London talks at various scientific societies

Included so far are talks from

• Blackheath Scientific Society
• Hampstead Scientific Society
• Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution 
• Kew Gardens (Kew Mutual Improvement Society - KMIS lectures) 
• Linnean Society events
• Richmond Scientific Society

Not added (too many!)

• Royal Institution (Ri)
• Royal Society

2015
February 2015
2 February 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
The Native And Endemic Flora Of South West Sri Lanka
Chris Hudson (Kew Diploma Student)

9 February 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Plants & The Imagination
Richard Mabey (Nature Writer & Author Of Flora Britanica)

9 February 2015 - Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Tropical plants in British pharmacy
Dr Mark Nesbitt
FREE, 5.30pm 

12 February 2015,  8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
Data security and encryption

16 February 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
The Spring Transformation Of The Western Cape
Alex Hankey (Kew Diploma Student)

18 Feb 2015 - Richmond Scientific Society
Adventures and advances in medical physics as seen from the viewpoint of a small local consultancy company
Dr Alan Calverd

19 February 2015, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
THE HISTORY OF RADAR
Prof. Hugh Griffiths (University College, London)

20 February 2015 - Blackheath Scientific Society
Damascus Steel
Owen Bush, a world renowned Sword Smith.
Damascus Steel is pattern welded steel. The talk describes it from modern and ancient perspectives. Although a modern smith it is a passion for Saxon Swords and in particular their pattern welding that is the inspiration behind the majority of his work.

23 February 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Buckingham Palace Garden: History, Characteristics & Natural Fabric
Mark Lane MVO (Gardens Manager, London Royal Estate)

March 2015
2 March 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Compost, Clover & Concoctions, Improving Soil Health By Adding Compost And Growing Green Manures
Ben Raskin (Head of Horticulture, Soil Association)

9 March 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Plants & People In Turkey
Jamie Innes (Kew Diploma Student)

15 March 2015, 8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
Carbon capture and storage

18 Mar 2015 - Richmond Scientific Society
Lecture for National Science Week
100 years of aircraft from Kingston upon Thames
David Hassard (The Hawker Association)

Thurs 19 March 2015, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
BIONIC HEARING
Prof. Ian Shipsey (CERN)

20 March 2015 - Blackheath Scientific Society
The Tooth, the whole Tooth, and nothing but the Tooth
Dr Dharaka Nathan, Dental Surgeon
The dental repertoire has evolved over the years. This talk will cover the types of filling materials that are used commonly in dental practice & their basic principles.

April 2015
8 April 2015 - Linnean Society
17th European Orchid Show and Conference London 2015

15 Apr 2015 - Richmond Scientific Society
Pioneering laser anemometry in the wind industry
Dr Michael Harris (Chief Scientist, ZephIR Lida)

16 April 2015, 8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
Quality in science

Thurs 16 April 2015, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
RIGHT HAND, LEFT HAND:
The origins of asymmetry in brains, bodies, atoms and cultures
Prof. Chris McManus (UCL)

17 April 2015 - Blackheath Scientific Society
Restoration & Ecology of the River Cray
Mark Gallant, North West Kent Countryside Partnership
The talk will give a short introduction to the Cray, the associated wildlife, problems on the river and the measures that are currently being undertaken to address these issues.

May 2015
13 May 2015 - Richmond Scientific Society
Half Life: Bruno Pontecorvo, father of neutrino astronomy, but was he also an atomic spy?
Prof Frank Close (University of Oxford)

13 May 2015,  8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
Peak car: the future of travel

15 May 2015 - Blackheath Scientific Society
Bees
Mr David Rea, Environment Agency
How Bees communicate to others in a hive where to locate food sources is fascinating. However, bees face threats from pesticides and the parasitic Varroa mite.

Thurs 21 May 2015, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
ROSETTA – A COMETARY CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Roger O'Brien (The Open University & Hampstead Scientific Society)

June 2015
11 June 2015,  8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
Puzzle workshop: a fun evening of maths, logic and physics puzzles

Thurs 25 June 2015, 8:00 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
AGM: Wine & Cheese £3 + scientific entertainment


Talks that have passed in 2014
September 2014
10 Sep 2014 - Richmond Scientific Society
Climate, ocean and the hydrogen imperative
Mike Koefman (Planet Hydrogen) 

Thurs 18 Sept 2014, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
THE SCIENCE of COLOUR
Andrew Hanson, CPhys (National Physical Laboratory)

