The Prime Minister wants to defeat dementia by 2025 and says: “Dementia now stands alongside cancer as one of the greatest enemies of humanity.” It affects over 800,000 people in Britain, at huge cost to the UK economy and at a huge personal price to the families and carers of those affected.

We have ideas about how dementia could be tackled in terms of management and treatment: including better drug delivery to the brain, improving early detection methods and providing an environment in which dementia patients can live safely and at relative peace.

But there are still more questions than answers in terms of the speed of research, care provision and the ethical debate around early diagnosis.

Join experts from the Medical Research Council and Oxford Dementia and Ageing Research (OxDARE) in an open and enlightening discussion on how we can defeat dementia: or at least manage it in light of new early detection methods. Defeating Dementia will be hosted by writer and broadcaster Quentin Cooper.

Now that you’re over the age of 10 asking ‘silly’ questions about dinosaurs may feel well… a little silly! So we’re offering you the opportunity to ask anything and everything you ever wanted to know about dinosaurs but were too afraid to ask. Need to keep up with your Dino-obsessed son or daughter or just fascinated by all things prehistoric, this is your chance to find everything you need to know. From the simple to the complex; from the strange to the straightforward, come and put your questions to Oxford’s Dr Roger Benson who will be leading this talk on all things Dinosaur.

From the struggle to get up on a Monday morning to coping with jet-lag, the body has to carefully balance our need to be alert or to be at rest. But how does the
brain control this? How much sleep do we really need? Join us to hear Dr Peter Oliver discuss some of the facts and myths surrounding sleep; highlighting new research in this area as well as the role of genetics in the control of circadian rhythms. Plus, why do flamingos sleep on one leg??? Come along and find out!
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Fossils are not just a thing of the past – every year more prehistoric discoveries are made that inform our knowledge of Dinosaurs. In the concluding talk of our Palaeontology mini-season Dr Tim Ewin, from London’s Natural History Museum, will explain how people go about finding Dinosaurs in Britain today. Tim will discuss significant recent finds and how you can get your palaeontology hat on and find your very own Dinosaur…

Reproducibility is a central principle of scientific research and its importance is now increasingly emphasised. Several fields such as cancer drug discovery, social psychology and computational science are said be undergoing a credibility crisis due to irreproducible results and initiatives to address this are springing up from research communities, funders and other stakeholders.

What does reproducibility mean to your research and how could researchers in Oxford, both individually and as an institution, take steps to promote greater reproducibility of findings? Come along for an evening of discussion and explore this topic with the Oxford Open Science group. We look forward to hearing your views!

Session organisers: Simon Benjamin and Victoria Watson

Simon Singh has been unearthing scientific and mathematical mysteries for more than 20 years. Here he will introduce his new book, The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets, which explores the vast amount of mathematics smuggled into the world’s most successful sitcom.

Author, journalist and TV producer Singh’s BAFTA-winning documentary Fermat’s Last Theorem was also the subject of his first book, with later acclaimed titles covering the Big Bang theory, alternative medicine and code-breaking.

After the show Singh will sign copies of his books, which will also be for sale.

Tickets £7, discounts £5

Join Professor Nick Bostrom for a talk on his new book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, and a journey that takes us to the frontiers of thinking about the human condition and the future of intelligent life.

The book talk will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception.

This book talk will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jupxhH9mE-g

About the book:
The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains.

If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.

But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed AI or otherwise to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?

Globalized finance poses major challenges for emerging economies. The Gobal Economic Governance Programme’s Annual Lecture provides an exciting chance to hear from one of Latin America’s leading policy makers. Governor Vergara will share his experiences and insights on the most pressing opportunities and challenges facing emerging economies, particularly in Latin America. How can Latin American countries foster financial stability and economic growth in this new era of global finance? What are the most and least effective policy responses? What can we learn from Chile’s experience?

The environment is all around us, in the food we eat and the air we breathe. It is important to all of us. Over eight weeks you will learn about natural and man-made challenges faced by our environment, the current solutions and limitations, and the tasks we face for the future. This course offers a broad overview, highlighting controversial topics, and is designed for anyone who wants to make informed decisions about their interactions with the environment.

It runs for eight weeks on Thursdays at 6 – 7.30pm, from the 16th October to the 4th December.

For more details, and to sign up go to knowledgeproject.co.uk, or email alison@knowledgeproject.co.uk

About us:

The Knowledge Project offers affordable evening classes in exciting subjects. Our classes are taught by specialists in small, friendly groups (no more than ten) and are centred on lively discussion. We are a social enterprise and all our proceeds go to local children’s charity Jacari.

