| Date | Subject (Standard Info) | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
2013 8:15 pm |
Water is one of the commonest molecules in the Universe and generally presumed to be a pre-requisite for life. It occurs in many locations in our own solar system (even sunspots) and is a key component of the vast interstellar clouds out of which stars form. It is observed in the atmospheres of stars cooler than our sun and brown dwarfs which are essentially failed stars. Most intriguingly water is now being routinely detected in the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars. The talk will discuss how one observes water outside the earth, many of the locations in which it is detected and the role it plays. Jonathan Tennyson is Massey Professor of Physics at University College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His group is renowned for its study of how water molecules absorb and emit light. He was involved in the first detection of water in an exoplanet is currently running a major project (www.exomol.com) dedicated to providing the laboratory information necessary to characterise the atmospheres of exoplanets. |
(University College London) |
8:15 pm |
The evening's lecture will be focusing on clues to understanding our pets and how they communicate. Topics to be discussed include modes of communication including body language and behaviour; distinguishing normal behaviour from learned behaviour or a medical problem; special attention will be given to the most common behavioural complaints – anxiety and aggression; and, finally, a brief introduction to recent studies into animals' behaviour. There will be a question and answer session following. |
(Veterinary Surgeon and Behaviour Consultant) |
8:15 pm |
HIV was discovered in 1983, two years after AIDS first hit the headlines. Yet by this time the virus had been infecting humans for around 100 years. Starting in a single person it had already spread globally when AIDS first came to light. To date it has infected 60-80 million and killed 25 million in one of the largest pandemics ever known. This talk relates the fascinating scientific detective work that eventually revealed the past history of this killer virus. In a 30 year quest scientists have uncovered exactly where the virus came from, when and how it first infected humans and why it has spread so successfully. We will follow the trail from research laboratories to the remote rain forests of Africa and back again to unravel HIV's complicated life story. Over the years scientists on the case have made some amazing discoveries – there is not just one HIV but 12 – all separately derived from primate viruses. Aided by a mutation rate that is a million times faster than ours, all 12 can out-manoeuvre our immune system. But only one, HIV-1 group M, has spread globally. We will discuss the reasons for this and its implications for developing an effective vaccine or finding a cure. |
(University of Edinburgh) |
8:15 pm |
NEWS FROM THE ENERGY FRONTIER On July 4th 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN announced the discovery of a new particle. This particle is a Higgs boson, intimately involved with the unification of two fundamental forces and the origin of mass. It was recognised with the award of the Nobel prize in physics this year to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs. Prof. Buttereworth will discuss the experiments, the discovery, and what might come next. Jon Butterworth works at CERN and is Head of Physics & Astronomy at UCL. He writes for the Guardian at http://www.theguardian.com/science/life-and-physics |
(University College London, ATLAS, CERN) |
8:15 pm |
Everyone has heard of lasers, but what are they and how do they impact on everyday life and beyond? This talk will discuss the origins of lasers starting from Einstein's prediction at the beginning of the last century to their practical realisation in the 1960's. The talk will go on to show how lasers have gone from being a scientific curiosity to impacting almost every aspect of our life, whether we know it or not. The talk will conclude by looking ahead to what lasers may do for us in the future. |
(University of Surrey) |
8:15 pm |
This talk will focus on current thinking on low carbon road vehicles with special reference to research and development work ongoing at University College London. Today the vast proportion of road vehicles are powered by the internal combustion engine burning hydrocarbon based fuels to produce greenhouse gases and other harmful emissions. Whilst legislation has been introduced to reduce emissions from road vehicles, global achievements to decarbonise the road vehicle transport industry as a whole remain disappointing. For instance in the UK, domestic transport accounts for around a quarter of all major sources of greenhouse gas emissions with the vast majority coming from road transport. Despite much progress in technology especially in the fields of electric and hybrid vehicles, the use of alternative fuels and the implementation of emission control systems, emissions from road vehicles remain stubbornly high and 'acceptable' low carbon vehicles remain largely elusive. The talk will consider the challenge of reducing harmful emissions from vehicles on a national and global scale, the technologies available now and in the near term, people's attitudes, and how legislation might be used usefully to achieve meaningful reductions. |
(University College London) |
8:15 pm |
the Archaeology, Mythology and Folk Lore of the Fossil Sea Urchin In 1887 two Bronze Age skeletons were found in southern England that had been buried with hundreds of fossil sea urchins. Since then archaeologists have made further discoveries revealing that people have been collecting these fossils for hundreds of thousands of years. But what did these prehistoric collectors make of them? Why did they bother to collect them? And why did they bury them with their dead? In this talk Dr McNamara will try to answer these questions, exploring what Norse mythology can tell us; why fossil urchins were collected in Imperial Rome and ancient Egypt; and why a medieval church-builder framed a window with these fossils, each marked by a five-pointed star. |
(Director, Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge) |
8:15 pm |
"The magic of Harry Potter! Can we make Cloaking a reality?' Harry Potter can make himself invisible just by pulling on a cloak. Science Fiction? Even in Harry's world it takes powerful magic. Could it ever be made a reality? This talk is about the work of the electronic engineers who are applying their physics and engineering skills to create new kinds of materials that make objects invisible. Invisibility may even be a possibility for humans too. With the help of electronic engineering, Harry Potter's style of magic may one day be science fact. |
(Queen Mary, University of London) |
8:15 pm |
Over the last 30 years, techniques of imaging the living human brain have moved beyond visualising its structure to mapping its activity. Prof. Swithenby will review briefly the current state of the art and introduce magntoencephalography MEG, a method that provides a window onto rapid cognitive activity. MEG is helping us to understand psychological processes. This will be illustrated through the results of studies on autism, mathematical processing and, possibly, shopping behaviour. |
(Open University) |
8:00 pm |
Last updated 15-May-2014