Science Issues Cafe

Meeting Mon 5th July, 2010

Speaker: Dr Phil Hendry from CSIRO

Topic: Extremophile life

Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
North. Carlton MAP

Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10

Meeting Wednesday 4th August, 2010

Speaker: Dr Stephen Kent

Topic: HIV/AIDS research and vaccines

New Venue: St Mark’s Hall, 1 Mark St, North Fitzroy Map

Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10

Meeting Wednesday 6th October 2010

Speaker : Dr Phil Batterham

Topic: Genetics

New Venue: St Mark’s Hall, 1 Mark St, North Fitzroy Map

Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10

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Past 2010 meetings

No June meeting

Meeting Mon 3rd May

Speaker: Jason Major, Manager TechNyou

Topic:

Genetically modified organisms and GM technology.

Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
Nth. Carlton

Meeting Mon 5th April, 2010

Topic: Pulsars

Speaker: Dr Ramesh Baht

Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
Nth. Carlton

MAP

Meeting Monday 1st March, 2010

Communicating Climate Science in a politicised environment

Speaker: Imogen Jubb,

Imogen is the communications officer for the Australian Climate Change Science Program.

Venue: We meet at the Princes Hill Community Centre,
rear 270 MacPherson Street,
Nth. Carlton
MAP

Time: 7.30 pm Donation: $5 – $10

Meeting Mon 1st Feb, 2010

The life and work of William and Lawrence Bragg, Australia’s Nobel Prize winning physicists.

Speaker: Dr John Jenkin

Dr Jenkin was a physicist who moved to the history and philosophy of science at Latrobe University

Monday 7th December 2009

Dr Chris Blake

Swinburne University

TOPIC: Understanding the contents of the Universe and the current puzzles concerning dark matter and dark energy.

Monday 9th November 2009

Prof. Geoff Taylor

Dept. of Physics
University of Melbourne

TOPIC: The Large Hadron Collider

Monday 5th October 2009

Dr Megan Farrelly

Research Fellow, National Urban Water Governance Program

TOPIC: Water Resources

Monday 7th September 2009

Dr Matt Owers

TOPIC: Galaxies and Galactic Clusters

Monday 3rd August 2009

Dr Lindus Conlan

TOPIC: Biomimicry

Monday 6th July 2009

Emma Burrows

Florey Neuroscience Institutes
University of Melbourne

TOPIC: Interaction of genes and environment in psychiatric illness

Monday 1st June 2009

Janette Gogler

Assistant DON Nursing Informatics at the Austin Hospital

TOPIC: Health Informatics

Monday 4th May 2009

Steven Kennedy

Principal Geothermal Operations Advisor
Petroleum & Geothermal Regulation Branch
Department of Primary Industries

TOPIC : Geothermal Energy – technical background and current developments

Monday 6th April 2009

Dr Ian J. McNiven

Reader, Programme for Australian Indigenous Archaeology
School of Geography & Environmental Science
Monash University

TOPIC:

“Indigenous Australia – the world’s oldest culture? Archaeological discoveries on 50,000 years of cultural change”

Monday 2nd March 2009

Dr James Bradley, History and Philosophy of Science, Melbourne University

TOPIC: Darwinism

Monday 2nd February 2009

Professor John Lattanzio

Centre for Stellar and Planetary Astrophysics

School of Mathematical Sciences

Monash University

TOPIC: Life in the Universe

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Friday 22 FEBRUARY 2008

Professor Derek Russell

Agriculture, Health and Environment Group, Natural Resources Institute,
University of Greenwich,UK
Adjunct Professor, CESAR, Department of Genetics

‘GM cabbage for the 3rd World – the End of the Hungry Caterpillar?’

Derek Russell has been working on insecticide use reduction in the developing world for many years and in various ways.  His current big project is as leader of a consortium developing and commercialising transgenic cabbage and cauliflower which are resistant to the caterpillar pests which cause such huge yield reduction and are responsible for such massive insecticide spray and residue problems, especially in the developing world.  He has developed the plants and they are currently under testing in India.  Of course ‘GM crops and the third world’ raises all sorts of ethical and economic issues and dilemmas, which he will be willing to discuss.

