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Big Ideas in Science CHEM10001 20 Credit Points Overview This unit provides a broad introduction to some of the fundamental ideas in science. It looks at the original ideas and concepts behind the discipline, the history and people involved behind the main discoveries and inventions. By exploring some of the fundamental ideas and concepts in science and combining these with a flavour of the cutting edge of science research, the course aims to provide an inspirational insight into science and real research at Bristol. The implications or consequences of the ideas are explored as well as philosophical and ethical issues and the way different important approaches have built upon each other or are interconnected. The remaining unanswered questions and ongoing research into fundamental issues, with a particular focus on research ongoing at the University will also be covered and the lectures are supported and themes explored in the discussion groups. Lecturers are from across the entire Faculty of Science (and beyond). Lectures are held in Lecture Theatre 2 at 5pm in the School of Chemistry. The Big Ideas – 2013/14 Programme 1. Knowledge and Reality 2. Complex Systems 3. Planet & Climate 4. Matter & Quanta 5. Science & Society 6. Symmetry 7. Evolution 1st, 8th, 15th Oct 2013 22nd, 29th Oct, 5th Nov 12th, 19th, 26th Nov 3rd, 10th, 17th Dec, 28th Jan ‘14 4th, 11th 18th Feb 25th Feb, 4th Mar 11th, 18th Mar, 25th Apr Big Idea 1. Knowledge and Reality 3 Lectures Lecture 1: Reality & the Matrix in the Mind Professor Bruce Hood (Psychology) To have a big idea you need to have a brain in the first place. Brains evolved to enable us to navigate and predict our world. To do so, we simulate the external world as an internal model, which means that there is no direct access to reality. Rather everything has to be interpreted and extrapolated. Those processes are efficient but not faultless. At every level of the system, there are consistent biases, distortions, and illusions that reveal how our brain and the mind it creates is constrained to interpret the world in certain ways. In this lecture we will examine the neuroscience of thought processes and the way that the brain handles information. 1 Lecture 2: To Infinity and Beyond Dr Richard Pettigrew (Philosophy) One of the biggest ideas in mathematics in the last two hundred years is that infinity comes in different sizes. The so-called counting numbers -- i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. -are used to say how many things there are in a particular finite set of objects, such as the set of students on this course, or the set of words on the page you're reading. But what can we say when the set we're interested in has infinitely many things in it? Take, for instance, the set of counting numbers itself. Is there a number we can use to say how many counting numbers there are? Or must we just say of all such sets that they are infinite? The answer is that there are special numbers we can use. They are called the transfinite numbers. In this lecture, we'll be exploring the strange world of these transfinite numbers. We'll find out which transfinite number attaches to which familiar infinite sets. And we'll encounter basic questions about these numbers that still baffle mathematicians. Lecture 3: Pure Mathematics and Big Ideas in Science Professor Jon Keating (Mathematics) We will discuss the remarkable role played by Pure Mathematics in developing some of the Big Ideas in Science. More generally, we will also discuss the position of Mathematics as a language for, and a tool used in Science. Some of the ideas described in Wigner's famous essay: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. Big Idea 2. Complex Systems 3 Lectures Complex systems defy our attempts to model them precisely. Sometimes this is because we lack the computing power to resolve all of the interesting scales of activity (e.g. atmospheric modelling, for weather forecasting). More often, though, it is because we lack the theoretical understanding necessary to describe all of the subsystems, and the ways in which they interact. Furthermore, where we have measurements, they tend not to span all of the scales at which the system and its subsystems operate. Complex systems are interesting for their own sake, but they also occur at the heart of many of society’s most pressing policy issues, such as the behaviour of financial markets, energy demand, supply, and distribution, environmental regulation, and climate prediction and climate change adaptation. The challenges of predicting and regulating complex systems has lead some people to define a new mode of science: ‘post-normal science’. These three lectures provide a brief introduction to the scope and challenges of the scientific analysis of complex systems, discussing the interplay of theory, empirical modelling, hypothesis testing, and uncertainty assessment, with examples taken from ecology, biology, and environmental science. 