Leamington Cafe Scientifique

The Opioid Crisis - how a small pharmaceutical company fuelled a health emergency
2023-01-16 19:30 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
The Pharmaceutical industry has made a huge contribution to improving the quality of many lives with advances continuing to be made in tackling diseases that were once considered incurable. However, the industry often attracts criticism over the profits that it makes, and the adverse reactions that occur in some patients.

John worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 35 years. During the time that he lived in Connecticut in the United States, a company from that state, Purdue Pharmaceuticals, were responsible for fuelling the opioid crisis, which has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US from the misuse of pain killing drugs. What happened, and could it happen again?

Science in the GP Surgery
2022-11-21 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Cornelia Juengst, University of Warwick

Have you ever wondered what your doctor hears when listening to your chest?

How does a diseased heart sound different from a healthy heart? And why?

What does your doctor see when they look into your ear – and what does it mean?

How does sound get transmitted from the air around us to the auditory systems in the brain? And how can your GP assess hearing problems?

If you want to find out more about the beauty of human anatomy and physiology as it presents in the GP practice, then please join us for this interactive presentation by Cornelia Juengst, a GP of 15 years and a Senior Clinical Teaching Fellow at Warwick Medical School.

Searching through the stars: finding Earth 2.0
2022-10-17 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Marina Lafarga-Magro of the University of Warwick will discuss her work searching for habitable exoplanets, and why it matters.

Are we alone? The idea of life beyond Earth has fascinated and inspired humanity for millenia. However, it was only three decades ago that the first planets outside of our own solar system were discovered. Since then, the number of these extra-solar planets, more commonly known as exoplanets, has increased to over 5000. All these exoplanets that are found orbiting stars other than our Sun are extremely diverse. We have found extremely hot planets where it rains iron, puffy planets with very low densities, and frozen icy planets. So far, we have not found anything resembling our own solar system.

Despite having found and studied over 5000 of them, exoplanets can rarely be observed directly. Their host stars are too bright and outshine any light coming from the planet itself. Moreover, most of them are too far for our telescopes to resolve them. Therefore, to detect these exoplanets, we rely on looking for changes in the light coming from their host stars. In this talk, I will explain how we are able to find and characterise exoplanets indirectly. I will focus on the two most successful methods used so far, namely, the transit photometry and the Doppler spectroscopy methods. After going through the basic concepts behind these two techniques, I will explain how we are getting close to finding an Earth 2.0, and why this matters.

Extracting useful products from toxic blue-green algae
2022-09-26 20:30 - 22:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Aneika Leney, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham

Lake slime, or blue-green algae, is found in many lakes/rivers/oceans worldwide. It is increasing due to global warming and causing huge problems, as it can produce toxins that kill fish and wildlife. Dr Leney’s team are taking this algae and extracting proteins from it. These proteins are blue and are used as natural food colorants. The proteins also transmit low levels of light efficiently so have potential uses in applications such as more efficient solar panels.

Air Pollution- A Global Emergency
2022-07-18 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Om P. Kurmi, Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Healthcare Research at Coventry University will present a talk on how air pollution is affecting both children and adults, being responsible for over 8 million deaths annually.

Bioengineering: building physiologically relevant tissue models to investigate diseases
2022-06-20 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr. Pranav Vasanthi Bathrinarayanan, who is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham School of Chemical Engineering will cover the different organ/tissue models that he has built. These include the respiratory tract, blood vessels, bone mineralisation and some immune system work. Pranav will discuss how different natural and synthetic materials can be used to investigate biological diseases and how engineering/computational work has become infused with biology.

Machine Learning for Smart Manufacturing of Lithium-ion Batteries
2022-04-18 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Mona Faraji-Niri, Research Fellow, University of Warwick

Lithium-ion batteries are the key component of many portable devices in our daily lives, they play asignificant role in electrification of transportation systems such as electric vehicles, e-bikes, and e-scooters. The manufacturing of Lithium-ion batteries particularly for electric vehicles is very time andresource consuming due to the large number of parameters involved in each step of the manufacturingprocess. Mona, who is an Assistant Professor in WMG, University of Warwick will cover the details ofthe battery manufacturing processes in her presentation and address some of the currentchallenges. She’ll show how an in-depth understanding of manufacturing parameters obtained via AIcan help reducing the production time, cost, and carbon footprint.

