The discovery of the Higgs boson made headlines around the world. Two scientists, Peter Higgs and François Englert, whose theories predicted its existence, shared a Nobel Prize. The discovery was the culmination of the largest experiment ever run, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. But what really is a Higgs boson and what does it do? How was it found? And what will the LHC do next? Jon Butterworth, a leading member of the ATLAS experiment, will talk about all this and more.

Jon Butterworth is also Head of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at UCL, and writes for the Guardian at http://www.theguardian.com/science/life-and-physics

7.30PM start at St. Aldates Tavern, and entry is free, although we do suggest a donation of around £3 to cover speaker expenses. Come along and say hello! All welcome.

Please join the facebook event and invite your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/460780254055236/

http://oxford.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/2107/Smashing-Physics-News-from-the-energy-frontier

speaker:

Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, Defence Counsel at the ICTR and Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Filmmakers networking night – 5th June 2014

10:10 filmmakers networking night
Next meeting Thursday 5th June 2014, Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start to 9.30pm

Bring along films to screen, equipment for us to swoon over, questions to ask, or come and watch some great locally made short films.

Free but bring some drink and snacks to share.

If you’ve any clips to show and discuss (finished films or work in progress you want feedback on) and/or have equipment or techy skills to share , you can just turn up but please let Zoe know you are coming zoe@urchin.info
You can show from disc, files (on a usb stick) or via internet (youtube or vimeo)

Book your tickets here: http://www.scienceoxford.com/live/whats-on-so/the-future-of-the-universe

What is the future of our universe?
Are we alone or could other universes exist?
When and how might it end, or will it go on forever?

These and other questions have been in our thoughts since humanity first began to think beyond the next meal. New insights into the nature or our universe and how it was formed are forcing us to rethink our answers to these fundamental questions.

Science Oxford invites you to join a stellar panel of speakers including Professor Jim Gates, science advisor to the US Presidency from the University of Maryland, Oxford University’s Professor Frank Close and cosmologist Jo Dunkley. All under the chairmanship of Quentin Cooper, science broadcaster extraordinaire, in a mind-expanding and not to be missed evening of discussion and exploration at the Mathematical Institute, one of Oxford’s newest and exciting public venues.

You are cordially invited to the Magdalen College Trinity Term Libraries & Archives Talk:
Liam Dolan, Sherardian Professor of Botany, will speak on early botany.

A talk in Magdalen Summer Common Room (Cloisters III) followed by a chance to see our Early Botanical Books exhibition in the Old Library.

Personalised medicine utilises advances in DNA sequencing technology to classify a tumours according to genetic make-up instead of where they are in the body – allowing cancer treatment to be tailored to the individual patient.

People may have the ‘same’ cancer, such as lung or breast cancer, but can have different genetic forms of the disease so responses to treatment can vary. Likewise, cancers growing in different parts of the body may share the same genetic blueprint and so respond to similar treatments.

Leading clinician researchers Professor Mark Middleton and Dr Anna Schuh discuss advances in personalised medicine being pioneered at Oxford University Hospitals.

Wednesday 11 June 2014
Time: 18.30 -19.30
Location: Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre – Lecture Theatre Level 1

Free, open to all

On Friday 13th June, the Oxford Left Review will be launching OLR Issue 13. Come along to get your copy and chat with the writers and editors. This issue was partially themed on ‘Science, Technology and the Left’, and contains articles, interviews, reviews and fiction on topics including fracking, devolution, Wikileaks, the pharmaceuticals industry and Pakistan, as well as many more. Drinks will be provided.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a complex autoimmune disease affecting up to 1% of the population, causing a disabling inflammatory arthritis. The disease has two clinical similar subsets: autoantibody positive or seropositive disease, and autoantibody or seronegative disease. Recent advances in high-throughout SNP genotyping has resulted in the identification of >100 risk loci, in addition to well-known associations at the MHC. However, understanding the link between genetic loci and disease mechanism, is contingent on investigators identifying causal alleles and elucidating how they function to modify disease susceptibility. Furthermore, the mechanistic relationship between the seropositive and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis clinical subsets is still unclear. We are now just starting to make progress in this direction. Here we present recent work on (1) efforts to localize MHC effects to functional amino acid sites within HLA genes, (2) methodological advances to connect non-MHC loci to functional alleles that influence gene regulation in a cell-specific manner, and (3) how genetics is giving us a clear picture on the heterogeneity of the genetic bases of the two clinically similar conditions of seronegative and seropositive rheumatoid arthritis.