2 Lecture 1. Social self-organisation Professor Nigel R. Franks (Biological Sciences) A complex system is one that is more than the sum of its parts. Naturally, biology is where complex systems are at their zenith. Indeed, the great evolutionary transitions, e.g. the origin of (a) chromosomes, (b) eukaryotic cells, (c) multicellular organisms and (d) animal societies, are all characterized by the collaboration or fusion of existing entities into new conglomerates. “More than the sum of its parts” might sound mysterious or even mystical. Not so: all this means is that the way the parts interact with one another generates new properties at a higher corporate level. Understanding complex systems requires virtuous cycles of experimentation and mathematical modelling. Social insect colonies are a manifestation of the last great evolutionary transition – they are super-organisms composed of separate organisms. This means that they are ideal experimental systems for understanding complexity because they can be taken apart and put back together again and most of the key interactions among their components are macroscopic and visible. Here, I will describe experiments that show, for example, how whole social insect colonies, e.g. ants and bees, can solve problems beyond the scope of their individual members – much as brains are more sophisticated than their individual neurones. Lecture 2. Molecules, Cells and Organisms Professor Claire Grierson (Biological Sciences) Organisms are groups of cells that have found ways to live closely together. Cells are groups of molecules that self-organise into structures that sustain life. Microscope techniques enable us to see cells and tissues at unprecedented levels of detail. Mathematical and computational models help us to understand what we see. We will consider how molecules self organise so that one part of a cell can grow whilst the rest of the cell does not, how cells find out where they are in tissues so they know when to specialise, and how cells organise themselves into intricate structures. Lecture 3. The Biology of Cancer Professor Paul Martin (Biochemistry) and Professor Catherine Nobes (Biochemistry) Cancer is one of science’s great mysteries. In this lecture will introduce the cell and molecular biology of cancer cell progression towards a tumour and its subsequent metastatic spread to other tissues and organs of the body. We will provide an insight into how science is leading us towards novel therapeutic strategies for fighting the ever-evolving cancer cell enemy. Big Idea 5. Planet & Climate 3 Lectures Lecture 1: Climate Change: Can Science and Technology Save us? Professor Richard Pancost (Chemistry) Climate change is rarely out of the public headlines yet there appears to be continued controversy over the science. Is it a key issue for our times or the biggest science fraud in history? The lecture will review the science behind the headlines, and discuss 3 those aspects of the science that we are confident in and those for which the uncertainty is higher. It will cover the evidence for past climate change, and the techniques used to predict the future evolution of climate. The balance of evidence supports the premise that climate is changing due to our activities and that there will be substantial changes to our environment in the future. So the subsequent question is whether this change is dangerous and whether there is anything that science can do to help solve the problems. Lecture 2: Climate impacts and policy: risk, data, models and inference. Professor Paul Bates (Geographical Sciences) What will be the impact of climate change? Will climate change cause more extreme storms, floods and droughts in the future, and will we even be able to observe such a change if it happens? These are some the key questions currently faced by climate scientists, and whilst the impact of humans on global mean temperatures is now accepted being able to say what this will mean for more relevant quantities is much more difficult. There are a number of reasons for this. First, change is felt at regional and local scales and here models may not even agree on the sign of the change. Second, extreme events are rare by their very nature and determining whether there has been a statistically significant increase in events that happen perhaps just once in a hundred years is problematic. Lastly, the earth system is distinctly non-stationary so the idea that there is a baseline for very rare events is almost certainly a fallacy. This lecture will examine how uncertain models are used with limited, sparse and uncertain data to make policy. It will aim to show that a risk based framework is essential for robust science and policy inference and illustrate this through a range of climate and hazard modelling examples. Lecture 3: From Volcanoes to Vineyards: how lava flows shape the landscape Professor Katharine V. Cashman (Earth Sciences) & Dr Caroline Williams (HiPLA Studies) Basaltic lava flows cover much of the Earth’s surface, as well as the surfaces of the other terrestrial planets; thus basalt forms the substrate of many volcanic landscapes (and, often, associated vineyards). The frequency of lava flow activity both threatens nearby communities and provides unique opportunities for volcanologists to study active volcanic processes. For this reason, two of the earliest volcano observatories were founded at volcanoes with frequent lava flow activity (Vesuvius, Italy, in 1841; and Kilauea, Hawaii, in 1912). These dual motivations – hazard and opportunity – have also made locations of frequent lava flow activity the focal point for testing and applying new innovations in volcano monitoring technology, particularly new methods of remote sensing. I will review some of these new techniques and place their contribution in the context of the challenges associated with monitoring and predicting lava flow behavior, which relate not only to the high temperatures and spatial extents of active flows, but also to their dramatic changes in physical properties during emplacement (from liquids with included gas bubbles to dense solids). Remote sensing observations are also providing us with new perspectives on the post-emplacement evolution of basaltic landscapes, including both their unique hydrological characteristics and key controls on flow revegetation. 