lectures november 2004 - october 2005

8/6/2019 LECTURES NOVEMBER 2004 - OCTOBER 2005

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LECTURESNOVEMBER 2004 - OCTOBER 2005

Osteoporosis: African Genesis - European Nemesis ............................... 2

The Challenge of the Ageing Skeleton .................................................. 4

Why Clone? Cloning in Biology and Medicine ....................................... 6

The Health and Psyche of the Scottish Nation ........................................ 7

To Clone or Not to Clone? ..................................................................... 8

Earthquakes at Home and Abroad ......................................................... 9

Engineering and the Creative Arts : A New Frontier? ............................ 12

The Robot in your Head ....................................................................... 17

New Concept of Food Quality: Beyond Safety and Sensory Properties .. 18

How Safe are Vaccinations?.................................................................. 20

Climate Change: Apocalyptic, Much Ado about Nothingor Cause forConcern ............................................................................................... 23

Who You Are or Where You Are? Social and Spatial Patterning ofHealth .................................................................................................. 25


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RSE Lectures.

Professor David Purdie,

Consultant, Edinburgh Osteoporosis Centre8 November 2004

Osteoporosis: African Genesis - European Nemesis

Professor Purdies aim for hislecture was to discuss one of themost difficult problems faced byWestern Societies, that of theincreasing fragility of our bones aswe age, and continue to age. Lifeexpectancy for women in the UK isnow 82 years, and it is uponmiddle-aged and elderly Europeanfemales that the principal burdenof osteoporosis continues todescend.

Professor Purdie went on to pointout that the condition now costs

the NHS some 1.7 billion perannum and that figure does notaccount for the loss of economicactivity among both the patientsand their younger relativesrequired to care for them. Oste-oporosis onsets usually after themenopause when the centralbone-protection hormone,estradiol, ceases production in the

ovaries. By age 75 fully 50% ofUK females are osteoporotic andat risk of fracture after minimaltrauma. The means to detectosteoporosis, DXA bone scanners,and the means to treat it areavailable, but have only beendeployed in certain areas, leadingto postcode preference instead ofthe required blanket coverage.

The realisation, Professor Purdieexplained, that all Europeans areof African descent has prompted amajor research drive to determinewhy the black skeleton is so muchmore resilient and stronger thanthe white. African and African-American women have muchlower rates of osteoporosis andfracture than their white cousinsand the reasons for this, whenuncovered, may well provide amajor lead in the hunt for effec-tive means of prevention and

treatment.Professor Purdie outlined theanthropological thesis; theancestral wave of H. sapiens leftAfrica some 100,000120,000years ago, dark skinned heavyboned and relatively short lived.In the higher latitudes of Europe,selection pressures led to thedivergent phenotypes seen today

when Europeans are compared tothe surviving ethnic group nearestto the ancestral population theSan Bushmen of the Namib. Euro-Africans exhibit lighter skin colourto conserve Vitamin D production,straight hair to conserve warmthand lighter bone structure, for, atpresent, no detectable biologicaladvantage. It may be that thelight skeleton conferred no


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November 2004 - October 2005

disadvantage, provided individu-

als died young. But thecombination of a gracile skeletonand high longevity may havecontributed to the presentproblem faced by Westernsocieties with aged populations.

Thus the disease, Professor Purdieconcluded, which robs women,and some men, of their height,stature, good health and some-

times their lives, may have itsultimate origin in our childhoodas a species and in the fact thatwe no longer hunt, scavenge andgather the activities for which

our design specifications have

uniquely fitted us.Professor Purdie drew his lectureto a close by stating that oste-oporosis is a silent stalker ofwomen. It arrives undetected andunrecognised by patient anddoctor alike, until it manifests inheight loss or in fracture after asimple fall. Its detection requiresthe positioning of bone densito-

meters (bone scanners) inhospitals within the reach of allUK general practitioners, for onlythen will the tide of fractures andtheir associated misery among ourelderly, begin to abate.


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RSE Lectures.

Professor David Hamblen,

Emeritus Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of EdinburghProfessor Hamish Simpson,Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Edinburgh,

Professor Joe McGeough FRSERegius Professor of Engineering, University of Edinburgh

6 December 2004

The Challenge of the Ageing Skeleton

The lecture was presented by two

orthopaedic surgeons and anengineer, respectively ProfessorDavid Hamlin CBE EmeritusProfessor of Orthopaedic Surgery,University of Glasgow, ProfessorHamish Simpson, Professor ofOrthopaedic Surgery and Trauma,University of Edinburgh, andProfessor Joe McGeough, thenRegius Professor of Engineering,

University of Edinburgh. Theformer two first presented theclinical background to the ageingskeleton that they encounterorthopaedic surgery. Withincreasing need for manufactureof prostheses the engineer cancomplement the work of sur-geons.

