Previous Meetings
2005-06 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 | 2002-03
2004-05
Tuesday 7th June 2005
"Is consciousness a grand illusion?"
Dr Susan Blackmore (www.susanblackmore.co.uk)
Without consciousness there would be no art, theatre or literature, yet it is a real mystery for science. Everyone thinks they know what consciousness is. It is a stream of thoughts, ideas, and images that pass, in rapid succession, through the mind, experienced by a conscious self who watches them come and go. The trouble is, this cannot be true. There is no room in the brain for a conscious observer, not enough time for us to act on our conscious impressions, and no way of explaining why some brain activity should be conscious while most is not. So perhaps consciousness is an illusion.
With demonstrations and help from the audience I shall explore some of the ways in which we misunderstand our own minds. The phenomenon of change blindness shows that the richness of our visual world must be an illusion. Inattentional blindness shows that we can look right at something and not see it at all, and some odd effects with clocks and rabbits show how wrong we can be about the timing of consciousness. Finally, experiments on voluntary action cast doubt on the reality of free will.
Perhaps if we could only see through the illusion science might begin to make progress with its "greatest mystery".
Tuesday 3rd May 2005
"Early Cinema Technology and Imagination"
Dr Michael Punt (School of Computing, Communications & Electronics, University of Plymouth)
Why was the cinema invented when it was and why was it such a runaway success? What was it about the moving image that drew such massive crowds world wide so that within eighteen months of its public display there were more than 800,000 performances?
In this latest Sci-Bar event Michael Punt will talk about the relationship between science technology and entertainment at the close of the nineteenth century and show how, contrary to the assumption that the crowds were amazed by the illusion of movement, something much more interactive and dynamic happened when the public encountered the Cinematographe.
Using rare examples of very early films and magic lantern shows, this Sci-Bar presentation will show how the interaction between the public and technology shaped an understanding of the cinematographe in such a way that it became an entertainment medium in spite of the intentions of the inventors.
Quite against the grain of realist accounts of the invention of cinema, he will argue that the cinema séance was used to by its audiences undermine a scientific and technological enterprise which it felt had lost touch with them. In this way it might be said, early cinema has much in common with the new technologies that we are negotiating with today such, and perhaps more importantly reopens the discussion about the relationship between science, technology and the arts.
Michael Punt is a Reader in Digital Art and Technology at the University of Plymouth. He has made 15 films and published over eighty articles on cinema and digital media in the last decade. He gained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam and his recent publications include a book–length study on early cinema, (Early Cinema and the Technological Imaginary, 2000) and regular articles on cinema history.
Tuesday 1st March 2005
"A Sense of Disaster: Forecasting earthquakes the old-fashioned way"
Dr Iain Stewart (School of Earth, Ocean and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth)
Ian will be leading a discussion that would pick up on some of the recent stories emerging from Sri Lanka and Thailand about animal behavioural precursors to quakes and look at the general pre–quake anomalous activity that in the 20-21st century has been relegated to the pseudo-science margins of earthquake science.
Tuesday 1st February 2005
"Why celebrate Einstein?"
David McMullan (School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Plymouth)
David will discuss why 2005 has been adopted world wide as the "Einstein Year" and to reflect upon our current understanding of space, time and matter.
Tuesday 7th December 2004
"Resistance and compliance in medicine taking" or "Why patients don't take their medicine!"
Prof. Nicky Britten (Peninsula Medical School)
In 2003, 650 million prescription items were dispensed in the community in England: an increase of 5.3% on the previous year. There were on average 13.1 prescription items per head of population. Professionals are concerned about non compliance and wastage of prescription drugs, while patients usually have other concerns. Should professionals be spending their energy on making patients take their medicines properly? What can we learn from listening to patients? In this discussion we will look at the different perspectives of professionals and the people for whom they prescribe, and will examine the notion of appropriate prescribing.
Tuesday 5th October 2004
"Dolphins in Captivity: An Ethical Debate"
Lissa Goodwin (University of Plymouth)
The discussion will focus on the educational value of dolphinaria, the welfare of animals in human care, the ethics behind invasive research in wild and captive animals and the ethics of live removals from the wild for display purposes.
Tuesday 7th September 2004
"Mind Games – the Science of Hypnosis"
Dr Peter Naish (Open University)
What exactly is hypnosis? Can it be a valuable therapeutic tool, or is it "messing with a person's mind"? Is it just a silly stage trick, or something worthy of scientific study? Perhaps it's all a big deception, with people who volunteer to take part in stage hypnosis merely acting the part?
Dr Peter Naish of the Open University, who carries out research in hypnosis, will address these issues, and try to show that it can be all these things.
