Cambridge Science Festival 2019

Cam_April 2019

University of Cambridge

Cambridge University Lectures

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engineers

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

Eckhart Tolle is reading from his book: Practicing the Power of Now

01 Practicing The Power of NOW -

Thomas Prescott, CEO of medical device manufacturer Align Technology, discusses disruptive product innovation and leadership in the medical device industry. Prescott shares the company's story, including insights on the launch of their signature product, the Invisalign orthodontic system. He also discusses operational trends and the need for sound analysis of financing, product execution, and business development tactics.

Thomas Prescott - Leadership and Disruptive Technologies

Since 2010, Jacques Panis has led the vision behind Shinola's growth from cult collector items to a rocket paced rise a cultural icon.  His "one team, one dream" approach to the company's success celebrate's each and every employee's contribution, expertise, passion, and creative vision.  With stores and employees all over the world, the Detroit-based brand boasts everything from watches to baseball bats, turntables, notebooks, bicycles, and everything in between.  The secret to success?  A laser-like focus on creating jobs in Detroit and America as a whole.  On Innovation Crush, Jacques peels back the curtain on the company's success, growth strategies, it's role in society, and vision for the future. 

Create a fantastic-looking website using WEEBLY. Join the over thirty million people who are already dreaming big - get started today for FREE at http://Weebly.com/crush

#126:  Jacques Panis - Making Detroit Great Again

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

In a polarised world, populist leaders with narratives of grievance promote global schisms based on religious and cultural differences. How can this be prevented? Andrew Preston, Julian Hargreaves, Sara Silvestri and Esra Ozyurek will discuss the situation in the US, Turkey and the UK, how it might be feeding a rising intolerance of different cultures and religions and how it can be challenged.

MANUFACTURING A CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS

In this special lecture, mother and son serial entrepreneurs Sandra and Andy Kurtzig share smart reasons for starting companies that matter. Sandra Kurtzig outlines similarities and differences between her previous ventures and her current company, Kenandy. Andy Kurtzig discusses his company, JustAnswer, and key lessons for entrepreneurs.

Sandra Kurtzig, Andy Kurtzig - Two Generations of Entrepreneurship

Speaker(s): Eric Ries | Most new businesses fail. But most of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach to business that's being adopted around the world. It is changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. The Lean Startup is about learning what your customers really want. It's about testing your vision continuously, adapting and adjusting before it's too late. Now is the time to think Lean. This event marks the publication of Eric Ries new book The Lean Startup. Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup and the popular entrepreneurship blog Startup Lessons Learned.He co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup. In 2007, BusinessWeek named him one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech. In 2009, he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has consulted to new and established companies as well as venture capital firms. He is currently serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School and a Fellow for IDEO, the design consulting firm. His Lean Startup methodology has been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post, and many blogs. Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT

The Lean Startup [Audio]

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

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

You might have heard that scientists will soon be able to build quantum computers. But what exactly is a quantum computer? Is it just a super-fast version of a normal computer? What will it be good for? And most importantly, should you buy one? Mithuna Yoganathan provides the answers! Hint: don't put in your pre-order until you've seen this talk!

Mithuna Yoganathan - What will my quantum computer do for me?

THIS IS NOT A PODCAST. This is an audio guide.

It's meant to be listened to on your phone at the Ford Highland Park Plant outside Detroit. Find out more here: http://listentodetroit.org/2012/10/25/highland-park-ford-plant/