An outline of the anatomy andstructure of the failing arthriticjoint provided the basis tounderstanding the history of itssurgical treatment. The evolutionof joint replacement was tracedthrough its beginnings in theinterposition arthroplasty andhemiarthroplasty to the presentday success of total joint arthro-

plasty based on the engineering

principles developed by John

Charnley. This required theintroduction of new inert bioma-terials for the bearing surfaces,both metals and polymers, withlow friction and wear rates. It alsonecessitated new methods forfixing these artificial materials tobone using either methylmethacr-ylate cement or textured surfacesto allow macro or micro-interlock.

The successful results withconventional hip and kneereplacements now exceed 90%after 10 years. Despite this workcontinues to improve on thesewith improved materials for thearticulation, such as ceramic-on-ceramic, and the re-introductionof metal-on-metal surface replace-ments to minimise bone removal.

Bone porosity increases with agefor both males and females, witha significant rise occurring inwomen over the age of about 70.Bone fracture mainly arises roadtraffic accidents (about 58%), withsimple falls accounting for 19%were for women above the age of70 there is a dramatic rise in the

likelihood of wrist fractures,


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compared to men. 6,500 hip

fractures per year occur in Scot-land, 80% occurring in womenover 70 years of age; about 10%of hip replacements requirerevision surgery within ten years.Loosening of bone contactingimplant is a major problem. Newcoating technology is needed forhip prostheses, which can pro-mote adhesion between living

tissue cells of the human boneand the implant. Computer-aideddesign and manufacture can beused to produce design theprostheses needed. The averageage for total knee arthoplasty(TKA) is 68 years: 5 to 10 per centrequire revision surgery within 10years. Long term biological

stability is achieved from initial

mechanical stability, by press-fit orcementing of the knee replace-ment.

The final part of the lecture dealtwith sheltered housing andnursing homes and the introduc-tion of Smart technology.Research into non-obtrusiveIntelligent flooring was described.It gives position, and direction of

movement and can detect heart-beats.

In summary, engineers workingwith orthopaedic surgeons canprovide cross-disciplinary solu-tions to questions posed by thelatter. These solutions can bebased on existing technology.


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RSE Lectures.

Professor Ian Wilmut, OBE, FRS, FRSE

Principal Investigator, BBSRC, Roslin Institute9 December 2004

at Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Why Clone? Cloning in Biology and MedicinePublic Lecture following the RSE Schools Christmas Lecture

There is much confusion when

people see the words clone andcloning. Cloning (also known asnuclear transfer) involves thetransfer of the genetic informa-tion from a cell to an unfertilisedegg, from which the geneticinformation has been removed.The cloning technique involvesseveral complex steps and iscarried out by specialists in the

laboratory. In 1996, Dolly theSheep was created, the firstanimal cloned from a cell takenfrom an adult mammal. Offspring

have been produced in several

species, sheep, cow, mouse, pig,goat, cat, rat, rabbit and horse.However, despite considerableeffort by experienced laboratories,no offspring have been reportedfrom the rhesus monkey or dog.There are many limitations to thistechnology, but also manypotential applications, for exam-ple, copying our most productive

farm animals, producing organsfor transplantation or treatingconditions such as spinal cordinjury.

Speakers Abstract


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Professor Roland Jung

Chief Scientist, Scottish ExecutiveDr James RobsonNational Team Medical Co-ordinator, Scottish Rugby Union

21 January 2005

The Health and Psyche of the Scottish Nation(In association with the Edinburgh Lectures Partnership)

Obesity has become the mostimportant nutritional problem of

the new millenium, affecting notonly developed but also lessdeveloped nations. There hasbeen a rising tide in obesity inadults from 1980 to 2002 as thenumber of obese women hastrebled, and in men the figure hasquadrupled. A recent ScottishHealth Survey showed that 62%of men and 54% of women are

now medically obese. One of themajor problems is the lack of theawareness. Parents who are obeseoften fail to recognise the prob-lem in their offspring and as aresult childhood obesity hasreached an alarming level. Obesityin children aged 2 to 4 years hasdoubled and in 6 to 15 year oldstrebled over the past two decades.

It is a disturbing fact that already50% of 12 year olds are over-weight or obese. There is a riskthat if this pattern of obesity iscontinued into adulthood it couldreverse the increase in longevityachieved in the last three decadesby improvements in health.

Obesity is the major reason for the

rise in diabetes mellitus, itselfassociated with subsequent

cardiovascular disease. Heartdisease has become the second

highest cause of death in Scot-land, killing 12000 people eachyear. Obesity is also involved inthe development of cancer,metabolic complaints (such asgout and gallstones), sleepapnoea and osteoarthritis, as wellas various other conditions allwith major health, societal andeconomic consequences. It was

reported in 2002 that the cost ofmanaging obesity and relateddiseases cost the NHS Scotland anestimated 172 million a year.

