Tuesday 17th October 2023 from 19:00 for 19:30
Abingdon United Football Club (Northcourt Rd, OX14 1PL, Abingdon)

Please note our move to the third Tuesday of the month for 2023.

A motor neuron in culture

Humans seem distinct in being vulnerable to a form of cellular degeneration, distinct from normal aging, which specifically affects the nervous system. This is manifest as a group of specific diseases, of which Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are the most prominent. Motor neuron disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is a relentlessly progressive and uniformly fatal neurodegenerative disease which leads to paralysis of voluntary movement. This talk will explore the nature of neurodegeneration, using the example of ALS, and explain how recent research provides a roadmap to improving the prospects for treatment and to ultimately make ALS preventable.

Speaker: Professor Kevin Talbot MBBS, DPhil, FRCP

Kevin Talbot is a clinician scientist, specialising in neurodegenerative disease, principally amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He is a clinically active specialist in neurological diseases and co-leads the Oxford Motor Neuron Disease Centre, which provides diagnosis and care for approximately 1

Professor Kevin Talbot

0% of the UK population. He is Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford, and also leads the Neurodegeneration and Cerebrovascular Theme of the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. The main focus of his laboratory research is to improve pre-clinical models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, focussing on early stage disease. Using these tools his laboratory has identified disease-specific phenotypes in motor neurons which provide the tools for screening drugs of potential therapeutic benefit in ALS. This is closely linked to work with Oxford colleagues on biomarkers with application to experimental medicine studies to accelerate translation of promising drugs.

Tuesday 19th September 2023 from 19:00 for 19:30
Abingdon United Football Club (Northcourt Rd, OX14 1PL, Abingdon)

Professor David Macdonald, founder of Oxford University’s WildCRU (the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) began working on lions, in and around Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, in the late 1990s. The project has grown to involve a large team, and covered a wide array of discoveries about lion ecology and behaviour, and their relevance to wider lion conservation. David, working with his long-term colleague, Andrew Loveridge, has published widely on topics such as landscape planning (the identification of refuges for lion and corridors linking them), ways of resolving conflict between farmers and lions, and the thorny issue of lion trophy hunting. The latter leapt to international prominence with the killing, by a Minnesotan cross-bow hunter, of the projects study-lion nicknamed Cecil. The resulting global media explosion and its aftermath is probably the biggest wildlife media story in history, and David was at the eye of the storm.

Tuesday 15th August 2023 from 19:00 for 19:30
Abingdon United Football Club (Northcourt Rd, OX14 1PL, Abingdon)

Please note our move to the third Tuesday of the month for 2023.

This talk will describe the range of new technologies being developed based on the physics of quantum mechanics involving interactions at the fundamental level of single photons, atoms, ions and superconductivity. These developments are part of a large government investment in quantum technologies with the objective of growing new companies and enhancing national security.

Speaker: Dr Rhys Lewis

Dr Rhys Lewis is the Head of the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) a government-owned laboratory applying science in support of UK industry. He is responsible for NPL’s strategic direction in quantum and for leading NPL’s programme as a partner in the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme. The NPL Quantum Programme involves establishing test and evaluation capabilities for quantum timing, quantum communications, quantum sensors, quantum materials and quantum computing. NPL also delivers projects in collaboration with the Quantum Technology university hubs, and with many industry partners. Dr Lewis joined NPL in 2007 as an operational Division Head. Prior to NPL his career was in leading new product development in manufacturing companies in the Oxford and Abingdon area.

Tuesday 18th July 2023 from 19:00 for 19:30
Abingdon United Football Club (Northcourt Rd, OX14 1PL, Abingdon)

Please note our move to the third Tuesday of the month for 2023.

Domestic work is critical to health and well-being. Societies cannot function without regular meals cooked, clothes and homes cleaned, and people cared for.

It is also very time consuming and generally shared unequally within and between households.

Women continue to do more unpaid domestic work than men in the majority of households, though the extent of gender inequality when it comes to domestic work varies between societies.

Historically, technological advances – such as the rise of domestic appliances  in the 1950s – have been associated with women’s increased participation in the labour market. The rising female employment and intensification of family (especially parenting) responsibilities for both men and women means there remains a large unmet demand for help with domestic work. Household robots (vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, etc.) outnumbered all other types of robots in terms of units sold from as early as 2010. Sales of household robots have since accelerated dramatically.

In this talk Dr Hertog will explore the potential for a further transformation of unpaid domestic work with the rise of AI-powered technologies, expert predictions about the future of housework and care work, individual attitudes to using smart digital technologies to replace their own domestic work, and how this varies cross-culturally.

Speaker: Associate Professor Dr Ekaterina Hertog

Fusion – Powering the Future

Tuesday 20th June 2023 from 19:00 for 19:30
Abingdon United Football Club (Northcourt Rd, OX14 1PL, Abingdon)

Please note our move to the third Tuesday of the month for 2023.

With climate change the top of everyone’s agenda, the hunt for alternative sources of energy has never been more important. In the middle of rural Oxfordshire in the UK, over one thousand scientists and engineers are working for the UK Atomic Energy Authority, to develop a new source of low-carbon, safe and abundant electricity – Fusion Energy.

The fusion of hydrogen nuclei is the process that powers the Sun – and at the European JET project, operated by the UK Atomic Energy Authority at it’s Culham Science Centre HQ, these processes are being replicated. By heating a gas of hydrogen-like fuels to 150-200 million℃, the JET tokamak has demonstrated the fusion of these nuclei and a subsequent release of energy. Indeed, recent results have demonstrated a world record 59MJ of fusion energy released.

JET continues to lead the worldwide effort towards commercial fusion power – ensuring the next step international device ITER (located in Cadarache, France) will show much higher and sustained production of fusion power when it comes into operation in the mid 2020s. UKAEA are also increasingly developing key technologies (robotic maintenance, fuel cycle, materials etc.) required for the first fusion power stations.  

UKAEA are now leading a major UK project to design and build a more compact fusion power plant at West Burton, Nottinghamshire around 2040 – the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP).  

The first fusion power stations should be starting up in the next 30 years – harnessing the power of the Sun for all of us here on Earth!

Speaker: Chris Warwick

Chris Warrick is the Outreach and Student Placement manager at UKAEA. After graduating with a degree in Physics from the University of Wales, Chris joined Culham in 1990 working as an experimental physicist on various fusion devices until 2001. He then joined the Communications team – with particular responsibility for education and public outreach, before leading the group in April 2010, becoming head of stakeholder engagement in 2020 and moving to his new role in 2021.