Comedy №7

Research & Science

books

Cambridge Science Festival 2019

Cam_April 2019

University of Cambridge

Comedian Whitney Cummings opens up to Mark about the hilariously terrible food choices she had growing up poor. 

Listen to more Mark Says Hi! interviews on Raw Dog Comedy, Sirius XM channel 99 or online http://www.siriusxm.com/ondemand

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Whitney Cummings Grew Up Poor - Interview w/ Mark Says Hi!

Bill Plotkin, PhD, is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of the Animas Valley Institute, he has, since 1980, guided thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary Western adaptation of the pancultural vision fast. He’s also been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. Bill is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche and Nature and The Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World.

http://www.animas.org

Buy the book!

Bill Plotkin - Wild Mind

In the 14th Hinsley Memorial lecture – an annual lecture given at St John’s on international relations - Timothy Garton-Ash examines the competing interests vying for control of the internet

International Relations: The Struggle for Power Over the Internet in a Post-American World

Sim Van der Ryn
Ecological Design
Sim Van der Ryn is a visionary pioneer in ecological design. For more than 40 years, Sim has been at the forefront of integrating ecological principles into the built environment, creating multi-scale solutions driven by nature’s intelligence. He has served as California’s first energy-conscious State Architect, authored seven influential books, and won numerous honors and awards for his leadership and innovation in architecture and planning. A recent New York Times profile writes, “Long before sustainability became the buzzword du jour, there was Sim Van der Ryn, the intrepid pioneer on the eco-frontier.”

Join Michael Lerner in this conversation about Sim’s collaborative approach to ecological design that help show the way to an evolving planetary era that values both the integrity of ecological systems and the quality of life.


Sim Van der Ryn
Sim is a visionary, author, educator, public leader, and internationally distinguished pioneer in ecological design. For more than 40 years, Sim has been at the forefront of integrating ecological principles into the built environment, creating multi-scale solutions driven by nature’s intelligence. He has served as California’s first energy-conscious State Architect, authored seven influential books, and won numerous honors and awards for his leadership and innovation in architecture and planning. Sim’s collaborative approach and meta-disciplinary accomplishments help show the way to an evolving planetary era that values both the integrity of ecological systems and the quality of life. Find out more on his website.

Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

New School Conversations

2010.10.01:  Sim Van der Ryn - Ecological Design

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had potential to be one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, yet she was also one of the most vulnerable. In France, when she was the teenage bride to their future king, she was seen as rightful heir to the thrones of England and Ireland, as well as Queen of Scotland and one day of France, which would have been an extraordinary union. She was widowed too young, though and, a Catholic returning to Protestant Scotland, she struggled to overcome rivalries in her own country. She fled to Protestant England, where she was implicated in plots to overthrow Elizabeth, and it was Elizabeth herself who signed Mary's death warrant. 


With 

David Forsyth
Principal Curator, Scottish Medieval-Early Modern Collections at National Museums Scotland

Anna Groundwater
Teaching Fellow in Historical Skills and Methods at the University of Edinburgh

And

John Guy
Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson. Jan 19, 2017

Mary, Queen of Scots

Every day your immune system is busy protecting you from the thousands of germs around you that can make you sick. It does its job so efficiently that you don’t even notice that it is at work. Micro-organisms are present in your gut and interact with your body during periods of health and disease. When the immune system hits the wrong target, however, it can unleash a torrent of disorders, including inflammatory diseases, cancer, and autoimmune disease. Come along and be enlightened by our experts in the field.

Panelists: Dr Eoin McKinney (Autoimmunity - Dept of Medicine), Dr Maike De La Roche (Immunity - CRUK), Dr Sam Forster (Microbiota - Sanger Institute). Chaired by Prof Clare Bryant (Innate Immunity - Dept of Vet Medicine).

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

For more information on the Well of Light Global Community, Programs, Radio shows and Services go to www.welloflight.com To access other great interviews and offerings go to: www.patreon.com/conversations Your donations are gratefully received and make it all possible!

