Newspapers often feature studies that sound too good to be true and often they aren’t – they are myths.

Some myths may be harmless but the phenomenon affects most kinds of research within evidence-based science. The good news is that there’s a new movement tackling misleading and unreliable research and instead trying to give us results that we can trust.

Using his research in to human pheromones as an example, Tristram will discuss how and why popular myths, including power-posing, are created and how efforts have been made to address the ‘reproducibility crisis’.

Tristram Wyatt is an emeritus fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford and formerly Director of Studies in Biology at OUDCE. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. He’s interested in how animals of all kinds use pheromones to communicate by smell. His Cambridge University Press book on pheromones and animal behaviour won the Royal Society of Biology’s prize for the Best Postgraduate Textbook in 2014. His TED talk on human pheromones has been viewed over a million times. His book Animal behaviour: A Very Short Introduction was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Open to all. The talk is designed for researchers from all disciplines and is open to the public.

What defines a scientific discovery with market value?

How are innovations evaluated by investors?

What makes a successful investor pitch?

How do I make personal impact?

Other than good science, it takes young entrepreneurs so much more to transfer ideas into a real business. In this event we bring in expertise from both the fundraising and the investor’s perspective, to help you address all the questions above. Join us for industry insights, chances to discuss your start-up ideas, and preparing to get your first bucket of gold!

There will be a networking & drinks reception after the event.

The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today!

Additionally, right after the event we have the chance to have formal dinner with the two guest speakers at University College for further communications. 5 spots are available and the cost of the dinner itself is payable. Message Science Innovation Union on Facebook ASAP if you are interested!

Join 6 young people from 6 different countries to debate: ‘This House believes countries should restrict immigration to preserve national culture’ chaired and presented by the BBC’s Jonny Dymond (former BBC Correspondent Brussels, Istanbul and Washington) Book a place on eventbrite.

Cycling film ‘Why We Cycle’ Duration 57 minutes
There are more bicycles than people in the Netherlands. The film “Why We Cycle” gets cyclists and scientists to talk about Dutch cycling culture. These conversations uncover hidden effects of cycling on people, on societies, and on the organization of cities.

The day will consist of a range of events, hosted by speakers from different areas of STEM and industry. Expect to hear from keynote speakers, engage with panel discussions, and get hands on experience in smaller workshops focusing on entrepreneurship, outreach, disabilities and more.

Don’t miss out on hearing from a range of speakers, including: Dr. Chonnettia Jones, Director of Insight and Analysis at the Wellcome Trust; Prof. Daniela Bortoletto, Professor of Physics at Brasenose; plus Oxford’s own Vice Chancellor, Louise Richardson.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of gender, year and subject.

For more information visit OxFEST’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/294126621288050/

In 2013, Carl Frey and Michael Osborne published a paper titled ‘The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?’ which estimated that 47% of jobs in the US are at risk of automation.

In this talk Dr Carl Benedikt Frey, Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, will discuss the societal consequences of the accelerating pace of automation, and what we can learn from previous episodes of worker-replacing technological change.

Brands across the UK are missing an opportunity to add up to $1bn to their brand value by failing to meaningfully reflect, represent and champion women in their marketing and advertising efforts.

In this session, we will present the findings from a research study carried out by Kantar as part of the of the What Women Want? initiative. Kantar set out to explore the concept of empowerment – what it means to women in the UK today and how brands and advertising can better connect with women. We will take a future-focused view of marketing to women discussing the Hold Her Gaze project conducted by Kantar Consulting. This work builds on the cultural conversations of today to inspire the marketing landscape of tomorrow.

You will hear from Kantar’s partners from What Women Want Steering Committee – Philippa Snare, EMEA CMO, Facebook and Justine Roberts, Founder and CEO, Mumsnet and Gransnet. In this interactive panel session, Snare and Roberts will reflect on what it takes to drive change and how it effects their brands performance, and there will be a chance for the audience to ask questions. Guided tours of the exhibition will be available both before and after the presentation.

Schedule:
18:15 – Registration opens
18:45 – Event starts
20:00 – Drinks reception (closes at 9pm)
21:00 – Close

This is a joint lecture with The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School

Cooling is critical for many of the sustainable development goals, including those relating to health, shelter, livelihoods, education and nutrition. As the world’s population grows, as disposable incomes grow and as urban areas grow, the need for cooling is booming. However cooling uses super polluting gases and large amounts of energy and is therefore a significant cause of climate change. More efficient, clean cooling has the potential to avoid up to a degree of warming by the end of the century and recently all governments came together to agree action to try to maximize this opportunity. Cooling sits at the intersection of the UNFCCC, the SDGs and the Montreal Protocol, but can these forces ensure success?

