Dr Larkman is a retired Oxford biologist who has been chairman of OOS for the last 5 years. His main interest is the precipitous decline in the UK’s small, seed-eating farmland birds over the last 50 years.

The ability to accurately identify and interpret Track and Sign rests on a body of traditional knowledge that previous generations of naturalists would have regarded as fundamental. Sadly, now it is largely unknown and untaught, but with the upsurge of Citizen Science, it is perhaps more relevant than ever.

Crocodiles once roamed the Arctic, during the Eocene about 50 million years ago. Polar regions were lush and warm. Greenhouse gas concentrations were higher than today, but at most about 4 times higher – not enough, according to current climate models, to have warmed the Arctic sufficiently. Something appears to be missing in current models to account for the warmth of the past.

The likely culprits are clouds, especially the low clouds that cover vast areas of tropical oceans. These clouds cool Earth by reflecting sunlight back to space. It is possible that the cloud cooling may have been absent or strongly diminished in past greenhouse climates, raising questions about our climate future. To predict our climate future more accurately, breakthroughs in the modeling of clouds and in the accuracy of climate predictions are needed. They are now within reach, thanks to advances in computing and Earth observations from space and our ability to fuse models with massive amounts of data.

Join us at Blackwell’s on Broad Street to hear John Dyson in conversation with Ruth Deech on his life and career in a discussion of his new memoir, A Judge’s Journey.

John Dyson is one of the leading lawyers of his generation. After a successful career at the Bar, he rose to become a Justice of the Supreme Court and Master of the Rolls. In this compelling memoir, he describes his life and career with disarming candour and gives real insights into the challenges of judging. He also gives a fascinating account of his immigrant background, the impact of the Holocaust on his family and his journey from the Jewish community in Leeds in the 1950s to the top of his profession. Although he may be perceived as being a member of the Establishment, this arresting story shows how he continues to be influenced by his Jewish and European roots.

Lord John Dyson was a Justice of the UK Supreme Court from 2010 until 2012 and the Master of the Rolls and Head of the Civil Justice System in England and Wales from 2012 until 2016.

Ruth Deech, Baroness Deech, is a British academic, lawyer, bioethicist and politician, and the former Principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford. Deech sits as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords (2005–) and chaired the Bar Standards Board (2009–2014).

Tickets for this event are £5. Doors will open at 6.45pm at which time there will be a small bar available. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Slime moulds thrive in damp woodlands and normally spread over rotting logs eating bacteria and fungi. They are also unusual in being single giant cells that show remarkably sophisticated behaviour considering their humble form. This talk presents a little vignette of the science behind these curious beasts and how it has led to better understanding of other networked systems, and even the origins of civilisation.

We cannot end poverty without ending energy poverty. Ever since the world’s first power plants whirred to life in 1882, we have seen how electricity is the lynchpin for development in all of its forms.

Manufacturing and industrial productivity, agriculture and food security, nutrition, hygiene, water, public health, education, even community engagement, in other words, daily life in a modern economy, demand access to reliable energy.

And yet despite significant progress over nearly 140 years, more than 800 million people around the world live without access to electricity, and hundreds of millions more struggle with unreliable or unaffordable service. Families are deprived of the means to labour productively and their quality of life and status in extreme poverty goes unchanged.

We need urgently to fast-track sustainable power solutions, investments, and partnerships across the globe to catalyze an energy transformation and accelerate sustainable, reliable and modern electrification for economic development.

Join astrophysicist Becky Smethurst on a whistle-stop tour through space, stopping off to explore everything you need to know about the universe. Guiding you through the galaxies, explaining the mysteries of black holes, dark matter and what existed before the Big Bang. She provides evidence as to whether we really are alone and highlighting what we still have to learn. If you have big questions about space or just want to expand your mind join Becky as she provides us with some answers.

Becky’s book Space: 10 things you should know will be available to buy on the night and she will be signing.