Al Jazeera host Mehdi Hasan will challenge Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of Medecins sans Frontieres and former French Foreign Minister, on France’s military interventionism. Are the country’s motives altruistic or do they respond to a neo-colonialist agenda? And is there a tipping point when intervening becomes essential? Syria, Mali, Libya, Kosovo and more.

This debate will be filmed and aired on Al Jazeera English at a later date. Audience members will be invited to participate in a Q&A section during the second half of the conversation.

Order free tickets here: http://bernardkouchner.eventbrite.co.uk

RANDY RETTBERG, President of iGEM
Randy Rettberg is the man behind iGEM, the global competition for undergraduates and high school students in designing brand new biological parts, or “genetically engineered machines”. An engineer by trade he is the President of the iGEM Foundation, which operates the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, a continuously growing library of genetic parts that can be mixed and matched to enable easier construction of synthetic biology devices.

Dr. RICHARD KELWICK, Researcher at CSynBI, Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (Imperial College)
Richard has been scientific advisor and project manager of three successful iGEM teams, 2011-2013. Most recently, he was the lead advisor for the iGEM team Plasticity, at Imperial College London, which came third out of over 200 teams at the world final, held at MIT.

Dr. JAREK BRYK, National Centre for Biotechnology Education University of Reading
Jarek works at the National Centre for Biotechnology Education on a project to facilitate teaching of synthetic biology on an undergraduate level. He develops experimental kits that will be incorporated in synthetic biology curricula.He currently mentors the iGEM Reading team.

The use of GM technologies is growing beyond agricultural crops. GM vaccines and GM animals are available and their use may need different regulatory considerations. In this talk, Dr Michael Bonsall from the Dept of Zoology, University of Oxford, will cover some of the scientific, policy and regulatory issues that challenge the use and implementation of GM organisms.

‘Can you Count the Clouds?’ asks the voice of God from the whirlwind in the stunningly beautiful catalogue of nature questions from the Old Testament Book of Job. Tom McLeish takes a scientist’s reading of this ancient text as a centrepiece to make the case for science as a deeply human and ancient activity, embedded in some of the oldest stories told about human desire to understand the natural world. Drawing on stories from the modern science of chaos and uncertainty alongside medieval, patristic, classical and Biblical sources, Faith and Wisdom in Science challenges much of the current ‘science and religion’ debate as operating with the wrong assumptions and in the wrong space. Its narrative approach develops a natural critique of the cultural separation of sciences and humanities, suggesting an approach to science, or in its more ancient form, natural philosophy— the ‘love of wisdom of natural things’—that can draw on theological and cultural roots. Surprisingly, science becomes a deeply religious activity. There are urgent lessons for education, the political process of decision making on science and technology, our relationship with the global environment, and the way that both religious and secular communities alike celebrate and govern science.

Tom McLeish is Professor of Physics and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Durham University. His research interests include: complex fluids and biological physics, academic-industrial collaboration, science and society, and the history (especially medieval) and theology of science. He studied for his first degree and PhD in polymer physics at the University of Cambridge and in 1987 became a lecturer in physics at the University of Sheffield. In 1993 he took the chair in polymer physics at the University of Leeds. He took up his current position in Durham in 2008. He has won several awards for his work on molecular rheology of polymers, including the Weissenberg Award of the European Society of Rheology (2007), the Gold Medal of the British Society of Rheology (2009) and the Bingham Award of the Society of Rheology (2010). He is also involved in science-communication with the public via regular radio, TV and schools lectures, discussing issues from the Physics of Slime to the interaction of Faith and Science. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Physical Society and the Royal Society.

