Second Nature - Events

 
Events Archive
Second Nature Lecture Series 2008

July

  • Enhancing Me: the hope and hype of human enhancement
  • Pete Moore, University of London
  •  
  • Tuesday 15 July 2008
  • Meet Dr Pete Moore, ethicist, science communicator and author of more than a dozen popular science books. His latest work, Enhancing Me, examines the ways in which technology can change our bodies, our brains, our emotions and our longevity. It lets readers meet peole who claim to have been enhanced to find out what it is like and how beneficial it is; and introduces them to scientific experts and enhancement enthusiasts.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Body Shopping
  • Donna Dickenson, University of London
  •  
  • Tuesday 22nd July 2008
  • It's been said that we are witnessing nothing less than a new Gold Rush, where the territory is the human body. Human eggs are used in huge numbers for the stem cell technologies - over 2,000 in one recent case. Roughly one-fifth of all human genes have been patented by biotechnology companies. Women's tissue is worth more than men's, but both sexes are vulnerable. The fact is, we don't own our bodies in law.

    Meet Donna Dickenson, Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of London, author of Body Shopping: The Economony Fuelled by Flesh and Blood and Second Nature speaker in a fascinating discussion on all these issues.
  •  
  • lecture details

April

  • Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science
  • Professor Mark Brake and Reverend Neil Hook, University of Glamorgan
  •  
  • Monday 28th April 2008
  • Since its emergence in the seventeenth century, science fiction has been a sustained, coherent and subversive check on the promises and pitfalls of science. In their turn, invention and discovery have forced fiction writers to confront the nature and limits of reality.
  •  
  • lecture details

March

  • The EDGE Project for Amphibians
  • Helen Meredith, ZSL
  •  
  • Monday 10th March 2008
  • Helen Meredith from the Zoological Society of London joins us for a discussion of the EDGE project. In its second year, it is a flagship ZSL programme for conservation of EDGE - Evolutionarily Distinct, Globally Endangered – species.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • The Painting Fool
  • Dr Simon Colton, Imperial College
  •  
  • Monday 3rd March 2008
  • Computers might be able to spew out facts and tally your accounts, but could they ever make great art? Simon Colton thinks so, and with colleagues Maja Pantic and Michel Valstar created an award-winning system called The Painting Fool, which paints stylised portraits after analysing facial expressions. Simon joined us on Second Nature to talk about his progress and ambitions for the project.
  •  
  • lecture details

February

  • Towards a Nanoscale Understanding of Charge Transport in Molecular Semiconductors
  • Dr James Kirkpatrick, Imperial College
  •  
  • Monday 25th February 2008
  • Molecular semiconductors are of great technological interest, since they offer the possibility of combining the electronic properties of traditional semiconductors such as silicon, with low-cost solution based fabrication techniques such as those used in the plastic industry. Dr James Kirkpatrick's aim has been to simulate molecular materials accurately enough to obtain a microscopic understanding of the origins of disorder in their charge transport parameters.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Heat: How we can stop the planet burning
  • George Monbiot
  •  
  • Thursday 21st February 2008
  • George Monbiot, the British journalist and author is well known for his views on climate change. George joined us to talk about his suggestions for saving the planet, including an immediate 90% reduction in carbon emissions if we are to avoid hitting the “tipping point” after which there is no going back.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Mermaids or Manatees: Myth and Reality
  • Deb and Doug Brown, Save the Manatee
  •  
  • Monday 18th February 2008
  • Do you have a clue as to what a manatee is, what they eat, or where they live? Why are they on the endangered species list and what are some of the issues that have put them there? CeAire and Hawc Decosta joined us at Second Nature to give an educational presentation on “Meet the Manatee”, information about the real life organization Save the Manatee Club, and ways you can help save this gentle sea cow.
  •  
  • lecture details
 

Second Nature Lecture Series 2007

December

  • Earth monitoring: Cinderella science
  • Professor Euan Nisbet, Royal Holloway College, London
  •  
  • Thursday 6th December 2007
  • On-the-ground monitoring is unglamorous work, but we neglect it at our peril, warns Professor Euan Nisbet from Royal Holloway University. Sometimes discovery comes slowly, not with a flash of revelation but creepingly, as larger patterns emerge painfully from years of data. In the second of the Second Nature Climate Change talks, Euan discusses why accurate and thorough monitoring of the climate is essential if we ever hope to affect it.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Geological Storage of CO2
  • Tara LaForce, Imperial College
  •  
  • Tuesday 4th December 2007
  • In first event in the Second Nature Climate Change series our guest was Tara LaForce, Imperial College, who told us all about her work with carbon capture and storage. Is it possible to store carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in aquifers, hydrocarbon reserves or coal beds, is it economically efficient and safe in the long term, and what impact could it have on greenhouse gas concentration in our atmosphere? Tara explains why she thinks it is, and what progress has already been made.
  •  
  • lecture details

