Cambridge Science Festival 2014 Cambridge University

Today, more people live in cities than in rural areas and, by 2050, this ratio is predicted to rise to 7 out of every 10 people. Can we rethink how we design and live in cities? What will the impact of increasing numbers of people living in cities be on society, or biodiversity, or on food, water and energy security? A panel of distinguished speakers focuses on some of these most pressing challenges faced by our cities.

In 1991, Cambridge researchers treated a person with multiple sclerosis using a drug invented and manufactured by the University. Hear about the trials, tribulations and excitement of turning that drug into a treatment available to multiple sclerosis sufferers across Europe, Australia and Canada.

Find out what memories are made of during this fascinating lecture. Learn about short and long-term memory and the difference between conscious and unconscious memories. See how psychologists at Addenbrooke’s are helping people with memory problems using state of the art technology.

Robin Wilson is an Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, Emeritus Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, and a former Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. He is currently President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics. He has written and edited many books on graph theory, including Introduction to Graph Theory and Four Colours Suffice, and on the history of mathematics, including Lewis Carroll in Numberland. He is involved with the popularization and communication of mathematics and its history, and has been awarded prizes by the Mathematical Association of America for ‘outstanding expository writing’.

Royal Society Fellows are the most the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists in the UK and Commonwealth and Fellowships have been awarded annually since 1660. Six new Cambridge researchers were made Royal Society Fellows in 2013. Tonight we are delighted to welcome neuroscientist Professor Maria Grazia Spillantini from The Department of Clinical Neurosciences, physicist Professor Ray Goldstein from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and astronomer Professor Gerry Gillmore from the Institute of Astronomy, to the Festival to introduce us to their research.