"The topic for this lecture is the two seminal works of James Lovelock, Gaia and The Revenge of Gaia. I was recently re-reading the former and was struck not only by the prescience of the atmospheric chemistry, but his fascinating discussion about the absence of a satisfactory scientific answer to the question of "what is life?" It is this line of thought that I would like to give especial consideration (though not all in relation to the sense of the phrase in the embryo debate), connecting as it does with some of my bio-tech preoccupations in The Earth Issue. I also noticed the strongly contrarian streak in the earlier book and would like to analyse how this continues in the newer one."

C"rls Agee was born in 1956 in San Francisco and g~ up in M=husetts, Ntw York and Rhode Island. He attended Harvard University, where he studied with the poet and translator Robert Fitzgerald. Since 1979 he has lived in Ireland. He is the author of two books of poems, In the New Hampshire Woods (The!kdalus Press, 1992) and First Light (The !kdalus Press, 2003). A former guest editor of Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry {Chicago) and Metre, he also edited Scar on the Stone: Contemporary Poetry from Bosnia {Bioodaxe Books, 1998, Poetry Book Society Recommendation) and Unfinished Ireland: Essays on Hubert Butler (Irish Pages, 2003). His work is included in the landmark Northern anthology, Magnetic North: The Emerging Poets (Lagan Press, 2006). He now edits Irish Pages, a journal of contemporary writing based at The Linen Hall Library, Belfast. He reviews regularly for The Irish Times and has recently completed a new collection of poems, Next to Nothing.

deal with how the Nazis took the concept of eugenics as a means of social policy to one which became a racial policy. This involved an enormous increase in the numbers of individuals who were affected by the policy. The lecture will also look at the role of scientists in implementing the eugenics policy of the Third Reich.

Michael Wlu!la11 was born in London of Cork parents, and educated to secondary level there. He has achieved a BA in Philosophy and History and an MA in International Relations from UCC. He is also a qualified Chartered Management Accountant. He is currently undertaking a PhD at UCC, the title of which is 'Anglo-Irish relations from 1969 to1975'.

Facui.Jy of

.,.5cience University CoUege Cor*.

The series is organised by Professor William Reville Public Awareness of Science Officer The Faculty of Science, UCC.

For further information Phone: 021-490412714904369 Fax: 021-4904452 E-mail: w.reville@ucc.ie

For expanded information, see http://understandingscience.ucc.ie

List of Lectures Wednesday, 17th January, 2007

"Whence and Whither the Weather? - The World's Changing Climate"

Dr. Brendan McWilliams

Wednesday, 24th January, 2007 "The Nuclear Power Debate; Fact and Fiction"

Professor Philip W. Walton

Wednesday,31stJanuary,2007 "Renewable Energy - Can it Make a Significant

Contribution to Ireland's Energy needs?" Dr. Brian O'Gallachoir

Wednesday, 7th February, 2007 "Cancer Facts and Fables"

Dr. Harry Comber

Wednesday, 14th February, 2007 "The Effects of Exposure to Low Level

Ionising Radiation" Professor William Reville

Wednesday,21stFebruary,2007 "Ireland in the Second Half of the Age of Oil"

Dr. Colin Campbell

Wednesday, 28th February, 2007 "Autism and the Battle of the Sexes"

Dr. Tom Moore

Wednesday, 7 March, 2007 "Animal Venom"

Professor Tom Cross

Wednesday, 14 March, 2007 "Eyes or Ears? On Science's Sense of the Divine"

Dr. Fiachra Long

Wednesday, 21st March, 2007 "Life, Consciousness and Gaia: Reflections on the

Work of James Lovelock" Mr. Chris Agee

Wednesday, 28th March, 2007 "Eugenics: From Social Policy to Race Cleansing

Under the Third Reich" Mr. Michael Whelan

For further information Phone: 021-4904127/4904369,

Fax: 021-4904452. E-mail: w. reville@ucc. ie.

ucc Cor:ilste !'Ia hO E

The Faculty of Science

Annual Public Lecture

Series

Science has made the most amazing discoveries over the past 400 years, and today the entire developed world is dependent on

science-based technology. In this Lecture Series, a distinguished list of speakers will

discuss various aspects of science and technology, many of particular

relevance to Ireland today.

This public lecture series will run weekly from January through March 2007 on

Wednesday evenings, in Boole 4 Lecture Theatre

at UCC.

Lectures start at 8.00p.m., but please come a little earlier.

