Tuesday, August 12th at Explore At-Bristol - Dr David Bird
Nice barrage - shame about the fish
A
barrage across the Severn Estuary is predicted to supply up
to 5% of the UK’s electricity needs; but at what cost?
Join David Bird from the University of the West of England
as he discusses the impact a barrage could have on the fish
population.
Dr David Bird is a Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Health
and Life Sciences at the University of the West of England.
Find out more about David here.
 Monday July 28th at the Tobacco Factory - Ed Drewitt
What's happening to our garden birds - are pigeons and magpies
taking over?
We're often being encouraged to feed garden birds all year
round and hear about the plight of our sparrows and starlings
in the media. But what is really going on?
Find out about the population changes of our familiar garden
birds, the reasons behind them as well as some fascinating
science about some of our garden favourites.
Clarify
and challenge some of the misunderstandings or misinterpreted
stories relating to some of our garden birds and find out
what's happening with garden birds across the UK more generally.
Edward is a Museum Learning Officer (Natural Sciences) at
Bristol's City Museum & Art Gallery. He provides the commentary
for educational trips on Bristol Ferryboats and is an expert
on, amongst other things, the Peregrine Falcons in Bristol.
July 8th at Explore, At-Bristol. Dr Ruth Morse.
Cancer Fact, Cancer Fiction
Join
Ruth Morse from the University of the West of England to explore
how your DNA, your environment and your personal behaviour
interact in the development of cancers.
Distinguish between cancer facts and cancer fictions as
Ruth challenges some common misconceptions about cancer.
Dr Ruth Morse is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Genetics with
a particular interest in the role of DNA in bone marrow cancer.
More
on Ruth and her work
June 30th at the Tobacco Factory: Mark Hempsell
What happened to the Space Age?
In the 50 years period between 1970 and 2020 mankind will have
invested around $500 Billion in space capability (launch vehicles,
space stations
etc.) and effectively achieved nothing. In the equivalent period
in aviation aircraft moved from world war 1 biplanes to supersonic
fighters and jet airliners.
Technically, almost anything is possible - solar power, re-usable
space planes, cheap methods for disposable of nuclear waste, trips
to the moon and mars - but is there the political will?
Mark Hempsell is Senior Lecturer in Space Technology in the Department
of Aerospace Engineering at Bristol University.
Mark's
webpage at Bristol University
June 10th at Explore At-Bristol: Dr Marcello Ruta
Note - change of speaker - Mike Benton has been called
away; his colleague Marcello Ruta will cover the same topic
Mass Extinction
250
million years ago life on planet Earth was almost wiped out in the
greatest Mass Extinction of all time. Marcello Ruta and his research
team at the University of Bristol weren't there in the flesh, but
are unearthing what caused such a catastrophe using the next best
thing - fossils!
But how much can the fossils that we find today tell us about what
life was like so many millions of years ago? How did some animals
survive the extinction? And what can studying mass extinctions of
the past tell us about the world we live in today?
Join us at our second Science Café in Explore At-Bristol
to meet and chat with Marcello in the present day, to find out more
about this dramatic period in life's history.
Link to Marcello
Ruta's webpage
May 19th at the Tobacco Factory: James Ladyman
"The mysteries of Quantum Mechanics - what do they
tell us about the world we live in?"
In
this talk James will first explain what is so strange about
quantum entanglement and then explain why it is wrong to draw
many of the exciting conclusions from it that are often talked
about in popular discussions. More
about James
James Ladyman is Professor of Philosophy, University of
Bristol
New Science Cafe: Explore-At-Bristol!
May 13th at Explore-At-Bristol: Dr Ainsley Newson
Genetic Futures
With DNA sequencing and genetic testing technologies advancing
all the time, the reality of a personal genomic profile for
any one of us is just around the corner.
But what could receiving your genetic profile mean to you?
How might this affect the way we live our lives? How important
are our genes in predicting our future health? What ethical
issues might arise? Would we rather not know what information
our genes hold?
To ask these questions and more come along to Explore At
Bristol's first Science Cafe on Tuesday 13th May at 7.30 for
8pm in the Theory Cafe, and find out more about this interesting
area of social and scientific dilemma.
Ainsley Newson, lecturer in Biomedical Ethics at the Centre
for Ethics in Medicine at the University of Bristol, spends
her time unpicking the social and moral issues of developments
in genetic technologies.
