Edinburgh

Current Science Group Programme 2022/23

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Our January and February 2024 meetingswill take place by Zoom only. From March to June we will meet at Edinburgh Napier University's Merchiston Campus. There will also be a Zoom option for those who cannot manage to attend in person. We'll contunue with these hybrid meetings until November 2024. December, January and February will be by Zoom only.

Lectures will start at 19.15, with room access from 19:00. Zoom link will be sent out a few days before the meeting.

Recording of Science Group lectures are often available. Links to these can be found in the Previous Lectures section below.

18 April

Continuum robots for minimally invasive surgeries

Dr Mohsen Khadem, Reader in Robotics, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

In this talk, I will discuss the latest developments in automating surgical procedures. Our focus will shift to the utilization of continuum robots—robots that are continuously flexible—in the automation of surgeries. Specifically, we will examine our contributions to two significant cases: the treatment of prostate cancer and the diagnosis and treatment of lung infections in critical care settings. I will discuss various topics including robot designs, control algorithms, and the recent advancements in navigating within the body by leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies.

May 16

What do we know now - that we didn't know a couple of years ago?

Prof Brad Gibson, Director, E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics, Unversity of Hull

Jun 20

Human Computer Interaction

Prof Lynne Baillie, Dept of Mathematics and Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University

How people interact with technology and the impacts that technology has on the population in terms of convenience, usability, performance and security.

_______________________________________________

March 21

Dr Hermione Cockburn OBE FRSE, Scientific Director, Dynamic Earth

February 15 2024
Scotland's Changing Demography

My talk focuses on transformations in Scotland’s population, both in the long-term and short-term, as well as compared with other countries. I explore changes in birth, death, and migration rates, the three key aspects of demographic change. We are used to thinking of these changes as long-term and relatively stable, but in the last few decades these have been dramatic and somewhat unexpected. Birth rates have fallen, such that fertility (the number of children people have) and nuptiality (people getting married) are reduced. Long-term rates of emigration going back 150 years have been transformed, with fewer emigrating and more people migrating to Scotland such that in-migrants now outnumber emigrants, and that helps explain why Scotland’s aggregate population has risen in the last decade. At the same time, population shifts have occurred within Scotland such that there has been significant population growth in the south-east, notably around Edinburgh and the Lothians. How many children people have, where and how they live, might be considered matters of purely personal choice, but what people do in their intimate lives is inherently social.

January 18 2024
Quantum Computing - an introduction and prospects

In this talk Dr Brown will introduce quantum computing. We will be starting with a (very very) brief intro to quantum physics, then working our way up through quantum information theory, and a little bit of classical computing, to quantum computing.

We will finish by considering the many challenges that face practical quantum computing, and asking ourselves “why bother?”.

Dr Brown leads Edinburgh University's quantum computing team, which is also part of the joint Quantum Computing Application Cluster studying the development of quantum hardware and software, and so will be able to give us an accessible introduction to the subject as well as a guide to current developments.

November 16 2023
Quantifying, understanding and promoting Scotland's globally important bryophyte flora

The mosses, liverworts and hornworts are three distinct but related groups of green plants that are collectively known as the bryophytes. In this talk we will learn about what makes the bryophytes different from other plants, the important roles they play in natural ecosystems including in combating climate change, and why Scotland has one of the most interesting and diverse bryophyte floras in the world.

The bryophytes have been evolutionarily distinct from the more familiar groups of green plants for around 500 million years, but it is only within the last five years or so that botanists have become convinced that they represent a natural group sharing a common ancestor that is not shared with other green plants. We will talk about the role that DNA data has played in this discovery, as well as how it is helping us to understand how different features of mosses and liverworts evolved and to quantify the conservation value of the bryophytes we have in Scotland.