John  Lockley is a senior Sangoma in the Xhosa lineage from South Africa. He is also known as a traditional healer, diviner or spirit doctor. Sangomas are traditional African Shamans, who are called by the ancestors to apprentice under another Sangoma to receive transmission or the gift of healing. John is founder of 'the Way of the Leopard' teachings; a unique teaching system to help people from non shamanic cultures to reconnect to their inner wilderness, bones (ancestors), dreams and the natural world. trained in both the mystical African arts of divination, herbal medicine and dreaming, as well as contemporary Psychology, Buddhism and Yoga.  John trained with Zen Masters from the young age of 19 in South Korea; and, following his Sangoma calling, proceeded to train, apprentice and mentor with some of Southern Africa’s top Sangomas and traditional healers.  www.johnlockley.com

Conversations with Michael & John  Lockley ~ The Way of the Leopard

10/23/2017

In everyday life individuals learn by ‘seeing’ things using light; the same is true in science. The extraordinary power of synchrotron light has made it an essential tool for studying matter on scales ranging from biological cells to atoms. This lecture discusses the idea of SESAME, an international institute in the Middle East built on the successful model of CERN, in fields like archaeology, biology, chemistry, environmental science, geology, medicine, and physics.

Speaker 
Rolf Heuer President of the German Physical Society (DPG); Former Director-General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)

SESAME: A Source of Light in the Middle East

Men Only Want One Thing

Whitney Cummings is a comedian, actor, writer, and producer. In her directorial debut, Whitney partnered with Neal Brennan (Chappelle’s Show) to adapt a nonfiction neurology book called ‘The Female Brain’ into a comedy. 

Along with Whitney, the film also stars Sofia Vergara, Toby Kebbell, James Marsden, Cecily Strong, Will Sasso, Deon Cole, and Blake Griffin.

In this interview, the writer-director talks about her personal traps of motivation, the importance of brain rest, why she likes having other comedians on set, hacking your body to improve stress, and how she balances the many pieces of her profession.

Stay up-to-date on other creative advice at www.creativeprinciples.live

Ep55 - Whitney Cummings, Writer-Director Neurology Comedy ‘The Female Brain’

Goodnight Moon (cover)

05/23/2018, Kyoshin Wendy Lewis, dharma talk at Tassajara.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/SanFranciscoZenCenterPublicLectures/~4/u9FDv9-iXQQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

Our Relationship with Nature – What Is the Self?

New Books in the Arts and Sciences at Columbia University: a podcast featuring audio from the New Books Series at Columbia University and interviews with the speakers and authors.

Nation Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart
by: Andreas Wimmer

Why is national integration achieved in some diverse countries, while others are destabilized by political inequality between ethnic groups, contentious politics, or even separatism and ethnic war? Traversing centuries and continents from early nineteenth-century Europe and Asia to Africa from the turn of the twenty-first century to today, Andreas Wimmer delves into the forces that encourage political alliances to stretch across ethnic divides and build national unity. Using global datasets and three pairs of case studies (Switzerland and Belgium, Botswana and Somalia, and China and Russia), Wimmer’s theory of nation building focuses on slow-moving, generational processes: the spread of civil society organizations, linguistic assimilation, and the states’ capacity to provide public goods. Offering a long-term historical perspective and global outlook, Nation Building sheds important new light on the challenges of political integration in diverse countries.

Andreas Wimmer's Nation Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart

Britain is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, so why do so many feel short-changed? In this episode of Philosophy for our Times, Labour MP and former minister Angela Eagle sees an urgent need to protect social cohesion and makes a case for radical economic reform.

In association with the New College of the Humanities: www.nchlondon.ac.uk

Bonus Episode: The Struggle for Social Justice | Angela Eagle

Most think that social progress should be driven by ideas and persuasion not force. Yet from the French and Russian Revolutions to the Suffragettes, violent action has been instrumental to generating change. Is violence ever justified as a political strategy? In this episode of Philosophy for our Times,  Enlightenment Now author Steven Pinker, filmmaker and author of The Clash of Fundamentalisms Tariq Ali and Kurdish Women's Movement activist Elif Sarican grapple with the forces of history.