Prevention is not easily imple-mented, with the energyexpenditure of the average personmuch reduced since the 1970sbecause of the changing nature ofwork, lost activities, increasedsedentary activity, etc, and chang-es in eating habits, (i.e. largerportions, ready meals, take outsetc.).

Treatment is difficult with limitedapproaches dependent on dietmotivation. Drug therapy is stillin its infancy and bariatric surgeryis effective, but limited in availabil-

ity.


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RSE Lectures.

Professor Ian Wilmut, OBE, FRS, FRSE

Principal Investigator, BBSRC, Roslin Institute25 February 2005

To Clone or Not to Clone?The Peter Wilson Lecture

(Joint ECRR/IoB/RSE Lecture)

Professor Wilmut began byacknowledging the following

funding agencies, the ResearchCouncils now known as theBBSRC and DEPRA, and MAF(previously the Scottish Office).Funds were also received from theEuropean Union, the CalifornianBiotechnology Company and theJone Corporation.

Cloning has the potential to beused in a great variety of different

ways; Professor Wilmuts lecturelooked at ways in which nuclear-transfer might be used inagriculture, concentrating primari-ly on genetic modification. Whymight you wish to make geneticchanges in livestock? Someconcepts (current and evisaged)are: producing proteins inanimals, not just for nutrition butalso for medical use; organtransplantation; to impart resist-ance to some diseases, such asfoot and mouth; and for pureresearch.

It is important to note the differ-ent approaches that have beenused for making genetic changeover the last 25 years. From

artificial insemination where weare familiar with the fact that

efficiency is low, and there aresome abnoramilities (which arenot normally seen); to the morerecent approaches, such as theuse of lentiviral vectors, usingviruses to carry DNA which haveshown startling efficiency inintroducing precisely what youwant, in exactly the place youwant to insert it. In the research

involving lentiviruses, experimentshave been done with sheep andpigs, with no adverse effect on theanimals themselves.

Professor Wilmut concluded thatas experience shows you cannotreally predict the outcome ofresearch or the practical applica-tions, Dolly had not beenconsidered until the year beforeshe was born. In an agriculturalcontext, artificial insemination inlivestock which is hailed becauseof its contribution to animalbreeding, was in fact initiallydeveloped to stop the spread ofvenereal disease.


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Ms Alice Walker

British Geological Survey8 March 2005

at Dingwall Academy

Earthquakes at Home and AbroadRSE Roadshow Public Lecture

The Indian Ocean Boxing Daytsunami in 2004, highlighted theincreasing vulnerability of peopleacross the World, to the impact ofnatural disasters. In this case,more than 50 countries sufferedthe deaths of their nationals,some 280,000 in total. Addition-ally, economic losses from naturaldisasters, which are measured inbillions, have been risingexponentially for 5 decades, whichis a situation that cannot be

sustained.Earthquakes occur everywhere inthe world, although most arealong the edges of the greatplates that make up the Earthsouter skin and which move atabout the speed our fingernailsgrow. Each year the globe isshaken by about 800 moderateearthquakes, (magnitude 5-5.9 on

the Richter scale), 120 strongones (magnitude 6-6.9) andaround 20 major earthquakes ofmagnitude 7 or greater. Onepoint up on the scale means 32times more destructive energy, sotwo points is about 1000 timesmore. There are many moresmaller ones but most go unno-ticed except by the seismologists

who study them (see UK earth-quakes, below).

Larger earthquakes can cause

landslides, tsunamis and evencause the ground to turn to liquidfor a while with buildings sinkingand toppling. They can rupturegas or water mains, causingraging fires, and block access foremergency services. The great firein San Francisco following the1906 earthquake lasted threedays, was more damaging than

the shaking itself, and resulted in80% of the damage.

The Italian earthquake on 31October 2002, illustrated theimportance of protecting publicbuildings through sound engi-neering practices. It killed 26schoolchildren and teachers whenthe school collapsed despiteregistering only 5.6 on the RichterScale; about 270 quakes of thissize or greater happen each year,worldwide. TV images showedthe extent of the schools destruc-tion and the minimal damageelsewhere, clearly revealing poorconstruction and a tragedy whichshould never have happened. TheKobe (Japan) earthquake in 1995,

yielded an example of poor


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RSE Lectures.

planning, when the only bridge to

the hospital from the mainpopulation centre failed.

The Indian Ocean tsunami wascaused by a magnitude 9 earth-quake which happens on someplate margins about once every 10years but not always with atsunami and the scale of destruc-tion experienced in 2004. Tocause a tsunami, the earthquake

has to be under the sea andshallow enough so that the faultcausing it breaks the seabed anddisplaces the overlying column ofwater. This generates the tsunamiwhich is a long wave, less than 1metre in height and only noticea-ble when it arrives in shallowwater where the height rises tomany metres with a kilometer ortwo of wave behind it that keepscoming in. There may be 2 or 3more waves behind the first.

