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

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