Friday 28 MARCH 2008

Rae Moran, DNRE

Australia’s Water Resources – we are now experiencing severe drought, and predictions are for this to get worse with global warming. How should we manage our resources?

Monday 7th APRIL 2008

Dr Andrew Melatos

Einstein’s Astronomy:
Latest News on the Search for Gravitational Waves

Monday 12th MAY 2008

Lawrence Cavedon, RMIT

Artificial Intelligence.

This talk will take a tour through a range of topics related to
Artificial Intelligence: the philosophical underpinnings, the early
history, the major achievements, important research initiatives, an
outline of some of the techniques developed, and current developments.

Bio Sketch
Dr. Lawrence Cavedon is a Senior Researcher at NICTA (National ICT
Australia) and a Senior Lecturer at RMIT University. He has performed
research in AI and Cognitive Science for almost 20 years, in academia
and industry, in Australia, the UK and the USA.

Monday 2nd JUNE 2008

Ary Hoffman

re-scheduled

Monday 14th JULY 2008

Linden Gillbank

The History of Australian Plants

Linden will present something historical – on a beautiful aspect of the history of science.
She is a historian of botany, with a passionate interest in plants, especially Australian plants – their beauty, their names, their ecology and their uses.

She has prepared (for a course on the history of nature) a power point presentation on the history of the naming of Australian plants, using beautiful botanical art to tell the story.

Monday 4th AUGUST 2008

Prof. Geoff McFadden PhD FAA
ARC Federation Fellow, Howard Hughes International Scholar
Botany School, University of Melbourne 3010, Australia

The origins and evolution of life on Earth.

Monday 18th AUGUST 2008 SCIENCE WEEK SPECIAL MEETING

Peter Green, who has previously spoken to us about the Big Bang and the history of the universe up until the emergence of life on Earth, will continue the story and talk about:

The history and evolution of animals

Monday 1st SEPTEMBER 2008

Rick Bailey, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Australia’s Tsunami Warning System -

Monday 6th OCTOBER 2008

Dr Michelle Critchley
Manager, Delivery and Sensing Development
Nanotechnology Victoria Ltd

Nanotechnology

Monday 10th November

Tom Biegler

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells – some inconvenient truths.

Dr Tom Biegler FTSE has had an involvement in two waves of global fuel cell activity separated by over 30 years, first as a research scientist when he joined CSIRO in the mid-1960s to work on methanol and platinum electrochemistry and later, after serving as Chief of CSIRO Division of Mineral Products, as a consultant for parties involved in fuel cell development. In semi-retirement, he continues to speak and write on energy matters

For a summary of Dr Biegler’s talk, click here.

Monday 1st December

Ary Hoffman

Using the concept of “environmental stress” Ary will talk about whether animals will be able to adapt to climate change.

16 FEBRUARY

Dr John Long

Chief Science Officer, Museum Victoria

Tetrapod evolution

Dr John Long from the Museum of Victoria will be talking about exciting new fossil finds in China and Australia which shed light on the evolution of four-legged animals from their acquatic ancestors.

“The transition from fishes to tetrapods was one of the most dramatic events in the evolution of vertebrates, but many pivotal fossils are incomplete, resulting in gaps in our understanding of how animals came to inhabit the land – but this find helps us fill in the gaps,” Head of Sciences at Museum Victoria Dr John Long said.

Related links:  Fish Fossil Find and Gogo fish article

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16 MARCH

Prof. Alan Trounson

Stem Cell Research

Professor of Stem Cell Science
Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories

Related links: Heart Cells and Latest research on stem cells

The key recommendation of the Lockhart Report is that:    Human somatic cell nuclear transfer should be permitted, under licence, to create and  use human embryo clones for research, training and clinical application, including the  production of human embryonic stem cells, as long as the activity satisfies all the criteria  outlined in the amended Act and these embryos are not implanted into the body of a woman  or allowed to develop for more than 14 days.

See also news items on this topic.

