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Beyond Rhetoric – Delivering a Low Carbon Society
Atkins’ boss, Keith Clarke will be giving the University of Birmingham Annual Clark Lecture. It’s entitled Beyond Rhetoric — Delivering a Low Carbon Society and is at 1730 on 31st May in the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering.
In his 2010 Brunel Lecture, he called for another industrial revolution to meet the challenges of climate change. If you use Windows (but not a Mac), you can listen to this Lecture here. Alternatively, you can download a pdf of summary of what he said here.
Ten New Optimists & the new Birmingham Post Science Blog
Brilliant news! The New Optimists are joining forces with the Birmingham Post to write a Science Blog, we suspect a first for a regional paper.
As well as yours truly, these are the interesting bunch of people who’ll be contributing
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The next New Optimists project — stem cell research & where it might lead
Stem cell research is about the fate of cells, what switches them on or off, what happens to them to make them change from one type of cell to another. As Simon Denegri blogged recently, it’s arguably one of the most exciting and one of the most important research fields today. No-one quite knows where the research will lead — and that’s what makes this next project of ours so brilliant to do. We will be asking leading people in the field what they’re optimistic about, where they see the future of their research.
As a taster, here’s Professor Lawrence Young talking about a link between stem cell research and cancer therapies:
If you want an easy-to-read potted history of the last few years’ work on stem cells and what it means for us, read this article by Gina Kolata Glimpsing a Scientific Future as Fields Heat Up in the New York Times last November.
Jacob Bronowski: The Ascent of Man
Jacob Bronowki’s brilliant book, The Ascent of Man has just been re-issued in a new edition with a Foreword by Richard Dawkins. It’s a start to #ScienceBookOfTheWeek — add yours!
A vivid memory from my boring secondary school days is hearing Jacob Bronowski lecture us in the school hall. Rows of uniformed, bored adolescent girls chatting to each other in sign language . . . were suddenly catapulted into a mesmerising wander through the mind of a great man.
The blurb for this new edition says it
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Jenny Rohn & Science is Vital
Every so often, it’s important to state the bleedin’ obvious. Science really matters. As Jenny Rohn’s campaign last October against the proposed spending cuts in research bluntly put it: Science is Vital.
And one of the ways of ensuring that science stays mattering is to celebrate scientists. So let’s start this morning by saying something about the woman who initiated that campaign.
Jenny is a cell biologist at UCL.
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The story behind The New Optimists
Three New Optimist scientists, plus myself (Kate Cooper) told our stories behind the project. I kicked off, then Nick Booth asked Hazel Barrett how it was for her when she was approached to contribute, followed the same question to Stuart Slater:
And then it was Gina Rippon’s turn:
Competition winner
We’re pleased to announce that the winner of the Young Optimists Competition is Ruhi Ur Rashid of Sidney Stringer Street Academy in Coventry.
We’re delighted too that she’s accepted our invitation to come to the Science Capital event on Wednesday 15 June
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HIV, brain plasticity & artificial intelligence — 4pm today @ Bham Conservatoire
Nick Booth is chairing a New Optimists panel at The Spring Thing, run by Birmingham’s Book Festival. It’s at 4:00pm today in the Arena Foyer of Birmingham Conservatoire.
There’s development geographer Professor Hazel Barrett whose research is about HIV spread, neuroscientist Professor Gina Rippon and Director of both The Institute of Gaming and Animation and IT Futures Dr Stuart Slater. Their task:
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Aston power plant & plans for a “thermal ring”
What kind of lab is useful for a chemical engineer whose research is about how to convert biomaterials into energy? The answer is, of course, a power plant.
And that’s exactly what New Optimist Andreas Hornung is about to get.
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