4 Big Idea 4. Matter & Quanta 4 Lectures Lecture 1: The Periodic Table Professor Nicholas Norman (Chemistry) The Periodic Table of the Elements is perhaps the most important organising principle in all of chemistry and its development in the latter half of the 19th century provides a fine example of the scientific method at work. Empirical observations and deductive reasoning led to a model from which predictions could be made that were testable by experiment or further observation. Confirmation of the predictions soon followed but it was not until the early 20th century that the nascent quantum theory allowed a more thorough understanding of why the Periodic Table has the form that it does. To this day, however, arguments persist as to the best way to represent it graphically. This lecture will look at all aspects of the Periodic Table from its birth, to its impact on the development of quantum theory, to modern day controversies about where best to place new super-heavy elements. Lecture 2: Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour Professor Philip Ball One of the often neglected components of art is what it is made from: paint. Where did artists get their colours from, and how have changes in the repertoire of colours over the ages affected the way that artists paint? Today, when there are masses of colours available off the shelf in art shops, we tend to take them from granted, and it is easy to forget that these colours had to be invented, one by one, in what was sometimes a painstaking process. Artists of earlier times had a much more limited palette, and some of their colours were immensely expensive, while some were unstable and tended to fade or darken. In order to make their materials and put them to the best use, painters once had to be chemically literate. I will trace the chemical history of the pigments on the artist’s palette, and show how the invention of new colour has constantly transformed art. Lecture 3: Quantum mechanics Professor Sandu Popescu (Physics) & Professor Jeremy O’Brien (Physics) Quantum mechanics describes the behaviour of small particles, such as atoms, electrons, molecules and so on; by extension, since everything is made of small particles, quantum mechanics is supposed to describe the entire physical world. But the behaviour of small particles is extremely unusual, even paradoxical, and defies our intuition which is built by observing the world of big objects that surround us. In the first part of the lecture we will present the basic ideas of quantum physics by analysing the most typical example of quantum behaviour: two-slit interference experiment with electrons. In particular the most paradoxical aspects will be discussed: that a particle does not have a position unless we do not look at it, that when we know where a particle is we cannot know its speed and vice-versa and the ideas that Nature is fundamentally probabilistic and non-local. 5 The theory of quantum mechanics was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century to better explain the spectra of light emitted by atoms. At the time, many people believed that physics was almost completely understood, with only a few remaining anomalies to be ‘ironed out’. The full theory of quantum mechanics emerged as a completely unexpected description of nature at a fundamental level. It portrays a world that is fundamentally probabilistic, where a single object can be in two places at once—superposition—and where two objects in remote locations can be instantaneously connected—entanglement. These unusual properties have been observed, and quantum mechanics remains the most successful theory ever developed, in terms of the precision of its predictions. Today, we are learning how to harness these surprising quantum effects to realize profoundly new quantum technologies. This lecture will examine how single particles of light—photons—are being used to develop secure communication systems based on the laws of physics, precision measurements using entangled light, and information processors that promise exponentially greater computational power for particular tasks. Lecture 4: Quanta Research Edge – the Little Big Idea Professor Mervyn Miles (Physics) Quantum mechanics was at the heart of a new microscopy that could visualize individual atoms and molecules. Actually, it does better than this and can visualize molecular orbits associated with the atoms. The technique is based on quantum mechanical tunnelling of electrons between a sharp conducting probe scanning over the sample surface. It is called scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). STM can also be used to manipulate individual atoms into particular arrangements including assembling a molecule. With the invention of STM’s close relative, the atomic force microscope (AFM), the restriction of being able to image only conducting samples disappeared. AFM visualizes the surface topography of the sample by measuring a force interaction between it and a sharp tip. AFM is particularly versatile for biomolecular samples because it can operate in liquids. One of the most spectacular implementations of AFM allows subatomic imaging of atoms such that the internal distribution of electrons is seen. Learning Objectives • Historical appreciation of the Periodic Table • Understanding of the basis of its structure • Appreciation of the Scientific Method at work and how empirical evidence implies the existence of atomic structure • Discuss how quantum mechanics can be used to understand the periodic table • Articulate how quantum mechanics, together with the heaviness of nuclei compared to electrons, justifies the concept of molecular structure • Understand that the quantum physics can be harnessed for new functionality and improved performance in future information and communication technologies. 