All are welcome

The lecture will trace the significant changes that have taken place in the climate of our planet, and of our part of Europe, in prehistoric, historic and modern times, and will briefly outline the reasons for this natural variability. In recent decades, however, the focus has been on the possible influence of human activities on climate, and the lecture will summarise the current scientific consensus, and the likely consequences for Ireland in the present century.

Brmtitl• Me Wlllilltu is a mekorologist, and for the past 18 years has written the daily "Weather Eye" column in The Irish Timt!S. He is a graduak of UCC and a former Deputy Dirrtaor of Met Eirrtann. In the early 1 990s he served as Dirrtaor of the Programme of Expert Studit!S on Climate Change on behalf of the Dept. of the Environment, and from 1998-2000 he was a Member of EU Fifth Frameworlt Programme External Advisory Group on Global Change, Climate and Biodiversity. Morrt recmtly, until 2004, he has hem a Dirrtaor and member of the Management Board of EUMETSA.T, the European Meteorological Satellite Organisation in Darmstadt, Germany.

Two major problems are subsequent decline of ~il and gas emissions and with very gObd fuel resenes, can help

PIIUip Wllltn reciiwd his pritrUlry physics and his Ph.D degrees (1966) from Trinity College Dublin. He tht!fl ~for two JW13 lrt the Department of Clinical Physics and Bioengineering. Wt!Stern Regi011al Hospital Board in Scotland. In 1968 he joined the Medical College of Virginia, USA. wherrt he become Associate Profossor and Chairman of the Radiation Physics Division. In 1978 he toolt up a new Profossorship in Applied Physics at the National University of Irrtland, Galway, from which he rf!tirrtd in 2005. He is now Emeritus Proft!SSor of Applied Physics at NUl, Galway. He served for seven years on the Board of the Radiological Protection Institute of Irf!land. He has served as Radiological Protection Officer bath at MCV and at NUl, Galway.

to recent oil price increases (and pending peak oil production) increased evidence of climate change, there is considerable debate currently wi,_thin Europe regarding the role that may be played by energy efficiency, renewable energy 'Pd nuclear energy. This lecture focuses on the extent to which renewable energy can deliver in Ireland and make a serious contribution to our future energy needs. Ambitious targets are currently under consideration, but since 1990, only 2% of our energy needs have come from renewable energy.

Brillrt 0 Gallaclu1ir is a kcturf!T in Energy Engineering in UCC. He is also principal investigator in the Sustainabk Energy Restarr:h Group withir1 the Deparrme..t of Civil and Environmental Er~gineering. Brian is also a co-ordinator of UCC's taught Masters Programme in Sustainabk Energy. He is also Strategic Advisor to Sustainabk Energy Irrtland's Energy Policy Statistical Support Unit. A.r1 applied scienct!S graduate of Dublin Institue of Technology, Brian moved to Corlt ill 1990 to carry out a Doaoral mearch progrrzmme in ocean wave energy in the Deparrme..t of Applied Mathematics. From 1995-1998, Brian was Technical Manager of the Renewabk Energy Information Office of Sustainabk Energy Irrtland.

Cancer is on the increase; it is affecting more young people than ever; this increase due to increasing environmental pollution and the stress of modern life. People living near landfills, mobile telephone masts, high tension lines and the Irish Sea coast are at greatest risk, but we are all endangered by waste from nuclear power stations and the fallout from Chernobyl. Despite fifty years of research we are no closer to a cure for cancer; the outlook for most cancer patients is generally poor, no better than it was in the 1960s, and much the same right across Europe and America. As treatment has improved so little, screening offers the best hope of reducing mortality from cancer. Some of these are facts; some are fables. Do you know which?

Harry Co"'ber was appointed as the first Director of the Irish National Cancer Registry (www. ncri.ie) in 1992. The Registry publisht!S an annual report and exknsive statistics on cancer in Ireland and has an active research programme on the causes, diagnosis, treatment and outcomt

1

of cancer. Prior to his appointment to the Cancer Registry, Dr Comber worked as a biochemist and general praaitioner.

The effects of low level ionising radiation on health have been intensely studied since the late 1940s. The model developed to estimate the risk of contracting serious ill­health from exposure to radiation is the linear no threshold (LNT) model. The original data on which the LNT model was based was good for higher levels of radiation but poor for the !~est I~ of expoliure and conservative estimates were made about risk of exposure to the lowest I,evels. *ere iJ DOW much evidence, including data from Chernobyl, that the assumptions inDiDa the LNT model for low level radiation were much too conservative. Low I ' iatinn is not as dangerous as we feared.

