Cafe Sci Strathfillan, Tyndrum
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Launched October 2007
Supported by Strathfillan Community Development
Trust
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General Information
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Previous events
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Date: |
Wednesday 17th October 2007 |
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Title: |
Fascinating fleas |
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Speaker: |
David Mardon |
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Description: |
David Mardon’s career in biological science
was established at Aberdeen University. Although he now works as the
naturalist and conservationist responsible for the Ben Lawers NNR, he
remains an authority on the identification and geographical distribution of
fleas. World-wide, there are some 3000 species of these most intriguing
parasitic insects. Over the years fleas have fascinated poets, terrified
populations by transmitting the agents of devastating plagues and astonished
biologists with their jumping prowess.
And did you know – there is a traditional
flea repellent in a bog near you? |
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Date: |
Wednesday 21st November 2007 |
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Title: |
Active ageing – dispelling the myth that you
can relax as you get older! |
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Speaker: |
Dawn Skelton |
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Description: |
Dawn Skelton, who co-ordinates ProFaNE
(Prevention of Falls Network) at Manchester University, has recently been
appointed Reader in Ageing and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University. The
cost of sedentary behaviour in older people affects them and the NHS. Is it
safe to exercise if you have a disease? How much activity is enough to
maintain fitness? Can exercise prevent falls and fractures? Are any
exercises unsafe? If we understand the barriers and the motivators to
keeping fit might we become exercise leaders in our community? |
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Date: |
Wednesday 20th February 2008 |
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Title: |
What drives scientists to do science? |
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Speaker: |
John Lackie |
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Description: |
John Lackie runs Plumbland Consulting in
Cumbria. He has held academic research appointments at the universities of
Cambridge and Glasgow and been Director of Research for an international
pharmaceutical company. Scientists are not alien beings – what makes them
different is their childlike enthusiasm for finding out about things.
Scientists revel in discovery, in finding out something that nobody knew
before. How does a scientist discover something? Science and technology
are different, the latter being the application of the former. Science is
common sense at its best. |
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Date: |
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Wednesday 19th March 2008 |
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Title: |
Cononish gold project – an overview |
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Speaker: |
CJS Sangster |
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Description: |
Chris Sangster is a mining engineer with
wide experience of gold mining in Southern Africa and Canada, tin mining in
Cornwall, copper mining in Zambia and diamond mining in Lesotho. Where does
the Cononish project stand in comparison with gold mining generally? How
can gold be extracted from gold-bearing rocks? What will be the best method
for extracting gold (and silver) from the Cononish ore? How will the
Cononish mine be brought into production and what will the environmental
impact be of this activity for the Strathfillan region? |
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Date: |
Wednesday 15th
October |
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Title: |
Possible
impact of climate change on the agriculture and wildlife of Scotland. |
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Speaker: |
John Holland |
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Description: |
Dr Holland (Research
Scientist, SAC Hill & Mountain Research Centre) will discuss evidence and
predictions as to how climate change may enable new crops to grow and
cropping to occur on previously uncultivated land. Pests and diseases may
spread north as temperatures rise. Conditions on Scottish mountains may
become unsuitable for alpine plants and animals as temperatures rise,
snowfall declines and late snow patches vanish. Scotland’s farming and
wildlife may be very different 50 years from now. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 12th
November |
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Title: |
What was
the star of Bethlehem? |
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Speaker: |
Robin Green |
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Description: |
Dr Green (Astronomer,
University of Glasgow) will explore an intriguing seasonal topic. Most
biblical scholars today would regard the star as figurative and not
historical. Many traditional Christians would regard the star as something
miraculous. Both these points of view can be discounted. There is,
however, the possibility that a rational, scientific explanation can be
offered for the star as an historical event. A review of the evidence may
help to establish the date of Jesus’s birth – which was certainly not
precisely 1AD. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 18th February 2009 |
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Title: |
Leprosy
– then and now & Medicines to combat malaria |
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Speaker: |
Denis Daumerie and
Penny Grewal Daumerie |
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Description: |
Dr Denis Daumerie (Project Manager, WHO Dept of Control
of Neglected Tropical Diseases and a world authority on leprosy) will
explore the following questions. What is leprosy and how do people contract
the disease? Was the disease called leprosy in bygone days really leprosy?