In association with the New College of the Humanities: bit.ly/2FdPgLD

Fires of Progress | Steven Pinker, Tariq Ali, Elif Sarican

Has parliament taken back control and if so, are MPs about to shed their traditional party loyalties to prevent a no-deal Brexit? Listen to David Howarth, Professor of Law and Public Policy and former Cambridge MP, and Simon Deakin, Professor of Law, discuss what’s likely to happen in the Brexit negotiations in both the short and longer term.

A Center for Business Research Podcast: January 28th 2019

Brexit and its consequences for the UK economy and political systems

Daphne Martschenko, president of Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club, is determined to make the sport of rowing more accessible. Her mission to pave the way for greater diversity in rowing chimes with her study of the charged concepts of race, socio-economic status, intelligence and genetics.

Read more here: https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-star-rower-whose-research-examines-teachers-perceptions-of-intelligence-59467a7e18e2

The star rower whose research examines teachers’ perceptions of intelligence - Daphne Martschenko

Nina from UCL Grand Challenges chats with Dr Miriam Orcutt, a researcher in forced migration and health systems, and the Coordinator of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health. Dr Orcutt discusses progress since the launch of the Commission’s report in December 2018, and illustrates how involving a variety of stakeholders, including migrants themselves, informs research and policy.

UCL’s Grand Challenges convene and cultivate cross-disciplinary collaborations that bring researchers together, explore joined-up solutions in six areas related to matters of pressing societal concern, and set the agenda for future research while building bridges with external partners.

Music © Benjamin Mastripolito

Voices from Grand Challenges – Migration and Health with Dr Miriam Orcutt

Get ready to enjoy both series 1 and 2 of the heady combination of maths, science and comedy that is Domestic Science. 

Featuring Matt Parker, Steve Mould and Helen Arney as Festival of the Spoken Nerd, these 8 episodes use stand-up, songs and experiments to investigate the world around us with a level of scientific accuracy not normally found in your average comedy series.  

If you've ever pondered where the mint in your toothpaste really comes from, or wondered what The Hot Chocolate Effect is, then come explore and play along at home. The team also investigate everything from radioactive bananas and musical bicycle tyres to assisting you with mathematically efficient sock storage and how to host your very own static electricity party.

UK science comedy phenomenon Festival of the Spoken Nerd created this truly experimental radio show for BBC Radio 4, alongside appearances on BBC2’s QI and sharing stages at the Hammersmith Apollo and Royal Albert Hall with comedian Robin Ince, Professor Brian Cox and Commander Chris Hadfield. They toured their most recent stand-up science show to over 50,000 curious nerds (and non-nerds) and have accumulated millions of views on YouTube for their stand-up maths, songs and science explanations.

Domestic Science: Series 1 and 2 - audiobook extract

For more information on the Well of Light Global Community, Programs, Radio shows and Services go to www.welloflight.com 
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Renee Wade is a certified Permaculture Designer with a BA in Ecological Agriculture. Her focus is on creating landscapes that are functional parts of the larger ecosystem.. Renee is also the author of The Living Earth Handbook: Creating Sustainability from the Inside Out, winner of the Nautilus Book Awards Gold in Science and Cosmology in 2017. This book reflects Renee’s broader interests in the connections between human consciousness, quantum physics, and Nature’s intelligence. She regularly teaches workshops on creating living soil, understanding and working with water, and shifting into conscious connection with nature. https://naturalcollaboration.com/

Conversations with Michael & Renee Wade ~ The Living Earth Handbook

In the third installment of Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine's series on ecology and evolution, YJBM podcast hosts Neal Ravindra and Kartiga Selvaganesan interview Richard Prum. Professor Prum is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, a faculty member in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and affiliated with Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. He is also the author of the recent book, The Evolution of Beauty, which was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer prize. We discuss some of the concepts in that book and topics in his current research program during the episode.

