Professor Graham Mills, Professor of Environmental Chemistry from the Department for Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at Portsmouth University presented about all of the chemicals that can get into water to pollute it.

A thorough introduction in to all of the possibilities, led to how pharmaceuticals that are passed naturally by humans are having measurable effects on fish and other lifeforms in water.

Very interesting. The most obvious take-away – Do not flush old medicines down the toilet, take them to the chemist to dispose of.

Prof Graham Mills: Presentation

Prof Graham Mills: Presentation slides
To display full screen, click arrowed-icon on bottom right of panel.

Q&A with the audience

Summary of the presentation

Dr Luke Myers, Lecturer, Department of Engineering and Environment, Southampton University

Whilst our mainstream media sources often criticise renewable sources of energy, weighing up the pros and cons, our scientists continue to explore and experiment, edging us nearer to finding usable solutions.

Tidal power is predictable, unlike wind. The most turbulent tidal sites provide a challenging test bed for each new design of tidal turbine and Dr Myers’ talk references several different projects and different design of turbine. Less turbulent sites such as St Catherine’s Point here on the Island provide a less hostile environment where designs can be operated more easily, where experimentation in the early stages can perhaps provide clearer insights.

Security of supply is becoming the dominant news story. Tidal power as a renewable source has a part to play in meeting demand as other energy sources diminish and/or become subject to global political unease.

Dr Luke Myers: Presentation

Dr Luke Myers: Presentation slides
To display full screen, click arrowed-icon on bottom right of panel.

Q&A with the audience

Photo of Luke Southapmton Uni

Barry has decades of experience in the chocolate industry and before his retirement, worked as head of cocoa R&D at the Mars Confectionery Company, both in the cocoa plantations and here in the UK.

He gave the Isle of Wight Cafe Scientifique audience the benefit of this considerable knowledge on 9th June 2104 to first run through the origins of chocolate as far back as the 15th century when Aztecs not only drank it as Xocolatl, but also used dried Cocoa beans as currency.

Its arrival in England is put down to Sir Hans Sloane (of Sloane Square), who collected the beans from Jamaica between the 17th-18th century. He’s also credited with adding milk to drinking it.

The process
Bringing us up to date, Barry detailed the current sources of Cocoa beans and the process of growing, harvesting Cocoa pods, retrieving the beans from their husks and the fermentation process, including the chemical reactions that occur.

Due to concerns with supply, Barry explained that the chocolate industry spent considerable efforts trying to understand the chemistry of chocolate – trying to locate the essence of its scent and flavour. Despite years of research, it still remains a mystery.

Finally Barry touched on Mars Symbioscience, who are using extracts of chocolate, extolling their health benefits.

Barry Arnold: Presentation

Barry Arnold: Presentation slides

Q&A with the audience

As it’s the European year of the Brain, the British Science Association have made the Brain their theme for May.

Dr. Katrin Deinhardt, Lecturer in Neuroscience, Centre for Biological Sciences, Southampton, presented her talk, “Home of memories and more – Discovering the wonder world of the healthy brain”.

Katrin discussed some general facts and properties of the brain, and of “memory”, and spoke about big challenges and recent advances in trying to understand it.

Dr. Katrin Deinhardt: Presentation

Dr. Katrin Deinhardt: Presentation slides

Q&A with the audience

Prof Philip Calder, Professor of Nutritional Immunology at Southampton University, who has spent much of his academic life studying Omega-3, presented his talk to give the background on Omega-3, in its different forms.

His particular focus was EPA and DHA which are found in fish omega-3 and it’s clear that he’s a fan of their effect on the Human body. By the end of his talk and Q&A, I suspect that most of the audience shared his enthusiasm for them too, and will be working out how to get more of them into their own diets.

As ever, the second session was audience Q&A when Cafe Sci members got to ask questions of particular interest to them.

