Category - The Microcosm
Face to Face with the New Optimists: Roslyn Bill talks about healthy ageing
It’s been a busy week for Dr Roslyn Bill. Head of the Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing, at Aston University, Ros spoke to us earlier this week to tell us all about what’s happening at ARCHA, including the showcase event they held last week.
Not only that but she’s also joined the ranks of Birmingham Post bloggers, writing a blog about the research centre. You can read more from Ros and the other New Optimists here.
Experts & the public head to Aston University to take on ageing
Experts from around the UK are at Aston University today to exchange ideas as part of a one-day conference tackling ageing. The conference is organised by Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing (ARCHA), which is led by New Optimist Dr Roslyn Bill.
She says: “This showcase is about exchanging ideas, as well as looking for practical solutions to a major challenge for all of us. We hope those who attend will go away having been inspired after hearing about the huge amount of cutting edge research carried out here at Aston University.
At ARCHA, we’ve always said that we want our research to have real impact on the lives of older adults. We are keen for the public to come along to see what we are doing, and also so we can find out what matters to them. If we don’t know what affects their lives we can’t help them as well. We are looking for volunteers, and there will be opportunities to take part in our many research studies.”
As well as Roslyn, other New Optimists involved in leading this event include Helen Griffiths, Julia King, Peter Lambert, James Wolffsohn, Brian Tighe and Robert Berry.
You can read more about the event here. Look out for our interview with Roslyn Bill very soon.
Face to Face with the New Optimists: Lawrence Young talks about challenging cancer
Professor Lawrence Young, Head of the College of Medical and Dental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, is the latest in our Face to Face series of interviews with the New Optimists. He’s recently contributed to the Challenging Cancer Kindle book, and in the video above he talks to us about what he’s optimistic about.
He also touches on the work of the College, which areas of scientific research he’s most excited by at the moment, and the future developments that he believes could help us combat the scientific challenges we’re facing right now.
You can see more from our Face to Face series here or by visiting the New Optimists YouTube channel.
Growing old (dis)gracefully
What should be the title of our new e-book, a Kindle in the first instance, on healthy ageing? Rather to the chagrin of my family, I’m doing what I can to grow old disgracefully . . . but do such words work as the title of a book on healthy ageing? Or should it be something along the lines of this photo of a bizarre poster I found in a shop window? Ideas please!
The book will be in our usual format of scientists writing what they’re optimistic about.
Ten to twelve scientists will be contributing. Some are existing New Optimists. Roslyn Bill who’s Director of Director of the Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing, for example, UoB’s Janet Lord
Continue reading “Growing old (dis)gracefully”
Round-up: Face to Face with the New Optimists
Here’s a quick recap of the interviews we’ve posted so far in our Face to Face series. We’ve got more of those coming soon, and if you click here you can leave your questions which you’d like us to ask the New Optimists.
Jack Cohen talks about reproductive biology:
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What’s coming up for the New Optimists
There are lots of exciting things coming up for the New Optimists in the next few months. As well as more Face to Face interviews with some of the scientists who have contributed to the project, there are some other big things which we’re very excited about.
- There will be some activity over the coming months to tie in with the first Kindle book, Challenging Cancer. We’re also going to be working on forthcoming Kindle books, which will cover topics such as renewable energies, ageing, and how scientists view the world.
- The New Optimists Forum is something we’re really looking forward to – a series of unconference-style gatherings where we bring together scientists to talk about viable approaches to deal with challenges which we will face in our near future. The first Forum theme is the prevalent topic of Food & Cities.
- There’s also a book in the pipeline about stem cell research, covering epigenetics and how our environments reprogramme the human genome.
Challenging cancer – Ask the New Optimists!
We’ve already done a few interviews with the New Optimists for our Face to Face series and we’re going to be doing some more very soon, with some of the contributors to our Kindle book on cancer. And we’ll also be doing an interview with Kate Cooper, the woman behind the project.
Is there something you’d like to ask the New Optimists? Leave your questions in the comments section and we’ll put them to the scientists on your behalf!
Face to Face with the New Optimists: Andrew Peet
Continuing our Face to Face series where we meet with the New Optimists, this is a short video clip which was filmed at the launch of the hard copy of the book last year, at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. In it, Dr Andrew Peet – an oncologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital – talks about his optimism and what made him want to contribute to the book.
His chapter, ‘Brain tumour imaging – the dawn of a new era’, will be included in the forthcoming Kindle book on Challenging Cancer, which will be available soon.
Face to Face with the New Optimists: Paul Moss on controlling cancer
Our first Kindle book, The New Optimists: Challenging Cancer has just been released so it’s a good time to continue our Face to Face series by getting to know some of the scientists who have contributed essays on the topic.
We’ll be interviewing some more of the New Optimists over the summer, but here’s a video we first posted before the launch of the book last year – it’s an interview with Paul Moss, Head of the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and Director of the Birmingham Cancer Research UK Centre.
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David Sansom: How our immune system doesn’t kill us
Yesterday in the Birmingham Post Science Blog I wrote about some work by Brum academic Dr David Sansom. His work has big implications in the treatment of some very debilitating and potentially dangerous diseases.
Reported in the prestigious Science journal on 29th April, this research is about the mechanisms by which a particular protein, CTLA-4, damps down our immune system by ‘hoovering’ up aggressive T-cells which are at the forefront of fighting invasions.
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