The Darwin series started in 1986 and consists of eight public lectures which aim to present complex ideas in an easy to understand manner. This year the multidisciplinary series will examine plagues, set in the broad context of a disease or calamity that causes high morbidity or mortality with lasting impact on populations. The speakers will delve into plagues of the past and present, and will consider future threats to all populations that inhabit the earth.
The series will begin with a lecture by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, entitled “Plagues and Medicine”. This lecture will examine how ancient plagues influenced the concepts, discipline and practice of medicine as we know it today. Sir Leszek will also reflect on the current and future demands on the medical profession, and examine how it must evolve to combat new and emerging infectious disease threats.
Later in the series, Professor Angela McLean, University of Oxford, will discuss the nature of plagues. The spread of an infection is an ecological event, with the infected hosts acting like prey and the infectious agents like predators. Using examples from infectious diseases that pose problems right now, MacLean sets out to illustrate how taking an ecological view of plagues helps us to understand them and, sometimes, control them.
Professor Mary Fowler, Master of Darwin College, said of this year’s programme of lectures, “We are very fortunate to have been able to attract eight such distinguished speakers to discuss the past, present and future impact of plagues in ways that will be popularly accessible. It will be a very exciting series.”
Other lectures include an examination of the impact plagues have on economies, an exploration of the growing online plague of malicious software and hackers, and a discussion of the way that human intelligence and inventiveness continues to drive the very problems that we struggle against.
The lectures will be held every Friday in Lent term (17 January to 7 March) at Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Site. Entrance is from 16.30, with lectures to start at 17.30. You are advised to arrive early to be sure of a place as the lectures are very popular. Visit http://www.dar.cam.ac.uk/lectures for more details.
This year’s Darwin lecture series will see a wide range of distinguished speakers present lectures on plagues, with topics ranging from silicon plagues, to plagues and economic collapse.
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