To find out more about Ainsley's work visit: Ainsley's
web page
To find out more about At-Bristol visit: www.at-bristol.org.uk
April 28th: Adam Durant
Volcanoes, dust, and climate

Image: 1991 Pinatubo volcanic aerosol veil, taken from the
space shuttle
Small silicate particles suspended in the atmosphere redistribute
energy from the sun and surface of the Earth, and consequently
impact climate. The main sources of these particles are from
suspension of surface dust in arid regions, such as the Sahara
Desert, and from direct injection by explosive volcanic activity
(volcanic ash).
At this meeting of Science Café, we will discuss the
types and origin of particles in the atmosphere, how they
interact with solar and terrestrial radiation, how clouds
are modified, and ultimately how climate is affected...more
information as pdf file.
More
about Adam
Adam Durant, University of Bristol, UK, and Michigan Technological
University, USA
March 31st: James Windmill
Hearing at the nano-scale
Dr
James Windmill is a qualified engineer with a PhD in Nanotechnology.
He will describe, using a multi-media presentation, his research
into BioNanoScience and the mechanisms of hearing.
This research has included investigations into the nano-mechanics
of insect sound receivers, looking at the processes through
which mechanical vibrations at the nanoscale are converted
to neural signals. The mechanisms involved are strikingly
similar to those found in the human ear, making certain insects
very good models for research into human hearing.
James is a research associate in the School of Biological Sciences
at Bristol University.
February 25th: Sue Wilson
All about sleep
Why do we sleep? What happens if we don't get enough? How common
are sleeping disorders? How common is sleep walking and other peculiar
sleep habits?
Come with your questions for what I think will be an especially
lively evening!
Dr Sue Wilson is Senior Research Fellow in the
Psychopharmacology Unit, University of Bristol.
January 28th: Anthony Hollander
Science & ethics of stem-cell research
Professor
Hollander has been working in the field of cartilage biology
and arthritis research for nearly 20 years, including 3 years
spent at an internationally recognized cartilage laboratory
at McGill University in Montreal. More recently he has focused
on tissue engineering and stem cell biology for cartilage
repair.
Anthony Hollander is Professor of Rheumatology and Tissue
Engineering at Bristol University.
Anthony's University home page.
October 29th: Ian Donaldson
Good Queen Bess and the Mineral Industries of Somerset and Gloucester
Queen Elizabeth realised that if the newly Protestant England ever
went to war with Catholic Spain and France, her forces lacked brass
for cannon, which at that time only came from the continent. So
in 1565 she brought in prospectors from southern Germany to search
the length and breadth of the Kingdom for calamine, an essential
mineral. It was eventually found at Weston-super-Mare, and the rest
is history. But they weren’t the first prospectors to strike
it rich in this area.
So if you’ve ever fantasised about Puzzle Wood, puzzled
over Velvet Bottom, scratched you head about the cat’s whisker,
quarrelled over crossbows, or just seen red, come and learn about
our rich mineral heritage.
Monday, September 24th : Stuart Allan
When Worlds Collide: Science and the Media
Stuart will be talking about how journalists report on science
issues - especially where questions of risk are concerned - and
how scientists themselves regard their own involvement in this process.
He will seek to highlight various problems from these respective
perspectives, thereby opening up some questions for discussion -
not least with a view to how we might improve the quality of science
journalism.
Stuart Allan is Professor of Journalism, The Media School, Bournemouth
University.
Some additional information:
Stuart Allan’s work contrasts two worlds. Namely that of science
and that of the media.
According to the media scientists are insular, white-coated boffins
whose work is boring and repetitive, that is, until a terrifying
flash of insight leaves the future of humankind hanging in the balance.
Scientists are generally high-minded citizens working for the good
of society, but there are those who are intent on exploiting scientific
knowledge for ominous purposes, corrupted by power and greed.
From scientists' perspectives, the media is a superficial world driven
by a frenzied obsession with entertainment over information, and with
it style over substance. Journalists, no matter how well intentioned,
will more often than not succumb to the forces of sensationalism to
make their news account of a scientific development attract the public’s
wandering eye: if it bleeds, it leads.
For some scientists, this recurrent misrepresentation of the scientific
world by certain members of the media is more than just scandalous,
it is contrary to democracy itself. The media’s failure to give
science the respect it deserves, they warn, will have dire consequences
for the future.
Stuart Allan is Professor of Journalism at Bournemouth University.