Travelling at the speed of a jetplane over the ocean (about800km/hour) the tsunami struckthe nearest shoreline of BandaAceh, in Indonesia, within 15-20minutes, Thailand in 1 hour, Sri

Lanka in 2 hours, and the eastcoast of Africa in 7-8 hours. Therewas, therefore, an opportunity toprovide a warning but, sadly, therewas no system in place to deliver itin time, except for Kenya whereonly 1 person was killed. Inneighbouring Somalia, 176 losttheir lives.

Around the Pacific Ocean, tsunami

warning is routine, with a coordi-nation centre in Hawaii wherepotential tsunami-genic earth-quakes are located within minutes(seismic waves travel 50 timesfaster than tsunami waves), andwhere the surrounding countrieshave systems to warn people ofthe danger, often many hoursbefore the wave arrives. Fortunate-

ly, global organizations likeUNESCO, have responded to theIndian Ocean disaster by instigat-ing a warning system for thatregion (already being constructed)and consideration of similar onesfor the Mediterranean andCaribbean seas.

It is clear that for all disasters,there is a cycle of relief andrecovery followed by a period ofnormality, then a repeat of thedisaster. The only way to breakthis cycle is to invest in prepara-tion, immediately after the relief,so that the next time the earth-quake, flood or storm happens,buildings, infrastructure andwarnings protect people instead

of failing. As well as makinghumanitarian sense, this strategyis also economically sound.Studies have shown that 1 spenton preparation saves 7 in reliefneeded.

The UK is not immune fromearthquakes. There are around200 each year but people onlynotice about 20 of these. The

largest, in 1931, had a magnitude


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of 6.1. Fortunately, it was centred

on Dogger Bank, 100km out inthe North Sea, and caused onlyminor damage on the east coastof England, where many chimneysfell down. Onshore, the largestearthquake in the last 140 yearsoccurred in North Wales on 19July 1984 with a magnitude of5.4. It was felt over most ofEngland, throughout Wales, and

even into Scotland and Ireland. Itcaused minor damage as far asLiverpool, 120km from its epicen-tre. Over the past 15 years, themost damaging earthquake wascentred on Dudley, in the WestMidlands, on 23 September 2002.It woke up people from Dublin tothe east coast of England, andfrom Yorkshire to the south coast

and Devon. At the epicentre, therewas much alarm and somedamage to chimneys and roofs,with plaster cracking on interiorwalls, indicating a maximumintensity of six on the EuropeanMacroseismic Scale (whichdescribes the degree of shaking inan earthquake). BGS receivedsome 8,000 responses to ques-

tionnaires which we distributednationwide through the mediaand internet.

The British Geological Survey, inEdinburgh, operates a network of146 seismometer stations tomonitor earthquakes around theworld and at home. Data istransferred via telephone lines or

the internet to determine, within

two hours, the location, magni-tude and nature of an event(earthquake, explosion, sonicboom, or mining-induced seismic-ity) within two hours. The resultsare widely disseminated, withGovernment, industry, academia,the media and the public oftenintensely interested.

Around Dingwall and Inverness,

there have been very few earth-quakes detected by the BGSseismic stations over severaldecades. None of these have beenfelt by people. But a magnitude2.7 earthquake shook Aviemoreon 28th August in 1995, andwhen we go back over 100 years,we find strong shaking in Ding-wall and earthquake damage inInverness. In 1901, an earthquakeof magnitude 5.1 caused damagearound the city. Fifty smalleraftershocks were felt during theyear but none since then. TheInverness Journal reported thatbells rang for nearly a minute andthat the spire attached to the jailwas completely rent and twisted

several inches round.So, in Britain, where we want tounderstand the risk from earth-quakes, we must go back in time,before sensitive instruments wereinvented, to capture reports of ourshaky historical past.

For more information visitwww.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk.


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RSE Lectures.

Introduction

Since the late 1970s, the influenceof technological advances onMans lifestyle and well-being hasincreased beyond all predictionsand yet this is not appreciated bythe majority of people inhabitingour planet. In some cases out ofignorance and, in many cases,because they have yet to benefitfrom technological advances.

I marvelled at the engineering andtechnology involved in stagingand delivering, to a globalaudience, the two concerts fromthe grounds of BuckinghamPalace to celebrate the QueensGolden Jubilee.

In the recent past I have exploredtwo bridges, the bridge betweenScience and Engineering and thebridge between Engineering andthe City. However, there is yetanother bridge to be examinedand strengthened, that betweenEngineering and the Creative Artsand through the arts into thecreative industries.

This bridge has a long and

honourable history, but it is in

need of an upgrade and redesign

for the twenty-first century. It is atopic that creates a lot of interestand is worth exploring even in avery scant and amateurish way inthe hope this will at least start abroader debate elsewhere.