‘Bite-sized, cutting edge science delivered with enormous enthusiasm – all you need to travel the cosmos’ CHRIS LINTOTT

Dr Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist and research fellow at the University of Oxford. Her current research is trying to answer the question ‘How do galaxies and black holes evolve together?’. Her Youtube channel Dr. Becky, where she explains unsolved mysteries, weird objects found in space and general space news each week, has 46k subscribers and counting. She also presents physics videos for YouTube channel Sixty Symbols and astronomy videos for Deep Sky Videos. She was shortlisted for the Institute of Physics Early Career Physics Communicator Award and was named Audience Winner of the UK National Final of the FameLab 2014 Competition.

In this book talk the Author, Carl Benedikt Frey, will discuss how the Industrial Revolution was a defining moment in history, but how few grasped its enormous consequences at the time. Now that we are in the midst of another technological revolution how can the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present?

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

Astrophysics is the science of the stars, and more widely the science of the Universe. During this stellar event, Prof James Binney will present extracts from his Very Short Introduction to Astrophysics (OUP). You will learn about the rapid expansion of the field in the last century, with vast quantities of data gathered by telescopes exploiting all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the great advance of computing power, which has allowed increasingly effective mathematical modelling.

Data-driven micro-targeted campaigns have become a main stable of political strategy. As personal and societal data becomes more accessible, we need to understand how it can be used and mis-used in political campaigns and whether it is relevant to regulate political candidates’ access to data.

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

Visual Artist Dr Clair Chinnery interprets the ‘shapeshifting’ capabilities of human bodies as they emerge, grow, mature and die, informed by the physical materials left behind when such changes occur. With Digital Developer Gerard Helmich she has produced giant 3D printed sculptures of infant milk teeth and has also collaborated with the Parkinson’s Brain Bank at Imperial College London, working with microscopic images of diseased neurons. Discover how this ‘autoethnographic’ project reaches forwards and backwards in time, considering the irretrievable pasts and unknowable futures of ‘intergenerational’ experiences.

This is the 100 year journey to fusion: an award-winning documentary that follows the story of dedicated fusion scientists working to build a small sun on Earth, which would unleash perpetual, cheap, clean energy for mankind.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A session featuring fusion researchers.

UPP Members receive a further £2 off listed prices.

This film is rated 15.

Grab a pint and join us for a cabaret with a difference as six stellar acts take you out of this world with their entertaining riffs on life at the edge of existence. From outer space to the dinosaurs, we’ll be rocketing through a medley of music, comedy and creativity that’ll keep you weightless with laughter all night. If you love science, solar systems and stand up, this cabaret should be right up your Milky Way.

Featuring Chris Lintott (BBC Sky at Night), Lucy Rogers (Robot Wars) and many more.

This event is part of the IF Oxford Science and Ideas Festival 18-28 October 2019. IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation when you book.

There may be tickets available on the door – spaces may be reallocated if ticket holders are late.

IF Oxford science and ideas festival 18-28 October #IFOx2019

Is it our social responsibility to vaccinate? Vaccination has eradicated deadly diseases from our world and saved millions of lives; but why do some people refuse to vaccinate? This event, presented in partnership with the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities will explore how medicine, ethics, history and social science can encourage wider debate and a better understanding of the role vaccination plays in improving global human health.
Panelists include Alberto Giubilini (Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities), Samantha Vanderslott (Oxford Vaccine Group), Erica Charters (Associate Professor of Global Medicine and the History of Medicine), and Andrew Pollard (Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity).

Bernard Tucker Memorial Lecture – Joint with Oxford Ornithological Society

Scientists need your help! As we get more information about the Universe, we risk becoming overwhelmed but – as Oxford astronomer Chris Lintott explains in his new book, you can help. Hear from Oxford scientists who have worked with volunteers to find planets, and to count penguins, and even hunt aliens.

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

David Miles, former Chief Archaeologist at English Heritage and former Director of the Oxford Archaeological Unit, will be with us here at Blackwell’s to discuss his latest book, The Land of the White Horse: Visions of England.