In the coming term we also have spaces available on:

– Shakespeare
– Environmental Science
– Novel Writing
– Moral Philosophy
– Anthropology
– Psychology

Courses are held over 8 evening sessions (£80) or in a single intensive Sunday (£50).

Discuss the clinal and ethical implications of the 100,000 Genomes Project
An evening event organised by the Progress Educational Trust (PET) in partnership with Genomics England. The event is free to attend, but advance booking is required – please email Sandy Starr at sstarr@progress.org.uk and he will add you to the attendee list. If tweeting about this event, please use the hashtag #100KGP
The 100,000 Genomes Project aims to sequence 100,000 whole genomes from around 75,000 participants by 2017. The project is recruiting NHS patients with common cancers, plus NHS patients with rare diseases and their families. Participation is voluntary, with participants giving informed consent for their whole genomes to be sequenced.
Sir John Chisholm – Chair of Genomics England, the company established by the Government to carry out the project – says that ‘participating patients will have the opportunity to benefit from clinical insights derived from the sequencing of their genome’. But what are these benefits and insights?
Participants will receive feedback from their clinician about their genome sequence, but it is by no means guaranteed that they will receive improved care. Many participants will not receive a diagnosis, but taking part in this project may provide their only hope. With UK Prime Minister David Cameron saying ‘I believe we will be able to transform how devastating diseases are diagnosed and treated in the NHS and across the world’, is there a danger that people will have unrealistic expectations? Could this create an unethical inducement to take part?
The 100,000 Genomes Project is both a research project and a healthcare initiative. This gives the project unprecedented scope to link genetic data with treatment outcomes, but also poses a number of challenges. One such challenge is how best to deal with incidental findings – genomic discoveries with implications for the participant’s health, that are not pertinent to the condition that led to participation in the first place. Who should decide what is fed back to the participant?
The project is currently in its pilot stage, but as it ramps up to capacity, these and other important issues must be addressed. This event will explore what the 100,000 Genomes Project has to offer patients, and what patients have to offer the 100,000 Genomes Project. It will give you an opportunity to put questions and comments to Sir John Chisholm and others involved in the project, and to hear a range of contrasting views on the ethical and practical issues raised.

We have yet to discover other life in our Galaxy, but we have a good idea where it might be! Join the astrophysicists Chris Lintott (BBC’s Sky at Night) and Grant Miller from Zooniverse, the largest, most successful online citizen science project, discuss exoplanets and their potential habitability.

Prof Peter Visscher, Professor and Chair of Quantitative Genetics, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland

Driven by advances in genome technologies, the last 7 years have witnessed a revolution in our understanding of complex trait variation in human populations. Results from genome-wide association studies and whole-genome exome studies have shown that the mutational target in the genome for most traits appears to be very large, such that many genes are involved in explaining genetic variation. Genetic architecture, the joint distribution of the effect size and frequency of variants that segregate in the population, is becoming clearer and differs between traits. I will show new results from disparate complex traits including height, schizophrenia, motor neurone disease and gene methylation, to illustrate polygenicity and the power of experimental sample size.

Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg will introduce world leading scientists including President of the Royal Society and Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse, mathematician Marcus du Sautoy (1983, Mathematics) and astrophysicist Joanna Dunkley at this event marking 400 years since the birth of experimental scientist and Warden of Wadham College, John Wilkins .

The Colloquium is a seminar series at Kellogg College, Oxford.

Ian Berryman is currently reading for a DPhil in Engineering Science. His thesis builds on work to bring a cheap solar powered oven to the world’s masses. He is also the President of the Oxford Energy Society.

Eating Restoration Glue to Stay Alive: A History of Hermitage
With Dr Rosalind P. Blakesley, University of Cambridge

Ashmolean Lecture Theatre

Wed 22 Oct, 11am–12pm

The Hermitage is an institute like no other,
 housing over 3 million objects in buildings as iconic as the Winter Palace, seat of the Romanov dynasty until its spectacular fall from grace in 1917. As the Hermitage celebrates its 250th anniversary, Dr Blakesley charts its history from the lavish patronage of Catherine the Great to the unparalleled acquisitions of Impressionist and Post- Impressionist works.

A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.

I for one welcome our new robot overlords
Thursday 23 October, 7:30pm to 9:00pm
The Mitre, corner of High St and Turl St (upstairs function room)
All welcome

Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.

