BY ZOOM because of transport strikes There is a significant shortage of donor organs for transplantation, and ∼50% of all transplanted organs are rejected within 10 years. To address this, the field of tissue engineering seeks to fabricate lab-grown organs and tissues, using biological scaffolds and patient-derived cells. This talk will describe some recent developments, including the fabrication of the complex blood vessel networks present in all organs; vascular grafts for treating cardiovascular disease and for haemodialysis; and organoids - miniature, self-organised, multicellular structures which replicate much of the complexity and function of real tissue, and which hold significant promise for the future of medicine.

IN PERSON ! Prof McLean is a research scientist with over 25 years of experience in monoclonal antibody generation and recombinant antibody expression in academic settings and has developed significant ties with biotechnology and vaccine companies. His scientific training has led him from New Zealand to British Columbia, Canada where he produced and used monoclonal antibodies for cancer therapy; New York, USA where he studied antibody gene diversification; and Texas where he continued studies using monoclonal antibodies as antiviral agents. He is currently based in London UK where his research now focuses on monoclonal antibody guided vaccine design for human viruses.

Man has through history expressed the wish to fly. Even in ancient times we dreamed of that and even looked up at astronomical bodies like the Moon and wanted to go there. As our technology developed, the ability to fly in the earth's atmosphere became a reality and our ambitions moved even further ahead of that. The moon landings were preceded by technical discussions about its feasibility, and even in Britain before the second world war, where rocketry was prohibited by statute, we had aero-engineers suggesting the technology that might make that feasible. As we then conquered the Moon and reached the other solar system bodies, ambitions once more moved ahead of our capabilities and we looked to the stars. The British Interplanetary Society in the mid-70s carried out a ground-breaking study to look at the feasibility of interstellar travel using believable technology. We will look at their conclusions and where we have reached since then, and look at this in the context of one of the most interesting scientific questions that has always fascinated man.

Most of us are aware of the hive mind - the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka draws from decades of research, including his own pioneering work, to argue that bees have remarkable cognitive abilities. He shows that they are profoundly smart, have distinct personalities, can recognize flowers and human faces, exhibit basic emotions, count, use simple tools, solve problems, and learn by observing others. They may even possess consciousness. Taking readers deep into the sensory world of bees, Chittka illustrates how bee brains are unparalleled in the animal kingdom in terms of how much sophisticated material is packed into their tiny nervous systems. He looks at their innate behaviours and the ways their evolution as foragers may have contributed to their keen spatial memory. Chittka also examines the psychological differences between bees and the ethical dilemmas that arise in conservation and laboratory settings because bees feel and think. Throughout, he touches on the fascinating history behind the study of bee behaviour. Exploring an insect whose sensory experiences rival those of humans, The Mind of a Bee reveals the singular abilities of some of the world's most incredible creatures.

Mike Lucibella is the former editor of The Antarctic Sun, the official newspaper of the U.S. Antarctic Program. He's travelled as far south as the South Pole multiple times to report on the science and research carried out across the frozen continent. Drawing on his six years' experience, he's sharing some of the research highlights from his time with the program.

Traditional proteins like soy and fishmeal are killing our planet. Raising animals and producing the protein-rich feed they eat require significant natural resources, and are major contributors to deforestation, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. As the global protein demand grows, there is urgency in finding a sustainable, scalable alternative that doesn't cost the earth. Insect protein, especially Black Soldier Fly larvae, uses less land, less water to farm, and can feed on a wide range of organic waste to grow. In this talk, Vivien Lee from Entocycle, a Black Soldier Fly biotech startup in London, illustrates how we can harness the power of nature's best up-cycling machines to revolutionise the way we farm and feed the world.

There is no more important question facing us - collectively and individually - than how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. And if it’s not possible to live individual lives without emitting carbon dioxide, then our collective commitment to ‘net zero’ is unlikely to be achieved. In this talk, Dr de Podesta will briefly describe the nature of the problem of global warming, and then discuss the role of three of the key technologies that over the coming decades will change the way we live: solar PV, batteries, and heat pumps. Are they enough to enable us to live lives without emitting carbon dioxide? Michael de Podesta retired in 2020 after a career as a Physics lecturer (Birkbeck and UCL) and a measurement scientist (NPL). Since retiring he has devoted his time and life-savings to attempt to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide he emits each year. He writes a blog at http://protonsforbreakfast.org.

The Tideway Tunnel is the largest UK water infrastructure projects which will substantially improve the Thames River. Whilst unseen to most Londoners the Tunnel is now 25km long and 7.2 metres in diameter and snakes along under the River Thames at a cost of around £5bn. The tunnel will be commissioned by 2025. This talk will first consider the history of the London drainage network and drivers for this massive project, with extensive diagrams and photos the tunnelling technology and operation will be presented. A number of the issues and challenges encountered will be discussed and modelling demonstrated. The speaker, David Watts, has been Construction Assurance Engineer for The Tideway Tunnel Project since 2015.

From the regulation of sea coal to limit smoke in 1307, to the 17th century observations of John Evelyn and John Gaunt of the potential impacts of London's air on the health of the population, London has been centre stage and world leading at both identifying the hazards of air pollution and legislating to protect the public's health. In this lecture Ian Mudway will review the impact of air pollution on London and Londoners over the last 700 years, from the responses to the London smog's 70-years ago, all the way through to current debates around the ULEZ expansion and woodburning.

AGM: Wine & Cheese £zzz + scientific entertainment

The Antikythera Cosmos

What are neutrinos? Why are they interesting? Why go to Antarctica to try and find them? Do we do it on a balloon or at the bottom of hole? Why do we need a detector that is over a million cubic kilometres? These questions and more will be addressed in this talk about the hunting for neutrinos in Antarctica. Featuring experiments at the bottom of the Earth and far above it.

The general principles and main characteristics of hydrometallurgical processes will be presented and its potential role in reducing the environmental impact in the mining and metals industry will be outlined. Some cases of application in the production of copper and lithium will be described and discussed.

The talk aims to give the viewer an appreciation of the chemistry behind all the festive favourites - the formation of snow, the scent of a Christmas tree, the combustion of wooden logs, the taste of good quality wine and food, the cooking of the turkey etc.

GPS must rank as one of the most commonly used inventions but very few people know how it works. Simple in principle, but massively complicated in practice, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) of which GPS is a part, is an essential part of modern infrastructure. But how does it work? And what happens when it does not work? That’s what this lecture is about.