A recording of this lecture can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/XytmlMdraI

October 19

The introductory talk and the hands-on workshop will raise awareness of the contribution made by C T R Wilson and the pivotal role of his invention of the cloud chamber, probably the earliest example of a true particle detector. The experiments conducted by C T R Wilson in a Peebles railway tunnel, as will those by Victor Hess in hot-air balloon flights, will introduce the idea of ionising radiation from above, or cosmic rays. The historic discoveries made of many new ‘elementary particles’ in cloud chambers will be illustrated. The development of the bubble chamber, working in a similar principle, will also be discussed. These discoveries laid the foundation for high-energy physics in the last century as do the new ‘digital’ detectors in use today. All this has led to the ‘Standard Model’ and its missing link, the Higgs Boson.

The practical workshop will raise awareness of the constant presence of cosmic rays and natural background radiation, as well as giving practical experience of building a simple particle detector. The physics behind the operation of the cloud chamber will be explained. All participants should see the cloud forming in their detector and see tracks from cosmic rays passing through. Two larger cloud chambers will be set up so that the tracks left by cosmic rays will be clearly seen there also.
A recording of this lecture can be viewed here:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/9QJ8GVefI9g
Part2: https://youtu.be/Mjt1fQiBw44

September 21
Wind Energy: how breath-taking engineering is changing the world

Since James Blyth first produced electricity from his turbine in Montrose in 1887, wind turbines have increased their power capacity by 5 orders of magnitude, with blades over 100m in length. The mechanical, structural, material, electrical, control and marine engineering challenges are immense. In this talk, we'll discuss that history, the engineering science principles of modern wind turbines and what the future holds for wind energy.

June 15 2023
How pyrenoid-based CO2-concentrating mechanisms can boost plant performance.

Many photosynthetic species have evolved CO2-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) to improve the efficiency of CO2 assimilation by RuBisCo (see definition below) and reduce the negative impacts of photorespiration. As the majority of plants (i.e. C3 plants) lack an active CCM, introducing a functional heterologous CCM into crops is a key engineering ambition to enhance yield potential. Most algae, including the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, possess a pyrenoid-based CCM that and enhances CO2 concentrations in the chloroplast and aggregates RuBisCo into a liquid-like phase separated condensate resulting in faster catalysis and decreased photorespiration. Through advances in our understanding of the Chlamydomonas CCM, the complex task of building a functional pyrenoid-based CCM in crops has moved several steps closer to reality, particularly now with a model-based roadmap to guide future engineering efforts. I will outline how pyrenoid-based CCMs can boost plant performance and resilience to climate change and our recent progress in transferring key components and features into plant chloroplasts.

May 18 2023
The Large Scale Structure of the Universe

Throughout the history of humanity, our pursuit of understanding the natural world has never wavered. However, in each era, we usually encountered limits to our knowledge, followed by breakthroughs that renewed our perspectives on the natural world. In the past century, our exploration of the Universe beyond the confines of the Milky Way has expanded the boundaries of our known physical world by an astonishing magnitude of billions. As a result, we come to realise the presence of the large-scale structure in our Universe and have developed models that strive to encapsulate the entirety of the Universe. The so-called standard model of the Universe consisting of dark matter, dark energy, and ordinary matter seem successful when scrutinized against astronomical observations. Nevertheless, while our measurements for each component in this model are remarkably precise, our comprehension of the nature of the mysterious dark components remains elusive. Once again, we seem to reach the boundary of our knowledge, and some argue that we are on the brink of another breakthrough. I will summarise a brief history of the Universe that we know about, and explain how we come to understand them. I will discuss some open questions that the research community is facing.

April 20 2023
Dive into the Deep Sea.

Come learn about Scotland’s cold-water coral reef, along with other incredible animals and habitats living hundreds and thousands of meters deep across the globe. The deep sea is often seen as our final frontier, and is an area of constant exploration and discovery. Our Speaker, Kelsey Archer Barnhill, will share images and stories from scientific expeditions she has participated in, which took her from the California Pacific, to Norwegian Fjords and volcanic islands in the Atlantic. Kelsey will share her research on the importance of reef-building corals in the deep sea for creating diversity hotspots, as well as what their future may be under climate change. She will highlight deep-sea research being done at the University of Edinburgh, as well as the push for a more accessible and inclusive approach to the deep sea.