18 September 2014, 8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
Nuclear energy: the next generation

22 September 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
A Folk Flora: Uses & Folklore Of British Plants
Roy Vickery (South London Botanical Institute)

29 September 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Why Are Rare Plants Rare?
Tim Pankhurst (Regional Conservation Manager, Plantlife)

October 2014
1 Oct 2014 - Richmond Scientific Society
Graphene-based metrology
Preceded by the Annual General Meeting. Wine & Nibbles after the talk.
Dr J T Janssen (National Physical Laboratory)

2 October 2014 - Linnean Society
Darwin Diagnosed

6 October 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Plants & People In Oaxaca, Mexico
Ruth Calder (Kew Diploma Student)

10 October 2014 - Linnean Society
Birkbeck Lectures 2014

13 October 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Engineering Natural Ingredients
Solen Le Davadic (Agricultural Engineer)

14 October 2014 - Linnean Society
The Viral Graveyard

15 October 2014 - Linnean Society
The evolutionary origins of diversity in cancer

16 October 2014 - Linnean Society
Jacquin’s American Plants

17 October 2014 - Blackheath Scientific Society
Medicines from Plants
Dr Henry Oakeley, Garden Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians
An illustrated talk on modern medicines that are, or were, derived from plants, against a background of the their past uses and future potential.

20 October 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
How Botanic Gardens & Zoos Survived Wartime
Mark Norris (Education Manager, Newquay Zoo)

22 October 2014 - Linnean Society
New perspectives on climbing plants

22 Oct 2014 - Richmond Scientific Society
Fisheries: predicting the consequences of ocean management
Dr Stuart Rogers (CEFAS, DEFRA Lowestoft)

Thurs 23 October 2014, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
BLACK HOLES
Dr. Paul Abel (University of Leicester)

27 October 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
The Cycads & Forests Of Mexico
William Burridge (Kew Diploma Student)

November 2014
3 November 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Introduction To Biodynamic Farming & Growing
Tarry Bolger (Certification Manager, Biodynamic Association)

5 November 2014 - Linnean Society
Forensic Entomology

10 November 2014 - Linnean Society
Radiation and Extinction - Investigating Clade Dynamics in Deep Time

10 November 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
An Evening With Orchids: Species & Hybridisation
Chris Purver (Curator, Eric Young Orchid Foundation)

11 November 2014 - Linnean Society
What on Earth?

12 Nov 2014 - Richmond Scientific Society
Optical radiometry in support of earth observation and climate measurement
Dr Nigel Fox (National Physical laboratory)

13 November 2014,  8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
The impact of technology on architecture

November 2014
17 November 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Tresco Abbey Garden Mediterranean Climate Zones
Mike Nelhams (Curator, Tresco Abbey Gardens)

Thurs 20 November 2014, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
THE POST OFFICE RAILWAY
Chris Taft (The British Postal Museum & Archive)

20 November 2014 - Linnean Society
Land Sparing vs. Land Sharing: Tackling The Greatest Environmental Challenge of the 21st Century

21 November 2014 - Blackheath Scientific Society
The Cassini-Huygens Mission
Dr Chris Arridge, Planetary Science Group, Mullard Space Science Laboratory
Seven years after launch, the mission began in 2004 when a lander reached Titan, a moon of Saturn, and began sending back data about both the moon and the planet.

24 November 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Plant Hunting. Does It Have A Future?
John Wood (Research Associate, Oxford University & Kew)

28 November 2014 - Linnean Society
In the footsteps of Manton: Spores and early land plant evolution

December 2014
1 December 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Designing With Plants At Great Dixter
Fergus Garrett (Head Gardener, Great Dixter)

2 December 2014 - Linnean Society
Models and Metaphors Orchids and Primroses

3 December 2014 - Linnean Society
Blaschka - glass creatures of the Ocean

8 December 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Updating The Flora Of Mull, Coll & Tiree
Lynne Farrell (BSBI Hon. General Secretary)

10 Dec 2014 - Richmond Scientific Society
The long carry: how stretcher bearers of the Great War transformed military medicine
(Christmas meeting with wine and nibbles)
Dr Emily Mayhew (Medical historian, Imperial College)

Thurs 11 December 2014, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
ALIEN ANIMAL INVADERS
Prof. Tim Blackburn (The Zoological Society of London)

15 December 2014 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
The Restoration of Villa La Pietra
Nicolas Dakin-Elliot (Garden Curator, New York University)

19 December 2014 - Blackheath Scientific Society
AGM and Members' Evening


Talks that have passed in 2015January 2015
12 January 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Diverse Flora Of Sikkim
Matthew Parker (Kew Diploma Student)

15 Jan 2015, 8:15 pm - Hampstead Scientific Society
FRACKING
Prof. Peter Simpson (Imperial College, London)

15 January 2015, 8pm - Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution
Neuro-economics: decision making and the brain
16 January 2015 - Blackheath Scientific Society
This seems to be a talk on chiropractic so I'm not sure I can advertise this one in good conscience as it seems to be evidence-free twaddle.