Innovations in Cardiac Pacing
2022-03-21 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Roger Beadle, Consultant Cardiologist

Failing to Succeed
2022-02-21 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
The vital role of testing and failure in the development of products. How have famous and infamous failures enabled the development of new products and even new sciences. From the failure of the Comet aircraft to the wobbly Millennium bridge, what are the lessons we can learn from failure and why should we be encouraging more failure. Presented by Dr Brian Price, College of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Aston University.

Microplastic Pollution and its Detection
2022-01-17 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Katie Reilly, Research Fellow, University of Birmingham

Microplastics are a pervasive pollutant globally, and have been found in all environments studied to date. However, the available data for microplastic ingestion and interaction with organisms in the environment is varied and a lot of work has focused on larger animals such as marine mammals or birds to understand how these plastics could be having an effect. To further our understanding of individual and ecosystem level risks, laboratory exposures can be undertaken to understand how microplastics can be affecting key species, and how they are being impacted. Daphnia, or water fleas, are a great model species for this as they have historically been used to test other key pollutants such as chemicals to understand risk. In addition, they are a keystone species for freshwater ecosystems, and provide a key trophic link between algae and higher-level organism, such as fish. Exploring some of the current research at the University of Birmingham, we can use Daphnia to look at the environmental risk of plastics, and some of the ways that the field of research is developing and growing as we understand more of the underpinning principles of the problem.

The Fungal Kingdom
2021-11-15 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Rebecca Drummond, Birmingham Fellow, Institute of Immunology & Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham

Dr Drummond covers the size and scope of fungal species on Earth and how we use them in day-to-day life (e.g. production of alcohol, food and antibiotics), and fungal infections and their impact on our world.

Vaccine Optimisation Technology
2021-10-18 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Dr Phil Gould, Associate Head of School Enterprise and Innovation, School of Life Sciences, Coventry University

Vaccines save millions of lives per year. Unquestionably, the current COVID-19 pandemic is a timely reminder of what can happen in a population that has no immunity to a pathogen. Diseases like polio, diphtheria and smallpox which caused significant child mortality are now managed, with smallpox eradicated due to vaccines.

The safe and efficient production of vaccines is paramount to human health and the pharmaceutical industry. Phil’s research has led him to develop a technology platform to improve the efficiency of viral vaccine manufacture. The technology is designed to be used by manufacturers to optimise steps of production that involve growing virus to be used for the vaccine. This will result in higher yields, reducing costs for the manufacturer and decreasing their manufacturing times. Importantly improving yields allows wider distribution of vaccines to the public, which is essential in pandemics such as the one we are experiencing.

Dr Gould’s team are focusing on optimising vaccines for a wide range of human and animal vaccines not just those associated with COVID-19.

Clinical Trials: Past, Present and Future
2021-09-20 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Jon Bishop, Senior Biostatistician, Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit, University of Birmingham

Clinical trials play a key role in advancing medicine and this has been reinforced during recent times due to the COVID19 pandemic. This talk will give the audience an insight into the development of clinical trials over the years from one of the first clinical trials conducted by James Lind in the 1700s through to the next generation of trials.

Building Leaves: How Close Are We to Artificial Photosynthesis?
2021-07-19 19:30 - 20:30
Dr. Sebastian D. Pike, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick

Dr Pike cover the background of photoexcitation, the challenges of the process, current state-of-the-art materials and devices and how his group at Warwick are developing new molecular components for this process.

Introduction to Quantum Computing
2021-06-21 19:30 - 21:00 | St Patricks Irish Club, 4 Adelaide Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 3PW
Matija Pretnar, University of Ljubljana

We often read in the media that quantum computers are fast because quantum superposition allows them to be in multiple states at once, enabling them to explore all the possible solutions in a single step.

