the ways in which careful experiments (laser and optical spectroscopy), along with companion modelling (with Moscow State University), reveal key aspects of the gas phase chemistry necessary for diamond CVD; and finally how this information informs our understanding of how diamond grows by CVD.
Tues 18th Sept
Dr Richie Abel
Lecturer in Musculoskeletal Science, Imperial College, London.
“What Lies beneath?”
Richie trained as a zoologist, palaeontologist and anthropologist before working at the Natural History Museum in London for three years. After realising that these subjects cannot pay the mortgage he decided to apply the skills and knowledge he acquired in the field of medical research at Imperial College. In particular Richie is adapting methods and techniques he learned studying museum collections to explore age-related bone diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The main cross over is computed tomography (CT), an x-ray based technique for producing ”virtual” 3D objects on a computer. Richie uses the models to look inside objects and analyse internal structure. For example, crocodiles, Egyptian mummies ancient stone tools, tropical coral reef, sharks and (most exciting) snails!
Tues 16th Oct
Professor Frank Close FRS
Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics, University of Oxford.
“The Infinity Puzzle”
This is the story of how science progressed from atoms to the Large Hadron Collider, focussing on the human stories and discussing the question of whether the Nobel Prizes went to the right people. And of course: will Peter Higgs have got/be getting the 2012 award for the Higgs Boson? (Plus, why is it called the Higgs Boson when at least 5 other people lay claim to the idea?).
Tues 20th Nov
Professor Henry Hutchinson
Formerly Head of the Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and the Laser Research Group, Imperial College, London.
“Prospects for Laser Induced Fusion Power”
The talk will introduce and explain what fusion is, and the features which make it attractive as a potential energy source. It will describe the two main approaches, Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF) and Inertial Confinement Fusion. MCF involves the generation and containment of a high temperature plasma in a large machine such as a Tokomak. ICF involves the concentration of a huge amount of laser power onto a pellet-like target to compress and heat the target to temperatures where a thermonuclear reaction can be initiated. Current research efforts on ICF in Europe and the USA will be described.