Despite our extensive knowledge of the major challenges the world faces during coming decades, impasse exists in global attempts to address economic, climate, trade, security, and other key issues. The Chancellor will examine the implications of this gridlock, drawing on the work of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations – of which he is a member – as well as experiences from his distinguished political and diplomatic career.

This lecture is also being live webcast on youtube, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3QmvwvHCk

About the Speaker

Lord Patten joined the Conservative Research Department in 1966. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1970 and was personal assistant and political secretary to Lord Carrington and Lord Whitelaw when they were Chairmen of the Conservative Party from 1972-1974. In 1974 he was appointed the youngest ever Director of the Conservative Research Department, a post which he held until 1979.

Lord Patten was elected as Member of Parliament for Bath in May 1979, a seat he held until April 1992. In 1983 he wrote The Tory Case, a study of Conservatism. Following the General Election of June 1983, Lord Patten was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office and in September 1985 Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science. In September 1986 he became Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1989 and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1998. In July 1989 he became Secretary of State for the Environment. In November 1990 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Lord Patten was appointed Governor of Hong Kong in April 1992, a position he held until 1997, overseeing the return of Hong Kong to China. He was Chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland set up under the Good Friday Peace Agreement, which reported in 1999. From 1999 to 2004 he was European Commissioner for External Relations, and in January 2005 he took his seat in the House of Lords. In 2006 he was appointed Co-Chair of the UK-India Round Table. He was Chairman of the BBC Trust from 2011-2014.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He served as Chancellor of Newcastle University from 1999 to 2009, and was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2003. His publications include What Next? Surviving the 21st Century (2008); Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs (2005) and East and West (1998), about Asia and its relations with the rest of the world.

Popular science books, selling in their thousands – even millions – help us appreciate breakthroughs in understanding the natural world, while highlighting the cultural importance of scientific knowledge. Textbooks bring these same advances to students; the scientists of tomorrow. But how do these books come about? And why are some of them so spectacularly successful? This is the first ever insider’s account of science publishing, written by an editor intimately involved in the publication of some of the most famous bestsellers in the field, including books by Richard Dawkins, Peter Atkins and Jim Watson. Michael Rodgers reveals the stories behind these extraordinary books, providing a behind-the-scenes view of the world of books, authors and ideas.

A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.

Understanding other people: a science of belief systems
Speaker: Dr Edmund Griffiths, author of “Towards a Science of Belief Systems” (Palgrave Macmillan 2014)
Thursday 30 October, 7:30pm to 9:00pm
The Mitre, corner of High St and Turl St (upstairs function room)
All welcome

Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.

About “Towards a Science of Belief Systems”

People believe in a great many things: the New Age and the new atheism, astrology and the Juche Idea, the marginal utility theory and a God in three persons. Yet most of us know almost nothing about why other people believe the things they do – or indeed about how it feels to believe them. This book presents an objective method for understanding and comparing belief systems, irrespective of their subject matter and of whether or not the investigator happens to agree with them. The method, descriptive logic, is illustrated through analyses of various phenomena, including Zoroastrianism, Dawkinsism, Fabianism, 9/11 Truth, ‘alternative’ Egyptology, Gnosticism, flying saucer sightings, and the hymns of Charles Wesley. Special attention is given to beliefs that are not supposed to be wholly believed, and to how descriptive logic relates to the materialist conception of history. The book also outlines a new theory of superstition.

As students, sleep is often the first thing we compromise. The Oxford all-nighter has become a right of passage and I know I can determine what week by how many layers of concealer I put under my eyes. But University life needn’t be a rollercoaster of caffeine and exhaustion; just because the work never stops doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to.

Sleep experts Dr. Bryony Sheaves and Dr. Kate Porcheret will be joining us to discuss the importance of sleep and its relationship to maintaining physical and mental wellbeing. This talk will outline the neurological consequences of disrupted sleep as well as sleep’s essential role sleep plays in consolidating learning and supporting emotional resiliance. Better still, this is an opportunity for us all to learn how to get a better night’s sleep.

Following this, we are lucky to have a representative from NightLine who will be answering any of your questions about what this incredible service can do for you.

Professor Sarah Whatmore, head of School of Geography and the Environment, will speak about ‘Living with flooding: the science and politics of flood risk management’.