Synopsis

The White Horse at Uffington is an icon of the English landscape – a sleek, almost abstract figure 120 yards long which was carved into the green turf of the spectacular chalk scarp of the North Wessex Downs in the early first millennium bc. For centuries antiquarians, travellers and local people speculated about the age of the Horse, who created it and why. Was it a memorial to King Alfred the Great’s victory over the heathen Danes, an emblem of the first Anglo-Saxon settlers or a prehistoric banner, announcing the territory of a British tribe? Or was the Horse an actor in an elaborate prehistoric ritual, drawing the sun across the sky? The rich history of this ancient figure and its surroundings can help us understand how people have created and lived in the Downland landscape, which has inspired artists, poets and writers including Eric Ravilious, John Betjeman and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The White Horse itself is most remarkable because it is still here. People have cared for it and curated it for centuries, even millennia. In that time the meaning of the Horse has changed, yet it has remained a symbol of continuity and is a myth for modern times.

This event will take place in the History Department on the second floor. It is free to attend, but please do register to let us know you are coming. For more information call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Blackwell’s are delighted to be joined by astrophysicist and YouTuber, Dr Becky Smethurst on her first book, Space: 10 Things You Should Know.

Synopsis

Written by Oxford astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst and composed of ten simple essays, this title guides you swiftly through the galaxies, explaining the mysteries of black holes, dark matter and what existed before the Big Bang, presenting the evidence as to whether we really are alone, illuminating what we still don’t know, and much more besides. If you have big questions about Space, this volume will provide you with the answers in an engaging and succinct way.

Becky Smethurst is a research fellow at Christ Church College, Oxford with a special interest in how galaxies and their central supermassive black holes evolve together. She is also a science communicator through her YouTube channel, Dr. Becky, which has over 45,500 followers.

This event is free, but please do register if you plan on attending. For more information please call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

An elusive breed of criminal entrepreneurs from China known as the Big Circle Boys (BCB) remain an intrigue to organised crime specialists. Apart from anecdotal reporting about their alleged dominance in the Canadian underworld and elsewhere, little is known about who they are or how they work. Confusingly, they have been coined with a number of organizational descriptors ranging from ‘cartel’, ‘black society’, ‘organised criminal group’, ‘mafia group’, ‘gang’, ‘criminal enterprise’, ‘criminal groupings’, and ‘non-entity.’

In this book colloquium, a panel of speakers will discuss Alex Chung’s recent book: Chinese Criminal Entrepreneurs in Canada, Volume I and Volume II and explore the BCB’s criminal undertakings.

Participants:
Alex Chung, Research Fellow in University College London’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy

Denis Galligan, Emeritus Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and Director of Programmes, Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford

Daniel Silverstone, Director, Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies

Joe Whittle, PhD Candidate, Liverpool John Moores University

Adam Smith is world-famous as a founding father of economics, and well-known to political theorists and philosophers for his Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). His work as a jurist is much less well known. As a notorious perfectionist, he worked for decades on a book that would have spanned the ground between the moral philosophy of TMS and the empirical sociology and economics of Wealth of Nations (WN). He never completed it, and on his deathbed he asked his executors to destroy his manuscripts. Which, sadly for us, they did.

But thanks to two near-miraculous survivals we know a great deal about what Adam Smith’s book on jurisprudence would have said. Two of his Glasgow students kept detailed notes of his lectures there between 1762 and 1764. One set was rediscovered in 1895, the other in 1958. They were taken in successive academic years, and they show that Smith shifted the order in which he presented his topics, but not the essentials of his course. The two independent sources validate each other.

Professor Iain McLean will lay out the principles of Smith’s jurisprudence; show how it forms the bridge between TMS and WN; and try to show Smith’s half-submerged influence on the new republic of the United States, in whose revolution he took a great deal of interest.