THIS SEMINAR WILL BE HELD AT THE SUTRO ROOM, TRINITY COLLEGE AT 8:30PM, PRECEDED BY DRINKS AT 8:15PM.

All cancers are caused by somatic mutations. However, the processes underlying the genesis of somatic mutations in human cancer are remarkably poorly understood. Recent large-scale cancer genome sequencing initiatives have provided us with new insights into these mutational processes through the mutational signatures they leave on the cancer genome. In this talk I will review the mutational signatures found across cancer and consider the underlying mutational processes that have been operative.

A new report by the Humanitarian Innovation Project, Refugee Economies: Rethinking Popular Assumptions, will be launched to coincide with World Refugee Day, on Friday 20 June 2014. It is one of the very first studies on the economic life of refugees and fundamentally challenges existing models of refugee assistance.

The report is based on participatory, mixed methods research including about 1,600 surveys in Uganda, one of the few refugee-hosting countries in Africa that allows refugees the right to work and freedom of movement. However, it has wider implications for the emerging refugee crises around the world.

Far from being uniformly dependent, refugees are part of complex and vibrant economic systems. They are often entrepreneurial and, if given the opportunity, can help themselves and their communities, as well as contributing to the host economy. The data in the new report challenges five popular myths about refugees’ economic lives:

that refugees are economically isolated;
that they are a burden on host states;
that they are economically homogenous;
that they are technologically illiterate;
that they are dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Read more about the report: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/refugeeeconomies

Weekend of films screenings, talks and workshops about public health. Kicks off on Friday at 18.00 with a screening of Dallas Buyers Club at the Phoenix Picturehouse in Jericho. All welcome. Please visit our website for further details http://publichealthfilms.org/

Oxford Transitional Justice Research is pleased to invite you to its 2014 Summer Conference ‘Borders and Boundaries in Transitional Justice’.

This year’s conference, hosted with the support of the Planethood Foundation, Law Faculty, and the Centre for Criminology, will explore the issue of how borders and boundaries affect transitional justice processes across the world. The conference is organised around four panels:

The interplay between local, regional, and foreign transnational processes;
The role of diaspora and stateless communities in transitional justice;
The ways in which international law is dealing with cross-border transitional justice concerns; and
How local, national, and global approaches are affecting the theory and practice of transitional justice.

Registration is now open and we encourage all potential participants to register as soon as possible. Spaces are limited. We particularly welcome graduate students and early career researchers working on issues of transitional justice. A small registration fee includes tea and coffee and a light lunch.

Comedian Richard O. Smith’s illustrated talk tells the story of how an Oxford pastry cook became the first Englishman to fly in a balloon he designed, built, fuelled and piloted himself. Woven into the narrative are hilarious anecdotes of Oxford’s eccentric history and Richard’s own battle to overcome his fear of heights.

10:10 Filmmakers Networking Night
Next meeting Thursday 3rd July 2014, Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start to 9.30pm
.

Bring along films to screen, equipment for us to swoon over, questions to ask, or come and watch some great locally made short films.
Free but bring some beers and crisps to share.
.
If you’ve got any clips to show and discuss (coursework, finished films or work in progress you want feedback on) and/or have equipment or techy skills to share, you can just turn up but please let Zoe know you are coming zoe@urchin.info

You can show from disc, files (on a usb stick) or via internet (youtube or vimeo)

In 2014 Barnett House is celebrating its centenary. The celebrations culminate with the Reunion Weekend on 12-13 July 2014.

This includes:
– Keynote talk from Magdalena Sepulveda, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
– The 100th birthday tea party (the V-C Andrew Hamilton will cut the birthday cake!)
– A talk on the history of Barnett House and the launch of the book on the history.
– Open house at the department with displays of historic material and current research.
– Drinks and dinner with an after dinner talk from Prof Jonathan Bradshaw.
– Showing of the film Rich Man, Poor Man based on research carried out by Robert Walker and Elaine Chase with a discussion with the director of the film.

dobe specialists Niels Stevens and Tony Harmer are coming to Oxford for a special 2 hour presentation on the upcoming new features of the Creative Cloud for film makers, photographers, artists and designers.