November

  • This Importance of Patents to Scientists
  • Sue Scott, Abel and Imray
  •  
  • Monday 5th November 2007
  • We were joined by Sue Scott, a patent attorney working as a consultant to Abel & Imray in London. Listen to Sue talk all about patents in science, why patents exist and are controversial, explain the basic things all scientists need to know about patents, and attempt to dispel some of the most common misconceptions about patents.
  •  
  • lecture details

October

  • Are we artificially inflating number of species, and why does this matter?
  • Dr Shai Meiri, Imperial College
  •  
  • Monday 29th October 2007
  • Dr Shai Meiri from the NERC Centre for Population Biology has a broad range of interests, and joined us to talk about his recent publications on vertebrate taxonomy. Download the podcast for an introduction to the species of the world and a broader look at conservation policy in general.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Using Second Life to create an artificial Ecosystem
  • Dr Corey Hart AKA Luciftias Neurocam
  •  
  • Monday 22nd October 2007
  • Luciftias (Dr Corey Hart, a neurobiologist from Drexel University in his spare time) is the founder of the EWG, who created the content of the popular sim Terminus, where a series of “living” creatures survive, reproduce and interact according to defined rules. Luciftias joined us to tell us about the ecosystem, what it does, results so far, and what their future ambitions are.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Prospecting for "Ethical Pharmaceuticals"
  • Professor Sunil Shaunak, Imperial College
  •  
  • Thurs 11th October 2007
  • Sunil Shaunak is Professor of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London and a co-founder of PolyTherics. He is dedicated to showing how academics can produce medicines for a fraction of the existing cost and proving that this approach represents an exciting new opportunity for making patented cost-affordable medicines available to patients who currently receive no treatment. Professor Shaunak joined us on Second Nature for a talk and informal discussion.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Bluetongue Disease Special
  • Professor Philip Mellor
  •  
  • Thursday 4th October 2007
  • Hot on the heels of another Foot-and-Mouth disease outbreak, a Bluetongue Disease outbreak was declared in the UK in September. We were joined for a special session with Professor Philip Mellor from the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright for a discussion of all the details of Bluetongue, what we can expect from the outbreak and whether global warming is going to result in Bluetongue and other animal diseases becoming the norm.
  •  
  • lecture details

September

  • How Britain Became an Island
  • Prof Phil Gibbard, University of Cambridge
  •  
  • Thursday 27th September 2007
  • Island Britain is separated from the European continent by the English Channel and the North Sea. But it was not always so. We were joined by Professor Phil Gibbard, for a talk and discussion on recent research in the English Channel that has revealed evidence for two catastrophic “megafloods” hundreds of thousands of years ago which led to the creation of Britain as we know it today.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Through Birds’ Eyes
  • Professor Graham Martin, Birmingham University
  •  
  • Wednesday 19th September 2007
  • Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) show the highest known foraging yield for a marine predator and they are often perceived to be in conflict with human economic interests. We were joined by Professor Graham Martin from Birmingham University to hear why cormorants show unexpected foraging strategies, what vision has to do with this and what it can tell us about other avian species.
  •  
  • lecture details
  • New polymerases for old DNA
  • Dr Phil Holliger, MRC, Cambridge, UK
  •  
  • Thursday September 13th, 2007
  • Our very first guest, Dr Phil Holliger works with ancient DNA. DNA naturally degrades over time, making it very difficult to amplify and analyse, and Phil joined us to talk about a new way to rescue genetic information from damaged DNA, which he recently tried out on a 60,000 year-old cave bear.
  •  
  • lecture details
 
Featured Mini Series

Climate Change

In December 2007, world leaders gathered in Bali for the UN Climate Change Conference. Meanwhile, scientists, journalists and the general public gathered on Second Nature for a special series of events on climate change.

  • Heat
  • George Monbiot
  •  
  • 21st Feb 2008
  • Can we cut emissions by 90%? Do we have a choice?
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Cinderella science
  • Euan Nisbet
  •  
  • 6th Dec 2007
  • Climate monitoring: unsexy but essential
  •  
  • lecture details
  • Geological Storage of CO2
  • Tara LaForce
  •  
  • 4th Dec 2007
  • Carbon capture and storage in hydrocarbon reserves
  •  
  • lecture details