March 16 2023
Rebuild and repair: seeking saliva after throat cancer

Radiotherapy is a life-saving treatment for those with throat cancer. Although radiotherapy is very often successful in treating the cancer, a serious side-effect is damage to healthy tissue near the tumour(s), including the salivary glands. This tissue damage results in a reduced ability to produce saliva, which leads to difficulties with eating, speaking and sleeping and a risk of choking. Furthermore, it causes tooth decay and oral health problems. Thus, the side-effects of radiotherapy adversely affect a patient's quality of life. Existing treatments for chronic dry mouth (e.g. saliva substitutes and mouthwashes) only give short-term relief and there is no permanent long-term cure. In this talk I will describe how we are working to understand how cells of the salivary gland communicate and co-operate, how this is lost after radiotherapy, and the approaches we are taking to exploit these signals to drive regeneration and restore saliva production to throat cancer patients.

A recording of this lecture can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/atkyvFfq5wk

January 19 -
The Thread across The Ocean - or, from Millwall to Anfield

This talk will trace those behind the ‘big idea’ to lay a submarine telegraph cable across the Atlantic. It first resulted in the 1858 cable that was laid successfully and provoked celebrations in New York akin to those for the first manned mission to the Moon. Those celebrations were short-lived as the cable failed whilst they were taking place. It would be 1866 before a second and successful cable was laid. The talk will trace the trials and tribulations faced and those involved. It will look at the major involvement of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) in these ventures which at times were extremely dangerous. It will also look at the posthumous contribution of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and explain how the subtitle of the talk could be ‘From Millwall to Anfield’. It will not be a technical talk, but rather more a ripping yarn of daring-do!

December 15
Scaling up Hydrogen across Scotland for Net Zero by 2045

Scotland aims to become Net Zero by 2045, with 75% GHG reduction by 2030.

The Scottish Government has a target for 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production to be operational in Scotland by 2030, reinforcing Scotland as one of the leading locations in Europe for early scale-up of hydrogen supply for the clean energy transition.

Scotland presents significant opportunities for the development and deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for the ‘hard to treat’ applications such as industry process heat, trucks, trains, aviation and shipping.

Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (SFHCA) members are involved with hydrogen and fuel cell projects across Scotland, often leading the way with a 'learning by doing' approach. This presentation will provide examples from locations across Scotland including the expanding hydrogen bus fleet in Aberdeen, local hydrogen energy solutions in Orkney, Acorn in St Fergus, and the H100 Fife hydrogen for heat development at Methil along with many other innovative projects.

November 17
What if it rains? Vehicle autonomy in bad weather

What do we mean by vehicle autonomy? Autonomous robots have been around for many years, planes can largely fly themselves, and subsea rovers explore the seabed and maintain oil platform structures. The New Tube for London programme promises driverless trains.

However, most of the recent hype has centred on motor vehicles on the existing, or adapted, road network, a much tougher proposition. One area of neglect has been the effect of bad weather, such as rain, fog or snow, or even human intervention such as smoke or adversarial attack on a busy motorway.

In this talk, I'll try to summarise briefly where we are with road vehicle autonomy., then talk about some of the work I've done with companies such as Audi, Jaguar Land Rover and collaborating academic institutions in the UK and Europe. Initially, our major concern was how we could combine the many different ways of seeing (cameras, sonar, LiDAR, radar) to understand the environment within the finite computational resource available on a high-powered car. However, the main emphasis of the talk will be on the recent work to solve the problem of obscurants.

October 20
Einstein's Final Vindication
Gravitational Wave and Multi-Messenger Astronomy - the Next Two Decades

In 1915 Albert Einstein predicted the existence of Gravitational Waves. He doubted that this would ever be confirmed experimentally. Exactly 100 years later the LIGO Observatories in the USA produced the first GW detection.

