Lunch Hour Lectures - Autumn 2011 - Audio

Sir Peter Cook and his CRAB STUDIO have two new University buildings under construction in Austria and Australia. He designs from the experience of more than 40 years' teaching and weaves 'stories' in and out of the designs. The title can also be read as designing the curriculum... which he sees as being very similar to designing a building. The lecture will be illustrated by drawings and cartoons.

Recombinant DNA technology has been in widespread use since the 1980s. It has allowed the engineering of viral genomes to produce a number of safe and useful medicines. To mark World AIDS Day, this lecture will discuss the development of engineered viruses, such as HIV, to treat rare genetic disorders – “gene therapy”- and the use of these engineered viruses as vaccines.

This lecture marks World AIDS day.

There is more to the Sun than meets the eye. Observations from spacecraft have, over the last 50 years, revealed a dynamic and active behaviour to our Sun that cannot be seen from the Earth. Recent reports have given seemingly contradictory information that the Sun is entering a period of high activity but also that in the coming decades the overall solar activity will significantly decline, and could stop altogether. This talk will discuss the science behind this activity, or lack of, and show the latest images of the Sun taken by telescopes in space provided by the European, American and Japanese space agencies.

In this lecture Professor Attanasio will talk about the recent interest in child development in developing countries, through intervention in early years, and will describe a pilot intervention programme that his research team has been developing in Colombia and India. Early years intervention has proved to be very effective in having long lasting impacts on individual development, and this lecture will discuss the challenges of identifying modalities that can be delivered at low cost and therefore scaled up in developing countries, and understanding the mechanisms through which these interventions work.

Prometheus created life from clay, and within many surgeons there is a desire to do the same in an effort to stave off death and disease. Organ transplantation has been one Promethean solution, but a lack of donor organs, ethical and other issues limits the stretch of this technology. We performed the world's first stem cell based organ transplants in an adult and then in a child, and the results suggest a new future for organ replacement. Driven by such clinical successes, science offers more and more opportunities to extend the scope of transplantation. A second Promethean myth has him punished for giving fire to man by being chained to rock and having his liver pecked out by an eagle daily for eternity. However, liver and man regenerate, and this reminds us that ultimately an understanding of the innate properties of tissues and organs to heal themselves may obviate the need for organ replacement altogether.

Same-sex sexual behaviour is often condemned on the grounds that it is "against nature". Indeed, biology tells us that selection favours those who leave more offspring. But then, homosexual behaviour is widespread - not only amongst humans, but other animals alike, be they flamingos, gorillas, dolphins or bisons. Doesn't this constitute a paradox for Darwinian theory? And is there a connection between what goes on in nature and what is morally desirable? This talk will address these controversial topics.

Did you ever forget your chip & pin card in a card reader? Leave the original on a photocopier? Send an email to the wrong person from your address book? The way technology is designed can make errors more or less likely. Most everyday examples are just annoying; if a pilot or a nurse makes similar errors in the course of their work, the consequences can be much more serious. This talk will discuss some of the causes of these errors and how the design of technology can provoke or mitigate them.

This lecture marks World Usability Day on 10 Nov

The King’s Speech provides a backdrop against which to review our current understanding of stuttering, also known as stammering. To mark Stammering Awareness Day (22 October) Professor Howell will describe our current state of knowledge about the assessment of this condition, who might be affected, how it is most likely to start in childhood, and how recent work has been successful in predicting which young children will recover by teenage.

Although speech is one of the primary features that indicates stuttering, there are other physical characteristics of the disorder, and this lecture will look at how language complexity, motor performance and psychological adjustment in school affect stuttering. Finally, Professor Howell will discuss if stuttering can be treated successfully, examining some of the treatments (successful and unsuccessful) and the robustness of the scientific evidence concerning the treatment of this condition.

Women's voices were central to the struggle against slavery in the early 19th century. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, one of Britain's greatest poets, was the daughter of a slaveowner and the family money came from their Jamaican plantations. She sympathised with the cause of antislavery - but that sympathy was complicated by her family connections. Mary Prince was an enslaved woman who was brought by her 'owner' to Britain, escaped, and recorded her narrative. It was published and provided a moving testimony of the cruelties of slavery and a significant weapon in the war against it. Both these women had close connections with Bloomsbury, and this lecture, in conjunction with the exhibition 'The Slave Owners of Gower Street' will explore their lives and writings and the place of slavery in 19th century Britain.

This lecture marks Black History Month in October. There is also an exhibition in UCL’s South Cloisters on the main campus entitled ‘The Slave Owners of Gower Street’

The skeleton is key to our ability to undertake everyday movements and activities related to well-being and high quality independent living. The general perception of bone is that of a museum specimen – a dry inert structure. This is far from correct; our skeleton is a dynamic and responsive organ. The material properties and structural architecture are conditioned by both genetics and our changing functional demands throughout life. The devastating degenerative conditions such as osteoporosis (in both women and men) and associated fragility fractures represent a time bomb for society and healthcare requirements in our ageing population. Through an understanding of the pathobiology of bone and the skeleton we can develop strategies to mitigate the risk of these conditions and thus prolong an active and independent life in old age.

This lecture marks World Osteoporosis Day on 20 Oct.