Sarah Whatmore is Professor of Environment and Public Policy at the University of Oxford and one of the world’s leading scholars on the relationship between environmental science and the democratic governance of environmental risks and hazards. She has worked extensively on the conditions that give rise to the public contestation of environmental expertise; the dynamics and consequences of environmental knowledge controversies for public policy-making; and the design of methods for conducting environmental research that enable the knowledge of affected communities to inform the ways in which environmental problems are framed and addressed.

Professor Whatmore is currently Head of the School of Geography and the Environment and Associate Head (Research) of the Social Sciences Division at the University of Oxford. She is an elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences (AcSS) and the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS) and has served on its Council. She is also a member of the Social Science Expert Panel advising the UK Government’s Departments of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
A free lunch is provided. To book a place please email ahdg@st-annes-mcr.org.uk

Non-fat, low-fat, saturated fat, trans fats, healthy fats – in an era where we seem to be constantly bombarded with often conflicting messages about our diets, is all this information actually making us any healthier? How can we cut through media hysteria and make wise choices about the food we eat, and what impact do our consumption habits have, not just on our own health but that of the planet?

Speakers:

Professor Susan Jebb, Professor of Diet and Population Health, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
Dr Tara Garnett, Principal Investigator, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food
Dr Mike Rayner, Principal Investigator, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food
Join in on Twitter with #c21health

This seminar will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UbwkWsEdmU

About the Speakers:
Professor Susan Jebb is a nutrition scientist and her research interests are focused on how what we eat affects the risk of gaining weight or becoming obese and the interventions that might be effective to help people lose weight or reduce the risk of obesity-related diseases. She has also conducted a series of randomised controlled trials to study the impact of dietary changes on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In general, this work highlights that body weight is a more important risk factor for ill-health than differences in the nutritional composition of the diet. She has strong scientific collaborations with the Behaviour and Health Research unit at the University of Cambridge and the MRC Human Nutrition Research unit, where she was a Programme Leader for many years.

She is also very interested in how scientific evidence on diet is translated into policy and practice, by government, industry, the public health community and the media. She was the science advisor for the Foresight obesity report and subsequently chaired the cross-government Expert Advisory Group on obesity from 2007-11. She is now a member of the Public Health England Obesity Programme Board. She also Chairs the DH Public Health Responsibility Deal Food Network, developing voluntary agreements with industry to improve the food environment. She is one of the Chairs of the NICE Public Health Advisory Committees. She is actively involved in a number of events and media projects to engage the public in issues relating to diet and health. In 2008 she was awarded an OBE for services to public health. She is a Trustee and former Chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity.

Dr Tara Garnett is a Principal Investigator at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and she initiated, and runs the Food Climate Research Network, now based at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford.

Her work focuses on the contribution that the food system makes to greenhouse gas emissions and the scope for emissions reduction, looking at the technological options, at what could be achieved by changes in behaviour and how policies could help promote both these approaches. She is particularly interested in the relationship between emissions reduction objectives and other social and ethical concerns, particularly human health, livelihoods, and animal welfare. Much of her focus is on livestock, since this represents a nodal point where many of these issues converge.

Tara is keen to collaborate through the FCRN with other organisations to undertake research, organise events and build and extend interdisciplinary, intersectoral knowledge in this field.

Dr Mike Rayner is a Principal Investigator on the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and Director of the British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for NCD Prevention, which is based within the Nuffield Department of Population Health of the University of Oxford, and which he founded in 1993.

Mike’s particular research interests are in food labelling, food marketing, food taxes and the relationship between a healthy diet and sustainable diet.

Mike is also Chair of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming in the UK, and Chair of its Childrens’ Food Campaign in the UK. He is a trustee of the UK Health Forum, Chair of the Nutrition Expert Group for the European Heart Network based in Brussels and a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the International Obesity Task Force. He is also an ordained priest in the Church of England.

You’re 16,000 miles from home; it’s -45°C with a wind speed of 55mph; you haven’t seen a sunset in 6 weeks and it’ll be another 16 weeks before you get to go home. So why do some scientists choose to become polar explorers and what are they learning about our planet from research in some of the most extreme environments on Earth?

What challenges face those conducting research in these inhospitable regions? Is climate change going to make access to these unique parts of the world more difficult? How is the UK investing in polar exploration and why?

Join our panel of ‘cool’ experts to learn more about life on the edge of existence.

Globalisation has brought us vast benefits including growth in incomes, education, innovation and connectivity. Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, argues that it also has the potential to destabilise our societies. In The Butterfly Defect: How globalisation creates systemic risks, and what to do about it, he and co-author Mike Mariathasan, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Vienna, argue that the recent financial crisis is an example of the risks that the world will face in the coming decades.