The Engineering profession itself,with a critical role to play in achanging knowledge-based

economy, faces problems ofrecruitment, change and futuredirection.

This paper suggests some ideason the way ahead but, to set thescene, I have chosen a fewexamples of the many remarkableways in which, throughout history,engineers and artists have workedtogether in many fields such aspainting, sculpture, theatre andfilm.

Italways helps when discussing abridge to define thetwo sidesbetween which the bridgestretches.

Engineering has been defined invarious ways, quite often using alot of words, but the simplestdefinition is that it is the process

Dr Robert Hawley CBE FREng FRSE

Deputy Chairman of the Foundation for Science and Technology11 March 2005

Engineering and the Creative Arts : A New Frontier?(Joint Lecture with the Royal Academy of Engineering)

Part of National Science Week.

Extracted from full published report, available on the RSE Website, or inhard copy from the Publications Office.


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that converts basic science, via

technology, into wealth creatingproducts.

The term creative arts covers manyareas such as painting, graphicdesign, advertising, music, dance,designer fashion, the performingarts, film and video, communica-tions, television, radio andarchitecture.

The Oxford English Dictionarydefines creative as having thepower or ability to create things:showing imagination and origi-nality as well as routine skill andarts as subjects (e.g. languages,literature, history, etc) in whichsympathetic understanding playsa great part, as opposed to thesciences where exact measure-

ment and calculations are used.Those in the creative industriesdepend on engineers, not only fortheir infrastructures and equip-ment (heat, light, electricity, water,roads, building and communica-tion systems) but, in partnershipwith each other, for the develop-ment of new techniques, such asdigital graphic displays.

For their part engineers turncreative ideas into reality bycreative design. Engineers needimagination both to be able tothink laterally but also to putthemselves on the other side of adiscussion.

So engineers have a great deal tolearn from those in the arts,perhaps the biggest lesson of

which is in the ability to communi-

cate with the rest of humanity,although there are those in thearts who have their own commu-nication problems.

The so-called creative industriesare emerging as the criticalbattleground for the new econo-my and wealth-creating society ofthe future. Successful economiesdepend increasingly on the

creation and the communicationof, and the understanding anduse of, ideas and images. Be-cause of rapidly increasingtechnological advances engineer-ing has a key role to play as neverbefore. So there is much to begained from strengthening thebridge between the two disci-plines.

So what are the creative indus-tries? These have been definedas those which depend on thecreation of original intellectualproperty by individuals and teamsfor their added value; which havecreativity at their heart and whichhave the potential for wealth and

job creation. This could also

be another possible definition forengineering.

The component parts of thecreative sector, as officiallydefined, are: visual art, design,fashion, advertising and graphics,film and broadcasting, the musicbusiness across the spectrum,digital software, theatre, dance

and live performance, museums


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RSE Lectures.

and galleries, the heritage

business and publishing. TheDepartment of Culture Media andSports Creative Industries TaskForce estimates that the creativeindustries employ more than 1.3million people, contributing 8.7billion to the balance of trade,7.9% of GDP and growing at therate of 9% between 1997 and2000. There was an inward

investment of 22m in 2001/2002 into the UK CreativeIndustry sector.

As Lord Puttnam has so fully andclearly statedThese industries arethe key to the future; not just forthose who work in the sector, orthose who merely enjoy itsproducts, but to our collectivefuture; that is to say our collectivefuture as an economically andculturally sustainable nation in theglobalised economy of the 21 st

Century.

He continues, However broadlyor narrowly we may choose todefine the creative industries theyare essential to our future as amodern, competitive trading

nation. We would also probablyagree that their importance can bemeasured every bit as much interms of the contribution to thebalance of payments as in theirability to provide pleasure andenjoyment for millions of peopleall around the globe; and that thefuture development of theseindustries is intimately bound up

with the development of electron-

ic technologies most particularly,

the Internet.Talent and skills are, and alwayshave been, the key to the future ofthe creative industries.

Much more needs to be done ifour creative industries are toremain competitive in the digitalera. Much, much more must bedone if we are to have any chance

of creating an internationalindustry, operating on a sufficient-ly attractive cost-base, to beseriously capable of competing onthe world stage. Our onlycompetitive advantage lies in theinnovative quality and cost-effectiveness of our workforce.

That means talent and skills rightacross the board, not just design-

ers, writers and softwareengineers, but also that newgeneration of creative entrepre-neurs and managers with aserious interest in marketing andfinance.

Conclusion

I have only touched on some ofthe many areas of the arts in a

most superficial way and, nodoubt, left out many that shouldhave been included. But mypurpose was to highlight thegrowing need and interests inmore broadly educating engineersin the arts and humanities and topoint out the benefits to bothdisciplines of so doing.