Don’t miss our event to see the latest features in this new release of “Adobe Creative Cloud 2014”, including Premiere, After Effects, Speedgrade, Photoshop & more. Learn about what’s new in this 2014 release that will make your everyday post-production tasks easier and faster, and how support for cutting-edge hardware and standards will free you to build anything you can imagine. Get answers to your questions and get inspired by designers who are creating amazing work. Free event, Prize Draw, refreshments

On Monday 14th July at 7.00pm Adobe specialists Niels Stevens and Tony Harmer are coming to Oxford for a special 2 hour presentation on the upcoming new features of the Creative Cloud for filmmakers, photographers, artists and designers.

Don’t miss our event to see the latest features in this new release of “Adobe Creative Cloud 2014″, including Premiere, After Effects, Speedgrade, Photoshop & more. Learn about what’s new in this 2014 release that will make your everyday post-production tasks easier and faster, and how support for cutting-edge hardware and standards will free you to build anything you can imagine. Get answers to your questions and get inspired by designers who are creating amazing work.

BRC Researcher Dr Alex Pitcher describes the current research hoping to improve diagnosis and pinpoint more effective treatments for Marfan syndrome and related disorders.

What are the indicators of the condition? Can research explain how issues with connective tissue can damage the eyes, the skeleton and the blood vessels?

Free Talk, open to all

The World Humanist Congress is taking place from Friday 8th August until Sunday 10th August in Oxford. Held every three years in different locations around the world, this years theme of the meeting is ‘Freedom of Thought and Expression’. We are pleased to announce during the conference period, 10 world-class speakers will be visiting the bookshop for a series of free 20 minute talks taking place in the Norrington Room. You do not need tickets to attend any of the talks but seating is limited, so please arrive early to get a ensure your place.

Friday 8th August- Richard Dawkins will be discussing “The Greatest Show on Earth”.

Friday 8th August- Jim Al-Khalili will be discussing “A Rationalist’s View of the Great Paradoxes in Science”

The World Humanist Congress is taking place from Friday 8th August until Sunday 10th August in Oxford. Held every three years in different locations around the world, this years theme of the meeting is ‘Freedom of Thought and Expression’. We are pleased to announce during the conference period, 10 world-class speakers will be visiting the bookshop for a series of free 20 minute talks taking place in the Norrington Room. You do not need tickets to attend any of the talks but seating is limited, so please arrive early to get a ensure your place.

Friday 8th August- Peter Atkins will be discussing ‘The Limits of Science’.

The World Humanist Congress is taking place from Friday 8th August until Sunday 10th August in Oxford. Held every three years in different locations around the world, this years theme of the meeting is ‘Freedom of Thought and Expression’. We are pleased to announce during the conference period, 10 world-class speakers will be visiting the bookshop for a series of free 20 minute talks taking place in the Norrington Room. You do not need tickets to attend any of the talks but seating is limited, so please arrive early to get a ensure your place.

Simon Singh will be discussing ‘Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial’.

The World Humanist Congress is taking place from Friday 8th August until Sunday 10th August in Oxford. Held every three years in different locations around the world, this years theme of the meeting is ‘Freedom of Thought and Expression’. We are pleased to announce during the conference period, 10 world-class speakers will be visiting the bookshop for a series of free 20 minute talks taking place in the Norrington Room. You do not need tickets to attend any of the talks but seating is limited, so please arrive early to get a ensure your place.

Maybe an asteroid hit Earth. Perhaps a nuclear war reduced our cities to radioactive rubble. Or avian flu killed most of the population. Whatever the cause, the world as we know it has ended and now the survivors must start again. But how do we set about rebuilding our world from scratch?

Join Astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell in a lively and informative discussion about how we’ve become disconnected from the basic skills on which our lives and our world depend.

Lewis Dartnell will be at the Unicorn Theatre in Abindgon on Thursday 4 September talking about his new book The Knowledge, which explains everything you need to know to reboot our civilisation after a catastrophe.

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.