19 January 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Island Endemism: Canaries & Balearics
Aaron Marubbi (Kew Diploma Student)

21 Jan 2015  - Richmond Scientific Society
Pollen and forensic science
Dr Michael Keith-Lucas (University of Reading, plant scientist (retired))

26 January 2015 - Kew Gardens, KMIS lectures
Past, Present & Future In A City Garden
Andrea Brunsendorf (Head Gardener, Inner Temple Garden)

29 January 2015 - Linnean Society
Systematics & Botanical Illustration

Randall Munroe of XKCD is doing two talks in London in early November

I was playing on the 'Interesting Talks in London' website last night and spotted that Randall Munroe's doing a talk at the Royal Institution on 5 November.

This surprised me so much (because it seems like the sort of thing everyone I follow on Twitter would already have shared) that I searched on Twitter to find the mentions of it that I must have missed. I didn't find anything for that talk but discovered that he's doing another one on the 6th of November - possibly there are more to be found.

5 November - Ri - Royal Institution
6 November - Union Chapel / Intelligence Squared

The Difference

What if? Serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions
http://www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2014/november/public-what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions
Wednesday November 5, 2014 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm | Royal Institution
21 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, London W1S 4BS
£12/£8
020 7409 2992 / events@ri.ac.uk

What would happen if the Earth’s rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second? How far would a tungsten countertop descend if I dropped it into the Sun? Has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the Earth?

Randall Munroe has been answering absurd questions with serious scientific answers on his website and now is bringing the best together in this talk.

His book ‘What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions’ will be published 2 September. Get your book and ticket to the event for the special price of £20.

Randall Munroe on Answering the Unanswerable

Duty calls

http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/randall-munroe-on-answering-the-unanswerable
Thursday November 6 2014 @ 7pm | Union Chapel, Islington
Union Chapel, Compton Avenue, London, N1 2XD
£30

What would happen if you hit a baseball moving at 90% of the speed of light?

How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live?

If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last?

These are the kind of questions that people ask Randall Munroe. A former NASA roboticist, Munroe is the creator of the webcomic phenomenon XKCD. Tens of millions of followers visit XKCD every week to view Munroe’s cartoons of stick-like figures musing on science, technology, language, and love. The website was chosen by Wired as one of the 20 key influences of the last 20 years alongside Steve Jobs and online dating.

Munroe attempts to answer his fans’ many questions on his What If? blog using computer simulations, declassified military research memos, differential equations, nuclear reactor operators – and cartoons. His answers are masterpieces of clarity and wit, and often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.

Munroe has now published a book, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, which contains new never-before-answered questions, along with updated versions of the most popular answers from the XKCD website. The book has just been launched in the US and the UK where it soared straight to number 1 on the bestseller lists, selling nearly twice as many copies as its nearest rival.

On November 6th, on a rare flying visit to London, Munroe will be appearing on the Intelligence Squared stage where he will answer the questions you probably never thought to ask.

Don’t miss your chance to hear him and get a copy of the book signed by the XKCD creator in person.

Sharing a link to a tweet may now notify that person, some suggested workarounds

by @JoBrodie, brodiesnotes.blogspot.com (this is an update of an earlier post)

Recently I was surprised to find a tweet in my notifications page that didn't @-mention me, it got there because the tweeter had included the link of an earlier tweet that I'd sent.

I use desktop Twitter (Twitter.com) and Echofon on iPhone and have only experienced this notification on the desktop version. It seems that others have also been experiencing it for the last few weeks and it may be something that Twitter is rolling out to everyone.

What is it?
If you include in your tweet an address link that looks like this
https://twitter.com/JoBrodie/status/514147218799222784 
then the person whose name is in bold may well hear about it, on their notifications page / tab.

Why is this of interest or concern to anyone?
People have previously used the method of including a tweet's address to draw attention to a tweet's content indirectly without notifying the person. When this is done to point to something that someone's said, covertly, it is sometimes known as subtweeting (the term "subtweeting" covers a range of Twitter behaviours though).