The Natural History Museum's fossil fish collection contains approximately 100,000 specimens, has been amassed from all corners of the globe and spans approximately 450 million years with a broad taxonomic scope. Between 1836 to 1884 the Museum acquired thirty-eight major collections containing fossil fish. Then in 1882 Sir Arthur Smith Woodward joined the Museum and recognised the significance of the Fossil Fish Collection and almost immediately devoted all of his time and efforts into the study of fossil fish, culminating in the four-part Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History) published between 1889 and 1901. Woodward went on to describe nearly 320 type specimens, the majority held in the Museum. Over the next 115 years the collections have expanded considerably through donations and expeditions while techniques were developed to prepare the fossils. The collections are still heavily used by researchers from around the world today and we are actively adding to the collection. Current curatorial projects involve digitising and the enhancement of associated data of some of these historical collections. The talk will cover some of the key acquisitions to the collection and the work of those associated with it over the last 200 years.

Our Earth’s atmosphere is essential for life on the planet, and changes to its composition present significant environmental concerns. Issues such as poor air quality and climate change affect all of us and result in part from human activity and resultant atmospheric emissions. Awareness of such issues has led to actions to mitigate pollution. However, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns in early 2020 marked a huge and rapid change in human behaviour, with profound reductions in activities that cause atmospheric pollution. The resulting changes to our atmosphere’s composition provide great insight into the response of this ecosystem to changes in human activity and may provide some indicators for environmental changes in the future. This talk will review the state of our knowledge on atmospheric composition, from history to the present day, with particular reference to the issues of air quality and greenhouse gas abundance. It will then explore some recent findings from Covid-19 lockdowns and the insight they provide into the mechanisms and therefore prospect of atmospheric and environmental change in the future.

The use of animals in scientific research and testing is a highly controversial issue and people often disagree on whether this is necessary, useful, or justified, and to what extent non-animal alternatives are available. The UK National Centre for the Three Rs (NC3Rs) was set up to help scientists replace their use of animals and, where this is not possible, reduce the number of animals used and refine the care of the animals to keep pain and suffering to a minimum. There are many ways to achieve these aims, which are known collectively as the 3Rs. In his talk, Dr Elliot Lilley from the NC3Rs will give an overview of the ethical debate surrounding this issue, the legislative framework that regulates animal research and testing in the UK and the work of the NC3Rs.

Are we alone in the Universe? With missions to Mars, and outer planet moons, we hope to find out. We live in an exciting time for Mars exploration. In 2021, 3 international missions arrived at Mars - the UAE's Hope, China's Tianwen-1 and NASA's Perseverance rover, making a total of 11 in operation at Mars. Perseverance landed in Jezero crater on 18 February, to look for signs of life near the surface. It carried the Ingenuity helicopter, which undertook the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Perseverance will cache samples on the Martian surface, for return to Earth via NASA-ESA missions in 2026-2028, with return in 2031. The UK is building the ‘sample fetch’ rover. The launch window for the next Mars mission, the ESA Rosalind Franklin rover is delayed from 2022, but we hope it will be launched later this decade. The rover was built in the UK, and the scientific ‘eyes’, PanCam, are led from UCL-MSSL. Rosalind Franklin will, for the first time, drill 2m below the harsh Martian surface, to look for signs of past life on Mars. We will discuss why Mars is a key target for space exploration, look at some of the early results from the 2021 missions in context from earlier missions, and outline our hopes for PanCam and the Rosalind Franklin rover.

AGM by Zoom

This talk discusses the use of a portable Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) instrument to gather 3D information about forest structure. We create a virtual forest model that we use to validate satellite vegetation products and estimate previously elusive tree properties.

The talk will cover the history of insecticide use and development, the potential risks and benefits and alternatives to conventional chemistry. The speaker will go into some detail on the very public debate about one particular type of insecticides, the neonicotinoids, and their potential effects on bees. Including her views on how policy making can become skewed and doesn’t always use the best scientific evidence. Although she will try to make the case for using insecticides, she will also acknowledge that we should be using them in the most responsible way and trying to phase them out and find better alternatives to protect our crops without damaging non-target species and the wider environment. For this she will draw on examples of the work being done in her Department at Rothamsted, including biological control, biopesticides, the use of 'natural' chemicals, plant breeding and genetic manipulation.

"The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is alive today" - Aubrey de Grey, biomedical gerontologist For most of human history average lifespan has not exceeded 40 years. Average lifespan in the UK is now over 80. Our generation (COVID notwithstanding) is the healthiest, longest lived, best fed and safest that has ever lived. We can describe ageing but the mechanisms underlying the process are poorly understood. Research into ageing and the methods by which it can be slowed, stopped or reversed are now legitimate and mainstream. There is evidence to suggest that ‘curing’ ageing may be a viable approach to treating medical conditions associated with ageing, thus delaying death.

2019-20 AGM with Scientific Entertainment

Spaceborne Telescopes: The Past, Present and Future The vastness of space never ceased to amaze and intrigue humanity. Space telescopes orbit the Earth in an effort to provide us with a better understanding of the cosmos. In this talk, you will discover how astronomers and engineers combined their skills to create powerful telescopes that enabled us to see space from another point of view.

From bringing us into the New Year or to their vital use in construction, pyrotechnics and explosives have filled us with an excitement and unbridled joy for as long as people can remember. Scientists and scholars from all around the world have revolutionised the field since the first discoveries of gunpowder in 9th century China, Nobel's dynamite and to the ridiculous azidoazide azide of the 21st century. This talk will cover a brief history on the topic before moving onto the science that makes these incredible compounds and mixtures pop, and scientists' efforts to make them louder, more efficient, greener and, most importantly, safer. We will finish up with some of the more curious highlights chemists have dreamt up and synthesised in the past thirty years.

Off the Map - News from the Energy Frontier The talk will explore our current state of knowledge of particle physics, the so called “Standard Model”, completed by the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. This gives us a map of the invisible world of subatomic physics. But what does the map reveal, and what lies beyond its limits, and how might we explore further?

Organic Chemistry - A Brief History The talk will look in detail at the discoveries and experiments that lead to the development of this branch of chemistry from 1750-1850.

In May 2019 the definition of a kilogram changed from being based on a unique cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy to one involving the fundamental constant of quantum physics, the Planck constant. This remarkable change is one of the final steps in the evolution of accurate measurement, which started in early times for simple trading purposes, and later formed a productive synergy of scientific progress and technological development, like Harrison’s clocks for navigation. The talk will give an outline history of measurement, and explain how the kilogram is now realised by measuring voltage and resistance in quantum units.

entertainment

There is now ample evidence that omega-3 fish oils are essential components of a healthy diet, contributing to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and other metabolic pathologies. These beneficial fish oils are normally obtained either through the consumption of oily fish or via supplements, but both sources are dependent on the wild capture of fish from the oceans and as a consequence, a matter of concern in terms of sustainability and environmental footprint. At Rothamsted, we have been working on using plant genetic engineering to produce plants which have the capacity to make omega-3 fish oils, something that no native higher plant has the capacity to do. With this approach, we have successfully developed a terrestrial source of omega-3 fish oils, no longer dependent on extraction of marine resources from the oceans. This novel oil is clean and sustainable, and has been validated in both animal and human studies. We have also carried out a number of GM field trials at Rothamsted and in N. America to demonstrate that our plants can grow under real-world conditions. We believe that our GM omega-3 fish oils can help fill the gap between supply and demand in the ever-growing quest for these oils, ultimately leading to better nutrition for all.

