The Bristol Scientific Club Programme of Meetings for 2023 – 2024:
Meetings commence with a sherry reception from 6:40pm, followed by dinner in the restaurant at 7:00pm (members and their guests are requested to bring their own wine – there is no charge for corkage).
Guest Speaker: Dr Zoë Leinhardt : “Extrasolar Planets and the Search for a Second Earth”
Abstract TBA
Dr. Zoë Leinhardt is an Associate Professor of astrophysics in the School of Physics at the University of Bristol. Zoë got her bachelors degree in Physics from Carleton College, a liberal arts College in the US. She then moved to the University of Washington and the University of Maryland where she completed her Masters of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in astronomy. As a postdoctoral fellow Zoë spent time at Harvard University and Cambridge before making her way to Bristol as a Science and Technology Research Council Advanced Fellow over a decade ago. Along with leading her own research group she is currently the Astrophysics theme leader and Exams Officer in the School of Physics. Zoë’s research focuses on numerical simulations of planet formation.
Speaker: Dr John Manley: “The Chemistry of Wine: From Vanilla & Oak to Malolactic Fermentation via Black Pepper, Wildfires and Marzipan”
Wines are endlessly fascinating liquids. Their aromas and tastes span the whole spectrum from lychee to lavender, green pepper, leather, blackberry, grapefruit, lime, saffron, butter, almonds, … However wine is something that is made simply from grapes fermented with yeasts and aged from month to decades in wood, steel, glass, ceramic or concrete. These aromas, tastes and all the other mysteries and curiosities of wines can be explained intriguingly and elegantly by looking at the Chemistry that underlies them. There is a nice symmetry here: explaining the aromas, tastes, colour, history and character of wines through Chemistry also gives an appreciation and understanding of that Chemistry. In this talk we will look at five topics with wines that illustrate these topics.
John Manley came to Bristol to read Chemistry. This was followed by a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry (Spin-Coupled Valence Bond Theory). During post-doctoral positions he moved to Artificial Intelligence with Professor Christopher Longuet-Higgins FRS, himself a former Theoretical Chemist. After 28 years at Hewlett-Packard’s European Research Labs, where his groups were involved in large- and massive-scale systems research, he retired as Laboratory Director of Cloud Computing. He was a Trustee of the University of Bristol for nine years, serving also as the Chair of the University IT Committee. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is a Trustee of the Bristol Collegiate Research Society. In 2020 he was High Sheriff of the County of City of Bristol – following this year he created AskingBristol, which is exploring how to “level-up” the Third Sector in this country based on cities and regions.
Speaker: Mr Mike Carter: “From crime and punishment to quantum entanglement, the craft and science of paediatric epilepsy surgery in the 21st century.”
Epilepsy amongst the oldest known human disorders, having been described with stunning accuracy in 4000+ year old Akkadian tablets from Mesopotamia. Today it remains the commonest neurological condition encountered worldwide, with roughly 1 in 60 of us likely to experience seizures at sometime in our lives. Despite enormous advances in medical therapy, a third of patients presenting with epilepsy will not have their seizures treated by medications alone. An uncontrolled seizure disorder often has catastrophic consequences for the sufferer, exposing them to risks of neurological deficit, serious injury, cognitive decline, social exclusion and death, to name but a few. As the vast majority of presentations with epilepsy occur in children, entire families can be affected, with a measurable societal impact. Technological advances have greatly facilitated understanding of the structure and function of the central nervous system, to the extent that neurosurgical interventions are regularly deployed in the management of complex epilepsy in children.
My talk will outline the development of children’s epilepsy surgery and explore a little of how the most powerful of contemporary technologies are presently brought to bear in the surgical management of this most ancient of human diseases.
Note: the talk will include video segments illustrating real seizure activity.
Michel Carter trained in medicine at Southampton University and in neurosurgery in Southampton, London, Manchester and Copenhagen. He holds fellowships in general surgery from the royal colleges in London and Edinburgh and the intercollegiate speciality fellowship in neurological surgery from the conjoined colleges of the UK. He undertook speciality training in paediatric neurosurgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He has undertaken original research in the field of brain tumour genetics in Salisbury UK and at the University of Toronto.
He has been consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at the Bristol Royal Hospital for children since 2004, where he leads the Bristol /SouthWest children’s epilepsy surgery service. He is also clinical lecturer in cell biology at the University of Bristol and visiting professor of robotics at the University of the West of England. He has research interests in cellular mechanisms of epilepsy, the construction of neuronal organoids, robotic ethics and the modelling of human consciousness. He has major interests in international surgical education and in neurosurgical provision in the developing world.
Speaker: Professor Ken Nakayama: “Understanding Vision“
Vision Science is a field of considerable breadth. This includes many areas: physics, optics, neurophysiology, animal behavior, ophthalmology, computer science, art history, psychology. I have been fortunate to have been either a witness to, or an active participant in some of these fields. In this talk, I will give a survey of some high points in the recent history of vision, including some of my work in visual psychology.
Ken Nakayama received his PhD in Physiological Psychology at UCLA in 1967. Professor Nakayama spent 20 years at the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco. After that, he was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University for 26 years. He founded the Vision Sciences Society in 2001 and most recently has been affiliated with both the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Bristol.
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