What's changed?
Previously no-one would be notified if this happened, now they will. Of course people have always been able to search your tweets, if they're public, and see what you've written anyway but it wasn't brought to their attention ('surfaced') in quite the same. 

What can be done?
Firstly be aware that sharing tweet URLs now seems to be equivalent to @-mentioning them. Whether or not this is a good way of including people in a conversation or of just annoying them will depend on the circumstances but best to know that they may see it.

Assuming you want to 'subtweet' covertly then the goal is to share the URL without triggering a notification.

Below are suggestions that I think will let you send a tweet without flagging it up. Remember though that if your tweets are public the person you're 'quoting' can always see your tweets (even if you've blocked them) so this isn't a foolproof method to let anyone snark with impunity.

Some methods are a little bit fiddly. To be honest if you want to be that secretive it's probably best to email people! But this post isn't really about the practical, more about the feasible - I'm interested more in the changing ways in which the technology behind Twitter works. 

Sneaky workarounds

1. Take a screenshot
A picture of the link or the tweet won't trigger the notification.

2. Break the address
Twitter treats web addresses (and hashtags) as clickable things - it recognises that a string of words is a web address and automatically turns it blue / underlines it, makes it clickable and makes it point to the relevant address. Just stick some characters in the link to stop this from happening - make sure that the person to whom you're sending the tweet knows how to mend it again (or the link won't work!).

For example http://www.google^^^.co^^.uk will not be recognised as http://www.google.co.uk 

3. Send it by DM
Although Twitter generally doesn't let you send many links via DM it does let tweet links go through fine. (But of course you can actually send any link by DM if you break it, as outlined in 2).

4. Use DoNotLink.com
This hides the URL and means that it probably doesn't currently trigger the notification (I've tried it and it doesn't, but not tested it to destruction, and Twitter is forever tweaking things). Incidentally you can cloak any URL this way so, for example, if you want to share the link of Widget.com's page without flagging this up to Widget Co (if they have a Twitter search running on 'widget' they'd come across your tweet) you can use this.

Note that other URL shorteners (bitly, is.gd, t.co etc) fail on this front. They won't hide the link for anyone searching, though I don't know if they will or won't trigger the notification.

5. Put the tweet you want to share in a Twitlonger post (but not in the first line).
Twitlonger lets you write more of a blog post than a tweet (you just log in by authorising it to interact with your Twitter account and start writing). It then posts just the first 120 or so of your post and adds a link so that people can click and go and read the post on the Twitlonger site. If you ensure that the link you want to share is placed after 120 or so characters it won't appear in the autoposted tweet and so can't trigger anything.

6. Share the minimum info needed to recreate the tweet
This is potentially risky because you'd have to include the person's name and if they have a search for that they'll see it immediately (whether or not this method triggers a particular 'your link has been mentioned' notification - I've not tried it and I don't think it does but not certain). If you and the person know who you are talking about you only need to share the link's string of digits to recreate the link.

All tweet addresses have the same format:
http://twitter.com / NAME / status / NUMBER
- if you know the NAME and the NUMBER you can recreate any link from scratch.

For my tweet above you only need JoBrodie and 514147218799222784 to recreate the full link.

Stock photos - I wonder what future 'archaeologists' will make of them

A couple of weeks ago I wondered in a few tweets the following thoughts...

"Is there any academic literature on stock photos? I'm aware of amusing curations (women laughing alone with salad etc) but also curious about the interesting linguistic thingmes it brings up when you search for a word or phrase and it brings up unexpected stuff. I always find myself wondering about any future info-archaeologists and what they might make of how we see things / ourselves, through stock images ;)"

Flickr picture credits: Left: Kidney with 'omnions' by duncan, Middle: kidney medium by Yersinia, Right: Kidney stones by Trevor Blake

Previously, I wrote about this sort of thing in terms of a picture representing an idea (or more literally a word) and how this had sparked some creative fun at work...

"Years ago I helped the then editor of our research magazine (Research Matters, from Diabetes UK) find some illustrative images to go with short summaries of our various bits of research. I remember in particular looking for things that conveyed 'kidneys' to match the section on our kidney research.

There are some standard-issue visual tropes for kidneys, including pictures of actual kidneys (either photographs or drawings, including the urinary system), kidney-shaped metal dishes, kidney beans and even, if you're so minded, steak and kidney pies.