Dan Hamza-Goodacre will explain the risks and possibilities in the search for sustainable cooling for all.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

Currently limited tools exist to accurately forecast the complex nature of disease spread across the globe. Dr Moritz Kraemer will talk about the dynamic global maps being built, at 5km resolution, to predict the invasion of new organisms under climate change conditions and continued unplanned urbanisation.

This book talk is co-organised with the Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease

Vaccination raises ethical issues about the responsibilities of individuals, communities, and states in preventing serious and potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. Such responsibilities are typically taken to be about minimising risks for those who are vaccinated and for those around them. However, there are other ethical considerations that matter when defining the responsibilities of different actors with regard to vaccination. Such ethical considerations are not often given due considerations in the debate on vaccination ethics and policy.

Thus, in this talk Dr Alberto Giubilini aims at offering a defence of compulsory vaccination taking into account not only the importance of preventing the harms of infectious diseases, but also the value of fairness in the distribution of the burdens entailed by the obligation to protect people from infectious diseases. He will offer a philosophical account of the key notions involved in the ethical debate on vaccination, of the types of responsibilities involved, of the possible types of vaccination policies ranked from the least to the most restrictive, and of the reasons why compulsory vaccination is, from an ethical point of view, the best policy available, as it is the most likely to guarantee not only protection from infectious diseases, but also a fair distribution of the burdens and responsibilities involved.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

The raw but poignant story of a mother with young onset dementia and her daughter told through dance, music and poetry. After the dance, there will be a Q&A session with artists and dementia experts including Professor Chris Kennard (University of Oxford).

This talk has been cancelled. Sorry.

Talk followed by questions and discussion

The Global Politics, Economy and Society (GPES) Research Centre at Oxford Brookes will be hosting its first annual lecture, given by the writer and activist George Monbiot. All welcome, but please book via the registration link.

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Should we prioritise the Green Belt or new homes for Oxford? In this, the first of a series of public debates to mark the 50th anniversary of Oxford Civic Society, Bob Price, former leader of the City Council, will argue that the release of Green Belt land to meet housing need can benefit the common good without undermining the enduring purposes of the Green Belt. His view will be keenly contested by Mike Tyce, Trustee of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Oxfordshire. The audience will have a chance to have their say before the two opposing speakers wind up the debate.

Doors open 7.00pm; debate starts 7.30pm. Tickets required – no entry on the door.

Tickets for this event are £7 via Eventbrite – see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-battle-for-the-green-belt-tickets-54594574843

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. The ‘scientific’ study of ghosts from the 17th century onwards was followed by ‘scientific’ ghost-hunting in Victorian times. Historian Dr Allan Chapman of Wadham College lifts the lid on a fascinating application of science. What do scientists, theologians and the public think about ghosts today?. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

Jennifer Eberhardt, associate professor at Stanford University, joins us for the next in our Let’s Discuss series. She will be discussing unconscious racial bias in the context of her new book Biased. The talk will be followed by an extended time for audience Q&A so that you can really become part of the debate.

From one of the world’s leading experts on unconscious racial bias comes a landmark examination of one of the most culturally powerful issues of our time.

We might think that we treat all people equally, but we don’t. Every day, unconscious biases affect our visual perception, attention, memory and behaviour in ways that are subtle and very difficult to recognise without in-depth scientific studies.

Unconscious biases can be small and insignificant, but they affect every sector of society, leading to enormous disparities, from the classroom to the courtroom to the boardroom.

But unconscious bias is not a sin to be cured, but a universal human condition, and one that can be overcome.

In Biased, pioneering social psychologist Professor Jennifer Eberhardt explains how.

Carlos Lopes will deliver an overview of the critical development issues facing the African continent today. He will talk about a blueprint of policies to address issues, and an intense, heartfelt meditation on the meaning of economic development in the age of democratic doubts, identity crises, global fears and threatening issues of sustainability.

This talk will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception, all welcome.

Join us at Blackwell’s to hear writer and campaigner, Caroline Criado-Perez discuss her latest book, Invisible Women.

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you’re a woman.

Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap – a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.

Award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the impact this has on their health and well-being. From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, urban planning and the media, Invisible Women reveals the biased data that excludes women. In making the case for change, this powerful and provocative book will make you see the world anew.

Talk followed by questions and discussion. All welcome.

In our first of two seminars on the future of work after automation Dr Brendan Burchell will investigate the potential for a five-day weekend society.

Machine-learning and robotics technologies promise to be able to replace some tasks or jobs that have traditionally been performed by humans. Like previous technologies introduced in the past couple of centuries, this possibility has been met with either optimism that will permit liberation from the tyranny of employment, or pessimism that it will lead to mass precarity and unemployment.

