In this session RCS Researchers Emily Doolittle, Sarah Hopfinger, and Stuart MacRae will lead a discussion about creative responses to making art during the unfolding Anthropocene.

Anthropocene – the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

We will each present about our own work which responds to climate change, environmental damage, and our current experience of making art during a pandemic. We will then lead small group discussions with the participants in which we consider questions of what role art may play in helping us understand, process, and perhaps mitigate the effects of the Anthropocene.

All participants warmly welcome, whether you are an art-maker, an art listener, viewer or watcher, or someone who usually has little interaction with the arts.

Research looking at the impact of dance for people with neurological conditions (including dementia, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s) has been dominated by quantitative means with a focus on mitigating symptoms. However, quality of life is not equated with physical health alone, necessitating the need for other approaches and foci to be explored.

Drawing on a knowledge exchange partnership between The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Scottish Ballet, Bethany and Catherine will explore notions of ‘value’ from the perspectives of dancers involved in the Company’s Dance Health programme, discuss developing methodologies, and share some exciting and unexpected findings arising from the research being conducted.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Seasoned diplomats say that they have never known so many issues that need to be addressed.

As Britain moves from the formal structures of Europe to the more informal this is an opportunity to reflect on the future of foreign policy and how best to address the issues that most concern us – climate change, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and war. Crises have affected the lives of millions, many of whom seek a better life free from fear.

How should we respond? Do we have the leadership we need to respond effectively? How does Scotland develop its contribution to determining the priorities we should address in the future and the way we should work together?

Climate change, emerging infections, and political conflict make the world feel an increasingly fragile place. Drawing on field research with communities in the Middle East, Africa and Central America we share what surveys, participatory discussions, religious reflection and poetry tell us about living and working in circumstances of fragility. Bringing the experience of these communities to life, we ask what we can take from them to develop strategies for everyday resilience and dealing with uncertainty in our own lives.

Can you learn a second language so well as an adult that you become indistinguishable from a native speaker? What makes some people better than others? What are the effects of speaking more than one language across the lifetime?

Join Antonella Sorace in a fascinating trip into the human capacity for language learning and discover how it is affected by brain structure, personality, motivation, attitudes, and experience. You may end up wanting to learn another language too!

Chatbots and Personal Intelligent Assistants (PIAs), such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, are increasingly present in our daily lives.

This talk will look at the potential societal impact of anthropomorphising these new technologies. We will focus on their frequent personification as an obedient female and their inability to respond constructively to abusive language as a way to explore gendered AI.

We will bring together interested members of the general public to design a more inclusive bot by inviting attendees to submit drawings of how they envision Alexa’s physical embodiment via a drawing challenge. Attendees to this event will vote on the best new design! You can find all the details on how to enter the drawing challenge here. The outcomes of this activity will inform research funded by the UK Research and Innovation council.

Climate change can be an overwhelming topic for many but here you will gain an insight into how it touches on our day-to-day experiences, our changing landscape, agriculture, the economy, and our own behaviour and actions.

While Scotland is a small country, there are notable actions we can and should be taking.

The World Health Organisation states that there is no health without mental health. So it is more important than ever to ensure we know how to look after ourselves. How do we care for our mental health during a pandemic? What about the most vulnerable groups in society? Are there silver linings to lockdown?

With mental health and wellbeing more openly discussed, we are hosting a panel discussing the impact of lockdown on people’s mental health across the population.

There will be time for you to pose questions to our speakers after their talks.

In TV series, fiction, and movies there are many examples of science being stretched for a creative plot point. But are there instances where it has inspired scientists and researchers to a new discovery? Is there a danger when the public are given a false impression of science? Can fiction inspire a career in science?

This lively panel discussion will tackle common misconceptions around forensic science, test the audience’s ability to spot false examples forensic science, and provide real insight into how forensic scientists work.

Video games are a global, multi-billion pound industry but often face a media spotlight that shines brightly on claims that games are harmful and damaging. Games have been making positive contributions to people’s lives for generations, and continue to grow as one the most important industries for twenty-first century living.

In this talk, Abertay University and RSE Young Academy Academics will demonstrate how universities and the public sector are applying games to a wide variety of academic challenges and societal problems. The talk will focus on where games can help researchers with investigations, engage with different audiences, contribute towards solutions – and still entertain!