Ecology & Evolution: Episode III

Cambridge Infectious Diseases Public Lecture
Dr Ellen Nisbet discusses how saving the world's coral reefs is helping us cure malaria. Corals contain photosynthetic algae, dying when the algae are lost. And malaria parasites are really algae in disguise.

Dr Ellen Nisbet - Coral Reefs, Malaria And Drug Discovery

We humans have many obvious physical adaptations for effective movement – most notably the fact that we all tend to wander around on two legs. Less obvious, but every bit as important, is how our minds – particularly our desires – have been shaped through evolution by the need to move. Central to these mental adaptations is the brain’s ‘reward chemical’ dopamine. Dopamine is famous for making the runner’s high feel so good, but its role in encouraging and rewarding movement goes much deeper than that.

Drawing on the latest research, as well as traditional hunter-gatherer wisdom, zoologist Dr Matt Wilkinson will reveal all about these stimulating mental systems, and will give some tips about how to keep them working in our modern, civilised world.

Dr Matt Wilkinson - Joy Of Steps

The UK is embarking on a renewal of its generation of electricity by nuclear power and moving towards finding a permanent home for its accumulated radioactive waste. Since the last time the UK made decisions like this, much understanding has developed that could re-set our attitude to radiation and radiological risk. Ian & Gerry will demonstrate little appreciated aspects of radioactivity in the natural world and the outcomes of decades of study on the health effects of radiation.

Ian Farnan is Professor of Earth & Nuclear Materials in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. His research involves the effect of radiation and water on materials used in radioactive waste disposal and nuclear power generation. He has led UK and European research consortia in this area and is currently Chair of Cambridge Nuclear Energy Centre.

Gerry Thomas is Professor of Molecular Pathology at Imperial College London and among many other things, Director of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank. Her research involves the molecular mechanisms involved in development of thyroid cancer, which is the only radiobiological consequence of the Chernobyl accident. Gerry believes passionately in the communication of the real health effects of power generation, and addressing our unconscious biases towards methods of electricity generation. She has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows all over the world talking about the health effects of the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents.

Ian Farnan & Gerry Thomas - Putting Radioactivity In Perspective

A technology breakthrough that started in Cambridge has brought us to where we are able to decode the entire DNA sequence and determine mutations that cause rare genetic diseases and cancer. With all 100,000 genomes now sequenced, Dr David Bentley, Chief Scientist at Illumina, and Professor Mark Caulfield, Chief Scientist at Genomics England, discuss how the 100,000 Genome Project will revolutionise the way we practise medicine.

Dr David Bentley FMedSci
David is Vice President and Chief Scientist at Illumina Inc. and graduated with an M.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and a D.Phil from Oxford. During his career he has been a Senior Lecturer at London University; and later the Head of Human Genetics and a founder member of the Board of Management at the Sanger Centre. David has played a leading role in the Human Genome Project and related international consortia to characterise human sequence variation, including The SNP Consortium and the HapMap Project. His long-term interest is the study of human sequence variation and its impact on human health and disease. His current research is focussed on fast, accurate sequencing of human genomes for adoption and benefit in healthcare, with early applications including rare genetic disease and cancer. These applications are exemplified in the goals of the 100,000 genomes project, a partnership that includes Illumina, Genomics England and the National Health Service.

Professor Mark Caulfield
Mark Caulfield graduated in Medicine in 1984 from the London Hospital Medical College and trained in Clinical Pharmacology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital where he developed a research programme in molecular genetics of hypertension which has discovered over 1000 gene loci for blood pressure and clinical research. He served on the NICE Guideline Group for hypertension and was President of the British Hypertension Society (2009-2011).

He was appointed Director of the William Harvey Research Institute in 2002 and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008. He led on fundraising towards the £25m William Harvey Heart Centre which created a translational clinical research centre. Since 2008 he directs the National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit and Centre at Barts. Between 2010 and 2015 he co-led the merger of three hospitals in North London to create the new £400 million Barts Heart Centre which provides 80,000 cardiovascular patient episodes.

He has won the Lily Prize of the British Pharmacology Society, the Bjorn Folkow Award of the European Society of Hypertension 2016 and the Franz Volhard Award of the International Society of Hypertension in 2018.