It has long been realised that the Earth has seen large variations in temperature in the past, and one of the first people to speculate about the cause was a Scotsman, James Croll, who suggested it was due to changes in the Earth's orbital motion. This idea was expanded on by Milutin Milankovic, a Croatian scientist who developed a mathematical theory of climate based on how the radiation received by the Earth changed with time. Although he encountered a lot of scepticism at the time he published his ideas the subsequent analysis of the temperature record as seen from core samples has shown his work to have been largely correct. The talk will look at the mechanisms involved and see what this tells us about where the Earth's climate is heading.

Robotic-assisted surgery uses the most sophisticated technology available. Most specialties have developed this platform to provide safer more precise surgery, although it is most commonly associated with prostate surgery. We pioneered robotic thoracic surgery (RATS) in 2013 and now 40% of UK and Ireland centres have started a program. It is a generation ahead from standard keyhole surgery and offers more complex and major operations to be done using tiny incisions. Some standard open operations have been replaced completely by RATS. The benefit to the patient is a much quicker recovery and a return to home caring duties, work or a continuation of other necessary treatments. The Summit lung cancer screening trial in London is presenting smaller nodules to diagnose and treat and needing the best way to seek, find and destroy. We are moving into an exciting era of fusion robotic technology using Artifical Intelligence, Virtual and Augmented Reality. Thoracic Surgery will become easier for all and more frail patients will now benefit from curative operations.

5G - What's It All About? Mobile Communications technology has rapidly developed, 4G (4th Generation) based systems are well established and 5G (5th Generation) is already being rolled out. So what is 5G and why do we need it? This talk will describe the development of 5G and detail some if its technical features. The speaker is Chris Friel BEng CEng MIET who has worked for many years in the mobile communications industry.

Our planet - and our lives - are ruled by our nearest star. Its influence is manifest in many ways: there is an unexpected connection between man's need to stay cool on the ground when his ancestors left the trees, and the evolution of the ability to stand upright, and an equally strong link between the need for sleep in the hours of darkness and the power of human memory. Most of all, perhaps, we now know that a shortage of sunlight plays a part in many diseases, from cancer, to multiple sclerosis, to heart disease: a January evening is a good time to discuss all of these.

Mars is currently a hyperarid, cold desert, but since the 1970s, we have seen evidence for past liquid water. Today, we are in a golden era of Mars exploration - a combination of satellites, landers, and rovers provide us with a plethora of evidence for both past and present water on Mars. This talk will discuss some of that evidence and present the case that rivers, lakes, and seas covered the Red Planet billions of years ago.

During the late afternoon of the 14th of August 1975 north London was struck by a severe thunderstorm which caused flash flooding in the Hampstead and Highgate area and resulted in the death of one person, injuries to several others and damage to properties and infrastructure. Actual precipitation totals have been estimated as being up to 250 mm, much of which fell in 2-3 hours. This event has become known simply as “The Hampstead Storm”. This talk will summarise what is known about the event and the meteorology of the near stationary convective storm and its mechanism and causes. Progress in our scientific understanding of such storms and our ability to predict them will be briefly reviewed.

We are living in a unique era from the point of view of planetary exploration. The Cassini mission orbiting Saturn came to and end in September, 2017, leaving a legacy of important discoveries concerning Saturn and its magnetic environment. In addition, there is the Juno mission currently orbiting Jupiter, investigating the planet’s atmosphere and aurorae. Finally, the JUICE (JUpiter ICy moon Explorer) mission will revisit the Jovian system (launch planned 2022) in particular to remotely ‘sense’ the subsurface ocean of the moon Ganymede. In this talk, we introduce planetary magnetospheres, look at some of the Cassini discoveries and describe some of the plans for JUICE.

An Astronaut in Structure Space: Re-designing Nucleic Acids Using Synthetic Organic Chemistry Modern terran life uses several essential biopolymers like nucleic acids, proteins and polysaccharides. The nucleic acids DNA and RNA are arguably life’s most important, acting as the stores and translators of genetic information contained in their base sequences, which ultimately manifest themselves in the amino acid sequences of proteins. But just exactly what is it about their structures that enables them to carry out these functions with such high fidelity? In the past three decades, leading chemists have created in their laboratories synthetic analogues of nucleic acids which differ from their natural counterparts by replacing three key components. The talk will examine in detail the physical and chemical properties of these synthetic nucleic acid analogues, in particular on their abilities to serve as conveyors of genetic information. And if life exists elsewhere in the universe, will it also use DNA?

With increasing sensitivity of DNA profiling methods, it is now possible to obtain reliable DNA profiles from just a few cells. This means a detectable body fluid, such as blood or semen, is no longer required to give a good quality DNA profile. Instead, so-called ‘trace DNA’ can be recovered for which the biological source is unknown, be it a body fluid or indeed any other tissue, such as skin. This makes it increasingly difficult to assess whether the DNA recovered really came from someone involved in the crime. In this talk, Dr Meakin will discuss what impact this has on the interpretation of DNA evidence in casework, and consider the need for empirical research to help inform such interpretations. She will also discuss what other issues are in store for us as our technologies advance in the field of forensic DNA profiling.

Nearly everybody has heard of the neo-catastrophist ‘Meteorite Impact’ theory for the extinction of the dinosaurs. But many more theories have been proposed by scientists from ‘racial senescence’ to ‘the constipation theory’. And what about the other animals which went extinct at the K/T boundary and those which sailed through it all regardless, what do they tell us?

The Romans used pumps for many purposes, including raising water and, very importantly, fighting fires. Roman engineers cleverly refashioned the Greek bronze design to make a cheaper and better pump in wood. Ten Roman pumps of bronze, and eighteen of wood, are known; there are remains of twenty three. One probably shows the progression from the earlier design to the later one. This presentation will explain how Roman pumps worked and were driven, and will describe their output, how they were used, and what they were used for. They show the major contribution that machines made to the Roman world.

The initial stage of human colour vision is a three-variable, trichromatic system that depends upon three cone photoreceptors with different spectral sensitivities, each of which by itself is colour-blind. Consequently, lights can be matched by adjusting and mixing together just three fixed-wavelength “primary” lights (as, for example, in a colour television). We are able to perceive colour by comparing the effects of lights on the three cone types in a colour-opponent fashion. The colours that we ultimately perceive, however, depend on many other factors, such as contrast, assimilation and adaptation, which will be described and demonstrated during the presentation.