Schedule

9th August – Gaming in the real world

Dr Andrew Reid, Abertay University, introduces you to the world of Applied Games – designed with a primary purpose other than entertainment – and its many applications in education, scientific exploration, health care, engineering, and politics. With Kevin Jones, they will share their experience in the use of games for training at the University of St Andrews and the School of Chemistry’s Game Jams.

16th August – Using games for public engagement

Games are wonderful tools to start conversations – presenting big ideas in intuitive ways to encourage players to problem solve and understand the world around them. Dr Jonathan Wilkin, Abertay University, and Erik Gauger, Heriot Watt University, explore how they bring their research in food science and quantum physics (respectively) to a wider audience.

23rd August – Learning through play

Join Dr Lynn Love, Abertay University, as she discusses the importance of play, its role in bringing people and the impact on the individual, group, community and culture – is play a good indicator of the health of society? She will be joined by Dr Iain Donald, Abertay University, whose recent research into applied historical games explored commemoration and memorialization in games.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Successful research is having a real effect on the treatment of cancer but even in the developed world we cannot afford all that could be offered. This talk will highlight some of the challenges that we face and offer some potential solutions.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set out a blueprint for a new world and new science. Knowledge translation and innovation have set out what is needed to deliver to the blueprint. What has been missing from the SDG agenda is the urgency to deliver on this and the “why” of delivery. However, the pandemic of COVID-19 and our understanding of compassion now positions us differently.

If, as Greta Thunberg says, climate change has put our house on fire, then COVID-19 pandemic has poured petrol on the flames and burnt systems that were seen as indispensable and impenetrable. We are now in a very different place with lots of plans emerging. What does a phoenix of compassion rising from these ashes look like and how can compassion shape this new world.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Death is the final frontier that we will all face. But sudden death is dying out, and dying nowadays takes longer, with a last phase of life giving us months or years to consider our fate. If we consider that talking about dying is in itself negative or harmful to hope, we lose a great opportunity to get actively involved in planning what we want, and to bringing our own personal beliefs and assets, and our friends’ resources to the table. We will all die one day, so let’s boldly plan for it, and then enjoy life to the full.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

How do we make our environment better for wellbeing? This discussion will explore the many issues to take into consideration when planning urban and rural landscapes that will enhance wellbeing, drawing upon recent research from CRESH (Centre for Research on Environment Society and Health).

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri or Google’s assistant are able to converse with humans using language. The underlying technology – often referred to as spoken dialogue systems – has experienced a revolution over the past decade, moving from being completely handcrafted to using data-driven machine learning methods.

This talk will review current developments including reinforcement learning and deep learning models. It will not only evaluate them in relation to real-world applications but also discuss ethical implications and challenges.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Can mucking about with microbes and tickling plant roots help to reduce pollution and climate change and improve food quality and availability? Can we really help to heal our planet one microbe at a time? By using a variety of microbiological approaches we can unravel beneficial jobs performed by some micro-organisms that help plants to defend against disease and absorb nutrients more effectively. Find out more about our mission to use microbes to reduce environmentally damaging agricultural treatments, help crops to grow in poor conditions and increase crop yields.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

We are increasingly aware of the fragility of the world due to climate change, emerging infections, and political conflict. How do we best understand fragility, and the strategies for personal and institutional resilience in the face of these threats? Drawing on multi-disciplinary field research with communities in the Middle East, Africa and Central America we share what surveys, participatory discussions, religious reflection and poetry tell us about living and working in circumstances of fragility, and what we can take from this to develop strategies for everyday resilience and dealing with uncertainty.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Optimal menstrual health requires an understanding of menstruation itself: an amazing natural physiological event. Menstruation remains a topic of embarrassment, is still for some a taboo area and people struggle to talk about periods/period problems and heavy menstrual bleeding. We need to understand what is happening within the womb-lining at the time of a period and why menstrual bleeding for some becomes heavy and problematic. A wider conversation about periods needs to be encouraged.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

The UK doesn’t particularly stand out for its language skills. The current Brexit political climate discourages interest in language learning. In contrast, research shows that language learning is good for the brain and general wellbeing at all ages: disinvesting in language learning is a loss for individuals and for communities. Find out what people are missing out on and what might be done to reverse the trend.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