The risks spread across supply chains, pandemics, infrastructure, ecology, climate change, economics and politics. Unless these risks are addressed, says Goldin, they could lead to greater protectionism, xenophobia, nationalism and to deglobalisation, rising conflict and slower growth.

The book talk will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception

This book talk will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuW2rgtZuIM

About the Book
Global hyperconnectivity and increased system integration have led to vast benefits, including worldwide growth in incomes, education, innovation, and technology. But rapid globalization has also created concerns because the repercussions of local events now cascade over national borders and the fallout of financial meltdowns and environmental disasters affects everyone. The Butterfly Defect addresses the widening gap between systemic risks and their effective management. It shows how the new dynamics of turbo-charged globalization has the potential and power to destabilize our societies. Drawing on the latest insights from a wide variety of disciplines, Ian Goldin and Mike Mariathasan provide practical guidance for how governments, businesses, and individuals can better manage risk in our contemporary world.

Goldin and Mariathasan assert that the current complexities of globalization will not be sustainable as surprises become more frequent and have widespread impacts. The recent financial crisis exemplifies the new form of systemic risk that will characterize the coming decades, and the authors provide the first framework for understanding how such risk will function in the twenty-first century. Goldin and Mariathasan demonstrate that systemic risk issues are now endemic everywhere in supply chains, pandemics, infrastructure, ecology and climate change, economics, and politics. Unless we are better able to address these concerns, they will lead to greater protectionism, xenophobia, nationalism, and, inevitably, deglobalization, rising conflict, and slower growth.

The Butterfly Defect shows that mitigating uncertainty and systemic risk in an interconnected world is an essential task for our future.

The first collaboration between Oxford Females in Engineering, Science and Technology (OxFEST) and Oxford University Engineering Society (OUEngSoc) presents the second speaker of the new series ‘Inspiring STEM’.

Professor Alison Noble is the Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Oxford’s Department of Engineering who has spent her career combining academic research with technological translation. She has always been interested “in the way science can change the world” and “in particular how academic ideas translate into industry”. It is this attitude that has helped her become a successful entrepreneur who has now set up her second company ‘Intelligent Ultrasound’ which is producing software that will make ultrasound scans an easier and cheaper process. The only female in her class at an all-girls school to apply to engineering at university, she became the first female in three years to get a first class degree at Oxford University. Now, she has over 300 publications and last year was awarded an OBE for services to Science and Engineering in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list as well as being a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

‘Inspiring STEM’ series of talks aims to bring together Oxford’s Women in STEM, showcase the research performed by the very best scientists and engineers, and inspire the audience to realize their potential. It reflects the academic aspect of OxFEST while providing a glimpse into possible career paths that we can take.

Oxford University Engineering Society (OUEngSoc) exists to promote engineering and the futures of engineering science students within the university, to provide students with a wider overview of the various aspects of engineering and a deeper insight into areas that are otherwise outside the scope of the engineering science course.

Entry: FREE. Everyone welcome! Drinks and nibbles served afterwards.

For this year’s Charles Simonyi Lecture we welcome David MacKay, acclaimed author of Sustainable Energy – Without The Hot Air. David will discuss how the laws of physics constrain our energy options, and will describe what happened when his reflections on energy arithmetic propelled him into a senior civil service role.

David MacKay is the Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. From 2009 to 2014, he served as Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

He will be introduced by Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at University of Oxford.

Tickets £7 discounts £5

CALLING ALL UNDERGRAD STEM STUDENTS

Are you considering further study once you’ve finished your degree? Want to hear from some real life grad students and hear about their lives and (really cool) research?

OUSU and WomCam are putting on three panels with some really awesome women grads – come along to one, two, or all!

LIFE SCIENCES: Monday, 17th Nov (6TH WEEK), 5-6pm in the St John’s College Auditorium. [Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/220902341416900/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=hosting&sid_create=2467909743]

All panels are open to all undergraduate students, regardless of gender identity or expression, feminist leanings, or favourite Sesame Street character!

The venue is accessible for wheelchair users, and there are gender neutral toilet facilities. Please email me on gradwomen@ousu.org if there are any other accessibility requirements! 🙂

Hope to see you there!