In the human brain, billions of neurons are connected via trillions of synapses. Each neuron receives thousands of inputs, and transmits to thousands more, including some that connect back to themselves. The result is a complex system of oscillating information networks that enables us to navigate and make sense of our physical and social environment. Neuroimaging techniques such as MEG (magnetoencephalography) can help us understand more about this complex oscillating system, how it can go wrong, and how we can help the brain restructure itself to restore healthy function.

entertainment

In this age of “fake” news, I have done some work on the difference between something being true in a sense which is based on our best knowledge, or merely plausible. This is not a serious analysis, but I shall present three lectures of an amusing content, richly illustrated, which could be ...?

Tracing evidence for the oldest life on Earth, and Mars? The oldest sedimentary rocks on Earth preserve a record of early biological evolution that might also have occurred on early Mars. We routinely image compositions of key minerals that represent the remains of microbial biomass, which provides information about the origin of graphitic carbon in the oldest metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. We are now testing a new model involving chemically-oscillating reactions in the formation of concretions on Earth as an approach to search for the remains of extra-terrestrial life in such structures, known to occur on Mars.

Most equate ‘anaesthesia’ with general anaesthesia. This is likely because the introduction of general anaesthesia (1846) predated that of local anaesthesia (1884). The drugs used for these first demonstrations, ether and cocaine, had been in existence for centuries before pioneers made the mental leap between the knowledge that they could cause - respectively - sedation and numbness, and the potential for these effects to be used for the benefit of mankind. This lecture maps the progress of cocaine from a drug of use and abuse by native South Americans first recorded by the Spanish conquistadors, through its use as a tonic in the 19th Century - it gave its name to Coke™ - to the discovery of its anaesthetic properties. Many had the opportunity to make the link between the numbing effects of cocaine and its medical potential, but it was not until 1884 that two young doctors in Vienna (Sigmund Freud - the Father of Psychoanalysis - and Carl Koller - the Father of Local Anaesthesia) made the mental leap that ushered in a revolution in medicine. Pausing briefly to draw the audience into diversions such as the key role of the Austrian navy in the history of cocaine and the problems that medical pioneers experienced when experimenting with addictive drugs, Dr Harrop-Griffiths will put a humorous spin on a fascinating story.

Ancient Chinese Science

The Myth of the Pack-Hunting Dinosaurs and associated fallacies of Dinosaurology The idea that some carnivorous dinosaurs hunted in packs is well established in the popular imagination thanks to the phenomenal success of the 'Jurassic Park' movies. Mike Howgate will explain how Professor John Ostrom's misinterpretation of the fossil evidence excavated by the Yale Peabody Museum in the 1960's launched the intelligent, warm blooded, hyperactive, pack-hunting 'RAPTORS' and why his theories are in need of a thorough rethink.

Smashing Physics: Journeys to the energy frontier Exploration of the very smallest constituents of nature reveals a strange landscape, where quantum fields abound, particles aren't all they seem, and symmetries rule but can be broken. Prof. Butterworth will take a quick tour through some of this landscape, focussing on the latest particle to be discovered - the Higgs boson - and the explorations currently taking place at CERN with the Large Hadron Collider.

Spiders are everywhere and though some people may fear them, their webs and silks have been objects of human fascination for millennia. This talk will serve as an introduction to the wonderful world of spiders and the silks they spin, as well as some of the potential applications and technological advances made possible from the study and use of silks.

The recent use of a nerve agent in Salisbury, highlights the need for planning and the use of appropriately trained staff. The talk to be given by Professor Paul Leonard will summarise some of his career and the role of emergency planning for major pollution incidents. Promoted in 1985 to provide publicly credible environmental monitoring programmes around UK nuclear sites, the 1986 Chernobyl accident was the first of several emergencies that subsequently involved Paul advising Government officials on major oil spills, shipping accidents and overseas presentations in e.g. USA, Spain, Japan, South Africa and Kazakhstan.

Much of the nutrition research and policy last century was devoted to protein nutrition which is relevant to body growth. Fast body growth was of interest to the animal industry. However, the structural material of the brain is 60% lipid. Human milk has the least protein of any large mammal but is rich in the essential fat needed for brain growth. This structural fat specifically uses the omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids, arachidonic (AA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids. The importance of the specific fatty acids and associated nutrients required by the brain have been ignored by the food production system and government policy to our cost. The brain evolved in the sea 500 million years ago and naturally used marine nutrients. The evidence we have is that it still uses and depends on the same today. The bulk of brain development takes place before birth. There is robust experimental evidence that maternal inadequacy of AA and DHA during early development affects subsequent cognitive, visual, and behavioural functions. Moreover, the recent sharp rise in mental ill health amongst young people, is being linked to a loss of dietary omega 3 fatty acids essential to build the brain. This rise in mental ill health seems to be following from country to country in the steps of the previous rise of mortality from heart disease. Hence, the most likely explanation is nutritional, now affecting the vulnerable periods of brain development during pregnancy and infancy. In 1972, with the evidence we discovered then, Prof. Crawford predicted that because the vascular system was “under attack” the brain would be next. There is now more abundant and robust evidence and this prediction has proved correct. The continued rise in mental ill-health threatens the sustainability of humanity.

entertainment

A talk by Prof. Heinz Wolff. Best known as the presenter of The Great Egg Race and Young Scientist of the Year on television in the 1970's and 80's, he actually coined the term bioengineering in 1954 to describe the work he was doing at the interface of engineering and medicine, and founded and was the first director of the Brunel Institute for Bioengineering.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the brain and spine which affects about 2.5 million people worldwide. It often strikes individuals between 20 and 40 years of age, and is the most common cause of neurological disability in young adults. MS is partly inherited, and in the past 10 years a wealth of studies has provided significant insight into the genetics of MS. In this talk Dr Davies will discuss the progression in our understanding of MS genetics, by firstly highlighting some key findings from these studies, and secondly talking about her own contribution to this field from her PhD at Cambridge and her current position as a postdoctoral scientist at Oxford University.

Bend it like Einstein - Gravitational lensing Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that light rays are bent by a massive body, to the point that it can behave like a magnifying glass. This talk will look into a range of gravitational lensing effects and their applications, from weighing the most massive objects in the Universe to proving the existence of dark matter to finding new earths. Discover the physics that made Einstein famous!

The Zoological Society of London working with Citizen Scientists to improve the health of London's Rivers Urban rivers today face many challenges; modifications for navigation and flood defence block the migration of fish, pollution degrades water quality and invasive non-native species impact the balance of ecosystems. This talk will present the work of The Zoological society of London, who work with a large team of volunteer citizen scientists across the region to gather evidence that drives improvements in our rivers.