As we shall see, things are not that simple because, in the end, we can observe only one randomly chosen result, which is likely not going to be the one we need. After all, with all the possible solutions out there, what’s the guarantee that the one we want is the one randomly chosen by the quantum computer? So we want to be able to increase the probability of getting the solution we want from among all the possible paths.

What can be done is to use interference to cancel out all the undesirable paths and unwanted solutions. Although we still end up with a randomly chosen path, it is a path chosen from among the ones we want.

This event will be held at Saint Patrick’s Irish Club, with Matija presenting to us via Zoom. A Zoom link will be sent out the Sunday before for those of you who would prefer to join remotely.

What is Engineering Education and does it work?
2021-05-17 19:30 - 20:30
Dr Rebecca Broadbent, Teaching Fellow, College of Engineering and Physical Science, Aston University

Engineers have the power to shape the world and improve people’s lives, however engineering firms continue to warn of a shortage of engineers that poses a threat to business. With many professional bodies and independent organisations setting up engineering education strategies, have we taken enough time to monitor the engineering education landscape and find out what is effective? This talk will ask you to consider your personal definition of engineering and how your articulation of engineering may impact the aspirations of future generations.

The Climate and Money
2021-04-19 08:00 - 17:00
Café Scientifique member John Stott looks at evidence for the relationship between the climate problem and money. As an engineer, his initial reaction to the climate problem was to see it as problem about carbon pollution, so the way to go was to find alternatives to fossil fuels and make energy use more efficient. It was a problem for science and engineering to solve. But as time passed, he came to see the climate problem as more of a money problem and this talk aims to show evidence for this proposition and to an extent how it is related to social issues. In addition, being a talk about money, the role of banks cannot be ignored, so some information about this is included. You may be surprised by by some of the content.

Learning from Nature: The role of biomimicry in solving problems and developing new products
2021-03-15 19:30 - 20:30
Inspiration from nature can lead to innovative solutions to design problems. Learn how observing natural forms has led to the design of faster Olympic swimwear, solved problems with the windshields of high speed trains and allows us to draw water from the desert air. Presented by Dr Brian Price of the College of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Aston University.

AI in Visual Art
2021-02-15 19:30 - 20:30
Dr Aniko Ekart, Reader in Computer Science, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University

The quest for machines capable of performing creative activities began with the invention of the computer. Producing aesthetically pleasing visual art is certainly one such creative activity. Broadly speaking, there are two approaches: with and without a human in the loop. While in the first kind, the aesthetic appreciation is driven by the human, in the second, some automatic models of aesthetics are used. In this presentation, Dr Ekárt explains her team’s blended way: a bit of both for a better chance of success. This journey of AI for visual art will be illustrated with many visual examples, some of which you might like.

Dr Anikó Ekárt is a reader in Computer Science at Aston University, where she is also Director of Research Degree Programmes for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. After obtaining a PhD from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, she held research positions at the Computer and Automation Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, and a lectureship in Computer Science at University of Birmingham, UK. Her research is focussed on theory and application of artificial intelligence techniques, and in particular genetic programming and evolutionary computation. Areas of application range from health to engineering, art and economics. She enjoys exploring established and new artificial intelligence methods as well as virtual reality for creating aesthetically pleasing images and experiences.

Whatever have glial cells done for us?
2021-01-18 19:30 | Online via Zoom
Prof Nick Dale, Ted Pridgeon Professor of Neuroscience, School of Life Sciences University of Warwick.

Nick studies chemical signalling in the central nervous system, with particular interests in: developing biosensor technologies to measure neurotransmitter release in real time, the control of breathing, the control of body weight and application of biosensors to clinical diagnosis of ischaemic pathologies. His research has led to identification of important roles for specialised glial cells in the control of breathing, and the control of food intake.