The International Scientific Community is planning hugely ambitious new Astronomy over the next 20 years. LIGO involves making measurement in changes of space curvature of less that 10th the diameter of a proton. There are even more challenges for the proposed new GW observatories: the ground based Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer; LISA - a solar orbiting triple satellite interferometer; and galactic sized Pulsar Timing Arrays. These promise to deliver results that will transform the landscape of astronomy and physics.

It's not just Gravitational Waves - Multi-Messenger Astronomy (including electromagnetic and particle observatories) will give a multi-faceted view of our universe and hopefully combine to help solve some of our existing cosmological conundrums.

And will no doubt unveil a few new ones - exciting times!!!

July 21
Engineering Yeast to Produce High-Value Chemicals
Dr Tessa Moses, Metabolomics Specialist and Facility Manager, EdinOmics, The University of Edinburgh

Synopsis: There is an ever-growing consumer demand for environmentally friendly, sustainably
produced ingredients for application in everyday products. This includes the demand
for surfactants derived from renewable and sustainable feedstock to reduce
environmental impact and the reliance on surfactants obtained from petrochemical
sources. Saponins are naturally occurring surfactants produced by a variety of plants
and constitute a structurally diverse group of glycosylated triterpenoids and sterols.
Plants rich in saponins have been used for millennia as natural cleansing agents and
have potential for broad product applications. However, saponin extraction from plants
is often variable in composition and is not cost effective or commercially scalable for
mass market industrial application. Therefore, a microbial production platform for
saponins is required to offer scalable volume, competitive price point and a consistent,
optimised product specification of saponin material. We are tackling key challenges
restricting the broader commercial application of saponins, by producing them in yeast
to enable a sustainable scalable supply. I will introduce the world of high-value
chemicals in plants and explain the various strategies
A recording of this talk can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/3hcp7OWpT8c

June 16
Co-evolution of Mineralogy and Life
Dr Rachel Walcott, Principal Curator, Earth Systems, National Museums Scotland

19 May
This meeting has been cancelled due to illness. We hope to re-schedule it in the autumn
Energy, Environment and Sustainable Chemistry
Dr Caroline Kirk, School of Chemistry, The University of Edinburgh

17 February 2022
Weather Matters
Alex Hill, Chief Adviser to Scottish and NI Govts, retired, and former Head of London Weather Centre

Weather in context:

• how weather has impacted on our history

• how it impacts now

• why it is more important than you think.

How the science of meteorology has developed and some of the key players.

How the atmosphere works and the science therein, from simple thermodynamics, through data gathering, to some of the complexities of modelling.

What the model outputs look like.

16 December 2021
What lies beneath?
How we can use genome sequencing to uncover the unseen dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 epidemic waves in the UK
Dr J T McCrone, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Molecular Evolution, Phylogenetics and Epidemiology, The University of Edinburgh

While useful, simple epidemiological models do not account for the diverse causes of epidemic spread. Understanding the causes of pathogen spread requires a detailed model of how transmission happens within and between communities. SARS-CoV-2, like most RNA viruses, quickly evolves as it spreads through a population. Virus epidemiology and virus evolution are linked, and understanding one helps us to understand the other. We can use SARS-CoV-2 genomes to reconstruct the virus's evolution and its epidemiological spread.

I will discuss how we have used the huge, international sequencing effort to characterize SARS-CoV-2 spread in the UK, with a focus on the first wave and the recent Delta wave. We will discuss how these findings inform our expectations of Omicron in the UK.

18 November 2021
Applications of Synthetic Biology
Dr Louise Holyoake, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Edinburgh.

Louise will give an introduction to Synthetic Biology in general then cover a couple of examples of its application. She will also talk about some of the issues that are faced in Synthetic Biology, such as the use of genetically modified organisms.