His science-related books include Media, Risk and Science, and the
co-edited Environmental Risks and the Media. He is currently co-writing
a book about the news reporting of nanotechnology.
Prior to joining Bournemouth, he taught at the University of the
West of England, Bristol.
Monday, June 25th : Helen Heath
Into
the Heart of Matter
In order to investigate the smallest building blocks of matter
we need to build very big machines. The 27 kilometre long Large
Hadron Collider, being constructed near Geneva, is the biggest of
these big machines and is due to start exploring matter at the smallest
scale at the end of 2007.
This is the biggest scientific project since men were sent to the
moon and involves thousands of physicists and engineers. I hope
to be able to explain why one of those physicists has worked on
the project for over 10 years.
Helen is a senior lecturer in the Particle Physics Group in Physics
Department at the University of Bristol.
Monday, May 21st : Ben Sessa
From Sacred Plants to Psychotherapy: The History and Re-Emergence
of Psychedelics in Medicine
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the ‘Turn
On Tune In and Drop Out’ days of the 1960s. If clinicians
can remain dispassionate and stay true to principle of evidenced
based medicine, then we may be able to reconsider the therapeutic
possibilities of psychedelic drugs.
If we can do this, then there is a real chance that these
fascinating chemicals could play a positive role in the future
of psychiatry and neuroscience. That much we owe to the population
of patients with resistant psychological illnesses that may
benefit from this novel and brave approach.
Dr Ben Sessa is Consultant Psychiatrist,
Department of Psychopharmacology, Bristol University.
Monday, April 30th: Keith Williams
DNA Vaccines - Panacea or Pandora's Box?
Since
1990, when it was shown that genes injected into muscle could
initiate the production of novel proteins by the muscle cells,
the field of DNA vaccine research has undergone a rapid growth.
The human genome project and the greater understanding of
the molecular biology of infectious agents has given scientists
a plethora of potential therapeutic targets for this technology.
With the very recent publication of some early human clinical
trials data, this exiting new field has just begun to show
its therapeutic potential.
However, as with any new advancement in the field of gene
therapy, the concept of inserting genetic material into the
human genome raises a number of technical and ethical issues.
Keith will discuss the form and function of these vaccines,
how they are manufactured, their therapeutic potential and
the regulatory framework that is being implemented to reduce
the possible risks.
Keith is Operations Manager at the Bristol Institute for Transfusion
Sciences, Clinical
Biotechnology Centre of Bristol University.
Tuesday, March 27th: Margaret Clotworthy
Animal Testing- A False Safety Net?
Dr Margaret Clotworthy is Science Consultant for the Europeans
for Medical Progress Trust.
Adverse reactions to prescribed drugs are now our fourth
leading cause of death. This problem is epitomized by Vioxx
- the painkiller which has killed tens of thousands of people
over the past few years.
What can we do to improve drug safety? Many new and sophisticated
human-based tests offer advantages over the animal tests we
have relied on in the past. So how should we go about discovering
& developing new medicines today?
Europeans for Medical
Progress is an independent, non-profit-making organisation
of scientists and medical professionals. Dr Clotworthy is
a consultant for the separate organisation Europeans
for Medical Progress Trust, which is a charity responsible
for education and research.
Monday 26th February - Vala Ragnarsdottir
One Planet Living: Delivering a habitable planet for future
generations
Vala
is Professor of Earth Sciences at Bristol University.
Top climate change scientists have come to the conclusion
that an increase of more than 1C° from present temperatures
in the coming century would deliver a different planet, with
impacts including flooded lowlands, submerged islands, increases
in severe weather and droughts, hundreds of
millions of human refugees and over 50% extinction of species.
To avoid this 1 degree temperature rise we need to stabilise
the CO2 in the atmosphere to below 450 ppmv. This
means we need to reduce CO2 emissions by roughly
70% globally by 2030. To deliver a habitable planet to our
grandchildren individuals and political leaders need to act
now.
Vala will describe the "state we are in" and then
some practical steps for individuals "to do their bit".
Link to the Environmental
Geochemistry Research Group at Bristol University, of
which Vala is the head.
Monday 29th January - Nick Sturge of SETsquared
Exploiting and Accelerating University Science & Technology

How does a great academic idea become a commercial reality?
SETsquared is a joint initiative of Bath, Bristol, Southampton
and Surry Universities that supports knowledge-based high-growth
potential enterprises.
Nick will give examples of new businesses that are 'spin-offs'
of research carried out at Bristol and other Universities.
