2003
Travels in Four Dimensions
Feb 18th
Professor Robin le Poidevin
Can philosophy provide any guidance in thinking about physics? Is time travel possible, and if so will it be possible to travel both backwards and forwards in time?
The Ten Great Ideas of Science
Mar 10th
Professor Peter Atkins
The scientific top ten - a selection from a famous scientist, professor of chemistry at Oxford.
Biological Warfare
Mar 31st
Professor Malcolm Dando
With the war in Iraq in the offing, what are the real dangers of using biology as part of a military strategy, and what is the history of biological warfare?
Myths and Visions of Science
Jun 2nd
Mary Midgley
Scientific ideas require imaginative language to be understood. Selfish genes and genetic engineering are modern examples. But the images of one age become dated in the next, and we should recognise the difference between metaphor and reality.
Doctors, Diseases and Decisions
Jun 16th
Dr Richard Horton
The editor of the Lancet thinks modern medicine is on the wrong track. The model of 'topping up' patients to a healthy norm isn't working, and needs to be replaced with a different understanding of how disease alters patients lives. Globally, the discrepancies in healthcare are becoming a huge political problem.
Sex, Botany and Empire
Sep 16th
Dr Patricia Fara
Is the history of science about a series of discoveries, or the lives of famous scientists or an examination of scientific institutions? The botanist who sailed with Captain Cook and supported the Linnaean classification of plants, Joseph Banks, exemplifies the interplay of Empire, the Royal Society, discovery and sexual mores.
Nanotechnology: Grey Goo, or Good News?
Oct 6th
Professor Richard Jones
The strangeness of small science - nanorobots, molecular motors, Brownian motion and stickiness - is it threatening or just another extension of he research envelope?
The Struggle for the Soul of Science
Oct 21st
Professor Steve Fuller
Is science just what scientists agree on, or is it the key to rational thinking?
To Infinity and Beyond
Dec 2nd
Dr david Salinger
From quantum mechanics to population dynamics, how can we depend on a concept as slippery as infinity? And when philosophers, bishops and science fiction writers talk about infinity are they talking about the same thing?
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