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Undoubtedly there are already

many areas where such collabora-tion is taking place, but muchmore needs to be done; not onlyat undergraduate level, but also atthe many interfaces of engineer-ing and the arts in order toproduce the creative engineersand industries so vital to thefuture economy of the UK. Inaddition, those who study the arts

and humanities need a basicunderstanding of science, asfuture developments will dependon partnerships between engi-neers and the users of the newtechnology.

It is a major step forward that theArts and Humanities ResearchBoard has been redesignated asthe Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil and will shortly take itsplace alongside the other Re-search councils under the Officeof Science and Technology. Thiswill include further cross-fertilisation between science,engineering, the arts and thehumanities at the research level.

In addition, one future opportuni-

ty should be provided by UKeUniversities, a company createdby the UK Government to enableUK universities to deliver theirhigh quality courses on line acrossthe world. UK eUniversities willnot offer its own degrees but willprovide them from established UKuniversities. While the initialfocus will inevitably be on subjects

such as business and manage-

ment, science, technology, health

and environmental studies, overtime a wide range of courses,spanning a whole range ofsubjects, could be made available.Perhaps the most exciting pros-pect is that the same platformused to gain technical expertiseand subsequent continuingprofessional development couldalso open up the world of the

arts.To quote John Maeda More thanever we need people who can leadhumanity towards technology thatimproves society rather thantechnologies that simply improveour technology itself.

Finally let me quote from myBridge Lecture:

But in addition to the existingBridges between engineering andthe City and between engineeringand science there is one fascinat-ing Bridge to be more stronglybuilt and used in the future, thatbetween Engineering and theCreative Arts.

Whilst the thought processes of

the individuals involved can bedifferent, the Creative Artsdepend on engineering for theproduction of their output whilstEngineering, particularly in thedesign field, still has much tolearn from those involved in theArts. Building this Bridge willstrengthen the foundations of theother two Bridges.


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RSE Lectures.

My purpose has been to highlight

the need for more open, two-way,interactions between engineersand the arts and humanities andto celebrate some of the richlegacy of achievement on whichwe can build.

We have, however, a very seriousconjunction of challenges; on theone hand, a growing awarenessof the critical economic relevance

of open bridges between arts/humanities and engineering andthe sciences; and on the other, aclear need for a more robustindustry/university/Governmentprogramme to address both theattraction and creative content ofeducational provision for newentrants to the profession.

The situation urgently requiresaction to secure the future. Bydefinition, there are a very largenumber of professional engineers

already in mid-career and also, in

the new socio-economic climate,working independently. I am alertto the significance of their creativeneeds.

For this reason, I have taken anincreasing role in the CreativeValue Network organisation set upby Ralph Windle. We are close tolaunching a sustained, inter-activeprogramme of events, working

projects, research and communi-cation links; aimed precisely atstimulating the freer exchange ofcreative ideas and experienceacross disciplinary boundaries.This programme is known as TheJanus Programme, one part ofwhich is to stimulate more arts/engineering interaction. It isnamed after the Roman God ofthe open door and I hope bymeans of this paper I havesucceeded in opening the doorwider.


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A lively walk through the historyof robots and their relationship to

animals. The audience heardabout the automata of theancients (280 BC- ) and how theygradually developed into therobots of the 20th century.Following clips of Noels favouriterobots in the movies, he examined

Professor Noel Sharkey FIEE FBCS

Professor of Computer Science, EPSRCSenior Media Fellow, University of Sheffield

4 April 2005

The Robot in your Head

Speakers Abstract

the stark reality of the develop-ment of real robots today

illustrated by his public projectsand museum exhibitions. Sincethe 17th century, the idea hasbecome increasingly strong thatwe humans and other animals aremere machines or automata. Butdo you believe it? Are you arobot?


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RSE Lectures.

Professor Ricardo Uauy is one ofthe most eminent and distin-guished scientists in internationalnutrition today. He is a highlyrespected advisor to the UN, WHOand FAO and his expertise is wide-ranging and includes basicnutritional science, appliedbiomedical research, and popula-tion-based interventionprogrammes.

In his lecture, Professor Uauy

described how current trends inlifestyles towards energy-dense,high-fat diets and low levels ofactivity, are risk behaviours thattravel across countries and aretransferable from one populationto another like infectious agents,affecting disease patterns globally.He went on to say that greatchanges have swept the entire

world since the second half of thetwentieth century, producingmajor modifications in diets, firstin industrial regions and morerecently in developing countries.Traditional, largely plant-baseddiets have been swiftly replaced byhigh-fat, energy-dense diets,accelerated by low prices of highfat and high sugar foods, ex-plained in part by agricultural

Professor Ricardo Uauy

Professor of Public Health Nutrition,London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

20 May 2005at Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen

New Concept of Food Quality: Beyond Safety and Sensory PropertiesScottish Agriculture & Biological Research Institute Joint Lecture

subsidies. Although thesechanges in diet may have contrib-uted to improved child health andgrowth in some countries, wenow find that nutrition-relatedchronic diseases such as heartdisease, diabetes and cancer arethe main killers in developingcountries undergoing rapidchanges such as China, India,Brazil and Mexico.

