| Where | Waterstones Bookshop Sauchiehall Street Glasgow |
| When | First Monday of the month, 7pm |
| Contact | Mandy Maclean, Kevin O’Dell, Martin Hendry |
| Website | Glasgow Cafe Scientifique |
Upcoming events
Monday 2nd March 2020
What is the real cost of the EV revolution?
Christian Calvillo
With the increasing need to tackle climate change, electric vehicles (EV) seem to be a straightforward way to decarbonise transport but what will be the cost the EV revolution?
Christian will discuss the ‘pros and cons’ of the EV technology, and will try to find answers to some of the big questions around the costs of large-scale EV penetration. Should the government subsidise EVs to foster its adoption? Who (and how) should pay for the required infrastructure? How is this likely to affect electricity prices? What would be the impact on the economy?
Dr Christian Calvillo is a Research Associate at the Centre for Energy Policy, University of Strathclyde and ClimateXChange Fellow. He did a BSc and MSc in electronic systems engineering and a PhD in Energy Management in Smart Cities. His research interests include energy system modelling, smart energy systems, electric vehicles and energy efficiency.
Monday 6th April 2020
I see the light!: a prosthesis for restoring vision to blind patients
Keith Mathieson
Many cases of blindness result from diseases that damage the ‘image capturing’ cells in the retina at the back of the eye, which detect light. However, the nerves supplying these retinal cells are not damaged. Electronic retinal prostheses seek to restore sight by stimulating the retinal nerves, with the stimulation pattern being controlled by an external video camera. This prosthesis could be quite un-invasive because it uses special silicon photodiodes (which convert light into an electrical current) to stimulate the neurons. This approach might restore detailed vision to patients with degenerative retinal diseases. The device is currently being commercialised, and trials with patients are in progress
Keith Mathieson is Director of the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde, and holds a Professorial Chair in Emerging Technologies from the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has been working on technologies to interface with the brain since 2001. He now leads the neurophotonics research team at the Institute of Photonics, which develops optoelectronic neurotechnology to interface with the brain in an effort to understand how neural circuits process information.
Monday 4th May
Coronavirus
Antonia Ho
Monday 1st June
Childhood trauma and the brain
Jan Montgomery