The lecture opens a one-day workshop on Tuesday 13 November on the jurisprudence behind the writings and philosophy of Adam Smith.

Iain McLean was born and brought up in Edinburgh. He is Senior Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford. One of his research interests is the interaction of the Scottish, American, and French Enlightenments of the 18th century. His Adam Smith: Radical and Egalitarian (2006) was written at the instigation of Smith’s fellow Fifer Gordon Brown.

This workshop explores the themes raised in Professor Iain McLean’s lecture of 12 November: Adam Smith as Jurist.

Workshop Programme

09:25 Welcome and introduction

Denis GALLIGAN, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies Emeritus, University of Oxford and Director of Programmes, Foundation for Law, Justice and Society

09:30–11:00 Session 1

Adam Smith and the Formation of the Scottish Legal Profession

John CAIRNS, Professor of Civil Law, Edinburgh University

Adam Smith, Religious Freedom, and Law

Scot PETERSEN, Bingham Research Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Oxford University

11:00–11:15 Tea and Coffee

11:15–12:45 Session 2

Adam Smith, David Hume, and Edmund Burke: A Common Legal Heritage?

John ADAMS, Chairman, Foundation for Law, Justice and Society and Adjunct Professor in Political Science at Rutgers University

Adam Smith on the Social Foundations of Constitutions

Denis GALLIGAN

12:45–14:00 Lunch

14:00–16:15 Session 3

Justice as Sentiment

Hossein DABBAGH, Philosophy Tutor, Oxford University

Adam Smith: Between Anti-paternalism and Solidarity

Daniel SMILOV, Associate Professor, Political Science, Sofia University

“Pieces upon a Chessboard”: The Man of System in Liberal Constitutionalism

Bogdan IANCU, Associate Professor, Bucharest University

16:15 Concluding Discussion

The Night Sky Show will take you on an epic journey from our celestial back yard and across the cosmos.

Comedy, astronomy and so much more. A show for anyone with a slight interest or more in the night sky. A night for those who want to laugh, learn and enjoy.

A fun, entertaining and memorable evening which will help you understand and enjoy the heavens above and universe beyond. Helpful for the next time you’re stargazing, or when you just look up and wonder.

We’ll skip the heavy going science and hard to follow explanations. The Universe and everything within will be presented in an entertaining and easily absorbed way.

AN AMAZING SHOW FOR EVERYONE

This won’t be a boring astronomy talk, it will be a spectacular astronomy talk anyone can enjoy!

Learn about the constellations, stars, planets and the deeper cosmos. The sheer scale of the universe and the mythology and stories of the night sky.

Presented by Adrian West – A passionate and experienced astronomer. Better known as VirtualAstro on Twitter and Facebook. He has one of the largest independent astronomy and space accounts on social media. He’s passionate about the night sky and inspiring people to look up by being interesting, down-to-earth and fun!

Adrian has written many astronomy and space related articles for various popular online science magazines. He has also written guides and articles for the BBC, Met office and National Trust to name a few.

If you look up and wonder, The Night Sky Show is for you.

SO LETS EXPLORE!

The talk will provide an overview of dragonflies and their life cycles and habitats as well illustrating a number of species that occur in England including those that are currently colonising from the Continent and increasing in numbers.

Inaugural event in our new events series focusing on responsible leadership: Driving Diversity and Inclusion Seminar Series.

Progress on diversity in the UK civil service and why it matters. How the dial only really shifted on gender, and why the focus is now on inclusion and addressing bullying and harassment. What the good leaders are doing?

Dame Sue Owen will give a talk followed by a Q&A with the audience moderated by Sue Dopson, Rhodes Trust Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Fellow of Green Templeton College, Deputy Dean of Saïd Business School.

Event Schedule:
17:15 – Registration opens
17:45 – Event starts
18:45 – Drinks reception
19:45 – Close

New technologies have always provoked panic about workers being replaced by machines.