He will talk about what the Universities try to achieve, what
their decision making process is in deciding what ideas to
exploit, and how they do it.
SETsquared.co.uk
Monday, 11th December:
Science Café Cabaret!
Grab yourself a glass of wine, beer or warming hot chocolate
and join in the fun! Hear from fellow cafe-goers as they take
5 minutes to get on their soap-box, ask a question, tell a
joke or do a demo - all with a science flavour.
But the fun doesn't stop there; in the usual Science Cafe
style, the floor will be open for quick-fire comments and
questions after each 'performance'.
Places are filling up fast, so if you've got something to
get off your chest, or share with the world then email Bob
or Helen [Contact us] to reserve
your place.
Usual time and place - 8pm in the Green room of the Tobacco
Factory.
Monday, November 27th - Alan Winfield
"Please don't switch me off!"
How
would you feel if your robot vacuum cleaner asked you not
to switch it off?
Robots already play an important role in many of our lives
by going to places and doing jobs we don't want to, or simply
can't, do. As robot technology moves on, we pose the question,
how intelligent do we want our robots to be?
Alan is Associate Dean (Research) and
Hewlett-Packard Professor of Electronic Engineering in the
Faculty of Computing Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
at the
University of the West of England.
On Alan's webpage at UWE [here],
he says:
"I am deeply interested in mobile robots for two reasons:
(1), they are complex and potentially useful machines that
embody just about every design challenge and discipline there
is and (2), robots allow us to address some deep questions
about life, emergence and intelligence in a radically new
way, that is by building models. Thus, robotics is for me
both engineering and experimental philosophy."
Monday, October 30th - Richard
Ellam
Mr Brunel's Bloomers
On form, Isambard Brunel was unstoppable, and was capable
of truly great things. Unfortunately he was also capable of
staging monumental engineering disasters, such as the launching
of the SS Great Eastern which cost a lot of people a lot of
money. Even some of his great achievements, such as the Great
Western Railway only narrowly escaped being expensive and
embarrassing fiascos.
Brunel’s tendency to believe that he alone could do
anything resulted in his being as doggedly wrong as he could
be brilliantly right and left some expensive legacies for
his successors to clear up.
‘Mr Brunel’s Bloomers’ is a light hearted
and entertaining look at the science behind some of Brunel’s
less glorious achievements with the serious purpose of presenting
a more rounded and balanced view of the life and career of
this most charismatic of Victorian engineers.
Monday, September 25th
Superconductivity and the science of quantum materials.
Our speaker is James Analytis from Bristol University. He is a
Science and Engineering Ambassador and has recently moved to Bristol
from Oxford. He is investigating the science behind the extraordinary
phenomenon of superconductivity in which an electric current can
travel with virtually zero resistance. Such a current flowing in
a loop of superconducting wire could persist almost indefinitely
with no power source. This has been demonstrated at very low temperatures;
doing it at normal temperatures could revolutionise many areas of
our lives. However, success may depend on a deeper knowledge of
the quantum world than we have at present. James will describe the
background to this fascinating work and the latest discoveries.
July 31st
The science of beermaking and the history of brewing in Southville
Our speakers are Chris Thurgeson and Simon Bartlett from the Bristol
Beer Factory.
Simon will give a short talk on the history of brewing in Southville
while Simon will talk about the process of beermaking.
The Bristol Beer Factory is a small, independent venture that uses
locally grown malt and hops (samples of which will no doubt be available).
Whether you like beer or not, this is sure to be entertaining and
informative.
http://bristolbeerfactory.co.uk
June 26th
Forensic Evidence Interpretation – and the ‘Transposed
Conditional’ for the common man.
Mike Rogers BSc, RFP. Forensic Scientist
Mike Rogers is a senior Forensic biologist of some 34 years’
experience with the Home Office and, latterly, FSS Ltd (GovCo).
As an active Court Reporting officer, Mike is concerned at the
increasing trivialisation of Forensic Science on TV and the all-too
frequent misrepresentation of scientific evidence in the press and,
sometimes, in court (the ‘prosecutors fallacy’).
Do potential Jurors appreciate that when the scientist tells the
court, "There is only a one-in-a-billion chance of getting
this matching DNA evidence if the blood on the accused hadn't come
from the victim", he is not saying, "The
odds are a billion to one that the blood did come from the victim"
- and would they recognise the transposition if they saw it?
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