Will/a"' Rn/Ue is A.ssocillk Profossor of Billchemistry, Public A.warrtnt!SS of Science Officer and Collq;t..Radiatiorl Prokction Officer at UCC. He also writt!S the weeltly science column Under the Mimi~ in The Irish Timt!S. He has written abaut 100 scientific papers and is author of the boolt Scim« Today: Understanding the Natural World (Irish Timt!S Boalts, 1999).

are natural resources and. are subJect to _ _ production can take a long time and consumption now exceeds discovery- by 2005, for each barrel of oil found six are consumed. The First Half of the Age of Oil, which has lasted 150 years, facilitating industrialisation and a six-fold expansion in world population, is almost at an end. The approaching Second Half of the Age of Oil will be marked by the decline of oil and gas and all that depend on these energy sources. Urgent steps are needed to prepare. They include measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce waste, and the development of renewable energy from tide, sun, wave, wind and bio-fuels, not to omit the nuclear option, difficult as it is.

Col/11 Ca,pbell, barn in 1931, rrtad geology at Oxford. He joined the oil industry in 1958 as a field geologist. He was much involved in the offihorrt exploration of Irrtland in the 1970s. In 2001, he founded the Association for the Study of Pealt Oil ("A.SPO"), a networlt of concnned scientists. He is a Dirrtaor of A.SPO-IRELAND which is responsible for orgar~ising the 2007 Confrrence and acting as Secrrttariat for what has become an important inkrnational organisation (www.aspo-irdand.org). He and his wife, Bobbins, live in Bollydehob, Wt!St Corlt.

Autism is a serious neurological disorder that may be increasing in frequency. Our current understanding of the causes of autism, which predominantly affects boys, suggests that the disorder is predominantly genetic in origin. However, the lack of progress in identifying majJ?I susceptibility genes suggests that autism is a very complex disorder and el}1i&omnental influences on the condition cannot be ruled out. Dr. Moore will discuss ..that we currently know about the causes of this condition and will outline his recent 'findings on the genetics of autism, which suggest that genes that are selected to function differently in males and females may be involved. Such genes are said to be 'sexually antagonistic' because a gene variant that is beneficial in one sex may be harmful in the other. Dr. Moore proposes that when a male individual inherits 'female optimal' gene variants (and vice versa) this may predispose to diseases such as autism.

fi, MotnY studied Veterinary Medicine at UCD, obtained his PhD from the University of London, and did post-doctoral research ill developmental genetics at Cambridge. He is cuTrf!ntly in the Departmerltof Biochemistry, UCC, leading a HEA.jimded Program in Integrative Reproduction.

Many animals secrete toxic substances either t9 injure or kill their prey, or to defend themselves against attack. Being poisonous also protects species from predation and they have often evolved bright colour as a warning to would be attackers. Examples of these species will be considered, from well known ones like venomous snakes and sting rays, to less well known ones ranging from tiny dinoflagellates, whith cause ,ted tides; tropical box jellyfiSh (the world's most venomous animal); cone shells and blue ringed octopus; spiders scorpions and hornets; stone fish and other stinging fish; "poison arrow" frogs and the male duck billed platypus. The origin, nature, function and evolution of these poisons will be considered, as will the interaction of some of these species with humans.

To"' Cross DSc is Associate Professor of Zoology at UCC. A. native of Corlt, he has hem on UCC 'foculty since 1983 and prrtViously Assistant Dirrtaor of the Salmon Rt!Setlrch Trust of Ireland. His PhD on the genetics of hybrid fisht!S and fish molecular genetics, is still his major research area. He is also intertSted in salmon biology, marine ecology. biomechanics of jellyfish, and venomous animals.

Although it is fundamental to modern science that experiments centre on what scientists can observe and measure, scientists in the ancient world speculated about what they could not see. Socrates complained that he was not a philosopher of nature because his reverence for the divine prevented him from speculating about things under the earth. Why did scientists think that they could examine what they could not see? This paper will argue that religions argued about things unseen, things "hidden since the foundation of the world" because they valued hearing over seeing and based their sense of order in the world on a sense of harmony more available to ears than to eyes. What can modern science's sense of the divine be like if it values eyes over ears?

Fiachra Lo11g is a Leaurer in Education at UCC. He holds degrrtt!S from UCD and Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium wherrt he compkted a philosophy doctorate 011 A.ugustinan influences in Blonde/. He publisht!S in the philosophy of education, philosophy and theolagy ar1d1 has published Maurice Blonde/: The Idealist Dlusion (2000).