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20 APRIL

Dr Andrew Melatos

Physics Dept. Melbourne University

Nuclear Power

Related links: Nuclear Power Basics How Nuclear Power Works Wikipedia entry for nuclear power

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19 MAY

Dr Andrew Prentice

Reader, School of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Monash University

A Mathematician’s Journey to the Beginning of the Solar System

Related links: article about this topic

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15 JUNE

Cancelled

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20 JULY

Dr Ben Kefford

Research Fellow

School of Applied Sciences

RMIT

Environmental Research in Antarctica

Related links: Safeguarding Sea Life in Antarctica

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17 AUGUST

Jason Major

Manager

Gene Technology Information Service

Genetically modified organisms and gene technology

Related links: GMO (Wikipedia),   Monsanto

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21 SEPTEMBER

CSIRO  Energy Transformed Flagship

Australia’s energy future.

CSIRO report on energy futures released.

After two years of research and debate, the CSIRO’s report was released in December 2006. The report primarily examines the issue of addressing climate change since this was identified early on in the process by the EFF as the most pressing concern for the Australian energy sector

Related links: http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/ps2k2.html

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19 OCTOBER

Dr Lindy Lumsden

The Conservation of Insectivorous Bats

Related link: from the ABC’s program Catalyst

Bats – the missing link in insect control Lindy Lumsden’s research over the last 25 years has revealed the rich diversity of insectivorous bats across rural Victoria. Fresh from university zoology, she started measuring Victorian wildlife populations. Along the way she realised that practically no one was studying these small bats. She rose to the challenge. Conducting research on animals that are small, cryptic, nocturnal, and silent (to our ears) requires innovation and dedication. In the course of her research Lindy has developed much innovative technology that is now being used by bat researchers worldwide including a system for rapidly analysing thousands of bat calls. Lindy and her team have discovered that bats play a much larger ecological role than anyone had imagined, probably eating more insects than birds and other predators combined. And she has shown that most bats can cope with changing land use – provided that remanent vegetation is protected. Bats depend on old and dead trees for shelter during the day.

Dr Lindy Lumsden

Lindy travels across rural Victoria demonstrating to farmers that they, and the environment, benefit from bat conservation. She has published extensively in the scientific literature, gives 20 to 30 talks a year to community groups, and is president of the Australasian Bat Society.
Now she is working to measure the potential of bats in integrated pest control. She hopes to show that conservation measures to protect bats will also help farmers fight insect pests and reduce dependence on chemicals.
And there is still much to learn about bats. We don’t even know how long they live. Lindy’s closest bat friend – George – has already been with her for 15 years.

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16 NOVEMBER

Dr Malcolm Dobbin

Chief Medical Advisor on drug and alcohol addiction

Department of Community Services

Drug Addiction and Treatment

Related links: About heroin The science and ethics of treatment for addiction  The Science of Marijuana

Friday February 17, 2006 :

The Universe and the Big Bang

Peter Green, a regular participant at the Science Cafe, will speak about his writing of the ‘History of the universe, from the Big Bang to civilisation’. It is, he says, an attempt to put together what happened in chronological order, for the non-scientist, in a series of three papers. The first of the three, ‘The Big Bang and the formation of the Universe’ an MS Word document is available now in draft form by clicking here.

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FRI MAR 2006 Mars – the next frontier (session cancelled)

Dr Nick Hoffman

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Friday April 21

Iconic moments in the history of science
Dr John Waller

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Friday May 19

Nanotechnology

Terry Turney, Director,
CSIRO Nanotechnology Centre

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Fri June 16

Climate change

Paul Holper, Executive
Officer, CSIRO CLIMATE

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Friday August 18

Human origins

Dr Nikki Stern

Related links: Neanderthal DNA study

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FRI 15 SEPT 2006

Measuring quality of life

Associate Professor Graeme Hawthorne

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FRI 20 OCT 2006

Evolution, sexual selection and co-operative behaviour.
Dr Chris Boland.

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Friday November 17

Animal intelligence/animal minds

Howard Sankey will be talking about studies of the language ability of chimpanzees, and the philosophical issues arising from this – for example arguments that language is required for having a mind.

Associate Professor Howard Sankey

Related link: Animal Minds