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Organization:   	Edward Boyle Library

From:           	D Dallas <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:        	Cafe Scientifique

Hi there,

Sorry there has been such a long silence, but I have now 
finally organised the week of meetings starting on Sept 27th. 
The theme is 'Science Fact meets Science Fiction' and the 
talks and discussions are taking place at various cafe-bars 
round the centre of town.

All the details are set out below, but there should be leaflets 
and posters on show at all the venues, i.e. The Courtyard, Art 
Wimpenny's, The Wardrobe, Starbucks, Waterstone's and 
Borders. If you cannot see posters then you can help by 
asking assistants where the posters and leaflets are.
This should make them display them prominently!

Posters and leaflets are going out to the libraries, W. Yorks 
Playhouse and many of the other cafe-bars around town, but 
if you know of somewhere you think would be a good place to 
put them then e-mail me.

It would be nice to get a good attendance each might, so if 
you know anyone who would be interested, please copy the 
e-mail and pass it on, especially if you are at the universities, 
in the NHS or in big companies.

Another thing to look out for are our rather groovy pop-
posters, which will be put up on these cylindrical pop-poster 
sites round the city.
They should be going up at the end of this week.

We are also building a new website at cafe-sci.org.com This 
should have all the details of the week's events on it, as well 
as advice about how to start your own cafe scientifique.

In October we will be starting again at In Vino, details soon.

Meanwhile here is the agenda for the week. Hope you can 
make it.

All meetings begin at 8pm.

Mon. Sept 27th -  'The Monster and the Mad Scientist'- at 
The Courtyard 

The image of Frankenstein has plagued science from the 
time of Mary Shelley right up to current arguments about GM 
foods. Paul McAuley, who was a scientist and is now a 
science fiction writer, traces the history of 'The Frankenstein 
Effect' up to the present crisis in the public perception of 
science, when only one in three of us believes what 
scientists say is true. How can this monstrous myth be
dispelled?

Tues. 28th Sept. "How to Build a Conscious Machine'à àat 
Art Wimpenny's

Is a conscious machine finally within sight? Steve Grand, a
cyberneticist, was the inventor of 'Creatures', a CDRom video 
game that has sold so well that the internet is now populated 
with thousands of these 'cybercreatures'. Steve is now 
applying his ideas to building a machine that he believes will 
be seen to be conscious.

Wednesday 29th Septà 'Drugs, Doctors and Depression'ààat 
The Wardrobe

Antidepressants are big business and Prozac is the leader in 
the field. But is the dependence on a few big-selling brands 
preventing drug  companies from coming clean about adverse 
reactions - like inducing suicide? David Healey, a consultant 
psychiatrist, believes that commercial pressures are 
undermining the trust between patients, doctors and drug 
companies, and that it is time the patients took some action.


Thursday 30th Sept. ' GMOs - Are They Immoral?'ààà.àat  
Starbuck's 
'GM crops have replaced paedophilia as the focus for public 
panic' says Alan Ryan, the philosopher and Dean of New 
College, Oxford. 
As chairman of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics he believes 
that GM foods are less of a problem than special pleading 
and closed minds, and that 'neither Government, nor press 
nor the consumer and environmental lobby has emerged with 
any credit' from the present debate.


Friday 1st Oct. 'Does Science need Science Fiction?' ààà.at 
Waterstones

In recent years science fiction seems to have been writing 
the script for scientific progress - cloning, head 
transplantation, time travel and warp drives to name a few 
examples. Is this just coincidence or is there a deeper 
relation between the two? Ian Stewart, Prof. of Maths at
Warwick University, has just written a best seller with Terry 
Pratchett on 'The Science of Discworld'. He believes there are 
closer links between the
two than most scientists would like to admit.

Sat. 2nd Oct' Intelligent Genes?at  Borders

The 90's have produced the idea of the brain as a 
computational machine, the spectre of genes for intelligence 
and the prospect of designer babies. How much of this can 
we trust? Ken Richardson, 
a neurobiologist and psychologist believes 'The Decade of the 
Brain' has made less progress than the hype suggests and 
that we are in danger of short-changing the complexity of the 
human mind. 


Best wishes,

Duncan Dallas






This is a map of central Leeds, showing all the relevant 
locations.

(Perhaps at the bottom we should put a list of the venues, 
with their
addresses.) Dr Graeme Gooday, Division of History & 
Philosophy of Science
School of Philosophy University of Leeds LEEDS LS2 9JT 
U.K.

E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel:  (0)113 233 3274
Fax:  (0)113 233 3265


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