Why Planet Earth is Habitable The Earth has been inhabited by life for almost 90% of its 4.5 billion year existence. However, life requires very narrow climatic and chemical conditions. The implication therefore is that Earth has maintained such conditions necessary for life for billions of years. This cannot be a coincidence, which means that there must be active processes that keep Earth habitable, despite cataclysmic events such as meteorite impacts, volcanoes, continental drift and mass extinctions.

The allure of diamond is unchanged over the ages. From ancient times diamond has been cherished as a sign of wealth and status. In this talk the properties of this material will be discussed as well as new and future high-tech applications. How can we make diamond? Can we tell the difference between natural and lab-grown diamond? What can we use it for? The journey of diamond from gemstone to quantum computer is an intriguing one, encompassing murder, wealth, dead pets and a little bit of chemistry...

In this talk, Dr Steven Cutts talks about the medical implications of space flight. How does the environment of deep space affect the human body? What are the implications for interplanetary travel and could people ever really survive and thrive in an extra terrestrial colony on Mars or the Moon?

entertainment

You are actually going to get two lectures. The first one is about the miracle of our hand, which can wield a sledge hammer and seconds later thread a needle. Manual dexterity and tool making is the basis of “home sapiens” in his or her modern configuration. Prof. Wolff believes that manual dexterity, in the form of small precision movements, sewing, clock making, embroider, shelling peas, playing with Meccano, is linked to mental dexterity. Digital operation of many activities has made the need for dexterity disappear, particularly in the education of young children; maybe the disastrous decrease in primary school mathematics is one of the results. Are we throwing away some of our “sapiens”? The second part describes a novel national scheme, to mobilise a very much greater number of kind and empathic hands to the task of Caring for the increasing number of frail elderly people, called “Give&TakeCare”. You, as Society will have to take over, with little connection except at the margins of criticality, with the State, Business or Charity; a real Game Changer!

Dr Michael Keith-Lucas was Senior Tutor in Plant Sciences at the University of Reading before his retirement 9 years ago. His talk will be about how pollen can be used in establishing the time of some event in the past, such as a murder, and also how it can be used to establish whether a suspect has been at a scene of crime. He will also mention some other uses such as investigating thefts, bombings and honey fraud.

Rotating bodies sometimes behave in ways that appear counterintuitive, yet such behaviour can readily be explained by the simple rules of classical mechanics. Also counterintuitive is the motion of bodies as observed relative to a rotating frame of reference, and we live on a rotating frame of reference - the Earth. The lecture, with its associated demonstrations, will introduce the audience to various aspects of the fascinating world of rotations.

This talk will be somewhat autobiographical, sketching the background to ionising radiation dose measurement, upright MRI, dental CT, intraoperative radiotherapy, x-raying hash browns and container trucks, and a few other projects and buzz words, seen from the viewpoint of a small consultancy company. En route the speaker will talk about quantisation of risk and benefit in radiology, and a few challenges for the future.

Previously considered a bridge to heart transplantation, artificial hearts are now being considered as a 'destination' therapy since they have become fully implantable. Materials science, fluid dynamics, pump technology, advanced electronics, advanced power supplies and better control of blood clotting have all contributed to this development. This lecture will describe these developments and consider some of the risks of the devices both for the individual and, if successful, for society.

Why is the sky dark at night? This talk will explore the differing roles of puzzles and paradoxes in science and in mathematics. Thought experiments like Maxwell's Demon or the EPR Paradox have been used to illustrate or question new ideas in physics; the Olbers Paradox has challenged our understanding of the universe, while mathematical paradoxes can entertain or perplex. A variety of examples will be demonstrated and discussed, and we will see water fall upwards!

Beavers have been successfully reintroduced into Scotland and are under trial in other parts of the UK. Significant work has been done on the impact of beavers and their dams on surrounding ecology, however currently there is a significant shortfall in knowledge of the engineering properties of their dams. This talk provides an overview of the impact of these remarkable natural structures on river channels, discusses how these structures would be viewed in light of current water policy and investigates the most appropriate form of hydraulic analysis to describe how these structures impact the rivers.

Despite the magnificent results from New Horizons there is still one question that remains unresolved … Did it encounter a planet? Just 7 months after New Horizons was launched back in January 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted to re-classify Pluto as a Dwarf Planet, resulting in uproar in the astronomical community and starting a controversy that still divides opinion among astronomers and the general public alike. “Is Pluto A Planet?” covers the thorny question of the status of Pluto. It looks in detail at the IAU definition of a planet and some of its unexpected - and unintended - consequences, and as a result Jerry Stone can give a definitive answer to the question. This is his most controversial presentation, and includes some things that one astronomer has told him he shouldn’t be saying! Jerry Stone is a freelance presenter on astronomy and space exploration. He has given presentations on space since 1969, having started when he was 14 years old at school. Now he runs Spaceflight UK, and has spoken at venues that have included The Edinburgh Festival, The Royal Institution, The British Science Festival, The Royal Observatory, The Palace of Westminster, Sir Patrick Moore’s garden, and a rock festival! He is described as “one of the leading speakers on space exploration”.

Not an erudite description of Andean geology, but glimpses of some of the spectacular bits of South America’s great mountain chain, seen on three recent long visits. The Altiplano and the Atacama of the central Andes offer dramatic desert terrains with their conical volcanoes and great salt flats, beside the mineral riches of Potosi. The nortghern Andes have more volcanoes in Ecuador, and the southern Andes, often known as Patagonia, are distinguished by their glaciers and their extraordinary granite towers carved into parts of a great batholith.

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Measuring Colour Consumer judgements - overtly and subliminally - are influenced by colour. Colour represents information which can be safety critical. People want colours of things to match whether they are clothes, car re-sprays, adjacent pages in magazines, or computer-scanned items reproduced on computer monitors and print outs. This is a tall order given that we are involving a human perception (like smell) with confounding complexities and variabilities. The National Physical Laboratory is the custodian of measurements for the UK and has done its best to contribute to a long history of colour measurement, specification and standards. Andrew Hanson worked in the measurement of the optical properties of materials (including colour) for 20 years, has been the Chairman of the Colour Group of Great Britain and is now the NPL Outreach Manager charged with making science exciting to the public, so his talk should be good for a wide audience.