In the past, such fears have been misplaced, and many economists maintain that they remain so today. Yet in A World Without Work, Daniel Susskind shows why this time really is different. Advances in artificial intelligence mean that all kinds of jobs are increasingly at risk.

Susskind will argue that machines no longer need to reason like us in order to outperform us. Increasingly, tasks that used to be beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts – are now within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is real.

So how can we all thrive in a world with less work? Susskind will remind us that technological progress could bring about unprecedented prosperity, solving one of mankind’s oldest problems: making sure that everyone has enough to live on. The challenge will be to distribute this prosperity fairly, constrain the burgeoning power of Big Tech, and provide meaning in a world where work is no longer the centre of our lives.

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

Lord Sumption will discuss the impact on our constitution and political system of the referendum of 2016 and its aftermath.

Part of the Oxford Martin Lecture Series: ‘Shaping the future’

Warburg Memorial Lecture – Joint with BBOWT
Volunteer-based botanical monitoring has been a mainstay of British and Irish botany for decades, but only recently has a recording scheme for plant communities been established. Dr Pescott outlines the history of this new National Plant Monitoring Scheme, with a particular focus on the challenges and rewards that have been associated with establishing this novel approach in the UK.

In this book colloquium, a panel discussion will assess British judge and historian Lord Sumption’s provocative bestseller Trials of the State: Law and the Decline of Politics, which expands on arguments first laid out in his 2019 Reith Lectures.

In the past few decades, legislatures throughout the world have suffered from gridlock. In democracies, laws and policies are just as soon unpicked as made. It seems that Congress and Parliaments cannot forge progress or consensus. Moreover, courts often overturn decisions made by elected representatives.

In the absence of effective politicians, many turn to the courts to solve political and moral questions. Rulings from the Supreme Courts in the United States and United Kingdom, or the European court in Strasbourg may seem to end the debate but the division and debate does not subside. In fact, the absence of democratic accountability leads to radicalisation.

Judicial overreach cannot make up for the shortcomings of politicians. This is especially acute in the field of human rights. For instance, who should decide on abortion or prisoners’ rights to vote, elected politicians or appointed judges? Jonathan Sumption argues that the time has come to return some problems to the politicians.

Panellists:
Denis Galligan, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford

Ezequiel Gonzalez Ocantos, Associate Professor in Politics & International Relations, Oxford

One estimate suggests that $2.3trillion was invested in infrastructure worldwide last year.

That vast investment has provided roads, power plants, mobile phone networks, dams and recycling plants. Whether those investments have been sustainable is questionable.

As well as providing essential services that people need, infrastructure too often locks in carbon emissions, fragments habitats and opens them up for exploitation, appropriates land and exacerbates inequalities. In many respects, choices about infrastructure investment are a remarkable point of leverage, when the future course of development is set, literally, in concrete.Too often these decisions are subject to political patronage, rent seeking and worse.

This lecture will examine the many impacts that infrastructure can have on sustainable development, for better or for worse. Professor Hall will share experiences of establishing long-term plans for sustainable infrastructure in many countries around the world.

Part of the Oxford Martin School Lecture Series: ‘Shaping the future’

In this book talk, Claas will review central findings of his research on the past 80 years of antibiotic use, resistance, and regulation in food production with introduction by Prof Mark Harrison, Director of Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities.

Mass-introduced after 1945, antibiotics helped revolutionise food production. Farmers and veterinarians used antibiotics to prevent and treat disease, protect plants, preserve food, and promote animals’ growth. Many soon became dependent on routine antibiotic use to sustain and increase production. The resulting growth of antibiotic infrastructures came at a price. Critics blamed antibiotics for leaving dangerous residues in food, enabling bad animal welfare, and selecting for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria, which could no longer be treated with antibiotics.

Pyrrhic Progress analyses over 80 years of evolving non-human antibiotic use on both sides of the Atlantic and introduces readers to the historical and current complexities of antibiotic stewardship in a time of rising AMR.

This talk includes a drinks reception and nibbles, all welcome