Can we make a realistic and ethical laboratory model of chronic lung infection?”
2020-12-14 19:30 | On line via Zoom App, Riverside Walk, Adelaide Rd, Leamington Spa, CV32 5AH, United Kingdom
Dr Freya Harrison, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick
Freya uses her background in microbiology and evolutionary ecology to research how bacterial pathogens interact and evolve during chronic infections. She is especially interested in the long-lived, biodiverse lung infections that affect people with the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis, or people with chronic wound infections such as diabetic foot ulcers. These infections are unique environments for bacteria, and Freya’s group try to make accurate representations of infected lungs and tissues in the lab so they can better understand how bacteria interact and evolve during infection, and to provide better testing platforms for antibiotics and new antibacterial therapies. Freya is also a founder member of the interdisciplinary AncientBiotics consortium, which seeks to identify, reconstruct and test infection remedies from medieval medical books in the hope of finding new treatments for chronic infections.
Tonight’s talk will focus on the group’s efforts to mimic cystic fibrosis lung infections in the lab. People with cystic fibrosis contract lung infections in which different species of bacteria come together to form slime-encased multicellular “biofilms” that clog the airways and protect the microbes within from attack by antibiotics, or by the host’s immune system. It can be very hard to predict, from standard diagnostic lab tests, which antibiotics might be able to penetrate biofilm defences and kill bacteria. Further, pathogenic microbes can work together to cause damage to the lung tissues and to protect each other from antibiotics. To better understand how cystic fibrosis lung infection develops, we use lung tissue from pigs slaughtered for meat to build realistic lung biofilms in the lab. In this way, we hope that we can find the Achilles’ heel of debilitating and often lethal lung infection – and help researchers work on many different aspects of lung infection microbiology without the need for experiments on live animals.

Biochar - the potential benefits
2020-11-16 19:30
For our November Zoom meeting, Donna Udall will lead a discussion on “Biochar – the potential benefits” . The topic is of great relevance as the farming and horticultural community seeks ways to improve the soil in the light of global warming, not to mention our departure from the EU which will radically change the basis of government funding for farmers.

Donna is currently Research Assistant, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University

Brought up on a hill farm in Mid-Wales producing lamb and beef, and with undergraduate degrees in both business and finance and plant science, Donna now combines her pragmatic farming and business background with plant and soil science knowledge. For her current project she has secured funding for the Farmers, Growers and Gardeners Biochar Experiment.

Biochar is a form of charcoal intended for use in soils. It’s initial value is that it is a means to store carbon in the soil, where it may be useful, and out of the air – where it is harmful. From a soil benefit point of view, the claim is that it can alter the physical, chemical and biological nature of soil such that it returns significantly higher yields when applied with other amendments – but is this true? Donna Udall will take you through the benefits of biochar and how it can alter the physical, chemical and biological nature of your soil and crop system to sometimes provide some benefits in terms of yield. We also take a look at the outcomes of some trials to find out where it did work – and where it didn’t.

Tracking Environmental Pollution
2020-10-19 19:30 - 21:00 | On line via Zoom App, Riverside Walk, Adelaide Rd, Leamington Spa, CV32 5AH, United Kingdom
Profs Bob Lee and John Colbourne

Globally, pollution kills three times more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, accounting for one in four deaths in the poorest countries. How can polluters be so destructive in a world that has exceptional scientific capabilities and governed by laws to defend people’s rights to a healthy environment? Professors Robert Lee and John Colbourne argue that laws have not kept pace with scientific developments useful for establishing causation between exposure to pollution and harm, while science has ignored applications to establish causation between polluters and the victims of pollution. They propose an achievable solution to environmental injustice that is born out of interdisciplinary collaboration and coordination. Both science and law are necessary to achieve environmental justice. Robert Lee is Professor of Environmental Law, and John Colbourne is Professor of Environmental Genomics at the University of Birmingham.

Funding Research
2020-09-21 19:30 - 21:00 | On line via Zoom App, Riverside Walk, Adelaide Rd, Leamington Spa, CV32 5AH, United Kingdom
Leah Fitzsimmons University of Birmingham

Vitsoe factory visit is postponed (this date is just a placeholder)
2020-09-03 15:30 | Vitsoe, Old Warwick Road, Royal Leamington Spa, CV31 1NT
(this date is just a placeholder)

Visit to the new factory of Vitsoe, featuring outstanding energy efficiency, along with graceful appearance. There’s also an attractive museum of Braun products over the years.