In 2013 he became an NIHR Senior Investigator and was appointed as the Chief Scientist for Genomics England (100,000 Genomes Project) 2013-ongoing.

David Bentley & Mark Caulfield - 100,000 Genomes Project Transforming Precision Healthcare

Black holes are nature’s most extreme and exotic objects. They stretch our understanding of space and time to its limits and, in a cosmic irony, are responsible for some of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. In this talk, Professor Christopher Reynolds describes the nature of black holes as we currently understand them, the role that they play in the Universe, and how future research on black holes may yet again change our view of reality.

Christopher Reynolds is the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. After completing his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at Cambridge, he spent 21 years in the United States including a 16 year stint as a Professor at the University of Maryland where we ran a research group focused on black holes. He returned to Cambridge in the Autumn of 2017

Prof Christopher Reynolds - The Universe Of Black Holes

In this episode, Charis and I speak to Cambridge University alumna, Pat Marsh. When we recorded the interview, we didn’t have any of the studio equipment with us, just a phone, but we thought it would be a crime not to share Pat’s incredible story. 

Pat was the first woman in the UK to hold a gaming licence and in 1979 she brought Space Invaders, the arcade game sensation, to the UK shores. 

Pat has had a distinguished business career, most recently serving as Executive Chairman of Philip-Treacy. Philip Treacy’s hats have adorned the heads of royals and celebrities alike, including Grace Jones, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Beyonce and Victoria Beckham.

The woman who brought Space Invaders to the UK - Pat Marsh

Cambridge Climate Lecture Series
In his 100th year, James Lovelock talks with Chris Rapley and Helen Czerski on the theme of Climate Change, Can We Fix It? Only three months after COP24 we hear if Lovelock, the father figure of our climate concerns, remains optimistic. Is Gaia alive? Will the Earth self-regulate whatever we do?

Dr Helen Czerski, Professor Tim Lenton and Professor Chris Rapley will hold a live discussion of the implications of the Gaia Hypothesis with recorded interviews with James.

Forty years ago James postulated that the Earth is a self-regulating system able to keep the climate and chemical composition comfortable for organisms. This was the Gaia Hypothesis, which as evidence and mathematical models accumulated has now become Gaia Theory.

Chris Rapley is Professor of Climate Science at UCL. Previous to this, Chris was the Director of the British Antarctic Survey (1998 to 2007) and Director of the Science Museum (2007-2010). In 2008 he was awarded the Edinburgh Science Medal – “For professional achievements judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding and well-being of humanity” Since January 2014 Chris is the Chair of European Space Agency Director General's High Level Science Policy Advisory Committee. Chris Rapley is amongst scientists to comment on the future state of the Earth System. The report warns of the potential of a ‘Hothouse Earth’, whereby self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System through a planetary threshold to a new state characterised by a combination of high global temperatures and rising sea levels unprecedented in the Holocene.

Dr Helen Czerski is a physicist, first and foremost, but she’s acquired a few other labels along the way: oceanographer, presenter, author and bubble enthusiast. Helen studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and continued her academic studies gaining a PhD in experimental explosives physics. After research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and a post doc at the Graduate School of Oceanography in Rhode Island Helen returned to the UK to start her own research programme on the physics of oceanic bubbles, first at the University of Southampton and then at her current academic home, University College London. Helen gets particularly excited about the physics of the everyday world and the oceans and has presented documentaries on a wide range of subjects relating to physics in general, and also atmospheric and ocean science. She is passionate about conveying the beauty and ingenuity of the physical world around us, and the perspective on the world that science provides.

Professor Tim Lenton studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Reading Jim Lovelock’s books on Gaia ignited his passion for studying the Earth as a whole system. This led to his PhD studies on what regulates nutrient balance of the ocean and the oxygen content of the atmosphere, supervised by Professor Andrew Watson at Plymouth Marine Laboratory and later the University of East Anglia (UEA). After gaining his PhD, Tim worked at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh. In 2004 he returned to UEA and built up an Earth system modeling group, working on key events in the coupled evolution of life and the planet, including human-induced global change. Tim moved to the University of Exeter in 2011, where he and his group are focusing on understanding these past revolutions, on developing an evolutionary model of the marine ecosystem, and on early warning of climate tipping points.