17 September 2020
A New Musica Universalis: The Birth of Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Presented by Dr Daniel Williams, Institute for Gravitational Research, The University of Glasgow

When gravitational waves were detected for the first time five years ago on 14 September 2015 by the goliath LIGO detectors in the USA the world was shaken. The publication of the detection became frontline news not only in scientific publications, but mainstream news outlets around the world.
At the centre of one of the most truly international efforts in the history of astronomy were scientists from Scotland and the UK.
In this talk I'll introduce some of the background about what gravitational waves are, how we detect them, and how some of the major local contributions to this effort have been vital in the development of the field.
Over the last five years we've gone from making the first detection, to making regular detections of gravitational waves, and I'll talk about some of the highlights from what we've seen so far, and what we expect to see in the future, and the challenges we face to continue to improve our detectors and analysis techniques as the field matures.

15 October 2020
Towards Transparent and Responsible AI
Presented by Dr Vaishak Belle, Chancellor's Fellow in Human-like Computing, School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh

Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides many opportunities to improve private and public life, and it has enjoyed significant investment. Indeed, discovering patterns and structures in large troves of data in an automated manner is a core component of data science. Machine learning currently drives applications in computational biology, natural language processing and robotics. However, such a highly positive impact is coupled to a significant challenge: when can we convincingly deploy these methods in our workplace? We will briefly cover history of the field and then discuss some take steps taken towards a commonsensical, transparent, fair and responsible AI.

19 November 2020
Regenerative Neurology – the Future
Presented by Professor Siddharthan Chandran, MacDonald Professor of Neurology and Director of Edinburgh Neuroscience at The University of Edinburgh

Disorders of the ageing brain are a major public health threat. Our brains are the most complex organ we have – the last area of human discovery – which explains why in over 40 years we’ve failed to find cures for neurological diseases like Parkinson’s, MS and motor neurone disease. Now disruptive technologies including stem cell creation are offering opportunities to accelerate the discovery of new medicines and we are on the cusp of a revolution for regenerative neurology.
A recording of this lecture can be viewed here:
(Note that the recording starts about 30 seconds into the lecture)
https://youtu.be/9uEeri3H1ag

17 December 2020
Probing the Dark Side of the Universe with Weak Gravitational Lensing
Presented by Dr Ben Giblin, Research Cosmologist at The Royal Observatory, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh

In my talk I will describe
• how we use gravitational lensing to map the large-scale structure of the Universe;
• what this technique tells us about dark matter and dark energy;
• the challenges facing this method;
• and the tensions which have recently arisen between the results from weak gravitational lensing and those from the cosmic microwave background.

21 January 2021
CCS: A Technology in Waiting!
Presented by Allan Mathieson, Science Group Member, formerly CCS Team Leader, Senergy and Lloyds Register

Global Climate Change caused by significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions (largely Carbon Dioxide) since the start of the Industrial Revolution and subsequent global temperature increases is considered by many to be a major issue for life on Earth. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been identified by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) as one of the key technologies to mitigate the effects of increasing greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures. The talk will discuss the technical aspects and status of the long term secure geological storage of CO2.

18 February 2021
Sorry, no meeting in Frebruary

18 March 2021
Memory, how it works and why it sometimes fails
Dr Paul Hoffman, Psychology and Language Sciences, School of Philosophy, The University of Edinburgh

Our memory can be at times remarkable and at other times infuriating. One moment, we vividly remember a house we’ve not seen since childhood; the next, we fail to recall the name of someone we met five minutes ago. Why are some memories so persistent and others so fragile? To try to answer that, I’ll present some of the highlights of the last 50 years of memory research. I’ll show that memory is supported by multiple brain systems interacting with each other and that, contrary to popular belief, some of these systems actually become stronger as we get older.

A recording of this lecture can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/4X5BjqKK0A

15 April 2021
Dangerous neighbours: finding ways to live with active volcanoes
Prof Jenni Barclay, Professor of Volcanology, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia

Globally some 800 million people live within 100 km of the world’s 1431 active volcanoes. In developing countries alone some 722 million people are exposed to volcanic hazards. A strong challenge associated with volcanic eruptions is their longevity - the median length of an eruptive episode is 6-7 weeks and some have carried on for decades and even centuries. Activity during these episodes can change rapidly and landscape and infrastructure devastation resulting from volcanic activity can be locally complete or partial (within the footprint of tephra fallout). Learning to live alongside volcanic activity presents many challenges and this talk describes some of the solutions available, even in resource constrained settings. It makes the case that working in partnership and collaboration with affected populations can even markedly improve the strength of our scientific insights into how volcanoes work.