6 • • • Understand the basic ideas of quantum communication, metrology and computation. Appreciate the ways in which these technologies are being developed with photons. Understand how quantum tunnelling is used to image atoms and molecules and quantum phenomena. 7 Big Idea 5. Science & Society 3 Lectures Lecture 1: Science and Society Professor Kathy Sykes & Dr Kate Miller Over the last few decades, there has been a growth in ‘public engagement with science’. In 2000 a celebrated report by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, called ‘Science and Society’ marked a turning point, where the emphasis changed from trying to demand that the public understand science, and instead asked that scientists understand the public better. Many funders of science are now trying to incorporate public thinking into how they make decisions about what to fund in science, especially in areas which might have profound impacts on the public, like Geoengineering, Synthetic Biology and Nano-technologies. This lecture and discussion will: explore the changing relationship between science and society; describe how science is funded and how that is changing and ask what might be expected of future scientists, in how they work and how they talk with, and listen to, the public. Learning Objectives • Gaining an overview of how public engagement in science is changing • Understanding of how science is funded and how that is changing • Reflection on why and how scientists should engage with the public • Appreciation that the public’s views (and others) need considering and respecting, even if one does not agree with them. Lecture 2: Public Engagement (TBC) Dr Rachael Gooberman-Hill In this session we will explore examples of co-produced research - where members of the public are collaborating with researchers right from the start of the research process. This approach is growing here at the University of Bristol and is something that many funders of science are encouraging. Rachael Gooberman-Hill from the School of Clinical Sciences will share her experience of several projects in which the public have had a real say about the direction of the research. She'll describe working with the public to design elements of research ranging from a 'placebo' (sham) intervention to large-scale clinical trials. Lecture 3: Science Communication and the Media Professor Paul Valdes and Fiona Lethbridge (Press Officer at the Science Media Centre). Chaired by Professor Kathy Sykes The media is claimed to be the main way that members of the public learn about science once they have left school. There are great opportunities - and some hazards in talking with the media about science. This discussion will explore the opportunities and risks of talking with the media about science. Some of the impacts will be explored, of both talking with the media, and not talking with them when science is in the news. Reasons to engage will be 8 explored, as well as ways to do it well, given the constraints that people in the media are working under. There will be some consideration about ways of handling scientific uncertainty, when interviewers often want ‘facts’. Learning Objectives • Reflection on the role of the media in science and society • Increased appreciation of how scientists interact with the media, and reasons for (and against) doing it • An appreciation of some of the constraints that people in the media work under Big Idea 6. Symmetry 2 Lectures Symmetry is one of the most powerful unifying principles in our understanding of nature. Symmetry principles not only let us organize and classify our observations, but have often provided the intellectual signposts to new predictions and discoveries. In this module, we will investigate the mathematical language of symmetry; discover how symmetry principles lie behind the most fundamental physical laws; and discuss how complex systems without explicit symmetry can be understood. Lecture 1: Perfect Symmetry Dr Nina Snaith (Mathematics) Symmetry appeals to humans for aesthetic reasons. Visually we find symmetric objects beautiful, and in the same way a mathematician will favour an elegant, balanced explanation over one that just gets the job done. But symmetry is also appealing because it is useful; it is easier to see something is missing or incomplete if there is a symmetry to the picture. We will talk about what symmetry means in mathematics. We will examine cases of how the symmetries in a problem have led mathematicians to make ground-breaking advances that develop the mathematical tools and language that are invaluable in other areas of science and technology. Lecture 2: Continuous symmetries and the laws of physics Dr Mark Dennis (Physics) The universe is a very symmetric place: mostly, experiments into the laws of nature have the same results, regardless of where, when or in which direction you do them. Building on the previous lecture focusing on symmetry in maths, we will see how this is related to the continuous symmetry inherent in the structure of space and time, and how