But the concept of kidneys can also be put across by images of clear water - after all the job of the kidneys is to filter and clean blood, and conserve things that the body wants to keep. Even the concept of a fuse might be used in relation to the role the kidneys play in blood pressure and how this can damage them. You might even get away with 'balance' in that our kidneys keep everything in order.

I found that being in the role of someone who picks the pics made me think much more laterally about images in general, which I'm sure is all to the good."
Source: Building the picture pipeline - free images for use in healthcare and medical research #scicomm #nhssm (Sunday, 20 May 2012)

Picking up on the last point there it also crossed my mind that selecting images for an article (and thinking laterally about words, phrases and what the images say) is a teeny, tiny bit like being a film music composer, in the sense that you're 'writing to text' (as opposed to 'writing to picture' as in film) and can choose to use a straightforward image that's clearly aligned to the text (perhaps equivalent of using happy music in a happy scene, or sad music in a sad scene) or selecting something a little more obscure to highlight an aspect of the text that's perhaps not explicit.

Here's a lovely example of a piece of music matching something less obvious in the scene (and perhaps making it more obvious to the audience) -

"One of the classic examples of this kind of [film music] writing is found in David Raksin's score to Force of Evil discussed in some detail in chapter 3. In the final scene the main character, Joe (John Garfield), is seen running in the street, then along a great stone wall and down a huge flight of stairs. Yet the music here is not "running" music -- Raksin has scored the emotional rather than the physical character of the scene. Joe has been running, figuratively, throughout the film; it is only now, as he begins the search for his dead brother's body, that he finds any sort of quietude. Raksin reflects this psychological point in his slow music for this sequence."
Source: Roy A Prendergast The Aesthetics of Film Music (mystery online PDF)

Further reading
I like the genre of reframing of pictures, in the contextual 'caption competition' sense rather than actual frames. Here are a couple of examples I've noticed recently that have amused me.

44 Medieval beasts that cannot even handle it right now Buzzfeed (28 August 2014)

“We’re Fine Here, How Are You?” Normal Moments In Art History Where No One Is About To Get Murdered The Toast (16 June 2014) - features art nudes and so, depending on your workplace, this one might not be safe for work.

I keep seeing our sofa's upholstery fabric on television programmes - it's "Jacobean tapestry fabric"

Edit: 27 Nov 2022 - this shop calls it Guinevere Medieval Tree of Life heavy jacquard weave (brown Tudor Stuart Elizabethan cotton flat weave) and it's now £47 per metre (yikes!).

Here's a picture of our sofa's upholstery fabric.

Over the last few years I've been noticing it in television programmes such as Jeeves and Wooster, Sherlock Holmes (with Jeremy Brett and co) and on Foyle's War. Possibly it's an ITV / Granada / ITV3 thing. I've been trying to find out what it is.

Anyone watching Casebook of Sherlock Holmes on ITV3 - do you know the name of the upholstery fabric on the sofa? (!)
— Jo Brodie (@JoBrodie) July 29, 2012

Here's what looks like an extremely similar pattern on a chair that Edward Hardwicke's sitting on (as Dr Watson), episode 'The Priory School'.



































It's the same fabric isn't it? 

I have now found out what it's called, from a fabric supplier - "Jacobean Tapestry Fabric, Teastain". I feel I can rest easy now ;)

Illustrative picture showing the full-colour pattern pinched from their website follows... (our version is less colourful)

Here is a clipped bit of an image of some curtains

December 2014 
I also spotted it (below) on a YouTube video of the children's television programme from the early 1980s, The Box of Delights.

August 2015
Just spotted it in a video clip of A room with a view in which the lovely Rupert Graves portrays Freddy Honeychurch, while apparently sitting on one of our chairs ;)

October 2015
Foyle's War, S2E1, Fifty Ships

 

 

November 2015

Spotted it again in Agatha Christie's Marple 'A Murder is Announced' which I am watching now on 22 Nov at 4pm.

February 2016

While watching an episode of the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes: The Boscombe Valley Mystery I spotted that John Watson was making notes while sitting on our sofa's sibling.

August 2022
Gilmore Girls 'A Year in the Life' episode 4 - here Logan is chatting with Rory and keeping himself covered with this coverlet.

July 2023

This tweet, from @MandSHeritage, looked like it might contain the fabric on the chairs and it does. The photoshoot apparently took place in a hotel in Littlehampton.

Brides and grooms-to-be!

Unsure about what to put on your wedding list?

Let this array of St Michael homeware inspire you!

All available in 1984. pic.twitter.com/LP3ahuoQWX

— M&S Archive (@MandSHeritage) July 19, 2023