Professor Uauy currently holds the

Chair of Public Health Nutrition atthe London School of Hygieneand Tropical Medicine, Universityof London, a post which he tookup following eight years asDirector of the Institute ofNutrition and Food Technology(INTA), Chile. In September 2005he becomes President of theInternational Union of Nutrition

Sciences. Professor Uauy is ahighly respected advisor to theUN, WHO and FAO. Quality foodshould not only look, smell andtaste good and be free fromharmful chemical and microbialcontaminants, it should bewholesome in terms of currentand long-term health and wellbeing, said Professor Uauy.Promotion of this idea of food


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quality is an essential component

of preventive health policy, but tosuccessfully promote healthy dietsand active lives we need to gobeyond individual education. Thisis almost a lost battle, with thespend on marketing of unhealthyfoods being around $500-1000

per each $ spent on promoting

the healthy choice. Governmentsneed to practice what they preach,particularly in their institutionalfeeding programmes in placessuch as schools. In essence, weneed to make the healthy choice,the easy choice.


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RSE Lectures.

Professor Burns emphasised thatas a Director of Public Health, hehad a responsibility for makingsure that interventions whichwould improve the health of thepopulation were available, whilealso ensuring that the public wasprotected from interventionswhich might harm them. There isa balance between effectiveness

and risk, as the question is not,are vaccinations completelysafe? - any kind of interventionhas a risk attached, even if thatintervention is as basic as drinkinga cup of tea - but do the benefitsoutweigh any risks or downsidesthat may be apparent in terms ofvaccination?

Vaccination has a long andchequered history, from IndianBuddhists in the 7th century whotried to protect themselves againstthe effects of snake venom bydrinking it, to the process ofvariolation; injecting driedsmallpox pus into the skin,introduced into England in theearly part of the 18th Century. By

the late part of the 18th Century itbecame clear that there was some

Professor Harry Burns

Director of Public HealthGlasgow NHS Board

13 June 2005

How Safe are Vaccinations?

relationship between smallpoxand cowpox, when BenjaminGesty contracted smallpox fromhis cows and this led to Jennersattempt to protect humans fromsmallpox by scarification with thecowpox virus. One hundred yearswent past and Pasteur showedthat you could grow viruses andbacteria in an attenuated form so

that they were less pathogenicand could be caused to producean infection in humans thatwould protect them through themore pathogenic virus. Dissenthas always gone hand in handwith these developments Vaccination Acts were passed in1840, 1853 and 1867 and theanti-vaccination league was

founded in 1853. Publicationssuch as the Anti-Vaccinator andthe National Anti CompulsoryVaccination Reporter werecirulated and there are reports ofdemonstrations with 150,000people attending them againstthe notion of compulsory vaccina-tion. The Vaccination Act of 1898abolished penalties for people

who objected to compulsory

Immunisation - the process of inducing immunity in an individual byadministering a vaccine, toxoid or antibody-containing preparation.


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vaccination and that 1898

Vaccination Act was the first timethe phrase conscientiousobjector came into the Englishlanguage.

There are two types of vaccine;live, attenuated vaccines whichprovide a response close to that ofnaturally acquired protection andthe inactivated vaccine, whereoften the cell wall of an organism

is broken down and some kind ofantigenic fraction extracted. Thisis then used to stimulate animmunological memory in thebody. It cant cause an infectionbecause there is not a live organ-ism there, and it is also lessimmunogenic because there is nota live organism there. Sometimesyou need several doses perimmunity and often boosters insubsequent years.

Can you still get a disease if youhave been vaccinated against it?Generally the vaccinated popula-tion is less likely to be affected bya condition. Some immunesystems are not pure enough torespond with T-cell responses and

in the elderly or the chronically ill,there may be a weakened immunesystem, which cannot respondappropriately. Therefore vaccina-tion in these circumstances maybe ineffective. Sometimes storageis inadequate or the vaccine hasexpired. Breast-fed new-bornbabies are taking in immunoglob-ulins and antibodies in the

mothers milk, and in those

circumstances, those antibodies

may kill the vaccine before it hasthe chance to stimulate some kindof memory in the baby.

Can vaccines harm you? It alldepends on what you mean byharm. There is no question thatvaccinations have some sideeffects. Many of these vaccinesinvolve the injection of lifeattenuated organisms with an aim

of creating a clinical syndromethat stimulates the bodys re-sponse to those organisms. So, itwould be unusual not to have aproportion of patients who arevaccinated who dont get atemperature and it is not correctto try and give the impression thatthere are no consequences ofvaccination.