This presentation will draw upon both qualitative and quantitative evidence to explore the possible societal consequences of a radical reduction in the length of the normal working week. Drawing upon the evidence for the psychological benefits of employment, we look at the evidence for the minimum effective dose of employment. The paper also considers why the historical increases in productivity have not been matched with proportionate reductions in working time.

About Brendan Burchell:

Dr Brendan Burchell is a Reader in the Social Sciences in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Dr Burchell is director of graduate education for the Department of Sociology and director of the Cambridge Undergraduate Quantitative Research Centre. He was recently Head of Department for Sociology, as well as a Director of Studies and a Tutor at Magdalene College.

Dr Burchell’s main research interests centre on the effects of labour market conditions on wellbeing. Recent publications have focussed on unemployment, job insecurity, work intensity, part-time work, zero-hours contracts, debt, occupational gender segregation and self-employment. Most of his work concentrates on employment in Europe, but current projects also include an analysis of job quality, the future of work and youth self-employment in developing countries. He works in interdisciplinary environments with psychologists, sociologists, economists, lawyers and other social scientists.

Dr Burchell’s undergraduate degree was in Psychology, followed by a PhD in Social Psychology. His first post in Cambridge was a joint appointment between the social sciences and economics in 1985, and he has been in a permanent teaching post in at Cambridge since 1990.

Register:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/future-of-work-after-automation-towards-a-five-day-weekend-society-tickets-61028132788

This is a joint event with the Oxford Martin School and the Oxford Climate Research Network (OCRN)

Professor David Battisti, The Tamaki Endowed Chair of Atmospheric Sciences, will be talking about global climate sensitivity controlling regional warming uncertainty and its role in impacting on human health, particularly heat stress.

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Council proposals to allow only electric taxis, cars, light commercial vehicles and buses to enter parts of central Oxford from 2020 proved controversial. In this second debate to mark the 50th anniversary of Oxford Civic Society, the speakers will debate when central Oxford should become a Zero Emission Zone, and what should be done about pollution in the rest of the City. How could the various ways of reducing pollution be combined and what will be the impact on people’s lives? Councillor Paul Harris, who drew attention to the problems of introducing a ZEZ very quickly, and Chris Church of Friends of the Earth, will offer their alternative proposals on 16 May. The audience will have a chance to have their say before the two opposing speakers wind up the debate.. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

The 11th Annual Human Welfare Conference is entitled ‘Innovate: Balancing Interests in Resource-Constrained Settings’. The conference will focus on solutions being developed at various scales to improve human wellbeing in areas as diverse as poverty alleviation, education, health, and social welfare. The goal is to offer diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives on tackling the most pertinent issues facing our society today. Invited speakers include academics and practitioners, with experience working in government, NGOs and the commercial sector in fields as diverse as health, food, investment and education.

This is a joint event with the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food

Dr Mike Hamm will explore the opportunity for regional food systems in-and-around cities for mutual benefit. He will approach a number of issues – including vertical farming, bio-geochemical cycles, water use, new entry farmers, and healthy food provisioning – embedded in the notion of city region food systems with reference to supply/demand dynamics.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

Is competition in the digital economy desirable? Does it currently exist? Is it possible? Is there anything policy can do?

This talk addresses all of these questions and presents the recommendations of the Digital Competition Expert Panel which was chaired by Jason Furman and recently presented its recommendations to the government.

Like the wind, knowledge can be difficult to see or grasp, but if well-harnessed, it can help us do extraordinary things. In this talk, Dr Penny Mealy will discuss how novel analytical tools are providing new insights into the use of knowledge in society, and highlight implications for economic development, inequality and the transition to the green economy.

As part of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre’s Open Day, a panel of experts will discuss how artificial intelligence can be used to benefit patients and the challenges that it presents. The discussion will be chaired by Professor Lionel Tarassenko, world-leading expert in the application of signal processing to medical systems.

As part of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre’s Open Day, Professor Ian Pavord will discuss emerging treatments for asthma, a condition that affects 5.4 million people in the UK. Professor Pavord is an internationally renowned researcher with a particular interest in asthma, chronic pulmonary disease and chronic cough.

As part of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre’s Open Day, Dr David Eyre, an infectious diseases researcher and clinician, and Dr Katie Jeffery, Consultant in Microbiology at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will discuss how they used infection prevention and control best practice, whole genome sequencing and electronic patient data to halt an outbreak of a potentially deadly fungal pathogen at the John Radcliffe Hospital between 2015 and 2017.