Glasgow

WhereWaterstones Glasgow, Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3EW

PLEASE NOTE Waterstones would like us to sign up via Eventbrite for our FREE monthly cafes.
See cafe details for the link.
WhenFirst Monday of the month, 7pm
ContactKevin O’Dell
If you would like to receive details of future Glasgow Café Sci events, please email the organiser (above) and we will happily add you to our email list.
WebsiteGlasgow Cafe Scientifique

Upcoming events

Monday 1st April 2024
Who am I and where did I come from? Genetics, ancestry and human evolution
Kevin O’Dell

Eventbrite link
World map. Africa is mostly coloured red and arrows lead from the red colour out to all the other continents, indicating the flow of human evolution
It’s more than 160 years since Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which popularised the idea that humans evolved from apes. He largely based his ideas on studies of comparative anatomy and, since then, fossil and other similar remains of ancient human-like creatures have supported the concept that humans evolved from apes. However, in the last twenty years or so there’s been a DNA sequencing revolution that’s suggested our evolutionary history is rather more complex than Darwin thought. What do DNA sequences of modern and ancient humans reveal and what can they tell us about our recent and past evolutionary history?

Kevin O’Dell is Professor of Behaviour Genetics at the University of Glasgow and co-organiser of Glasgow Café Scientifique. His primary role at the University of Glasgow is co-ordinating the third year of the Genetics degree programme. His problem-solving, storytelling textbook Genetics? No Problem! was published in 2017 and in 2019 he was short-listed for the UK Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year award.

Monday 13th May 2024
Artemis: fly me to the Moon
Martin Hendry
Eventbrite link
More than half a century after astronauts last walked on the Moon, we are set to return there in the next few years, as part of the Artemis programme that will (to quote NASA) “establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate human missions to Mars”.

How does the Artemis approach differ from the “gung ho” adventures of the Apollo programme? How will the challenges faced by the Artemis astronauts be different from those encountered by Armstrong and Aldrin? How has human spaceflight progressed and evolved in the fifty years since Apollo and are we really going to leapfrog from the Moon to Mars any time soon?

Head and shoulders photo of Martin Hendry. He is a white main, with short white hair, wearing glasses. He is wearing a blue shirt, dark blue tie and a cream jacket.

Martin Hendry is Professor of Gravitational Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Glasgow, where he is also currently Vice Principal and Clerk of Senate. While his research is mainly focussed on cosmic events that happened “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, Martin is a lifelong enthusiast for human space exploration and an avid cheerleader for its exciting next chapter. Martin is highly active in schools and public engagement and is currently Vice President for Public Engagement in the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s national academy.

Monday 3rd June 2024
Bats
Tracey Jolliffe

Full details to follow.

 

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