Prof Philip Calder: Presentation

Prof Philip Calder: Presentation slides

Q&A with the audience

Thank you very much to Sue Curd, who provided this write-up of the event. If you’d like to do a write up, please get in touch – Ed.

Professor Chris Rhodes’s talk gathered the biggest audience the Isle of Wight Cafe Scientifique has had to date.

We all gathered hear Chris on the subject of fracking. The talk and accompanying slides (below) provide a background to available energy resources and the contribution made by each and then covers potential fracking shale oil and gas specifically.

It seems that fracking is an expensive process and that at current oil prices the economics are not attractive. It’s also debatable whether the volume is worthwhile especially considering the relatively low quality of the oil which then needs to be heavily processed in order to produce high-grade fuel.

Land density in US and Europe are very different
Fracking is widespread in the US however the geology of the US differs considerably in that there are vast expanses of unpopulated and unused land whereas Europe is more densely occupied. The accompanying slides provide current data on energy resources generally and more specifically about shale and certainly some useful diagrams for any students out there (Students: remembering to cite your sources!).

This is a factual presentation useful for those who would like to gain more knowledge at a time when financial incentives are being pressed on local authorities to investigate fracking for shale gas and oil.

Prof Chris Rhodes presents his views on local impacts explaining the need for numerous drillings over a site and the impact on local road infrastructure.

A lively question and answer session follows the main talk.

Prof Chris Rhodes: Presentation

Prof Chris Rhodes: Presentation slides

Q&A with the audience

Presented by Dr Paul Bingham, who used to be the NHS Director of Public Health on the Isle of Wight, the ‘John Snow Bicentenary, Cholera Epidemiology, and the Isle of Wight’ talk covered the history of major Cholera outbreaks in the England and Wales in the 19th Century.

Those four outbreaks saw over 100,000 people die on the Mainland. The Island fared much better with only 350 dying. Snow came to the Island to study the Island’s cases.

Paul brought the subject up to date by looking at the ongoing problem of Cholera in Haiti.

Beyond the historical facts, Paul posed the questions, “Is it enough to be a scientist?”. He cited Tom Koch, who said, “Science is not about being right, but convincing others you are right.”

John Snow
John Snow, a man of humble beginning, is now credited with having formed the theory that Cholera spreads with water, food and occasionally touch. At the time he was largely ignored despite being a founding member of the Epidemiological Society of London.

Snow’s fame becoming sealed by Wade Hampton Frost, a lecturer at Harvard Media School, using Snow’s papers at a John Hopkins class. Frost’s pupils went on to write many of the textbooks of the late 20th Century, thus spreading Snow’s fame.

(For those of you interested, here’s a scan of ‘Snow on cholera‘ with a foreword by Frost.)

Dr Bingham’s presentation

Dr Paul Bingham presentation on John Snow

Q&A with the audience

Another strong turnout at this month’s Cafe Scientifique – one of the highest attendance numbers of the year – for the last session in this year’s season.

The pull? Professor Tara Dean who is, among other things, Professor of Health Sciences/Director of Research at Portsmouth University – with her presentation on Allergies.

She has been central to much of the research done on the Isle of Wight in to allergies, with the Island now being the best-known research location in the World, thanks to her.

Continue reading Prof. Tara Dean talk on Allergies →

A strong turnout tonight to see Dr Lewis Dartnell present is ‘Astrobiology – the hunt for alien life’ talk.

A fascinating insight in to a subject that’s only been able to get going in the last couple of decades, since the technology has been developed to allow for the sensing in extreme conditions.

What is Astrobiology?
Lewis opened with an introduction to Astrobiology as a subject – the study of life, or the potential of life, on other planets beyond Earth.

Unfortunately, technical issues led to the Dr. Alan Clark’s presentation on Landslips not being recorded. Happily the Questions and Answers session following the presentation was.

Have a listen to Alan Clark’s Q&A after the link.

Continue reading Dr. Alan Clark: Landslips →