Mon 19 Jan, 7pm

Julia Newton: Standing Up for Fatigue: The Biological Basis of CFS/ME
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) affects approximately two per cent of the UK population, impacts on quality of life and affects a sufferer’s ability to work and live their life. Despite this, there is no diagnostic test for CFS/ME and no effective biological treatment. Julia Newton, Newcastle University, researches the autonomic nervous system, which controls subconscious activities that occur in the human body, such as respiration, bladder and bowel function, and also maintains heart rate and blood pressure. Autonomic dysfunction and particularly low blood pressure, hypotension, are a frequent finding in people with the symptom of fatigue.

Mon 16 Feb, 7pm

Gary Fildess: Heavens Above: From Northumberland to the Red Planet
Gary Fildess, Chief Astronomer at the new Kielder Observatory, will introduce the project and explain the importance of amateur astronomy, while Pete Edwards from the Ogden Centre, Durham University, will describe the latest results from the Phoenix mission, explaining why there is so much interest in Mars and how this might help answer the question ‘Are we alone in the universe?’.

Mon 16 March, 7pm

Alison Murdoch: Is There a Right to IVF? The Ethics and Politics of Infertility
One in seven couples have difficulty conceiving, and approximately one per cent of all births involve assisted conception. With the rationing of NHS treatment, going private is the only option for many. Professor Alison Murdoch is Head of the Newcastle Fertility Centre@Life, a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and a former president of the British Fertility Society. She will explore the social and clinical complexities of assisted conception.

Mon 15 June, 7pm

Professor Wyn Bowen: Non Proliferation and Nuclear Renaissance
Nuclear energy is often offered as a partial solution to energy and climate security concerns. But the global spread of nuclear capabilities may undermine non-proliferation challenges if technologies and materials are diverted to military use. Professor Wyn Bowen is Professor of Non-Proliferation and International Security in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. He has worked as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and served as a weapons inspector on several missile teams in Iraq with the UN Special Commission during the late 1990s. Wyn also served as a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee inquiries into the Iraq war and weapons of mass destruction.

Mon 6 July, 7pm

Gavin Pretor-Pinney: Waves
Waves seem to be everywhere, from ocean breakers pounding the shore, to the tiny, musical pressure fluctuations produced by a string ensemble, from reverberations of an earthquake circumnavigating the globe, to the electromagnetic rays emanating from a lamp, from brainwaves to Mexican waves, gravitational waves to royal waves. In fact, at a subatomic scale, anything and everything seems to behave as a wave. Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Cloud Spotter and Idler and absinthe importer, asks what exactly are waves and why are they so universal?

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