Professor Burns discussed theMMR controversy and othervaccination related studies fromFinland, Sweden and Japan andconcluded that he saw no signifi-cant trends for vaccines beingharmful, and could see significanttrends that convinced him that itis very important to vaccinate the

population. Failing to vaccinate tothe required level does result inoubreaks, and consequentlyindividuals are harmed. Bychoosing not to vaccinate you aremaking a decision which affectsthe wider community.

I think the answer to the originalquestion is that side effects are

rare, and generally slight, al-though not always and it would


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RSE Lectures.

be wrong of us to deny that

tragedies can occur. We dontknow the future, but in the vastmajority of cases, side effects areslight. The vaccines are effectivein protecting against the diseasesthat they are designed to mimic,and the system that allowsvaccines to come into commonuse is one in which great care istaken to respond to public

concerns. The use of mercury, for

example, in vaccines is now almost

completely phased out. I thinkthere is no doubt that vaccineshave contributed significantly toadvances in life expectancy andquality of life in this country, and Iam very pleased to be part of apublic health system that hashelped to generate these improve-ments in life circumstancesparticularly for our children.


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Professor Mitchell looked at sixbroad areas relating to climatechange:

i) what is happening to theclimate?

ii) recent observations

iii) the physics of the climate

iv) how do we know climatechange is due to humanactivity or do we indeed knowthat?

v) what would happen in thefuture and when?

vi) the speculative changescovered often by the media.

What is happening to our cli-mate? There is a general trend ofwarming, but with some varia-tions. There was warming early inthe twentieth century, followed bya period of little change withcooling particularly in the North-ern Hemisphere, and then a muchmore pronounced warming overthe last three decades. What iscausing the longer term trend, is itnatural variability or is it some-thing else?

Recent observations have includedindependent sets of temperature

measurements of surface, air and

Professor John Mitchell OBE FRS

Chief Scientist,The Met Office

11 July 2005

Climate Change: Apocalyptic, Much Ado about Nothingor Cause for Concern

sea. Collectively they all show thesame trend and pattern of thegradual rise in global warming.Other evidence is taken from whatis happening to glaciers - most ofthe worlds glaciers are receding.

Why is this happening? Onehypothesis is that it is due to anincrease in greenhouse gases,which warm the atmosphere.There has been an increase incarbon dioxide, as well as othergreenhouse gases such as

methane and CFCs.How do we know climate changeis due to human activity? Firstly,the natural factors affecting theclimate must be taken intoaccount. But, when we add thoseeffects of human activity whichincrease the greenhouse gases(i.e. factors including aerosols etc.)we find that they corrolate withthis very rapid warming over thelast three decades.

What will happen in the futureand when? Over the next hundredyears the weather will becomemore extreme. Sea levels will rise,temperatures will rise, some areaswill become drier (particularly theMediterranean) and rainfall will

eventually become more extreme.


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RSE Lectures.

A video of Professor Mitchells lecture and his Powerpoint presentation canbe found on the RSE website.

Extreme weather conditions that

were once sporadic will becomemore frequent.

Professor Mitchell concluded thatthere isnt any uncertainty aboutthere being substantial futureclimate change, but there is a lot

of uncertainty as to the extent of

it. Even if we do reduce emissionsthere are still going to be substan-tial climate changes. One cancertainly rule out some of thedoomsday scenarios, but its notmuch ado about nothing, it is acause for concern.


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Interest in the impact of the socialand physical environment onhealth dated from the classicalGreek and Roman periods, asseen in Greek and Roman medicalthought and embodied in Romanpublic health architecture. Theattention paid to the environmentas an influence on health had alsobeen particularly important innineteenth century public healththinking in industrial societies.The response to poor living

conditions was not to targetindividuals but the environment,resulting in a sanitary movementwhich involved things like water-works in Loch Katrine producingfresh water; sewerage etc.

Attention to the environment hadwaned with the epidemiologicaltransition from infectious tochronic diseases, and much recent

public health thinking focused onpersonal lifestyles and responsibil-ities. What came to be seen afterthe Second World War was thechronic disease of affluence ratherthan poverty. There were consid-erable improvements in living

Professor Sally J Macintyre OBE, FRSE

Director, MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit,University of Glasgow

3 October 2005

Who You Are or Where You Are?Social and Spatial Patterning of Health

standards and also control ofenvironments, and an increasedinterest in lifestyles and behaviour.A White Paper from all the UKHealth Departments in 1976,Prevention and Health, Every-bodys Business, tried to put thespotlight back onto individualsand their lifestyles.

Professor McIntyre describedfindings from her own work onhealth-promoting and health-damaging features of local

environments in the west ofScotland, with particular attentionto the poor living conditions inGlasgow in the 19th Century. Shesuggested that we need morefocused research on specificpathways, such as how theenvironment influences physicalactivity and diet, or the socialfactors which influence mental

health. She concluded by sug-gesting that who you are andwhere you are both matter forhealth, and both need to be takeninto account in public policy-making.

lectures november 2004 - october 2005

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