How extensive is leprosy now? What are the prospects for its eradication?
Ms Grewal Daumerie (Director of Global Access, Medicines
for Malaria Venture) works to bring new curative drugs to millions of poor
people suffering from this killing disease. Curative is a key word; the
agents of malaria have acquired resistance to what were once our most
effective drugs. Experience of a pilot programme in Uganda reveals what is
involved in tackling malaria in poor communities. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 18th March |
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Title: |
Sustainable construction - a perspective |
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Speaker: |
Angus Macleod |
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Description: |
Angus Macleod (Head of the
School of Construction and Forestry, Inverness College, UHI) hails from the
Isle of Harris where he still runs two working crofts. Human pressure on
the world’s resources requires us to be better stewards and users of energy
and materials. Methods of construction, approaches to design, selection of
materials, and micro-renewable technology for heating offer systems that
will help to reduce the ever-increasing carbon footprint produced by our
buildings. |
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Date: |
Wednesday 14th October 2009 |
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Title: |
The story of the
elements |
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Speaker: |
Joe Connolly |
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Description: |
Joe Connolly
PhD, DSc (Glasgow) FRSE,
like all professors of chemistry, depends on the periodic table.
Everything we see and detect around us is made from one or more of 114 known
elements such as oxygen, iron, gold and so on. Knowledge of all the
elements, their properties, similarities, differences and ways in which they
interact has been made possible by their organization into the periodic
table. What is the periodic table? How was it developed? Should Mendeleev
be ranked with Darwin? Why is the periodic table the most important
organizing principle for chemists? |
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Date: |
Wednesday 18th November 2009 |
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Title: |
Practical approaches to reducing the domestic carbon footprint |
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Speaker: |
Timothy Booth |
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Description: |
Timothy Booth BSc (Manchester) Institute of Chartered Engineers
worked on
big engineering projects including construction of the M62, M55 and M58. Tim
then started his own company Fuelmizas (AT) Ltd promoting and maintaining
multifuel stoves, cookers, boilers and solar heating systems. What is meant
by the domestic carbon footprint? Can it be measured? How can we best use
Alternative Technology (AT), embracing solar, wind and biomass power, and
latent energy below ground, to attain a reduced domestic footprint? |
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Date: |
Wednesday 10th February 2010 |
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Title: |
One of the challenges
facing the conservation of rare plants |
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Speaker: |
David Mardon |
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Description: |
David Mardon BSc, MSc (Aberdeen) has recently retired from the National
Trust for Scotland after serving as manager of the Ben Lawers NNR. He has
established programmes of “species recovery” and “habitat restoration” to
conserve rare plants. Conservation depends on knowledge of the distribution
and abundance of target species and detecting patterns in their numbers over
time. How is data collected? How is data interpreted? How will we know if
the conservation strategy is successful? What can we learn from the study
of snow pearlwort over 25 years? |
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Date: |
THURSDAY 11th March 2010 |
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Title: |
Opening and closing a
can of worms |
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Speaker: |
Vaughan Southgate |
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Description: |
Vaughan Southgate BSc (Aberystwyth), PhD
(Cambridge)
is President of the Linnean Society of London. His distinguished scientific
career at the Natural History Museum has helped us understanding the
parasitic worms that cause schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), a nasty tropical
disease. About 120 million people, mainly in Africa, suffer from this
affliction. Prince William has been successfully treated. How did he
become infected? Can we stop transmission? Why do we need to study
freshwater snails? Will drug-resistant worms appear? Why is water
management so important? What might be the impact of climate change? |
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