BLACK HOLES

THE POST OFFICE RAILWAY

ALIEN ANIMAL INVADERS

FRACKING

THE HISTORY OF RADAR

the Science and the Experience Cochlear implants are the first device to successfully restore neural function. They have instigated a popular but controversial revolution in the treatment of deafness, and they serve as a model for research in neuroscience and biomedical engineering. After a visual tour of the physiology of natural hearing the function of cochlear implants will be described in the context of electrical engineering, psychophysics, clinical evaluation, and my own personal experience. The audience will have the opportunity to experience speech and music heard through a cochlear implant. The social implications of cochlear implantation and the future outlook for auditory prostheses will also be discussed. About the speaker: Ian Shipsey is a particle physicist, and a Professor of Physics at Oxford University. He has been profoundly deaf since 1989. In 2002 he heard the voice of his daughter for the first time, and his wife's voice for the first time in thirteen years thanks to a cochlear implant. The presentation will be at the level of Scientific American.

Ninety percent of people are right-handed and ten percent are left-handed. This talk will look at why that might be, and will also explore a range of other asymmetries in the social, biological and physical worlds, looking for common underlying themes.

After ten years cruising through the Solar System, with two asteroid encounters, one flyby of Mars and several past the Earth, Rosetta reached Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko a year ago. The comet is shaped like a rubber duck! Rosetta watches it carefully and dropped Philae to land on its surface. That surface is dramatic with chasms, cliffs, boulders, smooth flat areas and circular features that probably aren't craters. Rosetta has poured cold water on the idea that Earth's water came from comets. Philae lies in the dark, now, but 67P's summer Sun may rise high enough to revive it.

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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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The 1976 Viking Mars missions did not detect organic molecules on the planet's surface, even those expected from meteorite bombardment. Is there a potent oxidant on Mars that rapidly converts all organic molecules to carbon dioxide? Dr Devine suggests that organics from meteorites should give rise to metastable intermediates which would have been largely invisible to the Viking detectors. In particular, benzenehexacarboxylic acid is a likely candidate.

Andy Overall's journey into the world of mycology began on Hampstead Heath back in the early 1990's. Many years later he has recorded over 500 species from the Heath upon which he now takes regular workshops for beginners and leads forays as the group leader of the London Fungus Group, which is affiliated with British Mycological Society. The Heath offers an excellent habitat for larger fungi with its diversity of trees, habitats, and differing soil types.

Twenty years ago, astronomers knew of no planets outside our Solar system. Now, more than 800 exoplanets have been discovered with thousands more candidates having been identified. In this talk Dr. Norton will use demonstrations to explain how exoplanets have been found and describe some of the recent results about their properties.

Britain and Europe have a long tradition in the study of Comets from Edmund Halley to the Giotto space mission which flew only 600 km from the nucleus of his comet to the Rosetta space mission which has been flying already for 8 years to a landing on a comet in 2014 - Prof. Zarniecki will attempt to talk about all of these if time allows!!

Paul has had a long and enjoyable career, primarily with a 'Nuclear Flavour'. Having provided evidence for the 1981 Sizewell Public Inquiry and undertaken the month long NRPB Radiological Protection Course, Paul was promoted in 1985 to co-ordinate the aquatic environmental check monitoring programmes at all the major UK nuclear sites. With the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, he was asked to co-ordinate the UK response through appropriate environmental sampling and has published over 40 scientific papers on various radiological topics primarily related to the determination of public exposure from nuclear site operations. His duties have also included being a Nuclear Inspector at the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing site, as well as site responsibilities at other nuclear sites including Greenwich! Paul continues to play an active role in radiological protection and is a member of the Society for Radiological Protection's Council as well as their sub-committees covering Communications and Events. He is also a Council Member of the UK Environmental Law Association and a Chief Consultant at Corporate Risk Associates Ltd.. With his practical and first-hand experience as a Nuclear Inspector and of managing the UK's Chernobyl sampling, the 2011 nuclear accident at Fukushima has meant that Paul has been able to help provide advice nationally and internationally. He is also a Council Member for the Society for Radiological Protection. Paul's talk this evening provides an introduction to his involvement with 'nuclear issues' and how radioactivity may be beneficially used.

How do we know how health and illness was experienced and understood by Egypt's populations during her 3000 year civilization? Skeletal and mummified remains provide one source of knowledge but historians also examine Egypt's literary sources, painting, sculpture, architecture and town planning, clothing, nutrition, agriculture, animal husbandry, commerce and travel. The 'big picture' may be more surprising than you imagine.

Lessons learned from the Tohoku 2011 disaster The earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck the Tohoku region of NE Japan on March 11th, 2011, were recorded in unprecedented detail by a wide range of scientific instruments that had been installed by Japanese agencies, partly for the research purpose of understanding such events, but also with the aim of providing warning and a basis for disaster mitigation. This talk will examine the advances in earthquake and tsunami science that resulted from these records, but also consider why, despite the effort put into the research and the even greater effort put into tsunami defences and other mitigation measures, the tsunami led to so many deaths in Japan.

Dr Jamie Barras of King's College London's Department of Informatics will be giving a talk detailing the history and current state of development of the detection of illicit materials such as concealed explosives or counterfeit medicines by radiofrequency spectroscopic methods akin to those used in medical imaging.

This talk provides an insight into the design of structures involving the application of school physics. John Eyre shows how design thinking is applied to the creation of useful and attractive technology and with the example of bridge design, using graphical methods and everyday language he considers the stress states of structures. The statical description of structures is shown using graphical construction and demonstrates how, by the use of a keen eye, the engineering designer is aware of the implications of the choices of form. John is an engineer and an architect and became head of design teaching in civil engineering at UCL.

AGM: Wine & Cheese £3 + scientific entertainment

The issue of Global Warming is still contentious. Despite near universal scientific consensus, many people - including celebrities - object to the idea vehemently. How can people make up their own minds when faced with this kind of 'tribal' disagreement? In this talk Dr. de Podesta outlines the basic science involved, explains why scientists are concerned, and asks you to consider whether you should be concerned too.

Recent cold winters have highlighted the role of highway authorities in aiming to keep roads as free of ice and snow as possible in winter. This talk will show how road-weather forecasts are created specifically for highway engineers. These forecasts utilise observations from hundreds of roadside weather stations found throughout the UK, data that is then merged with the output from global computer models. How is it possible to still be 'caught out' by the weather? How can the mild climate of the UK really be more challenging than that of our Continental neighbours? This talk will attempt to shed some light on these questions - and possibly even hint at the kind of winter to come.

ANTIBIOTICS AND ANTIVIRALS: THE ROLE OF CHEMISTRY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DISEASE Dr Devine will examine in detail two classes of antibiotics - sulfonamides and penicillins - and two classes of antivirals - nucleosides and protease inhibitors. The talk will focus on the chemistry that underpins the medicinal activities of these molecules, and the considerable role played by chemists in the fight against pathogenic diseases.

