Lord Joel Joffe believes that there is an 'urgent need' to change the law on assisted dying and will argue in his lecture that assisted dying and palliative care are essential and complementary aspects of care for people suffering from painful incurable diseases.

Professor Mark Birkinshaw talks about the effect of gravity on light as part of the 2008 Herschel lecture, named in remembrance of the Bath astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781.

Stuart Robertson, the director of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, gives a personal view of the great Scottish architect and designer.

Forensic anthropologist Kathleen Conabree discusses issues surrounding what really goes on at a crime scene and what the term forensic actually means.

In this Charter Day lecture, Dr Alexander Kelle, from the University of Bath's Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, talks about biological research and its possible applications for good, and ill. Illustrating a track record over a century long of biological developments being put to uses outside their original purpose, he proposes the creation of an International Framework Agreement to ensure that we learn from the mistakes of the past.

Professor Alan Cottenden, from University College London, describes new technology for managing incontinence.

Professor Chris Budd from the University of Bath takes mathematics into the dark territory of murder, suicide, love, sex and conquest.

Florence Muringi Wambugu talks about the contribution of bio-technology, including GM crops, for improving the sustainable livelihoods of resource poor families in Africa.

Nicholas Fogg describes life at the Court of the Great Moghul, his campaigns, his foibles and his lasting impact on the history of India.

Professor Bas Verplanken from the University of Bath talks about the psychology of habit and how much of what we do is done at the same time in the same location.