A recording of this lecture can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/gAcZH9dhvFQ

20 May2021
Studying senescence in Soay sheep on St Kilda
Prof Dan Nussey, Chair in Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh

While it is often thought that wild animals don’t live long enough to show signs of deterioration in old age (senescence), long-term field studies now show that senescence is ubiquitous and important in natural populations.

I will present work which attempts to integrate these perspectives by measuring physiological markers linked to ageing (immunity, telomere length) in a thirty-five year study of Soay sheep on the remote St Kilda archipelago.

A recording of this lecture can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/GISCj9emAjU

17 June2021
Phage Therapy
Dr Josh Jones, Division of Infection Medicine, Edinburgh University Medical School

Viruses. We’ve all just about had enough of them.
Viruses are all dangerous and disruptive, right?
Wrong.

Bacteriophage – literally ‘bacteria eaters’ – are viruses of bacteria. Discovered in the UK in 1915, bacteriophage (usually just called ‘phage’) have been used somewhere in the world to treat bacterial infection since 1919.
This talk will introduce to you phage, walk you through the intriguing history of phage therapy and explore the modern renaissance of phage therapy.
By the end of this talk, I hope you’ll agree, that some viruses are good after all.

15 July 2021
High Throughput Approaches to Engineering Biology; The Edinburgh Genome Foundry
Dr Rennos Fragkoudis, Manager, Edinburgh Genome Foundry, The University of Edinburgh; and
Dr Peter Vegh, Computational Biologist, Edinburgh Genome Foundry, The University of Edinburgh

This talk will explore Engineering biology, in particular High Throughput Approaches to Engineering Biology. The Edinburgh Genome Foundry at the University of Edinburgh has recently purchased some exciting new equipment, which when added to our existing facilities, make Edinburgh capabilities unique and really revolutionise the work we are able to do.
Hear about the unique engineering biology facilities at Edinburgh, which transform traditional ways of working. We present an overview of our unique capabilities for high throughput engineering biology and use case studies to illustrate the potential.

A recording of this event can be found here:
https://youtu.be/hXwaUziDebs

20 August 2021
We're all on holiday!

16 September 2021
Animal Welfare
Prof Michael Appleby OBE, Visiting Professor in Animal Welfare, Scottish Agricultural College

Many people care for animal welfare, but defining, assessing and improving it is a challenge, particularly in livestock farming with its economic pressures. Yet improvements have been achieved in many countries, and further progress is important to increase the sustainability of agriculture and other animal uses.

A recording of this event can be found here:
https://youtu.be/7Vcu1ldKLb8

21 October 2021
The feathered revolution — the last 20 years in theropod palaeobiology
Greg Funston, Royal Society Newton International Fellow, Grant Institute of Earth Sciences, The University of Edinburgh

In this talk, Dr. Funston will overview the major advances in the field of theropod palaeobiology in the last 20 years. He will introduce the major research themes, discoveries, and paradigm shifts that have led us to our current views of feathered dinosaurs, the evolution of flight, and the wonder of the Mesozoic world. Drawing from his own work and the latest science, he will provide an accessible but up-to-date account of the cutting edge research palaeontologists are undertaking to understand the colours, behaviours, and growth of feathered dinosaurs—and how innovative young scientists continue to push the envelope. From toothless beaks to tiny tyrants, his talk will show how our views on theropods have radically changed, painting a new picture of dinosaurs as successful, birdlike animals rather than the doomed, mal-adapted beasts often portrayed.

A recording of this event can be found here:
https://youtu.be/5tiMr8vg6I4