Steven Cutts is a doctor and science writer with a life long interest in the planet Mars. His Mars based novel, VIKING VILLAGE is about a human settlement on the planet in the near future and in this talk, he discusses the science behind the adventure and how we might be able to make it a reality. Steven has lectured through the science cafe network about 20 times now, speaking about Mars, Spacecraft Propulsion and also his day job in joint replacement surgery.

ORGANIC MATTER, METEORITES AND LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM We are still at the very beginning of mankind's investigation into the Universe we live in. Explorers, both human and robotic, have made only the smallest scratches on the surfaces of other worlds. One of the underlying, driving motivations for exploration is the joint question of how life began on Earth and whether it exists elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond. The rapidly expanding field of astobiology seeks to answer these questions. Incorporating a wide range of disciplines from geology, microbiology, astronomy, chemistry, and engineering amongst many others, technological developments are now giving us the opportunity to determine even the faintest traces of life on other worlds. The ultimate goal, undoubtedly, is to send humans to Mars and bring them back safely, along with the wealth of data that human observers would acquire. whilst not likely to happen for many decades yet, other projects including sample return missions and sophisticated rovers with onboard instrumentation are in development. A large part of astrobiology involves the investigation of organic materials that occur in meteorites. This talk will provide an overview of extraterrestrial organics delivered in meteorites and what they can tell us, and some of the work under way to detect life on Mars.

Many chemical substances can exist in two mirror-image forms. The properties of the left- and right-handed forms are almost identical, but they differ in subtle ways. In this talk, we will explore the properties of mirror-image molecules and the consequences for chemistry, biology and pharmacology.

MOUNTAINS UNDER THE SEA One of the mysteries of the sea are the large number of seamounts that rise up on the seabed and, in a few cases, break surface to form oceanic islands. Volcanic in origin, seamounts are widely scattered throughout the world's ocean basins, especially in the Pacific. Seamounts are generally circular in shape, have pointed, star-shaped, curved, or flat tops, and are often capped by a coral reef. Repeat bathymetry surveys show that seamounts change their shape with time, sometimes dramatically. Seamounts are of geological interest because they record the motions of Earth's tectonic plates, the strength of its hard outermost rock layer, and the magmatic 'pulse' of its deep interior. They are also significant as ocean 'stirring rods', biodiversity 'hotspots', and hazards for earthquakes, landslides, tsunami and submarine navigation. Statistical studies suggest there maybe as many as 24,000 seamounts higher than 1 km that still remain to be discovered. The charting of these seamounts and the determination of their morphology, structure, and age is one of the many challenges facing marine geologists in the future. Tony Watts is Professor of Marine Geology and Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. He received his BSc. in Geology and Physics from University College, London and his Ph.D in Marine Geophysics from the University of Durham. After graduating, he joined the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Canada and then the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA. He has participated in some 20 cruises of scientific research ships to each of the world's ocean basins. His current research is focussed on the structure and evolution of the Tonga-Kermedec deep-sea trench island arc system in the southwest Pacific Ocean.

MEDICAL USE OF MICROBUBBLES

There are 763 confirmed extrasolar planets and many more unconfirmed candidates at the time of writing. These planetary systems have been discovered using a variety of observational techniques, and their masses, compositions and orbital architectures provided clues about their origins. During the talk Prof. Nelson will discuss the observations of extrasolar planets and current theories about their formation mechanisms.

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The Royal Astronomical Society and its Library A general overview of the Society's history and collections, some of the extraordinary characters who have been associated with it during its 175 year history, and some of the dottier enquiries received. It is intended to give an idea of the breadth and diversity of the Society's collections, the emphasis being on manuscripts , photographs and the like, the printed books being featured in 'Treasures of the RAS Library' ( q.v. infra); and of the amusement and interest often derived from working there, though it isn't all beer and skittles by any means !

THE VARIABILITY PROBLEM The wisdom of the extensive deployment of wind power to supply a major part of the UK electricity demand has been questioned by many. The lecture will address this topic by explaining how electrical power systems operate and the operational adjustments necessary if such a variable resource is to be accommodated without an unacceptable effect on the reliability and on the cost of electricity to the consumer.

Polymers ("plastics") were discovered in the 1850s and have been produced on an industrial scale since the 1900s. Their production contributed to wealth creation and increase in prosperity - especially in the Western World. We have become almost completely dependent on made-materials in the last century. Has the Age of Polymers made our lives more comfortable or more miserable?

In the early 1930s the threat from Nazi Germany was becoming apparent. Whereas aircraft technology had improved considerably, defensive measures had changed little since the World War, when London had already been subject to bombing. Stanley Baldwin, a member of the National Government, in November 1932 had said that: "...the bomber will always get through...". The Daventry Experiment was instigated by Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, the Tizard Committee, and Robert Watson Watt, superintendent at the Radio Research Department of the NPL. The experiment took place on 26th February 1935, in the vicinity of the BBC shortwave transmitter at Daventry, and was carried out by Arnold Wilkins, a scientific officer at the RRL. The experiment demonstrated that a radio signal targeting a distant aircraft would be reflected back, and this signal could be picked up by a receiver with a cathode ray tube. Further development led to the setting up of the 'Chain Home' radar system, around the coast of Britain, just in time for the Battle of Britain in September 1940. Peter Stern will be discussing the background to the experiment, the technical issues and what lessons can be learnt, in relation to science in today's more complex situation.

Every single litre of petrol has passed through a zeolite. Most washing powders have zeolites in them. What are zeolites? How do they convert oil to petrol and make your clothes cleaner? And are they on Mars? The magic of these rocks will be revealed.

The term 'seaweed' is a collective name for red, green and brown macroalgae, a highly diverse group of organisms that are found throughout the world on seashores and in shallow seas. They are scientifically fascinating with a fossil record indicating that they have been around for well over 1 billion years. They range in size from single cells to giant kelps which can be over 50 m long, and many species can be beautiful in shape and colour. Seaweeds are extremely important ecologically, being primary producers and providing habitats for a wide range of marine life. They are also extremely valuable economically as a source of food, other products such as alginates and potentially of bioactive compounds. Britain and Ireland are rich in seaweed biodiversity, with approximately 7% of the world's 10,000 species. In this talk Prof. Brodie will give an overview of the seaweeds and also talk about some of her work.