Eden Tanner
OUSU’s Graduate Women’s Officer

Other panels:
MEDICAL SCIENCES: Tuesday, 18th Nov (6TH WEEK), 5-6pm in the New Biochemistry building.
[Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1567712970128368/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=hosting&sid_create=2467909743]

PHYSICAL SCIENCES: Tuesday, 18th Nov (6TH WEEK), 6-7pm, in the Chemistry Research Laboratory. [Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/734832693259305/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=hosting&sid_create=2467909743]

Panel:

Professor Charles Godfray, Director, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and author of the chapter How can 9-10 Billion People be Fed Sustainably and Equitably by 2050?
Professor Ian Goldin, Director, Oxford Martin School, Editor of Is the Planet Full? and author of the chapter Governance Matters Most
Professor Sarah Harper, Director, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, Oxford Martin School and author of the chapter Demographic and Environmental Transitions
Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Director, Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests, Oxford Martin School and author of the chapter The Metabolism of a Human-Dominated Planet
Dr Toby Ord, James Martin Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology and author of the chapter Overpopulation or Underpopulation?
The panel will discuss whether our planet can continue to support a growing population estimated to reach 10 billion people by the middle of the century.

The panel discussion will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception.

This panel discussion will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFIqDQP1Vjc

About the Book:
What are the impacts of population growth? Can our planet support the demands of the ten billion people anticipated to be the world’s population by the middle of this century?

While it is common to hear about the problems of overpopulation, might there be unexplored benefits of increasing numbers of people in the world? How can we both consider and harness the potential benefits brought by a healthier, wealthier and larger population? May more people mean more scientists to discover how our world works, more inventors and thinkers to help solve the world’s problems, more skilled people to put these ideas into practice?

In this book, leading academics with a wide range of expertise in demography, philosophy, biology, climate science, economics and environmental sustainability explore the contexts, costs and benefits of a burgeoning population on our economic, social and environmental systems.

The Colloquium is a seminar series at Kellogg College, Oxford.

Poppy is a 2nd year DPhil student at the department of Oncology. She completed her BSc Biochemistry at the University of Southampton and did a ‘sandwich’ year at AstraZeneca working on pre-clinical cancer drugs which is where she became fascinated by cancer biology. Poppy is also Secretary of OxFEST which supports women in STEM.

Professor David Vines, Director, Ethics & Economics, The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, will talk about his new book Capital Failure: Rebuilding Trust in Financial Services.

The book talk will be followed by a book signing

About the Speaker
David Vines is Director, Ethics & Economics, The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School; Professor of Economics, and a Fellow of Balliol College, at the University of Oxford. He is also Adjunct Professor of Economics at the Australian National University, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

From 2008 to 2012 he was the Research Director of the European Union’s Framework Seven PEGGED Research Program, which analysed Global Economic Governance within Europe. Professor Vines received a BA from Melbourne University in 1971, and subsequently an MA and PhD from Cambridge University. From 1985 to 1992 he was Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University of Glasgow.

His research interests are in macroeconomics, including financial frictions, fiscal and monetary interactions, and financial crisis. His recent books include: The Leaderless Economy: Why the World Economic System Fell Apart and How to Fix It (Princeton University Press, 2013, with Peter Temin); The IMF and its Critics: Reform of Global Financial Architecture (Cambridge University Press, 2004, with Christopher Gilbert); The Asian Financial Crisis: Causes, Contagion and Consequences (Cambridge University Press, 1999, with Pierre-Richard Agénor, Marcus Miller, and Axel Weber) and his latest book Capital Failure: Rebuilding Trust in Financial Services (Oxford University Press, 2014, with Nicholas Morris).

About the Book
Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ relied on the self-interest of individuals to produce good outcomes. Economists’ belief in efficient markets took this idea further by assuming that all individuals are selfish. This belief underpinned financial deregulation, and the theories on incentives and performance which supported it. However, although Adam Smith argued that although individuals may be self-interested, he argued that they also have other-regarding motivations, including a desire for the approbation of others. This book argues that the trust-intensive nature of financial services makes it essential to cultivate such other-regarding motivations, and it provides proposals on how this might be done.

Trustworthiness in the financial services industry was eroded by deregulation and by the changes to industry structure which followed. Incentive structures encouraged managers to disguise risky products as yielding high returns, and regulation failed to curb this risk-taking, rent-seeking behaviour. The book makes a number of proposals for reforms of governance, and of legal and regulatory arrangements, to address these issues. The proposals seek to harness values and norms that would reinforce ‘other-regarding’ behaviour, so that the firms and individuals in the financial services act in a more trustworthy manner.