From Walter Scott to contemporary poetry, Scottish writers have been aware that we live in a coastal environment. Sea creatures appear in Scottish legend, and novels address the difficult relationship between humans and the natural world. This talk raises the role of fiction in historical and contemporary questions about how we use, enjoy, and are part of Scotland’s terraqueous world.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

We all have the same genes, but their details vary from person to person. Sometimes a tiny detailed genetic change can make a huge difference to how a person grows up. We shall use the example of the CHAMP1 gene to discuss how small genetic changes can have a large impact on the development of a child and what the implications of this are.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Our genes and their intricate workings can be adversely affected by the modern environment. Technologies that have transformed our lives in many positive ways can also have unintended consequences for our bodies. How do we defend ourselves and what happens to our bodies if our natural defences are overwhelmed? Can our understanding of their impact influence the future development of new technologies, industrial processes, agriculture and foodstuffs?

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

As part of her Creative Scotland Open Project Funding award, Laura is studying the practice of pranayama (breath control) to enhance presence and resilience in performers. In this workshop she will introduce the impact that breath can have on health, wellbeing and embodiment.

The session will be introductory, practical and open to everyone, including participants with breath conditions, as Laura is qualified to support these. Participants will learn about the breath and its link to mind and body, be invited to deepen the breath safely, allowing them to become more aware and calmer, and be introduced to specific practices that will help them to connect to their parasympathetic nervous system, the rest, digest and befriend system in our bodies.

As part of this workshop you will:

• Learn about the breath and its link to mind and body.
• Be invited to deepen your breath safely, allowing you to become more aware and calmer.
• Be introduced specific practices that will help you to connect to your parasympathetic nervous system, which will allow you to sleep better.

Our research is focused on developing new technologies for detecting infectious disease and selecting and monitoring treatment. The focus is on TB and antibiotic resistance and the work being undertaken in our Arrest-TB project. Infectious disease detection and antibiotic resistance are very relevant right now but are topics that are often misunderstood. This session will enhance understanding and hopefully help people make better and more informed choices.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Space technologies continue to be integrated seamlessly into our lives such as high bandwidth global communications and Earth imaging for environmental monitoring and satellite navigation services. This talk will explore a range of emerging space technologies which could enable new services including; swarms of ‘smart dust’ devices to monitor the space environment for ‘space weather’ events; large reflectors fabricated in-orbit to reflect sunlight onto terrestrial solar power farms to boost their output at dawn and dusk and near Earth asteroids as a resource to reduce the scale of future ventures by using material already at the top of the Earth’s deep gravity well.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

A lot of sounds in movies are created and added after filming, such as weapons firing or a character’s footsteps – but how? And how do you create sounds for creatures that don’t exist like Game of Thrones’ unforgettable dragons? Now you get the chance to find out by talking with RSE Enterprise Fellow and Krotos Founder and CEO, Orfeas Boteas.

Krotos’ audio software has been used in top films, series and video games such as the Avengers, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Jungle Book, Frozen, Cyberpunk and Far Cry. Previous to founding Krotos he worked in post-production, music composition and location sound.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Biodiversity in 40% of the earth’s surface is not protected – the oceans are beyond national jurisdiction. The UN is developing a treaty to conserve marine biodiversity in these areas and to allow some of these resources to be used to develop new products such as medicines which can stop resistant bacterial infections. Key goals are to permit freedom of marine scientific research and allow the sharing of any benefits that arise from commercial use of marine biodiversity. Come and discuss ways to ensure that marine science can advance whilst at the same time biodiversity is protected.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.

Your DNA (your Book of Life) contains over 3 billion letters, that is enough to fill a million pages of text. These letters are almost exactly the same for everyone, yet we are all different and some differences can be traced to single letter changes. From our reading of DNA it is clear how we are all related, not just to each other, but to all life on Earth. It is also becoming clear how differences in our DNA affect us and change our risk of disease.

Tea & Talk Series

The Tea & Talk series invites everyone to enjoy a cup of tea while engaging with experts in a friendly, relaxed discussion. There won’t be any powerpoints, notes or formality here – just the chance to ask questions and to listen to some of Scotland’s leading authorities on a variety of subjects.