Climate Change: An Evening With James Lovelock

From human disease and intellectual ability, ethnicity and race to sex and our origins, Dr Ewan Birney and colleagues, discuss the five things that everyone should know about genetics.

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith is the Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics and Head of the Department of Genetics. Her research focuses on the molecular events governing pre- and post-natal mammalian development.

Dr Matthew Hurles leads a research group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute focused on deciphering the genetic causes of severe developmental disorders, and understanding how DNA mutates as it is passed from generation to generation.

Dr Stuart Ritchie is a Lecturer in the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London. His research focuses on the genetic and environmental links to human intelligence differences.

Ewan Birney is Director of EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute with Dr Rolf Apweiler, and runs a small research group. He is also EMBL-EBI's Joint Head of Research, alongside Dr Nick Goldman.

Ewan completed his PhD at the Wellcome Sanger Institute with Richard Durbin. In 2000, he became Head of Nucleotide data at EMBL-EBI and in 2012 he took on the role of Associate Director at the institute. He became Director of EMBL-EBI in 2015. Ewan led the analysis of the Human Genome gene set, mouse and chicken genomes and the ENCODE project, focusing on non-coding elements of the human genome. Ewan’s main areas of research include functional genomics, DNA algorithms, statistical methods to analyse genomic information (in particular information associated with individual differences in humans and Medaka fish) and use of images for chromatin structure.

Ewan is a non-executive Director of Genomics England, and a consultant and advisor to a number of companies, including Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Dovetail Genomics and GSK. Ewan was elected an EMBO member in 2012, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015. He was also made a CBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in 2018.

Ewan has received a number of awards including the 2003 Francis Crick Award from the Royal Society, the 2005 Overton Prize from the International Society for Computational Biology and the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Award for contributions in Open Source Bioinformatics.

Five Things About Genetics Everyone Should Know

Understanding disease at the molecular level is key to the discovery of new targets that drive inflammation and autoimmune processes. What happens when the immune system hits the wrong target? It can unleash a torrent of disorders, including inflammatory diseases, cancer, and autoimmune disease. Understanding disease triggers may enable entirely new approaches to treating and potentially preventing disease. Come along and be enlightened by our panel of experts in the field.

Immunology: the future of medicine?

Imagine to be in front of a traffic light, you are about to cross and the green light starts to blink. Do you cross? Do you always stop, or does your choice depend on how late/early you are for an appointment? Does this depend on your age, the younger you are, the faster you can cross, or the more likely you are to take risks?

Right from brainless bugs such as bacteria and yeasts, to each of the three trillion cells making up our bodies, each cell continually takes critical decisions about proliferation, migrations, metabolisms and cell behaviour. However, once in a while, genetic mutations occur. Like typos that change the meaning of a sentence in a book, these errors change how cells decide leading to uncontrolled growth.

Although cells have mechanisms to correct these errors or to avoid the consequences that these errors may lead to, rarely, wrong decisions are made and perpetuated… and cancer is triggered. Dr Alessandro Esposito, MRC Cancer Unit, explores how the cell, a tiny droplet of water, takes decision to support life and how scientists probe the ‘brain of the cell’ to understand cellular decisions in physiological and pathological conditions.

Dr Alessandro Esposito - The cell: a living computer in a droplet of water

Through a series of short, interactive presentations, Astex Pharmaceuticals take you on a journey into their ‘molecular mix and match’ approach to the discovery of new medicines. Stick around after the talks to meet the scientists!

Astex Pharmaceuticals - Molecular mix and match: designing and making new medicines

Researchers found that the cartilage in our ankles might be able to turnover more easily compared to our hips and knees.

Humans Might Be Able To Regrow Cartilage

And the disease is now popping up on the west coast.