FACES OF GENIUS: Looking at Isaac Newton

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Meeting Details
Speaker: Dr Patricia Fara View Flyer
Biography: Clare College, University of Cambridge
Date: 07/5/2014
Time: 20:00
Venue: Studio Theatre
Description: Isaac Newton is commemorated as one of the world's greatest scientists, but when he wrote his great book on gravity, only a handful of scholars knew who he was - and even they found his work hard to understand. During the past three centuries, pictures, statues and cartoons have presented him in many different guises, making Newton a familiar yet multi-faced household icon. Examining these images reveals how Newton came to be celebrated as a scientific genius.

This meeting will be preceded at 7:30 by the Society’s AGM

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24
JUN
0

2013 - 2014 Programme

GRAPHENE BASED METROLOGY

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Meeting Details
Speaker: Dr T J B M Janssen View Flyer
Biography: National Physical Laboratory
Date: 08/04/2014
Time: 20:00
Venue: Studio Theatre
Description: Graphene is a material which holds promise for a myriad of exciting applications across many technologies and a large number of these have been demonstrated in principle in the laboratory. However going from laboratory demonstration to real-life application can be a difficult process and this is where many new technologies have failed in the past. Metrology plays an essential role in this process by providing reliable and reproducible measurement technology which gives confidence in the results of research. It provides a basis which can be used for the objective comparison of measurement results and can be used to set standards for industry to work towards. Metrology has often been the first adopter of new technologies. In particular, the quantum Hall effect was one of the first discoveries in graphene and it has been the metrological community which has taken this from first observation to the most accurate resistance standard in less than 6 years. Conversely, the demonstration of a high accuracy resistance gives confidence in graphene as a mature technology with real potential. The talk will cover some of the unique properties of graphene and focus on the development of novel measurement standards based on graphene.

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24
JUN
0

2013 - 2014 Programme

THE ORIGIN OF COMPLEX LIFE

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Meeting Details
Speaker: Dr Nick Lane View Flyer
Biography: University College, London
Date: 11/03/2014
Time: 20:00
Venue: Studio Theatre
Description: All complex (eukaryotic) life on Earth shares a common ancestor that arose just once in 4 billion years of evolution, apparently as a chimera, in which a bacterial host cell engulfed another bacterium, the ancestor of mitochondria. I will discuss the singularity of eukaryotic origins, and why mitochondria enabled the evolution of enormous genomic complexity, while simultaneously forcing the evolution of many curious eukaryotic traits, from the programmed cell death to two sexes.

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24
JUN
0

2013 - 2014 Programme

ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS FOR CROSSRAIL AT BOND STREET STATION

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Meeting Details
Speaker: James Melvill and John Barker View Flyer
Biography: Associate Structural Engineer, Crossrail and Transportation Director, AECOM
Date: 11/12/2013
Time: 20:00
Venue: Main Theatre
Description: Crossrail is the largest civil engineering project currently underway in Europe The new underground station at Bond Street has presented many challenges which have resulted in some innovative solutions.

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24
JUN
0

2013 - 2014 Programme

The 24th Erasmus Darwin Memorial Lecture – PROJECT SUNSHINE: How science can use the sun to fuel and feed the world

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Meeting Details
Speaker: Professor Anthony J Ryan OBE View Flyer
Biography: The University of Sheffield
Date: 19/11/2013
Time: 19:30
Venue: Main Theatre
Description: Project Sunshine tells the story of how scientists are working to reconnect us to the 'solar economy', harnessing the power of the sun to provide sustainable food and energy for a global population of 9 billion people: an achievement that would end our dependence on 'fossilised sunshine' in the form of coal, oil and gas and remake our connection with the soil that grows our food. It is an astonishing fact that capturing all the energy in just one hour's worth of sunlight would enable us to meet the planet's food and energy needs for an entire year.

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24
JUN
0

2013 - 2014 Programme

PLANTS AND PETROL – A biologist looks at biofuels

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Meeting Details
Speaker: Professor John A Bryant View Flyer
Biography: University of Exeter
Date: 09/10/2013
Time: 20:00
Venue: Studio Theatre
Description: It is widely accepted that we need to seek renewable fuel sources, both to decrease the use of fossil fuels and to prepare for the time when oil reserves eventually run out. Environmental sources of energy - wind, water, sunshine, tides - are good for generation of electricity but combustible fuels are a different matter. We have therefore turned to a range of biological systems for the manufacture of combustible fuels, including bio-gas and bio-diesel. The talk will bring us up to date with these developments and will ask questions about the both the practicality and the ethics of some of these systems.

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24
JUN
0

2013 - 2014 Programme

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