GLOBAL WARMING

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRAIN AND THE CONTEMPORARY THREAT TO HUMAN MENTAL STABILITY Dietary fats and lipids played a major, albeit inadequately recognised, role as determinants in evolution. Life originated 3 billion years ago. For the first 2.5 billion years of life there was ample opportunity for DNA modification. Yet during that time there is no evidence of significant change in life form. It was not until about 600 million years ago when the oxygen tension rose to a point where air breathing life forms became thermodynamically possible, that a major change is abruptly seen in the fossil record. The abruptness of this change and lack of change over the previous 2.5 billion years is a classical example of Darwin's "Conditions of Existence" which he saw as the higher force in evolution. Unfortunately, this aspect of Darwin's thesis was dropped by subsequent evolutionary biologist who considered the "All Sufficiency of Natural Selection" as supreme and any hint of conditions of existence as being Lamarckian. The sudden appearance of the 32 phyla in the Cambrian fossil record was also associated with the appearance of intracellular detail not seen in previous life forms. That detail was provided by cell membranes made with lipids (membrane fats) which provided a new condition of existence as structural essentials for subdivision of cell function. The compartmentalisation of intra-cellular, specialist functions by lipid based cell membranes as in the DNA containing nucleus, the energy producing mitochondria, the synthetic reticulo-endothelial system and plasma membrane led to cellular specialisation and then speciation. Thus not just oxygen but also the marine lipids were drivers in the Cambrian explosion. Docosahexaenoic acid (to give DHA its full name) is a major feature of marine lipids. To make it requires 6 oxygen atoms to insert 6 double bonds so it would not have been abundant before oxidative metabolism became plentiful. DHA provided the membrane backbone for the emergence of new photoreceptors that converted photons into electricity laying the foundation for the evolution of other signalling systems, the nervous system and the brain. Hence the omega 3 DHA from the marine food web must have played a critical role in the evolution of vision and the brain. There is also clear evidence from molecular biology that DHA is a determinant of neurogenesis, neuronal migration to form the brain's cortex, and the expression of several genes involved in brain growth and function. That same biological characteristic was essential to the ultimate cerebral expansion in human evolution. It implies human evolution was coastal using sea foods and fish as well as land nutrients. With the paucity of DHA from the land based food web, human cerebral evolution as a Robert Ardrey "Killer Ape" on the savannahs, would have been impossible. There is now incontrovertible support of this hypothesis from fossil evidence of human evolution taking advantage of the marine food web. Lipids are still modifying the present evolutionary phase of our species with their contribution to a changing panorama of non communicable disease. The most worrying change in disease pattern is the sharp rise in brain disorders which in the European Union overtook the cost of all other burdens if ill health at 386 billion Euro for the 25 member states at 2004 prices. In 2007 the cost for mental ill-health was £77 billion in the UK and £105 billion in 2010, a cost greater than heart disease and cancer combined. The rise in mental ill health is now being globalised yet is below the radar. The cause of the rising vascular disorders last century and now brain disorders this, lies in the changing conditions of existence. Last century, food policy and the nutrition paradigm were focussed on protein and calories with little attention to the requirements of the brain or for that matter the heart and arteries. A radical re-appraisal of the food system is required to arrest and reverse this sinister rise in brain disorders. The brain evolved in the sea 500-600 million years ago. With the wild fish catch having reached its limit some 20 years ago the solution will require the development of marine agriculture from estuarine, coastal and oceanic resources in a way that mankind learnt to develop land resources 10,000 years ago. The sustainability of human intelligence and humanity is at stake.

SPACE GEODESY - GETTING THE MEASURE OF THE EARTH

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SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY

MAGNETIC FIELDS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

GENETICS of KIDNEY STONES From Diet to Genes - the Causes of Kidney Stones Although kidney stones are common, very little is known about their causes. Most contain oxalate, a chemical found in high abundance in foods such as rhubarb and spinach. Molecular and cellular research has identified the causes of some of the most severe and rare hereditary forms of kidney stones, leading to great improvements in their treatment, including the counterintuitive approach of treating a kidney disease by liver transplantation.

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004 sending back data about the planet, its moons and rings. Carl Murray is a member of the Cassini Imaging Team and in his talk he will show and discuss some of the stunning images that have been returned.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CREATIVE PROBLEM - SOLVING

The history of SI units will be described, from its inception in 1790 when Louis XVI established a commission to choose units for the world, to the many changes of the last 50 years. The successive definitions of the seven base units, the metre, the second, the kilogram, the ampere, the kelvin, the mole and the candela, will be described. The metre has been revised four times, from its definition as one ten millionth of a quadrant of the earth (1793), to the distance between the defining scratches on the prototype metre bar (1895), to a multiple of the wavelength of the red krypton atomic line (1960), to the distance light travels in a vacuum in a specified time interval (1983 and still the current definition). The second was originally defined astronomically in terms of the period of rotation of the earth, but is now defined as a multiple of the period of the microwave hyperfine transition in the caesium atom. In this talk special emphasis will be placed on the history of the definition of the second and the measurement of time. Why do we need to keep changing the definitions of our base units? - and who takes the decision to change the definitions? The answers to these questions will be discussed, along with the establishment and operation of the BIPM and its various international committees.

The increase in world population and change in climate has increased the need for recovery of drinking water from brackish and seawater sources to meet the potable demand. The technologies involved in generating drinking water from these sources is the subject of a paper to be given by Greg Turner on the 11th March 2010 to the society. The paper will focus on both thermal and membrane separation processes and indicate the direction in which desalination technologies are moving into the future. Greg Turner is the Northern European Technical Director of Veolia Water Outsourcing, and is a chemical engineer who is specialised in the organisation and management of engineering projects in the water industry. Working within municipal and industrial market sectors, Greg has experience over the last 20 years of many applications of membrane and thermal technologies and the use of advanced membrane systems both in the UK and abroad and has written numerous papers on the subject. He is a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Institute of Management, the Society of engineers and the Institution of Water and Environmental Management.

During the 165 million years when dinosaurs dominated terrestrial faunas, the earth experienced major alterations in terms of climate change, fluctuations in sea level and the movement of continents. These physical events had important impacts on the diversity and geographic distributions of dinosaurs, and their legacy can still be seen among living organisms today. This talk will examine how new data and new techniques are enabling palaeontologists to gain insights into the co-evolution of Earth and Life.

A revolution took place in biological nomenclature during the mid-eighteenth century; Carl Linnaeus attempted to classify all known plants and animals and used a two-name system by which to identify them, replacing the cumbersome highly complex and fairly random system then in use. This lecture presents a light-hearted look at some of the origins of the scientific names applied to both fossils and living plants and animals. There are, for example, the Lower Eocene parrot called Pulchrapollia ("pretty polly"), and the fossil snake Montypythonoides. The names of some fossil reptiles contain veiled insults, some honour long-dead celebrities or reflect mythical creatures, and others are clever plays on words.

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Dr Wallis is local boy made good. Schooled at William Ellis, he is now a consultant haematologist at the Freeman and Royal Victora Hospitals, Newcastle upon Tyne, and honorary senior lecturer at Newcastle University.In 2008 he las lectured in Frankfurt, Vienna, Limerick, Zurich, Xiamen City, Durham and London, and in 2007 at Oslo, Friedrichshafen, Brussels and Munich!