The visit will consist of a brief tour, an explanation of the company and this new building, and Q and A, with refreshments provided by Vitsoe. Parking is available. Proceeds from the ticket price will be donated to Motionhouse, the dance company that uses part of the building for training and rehearsals.

This visit is postponed, we will reschedule when possible

No Meeting in August
2020-08-17 08:00 - 17:00

5G Network pluses and minuses
2020-07-20 19:30 - 21:00
Professor Steve Fergusson
The talk covers the application, technology, safety and politics of 5G networks and the Internet of Things. Potential applications are legion, the technology is awesome, safety issues have spawned criminal actions and the politics have become geopolitical. Many claim that 5G will be the technical basis of future societies and therefore justifies both close scrutiny and restrictions on who can supply. As with any new technology, predictions of its impact and potential benefits are tricky to get right.
There can be little doubt however that its promise of a massive increase in communications capacity is likely to be transformative. Recent events have shown the importance of widely available broadband. Its replacement by near-ubiquitous ultra broadband from 5G could be even more so.
Steve’s career was based in Coventry with the same organisation as it went through changes of name and ownership: GEC, GPT, Marconi, Ericsson. He did extensive overseas travel as he worked on the initiation and design of many transmission products for connecting up the digital telecommunications network. This included work on standards, research, conference presentations, publications and technology scouting. For much of his career he worked with optical fibre systems that form a key part of the internet. His role with Ericsson included work with developers of mobile phone systems and he has retained an interest in that area after retirement. He has been an advisor to banks and various UK government committees and is a Visiting Professor at Aston University in Birmingham.

Toward a zero carbon future. Chris Goodall.
2020-06-15 19:30
Chris Goodall’s recent book, What We Need To Do Now, presents an outline plan for a zero carbon Britain. He looks at energy supply, the food system, heavy industry, clothing and many other parts of the economy. The book tries to show that decarbonisation is both possible and that it can be engineered to benefit the less well-off members of UK society’. More background here

The great wave across Doggerland – how Britain survived the Storrega tsunami.
2020-04-20 19:30 | On line via Zoom App, Riverside Walk, Adelaide Rd, Leamington Spa, CV32 5AH, United Kingdom
Professor Robin Allaby, University of Warwick

The Lost Landmass of Doggerland
The North Sea floor was a landmass until about 8000 years ago called Doggerland, with Mesolithic communities and megafuana roaming freely. Sea levels rose episodically, and eventually tha land disappeared. A key event in this process was a catastrophic tsunami 8150 years ago caused by the Storegga slide off the coast of Norway. It has been believed that this is the event that made Britain an island, but so far evidence for the tsunami has only been found in the North around Scotland and the North Atlantic. As part of a large ERC consortium we are studying the inundation of Doggerland, and at Warwick we are using sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) to reconstruct those lost environments of Doggerland to try to understand what was there, and what happened to it. Excitingly, we have found the first southern evidence of the Storegga tsunami off the coast of East Anglia which shows the sedaDNA traces of the catastrophe, but also that it was not the end previously supposed.

Digital Manufacturing, 3D Printing and robotics.
2020-03-16 19:30 - 21:00 | On line via Zoom App, Riverside Walk, Adelaide Rd, Leamington Spa, CV32 5AH, United Kingdom
Todd Williams, University of Warwick and Printed Electronics Ltd.
Todd Williams has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA in technological entrepreneurship. He has worked on jet engines for the F22, a structural test lab for the International Space Station, and on business cases for geostationary satellites. He has founded or joined start-ups in aerospace, automotive, software, and now flexible digital manufacturing. Pertinent to tonight’s subject he has worked on many industrial 3D printing projects.
“I will talk about 3D printing, robotics, and design tools, all of it is coming along now, even scanning, however it isn’t quite there yet. In my start-up company (Functional Structures Limited) I am looking to develop a system that will manufacture a simple electronic device in one go; circuit board, wires, connectors, and 3D printed enclosure. This uses 3D printing, digital manufacturing, and robotics to make a complete device in small or large batches. It is the right time to start trying to do these things. The question for me is who would buy them, hence my interest in discussions around the wider market issues.”