from this, we can understand the laws of conservation of energy and momentum, fundamental to modern physics. We will also see how generalizations of these ideas lead to the conservation of electric charge and more exotic quantities associated with fundamental particles, currently investigated in high-energy experiments such as the LHC at CERN. Learning objectives: • Basic knowledge of what symmetry can mean in mathematics • Appreciation that ideas of symmetry have lead to major advances in mathematics 9 • • • Appreciate continuous symmetries at the heart of physical experiment. Understand the link between conserved quantities and continuous symmetries at a basic level. See how questions of symmetry underpin contemporary large-scale physics experiments such as CERN 10 Big Idea 7. Evolution 3 Lectures Lecture 1: Evolution Professor Michael J. Benton (Earth Sciences) Evolution is strongly associated with the name of Charles Darwin who, in 1859, published his views in ‘On the origin of species’. Today, after more than 150 years, his ideas have themselves evolved and crystallized, and they have stood the test of time. Knowledge of science in Victorian times was enough to make the case; the addition of genetics and molecular biology in the twentieth century further confirmed the validity of what he said. In this lecture, we will introduce Darwin, review the key points of his writings, and then bring the theme up-to-date, highlighting the nine key lines of evidence for evolution, namely: (1) Evolution can be observed in nature; (2) Evolution can be produced experimentally (e.g. artificial selection); (3) Natural species show extensive variation; (4) New species can be produced experimentally; (5) Small-scale observations can be scaled up; (6) There are homologous similarities between groups of living things; (7) Different homologies are correlated and can be hierarchically classified; (8) There is fossil evidence for transformation of species; (9) The order of major groups in the fossil record suggests evolution. Lecture 2: Creationism Professor Innes Cuthill (Biological Sciences) Humans and all other living things evolved; their existence is entirely explicable by mechanistic, non-supernatural forces acting under the normal laws of physics. That science has explained one of the oldest questions in philosophy – why am I here? – is a remarkable achievement, with profound implications. Modern theologians reconcile the seemingly insurmountable contradiction with religious accounts of Creation by accepting that the latter are myths, with the spiritual and moral messages packaged in terms that are understandable to a lay audience and, at the time the passages were written, made sense of seemingly mysterious patterns in nature. Yet today, a vocal but powerful minority of religious extremists persist in denying evolution and propagate Creationist accounts through distortions of the scientific facts, alternative pseudoscience such as ‘intelligent design’, and an appeal to liberal sentiments about free speech. While biblical literalism might be easily dismissed as a lunatic fringe, there is undeniably widespread confusion over evolution, the scientific facts supporting it, and the nature of scientific explanation in general. As scientists, you will be challenged on this at some point, and will be expected to have access to the facts. This lecture aims to give you the intellectual tools to arrive at an informed personal opinion and to educate others on this profound issue. Lecture 3: Unnatural Selection Professor Gary Foster (Biological Sciences) The human race has been applying ‘unnatural’ selection on many aspects of nature for many years; it is not a new development. With the advent of genetic engineering the process just became more precise and rapid, but also more controversial. 11 Controversial as with the advent of genetic engineering, or genetic modification, barriers on gene flow were removed and opportunities to modify and thus ‘evolve’ became almost limitless. So where will unnatural selection and evolution lead us in the future? In this lecture, we will introduce genetic engineering or ‘unnatural’ selection, initially using GM crops as a well-advanced system to explain why the technology was developed and implemented, what it can achieve, and just as important the controversy that surrounds it. We will also examine as the technology advances what will be next for full genetic engineering, with animals already well under way, will humans be next. Is science fiction becoming science fact? Will genetic disorders be corrected, could eye color be selected, and what are the possibilities of extending life spans for humans. Learning Objectives • Appreciation of the wide range of phenomena that evolution, and only evolution, can explain • Knowledge of the key evidence for evolution from morphology, embryology, palaeontology, biogeography and genetics • Historical appreciation of development of ideas of evolution • Appreciation of the distinction between evolution, the historical pattern, and evolution, the mechanisms generating change • Evolution as a case study for how broad-scale theories are assimilated and tested • Common misunderstanding about, and misrepresentations of, evolution • An understanding of the possibilities through the application of genetic engineering • Appreciation of the controversies surrounding GM technologies, as well as the advantages • Knowledge of the key developing technologies with GM and where this may lead, and the related ethical and moral implications PJW Oct 2013 v6 12