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Where : |
Wallingford Corn
Exchange Cafe-Bar
Please note - we can only squeeze
in a maximum of 50 people, so do arrive early to avoid
disappointment! |
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When : |
7:30pm |
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Contact:
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Alison Smart
or
Amanda Holland |
Upcoming Events
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Date: |
Wednesday 17th March 2010 |
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Title: |
Taking
light in new directions: what can the Diamond Synchrotron do?
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Speaker: |
Michelle Warren
Light can be used in a
surprising variety of ways to reveal fine detail within materials. A
synchrotron, such as Diamond Light Source, produces very intense beams of light
in the spectrum from infra-red to x-rays, which allow scientists to carry out
experiments in fields from chemistry and medicine to engineering and
archaeology. How can one machine enable research in so many different area, and
why is it so big when many of the samples studied are very small?
Michele is a research facilitator at the University of Oxford and helps
scientists explore the opportunities for new research at Diamond. She will
explain some of the principles behind Diamond's operation, the techniques that
underpin experiments and how these can be applied to such a wide range of
problems. The process of taking a project from initial question to completed
experiment will also be described, giving some insight into the experience of
scientists who come from across the UK, and beyond, to use this astonishing
facility. |
Previous Events
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Date: |
Wednesday 7th
January 2009 |
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Title: |
Chasing the Big Bang: new technologies for
age-old questions |
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Speaker: |
Roger Eccleston
The Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) at CERN will shed new light on some of the fundamental questions
about the origins of the Universe and the nature of matter. The construction of
this remarkable machine has involved the development of cutting-edge
technologies and advanced engineering from novel detector systems to large
superconducting magnets. Roger will describe some of the technical challenges
and their solutions.
Roger Eccleston
is Director of Technology at the Science and Technology Facilities Council,
which supports the UK's involvement in major international facilities like
CERN. |
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Date: |
Tuesday
11th November |
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Title: |
The science of bird
navigation |
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Speaker: |
Tim Guilford
From homing pigeons to
shearwaters, birds are truly remarkable navigators but how do they know where to
go? Surprising answers are now emerging thanks to GPS tracking and miniaturised
electronics.
Tim Guilford is Professor of
Animal Behaviour at the University of Oxford. He often joins the birds in flight
and holds five UK paragliding records. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 8th October |
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Title: |
Back from the brink?
Saving Britain’s butterflies |
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Speaker: |
Jeremy
Thomas
Several species of
butterflies have become extinct in Britain, and many others are in decline. What
are the causes and what can be done?
Jeremy Thomas, Professor of
Ecology at the University of Oxford, is the foremost butterfly expert in the UK.
He masterminded the successful reintroduction of the Large Blue into Britain.
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Date: |
Wednesday
16th July |
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Title: |
Climate change – science and speculation |
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Speaker: |
Richard Harding
It is now
generally accepted that our climate is changing and the increase in temperature
observed in recent decades is primarily due to rising carbon dioxide levels in
the atmosphere, resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Richard Harding
will explore what we know about climate change and what is less certain. He will
look at how issues are reported in the media and how we should respond to the
certainties and uncertainties ahead of us.
Richard
Harding is a meteorologist working at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in
Crowmarsh Gifford. As well as leading a research group at the CEH, he currently
co-ordinates a multinational initiative concerned with the impact of climate
change on the global water system. |
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Date: |
Tuesday 27th May |
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Title: |
Atmospheric electricity on
Earth and in the solar system |
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Speaker: |
Karen Aplin, Space
Science and Technology Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The first observations of
lightning on Jupiter from the Voyager spacecraft in the 1970s showed that
thunderstorms are not restricted to Earth. Since then lightning has been
photographed and its radio emissions recorded from Saturn and Venus as well as
Jupiter. Lightning is atmospheric electricity at its most spectacular, but
smaller-scale electrical processes occur continually in all planetary
atmospheres. This talk will give a whistle-stop tour of the science behind
lightning and related phenomena in the Solar System.
Karen took her first degree in
Applied Physics and Philosophy at the University of Durham and then studied for
a PhD at the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading. Since 2001, she
has worked as a research physicist at the Space Science and Technology
Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. You may also have seen her playing
double bass with the Henley Symphony Orchestra! |
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Date: |
Wednesday 26th March |
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Title: |
The aardvark, the computer
and the radium cutlet |
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Speaker: |
Peter Gilliver, Associate
Editor, Oxford English Dictionary.
Peter was recently
part of the OED expert panel on the BBC 2
programme
Balderdash and Piffle and has a particular
expertise in scientific words. Peter’s talk
will describe the challenge of keeping up with science in the Dictionary and
will cover a broad and anecdote-rich area.
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Date: |
Wednesday 25 March |
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Title: |
Taking
pictures of cancer: can we match the right patient to the right treatment? |
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Speaker: |
Martin Christlieb
Martin Christlieb will look at some of the ways cancer can evade therapy and how
the work his group is doing in imaging might help predict response and therefore
help guide patients and doctors in managing the disease. There will be the
opportunity for some hands-on imaging!
Martin Christlieb is a research group leader at the Cancer Research UK/Medical
Research Council Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology in Oxford.
His research is focused on new strategies for assessing cancer patients’ disease
without surgery. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 24 June |
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Title: |
Fusion: powering our future? |
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Speaker: |
Chris Warrick
With fossil fuel
reserves dwindling and environmental concerns over the emission of greenhouse
gases, the search for alternative energy sources is becoming a prominent social
issue.
A world-wide research
programme is studying the viability of nuclear fusion - the process that powers
the Sun - as a future energy source – offering essentially unlimited energy
supplies with no greenhouse gas emissions and short lived radio-activity
compared to fission. The world’s largest magnetic confinement fusion experiment
and European flagship facility, JET, has been operating at the Culham Science
Centre in Oxfordshire for twenty five years and has successfully demonstrated
some 16MW of fusion energy. Work on JET and other devices around the world has
helped to design ITER – an international machine that will produce 500MW of
fusion power and act as a single stepping stone to commercial power.
After graduating with a
degree in Physics from the University of Wales, Chris joined UKAEA at Culham in
1990 working as an experimental physicist on various fusion devices. Since
2001, Chris has been a member of the Public Relations team with particular
responsibility for education and public outreach. |
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Date: |
Tuesday
10 November |
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Title: |
Emerging infectious diseases: scary or not? |
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Speaker: |
Angela McLean
Angela
McLean will talk about the infectious diseases that emerged in the past and why
it is hard to predict which will cause problems in the future. She will present
some ideas about what makes certain infections particularly hard to control and
why some of the most dramatic ones are not the ones we need to worry about.
Angela
McLean is co-Director of the Institute for Emerging Infections which is part of
the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University. The
Institute uses a broad range of different science disciplines to improve our
understanding of the evolutionary relationship between viruses and their hosts. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 13th January
2010 |
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Title: |
Aliens versus predators: could the game be up? |
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Speaker: |
Richard Shaw
Some non-native or alien plants can become
invasive in new environments. Innovative ways, for example the use of natural
enemies, are needed to control them. Dick will describe this kind of biological
control using a pioneering project against Japanese Knotweed. If successful,
this project will result in the first intentional release of a classic
biological control agent against a weed in Europe.
Dick Shaw has worked in the biocontrol field with
CABI since 1993. He specialises in classic biological control of weeds using
insect and fungal natural enemies from the area of origin of the exotic invasive
plant species. |
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