the x-change blog - day 4
The Evening began with an announcement from Sue Nelson that this would be her last x-change, but that she was determined to ‘go out with a big bang!’
To start the evening Sue invited Colin Wright to the stage to discuss how in the 1980s he was developing a type of juggling notation and he noticed that there were mathematical patterns in juggling. They then were able to develop new tricks through the patterns of numbers, and therefore juggling is really only a maths puzzle! Next up was Jonathon Silvertown who joined us to discuss how 2010 came to be the international year of Biodiversity. He explained that the Convention on Biodiversity aimed for many of the issues facing wildlife to be sorted by 2010. He went on to debate the importance of biodiversity with the audience. Mike Coleman was up next to talk to us about the growing of human brain cells in labs for use in medical research. He told us that research in this area could lead to medications being developed for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. He was careful to stress that only brain cells are formed, not an actual brain; what they are researching is the brain’s equivalent of an MP3 player’s chip. Fourth on the bill was Brother Guy Consolmagno, one of The Pope’s Astronomers, originally from Detroit; but who now spends his time researching meteorites in The Vatican. His job is to study the chemical and physical properties of meteorites and work out how they are packed together. His research shows that many are similar in composition which surprises him as there are thousands ‘out there’. Why does the Vatican have an observatory? He replied that we need to know why the universe is there and how it works. With a tough act to follow, John Gibbons was the next guest who came to the x-change to discuss his research on heart attacks. Sue asked how Marathon runners can suffer from them as they are often linked to unhealthy life styles. John told us that it can be genetic and linked to your metabolism as this affects how you absorb and process cholesterol. The last guest of the x-change was Matt Parker who entertained us by proving that Arnica is one of the most expensive substances on Earth. Using the quantities of it in homeopathic pills and their cost at 6.1p per pill he has calculated that 1 molecule costs more that the Gross Domestic Product of the UK!