Catalina Taltavull - To fly or not to fly through a volcanic ash cloud

As part of a visiting fellowship at Delhi University in the mid 1990’s the speaker set up seminars relating to nuclear power, one of which was attended by a Russian diplomat who offered payment in return for information about Britain’s nuclear waste disposal facilities.

In this talk, Dr Taltavull will explore the importance of understanding the likelihood of a certain volcanic ash adhering into a substrate by taking into consideration both ash properties and environmental conditions.

This talk offers an introduction to technology enterprise in and around Cambridge for those unfamiliar with the Cambridge tech scene. It will examine ways in which scientific knowledge is translated into practice, with a focus on technology-based spin-out companies originating in the university.

The talk compares Japanese and English illustrations in various editions of Gulliver’s Travels published in Japan between 1880 and the early 1920s.

Global recessions and structural economic shifts are motivating government and business leaders worldwide to increasingly look to “their” universities to stimulate regional development and to contribute to national competitiveness. The challenge is clear and the question is pressing: How will universities respond?

In a series of Riddles written in about the year 1000, animals, plants, and even ore from the earth complain about being torn from their homes and deprived of life so as to become things useful to humans – a book, a bow, an inkwell.

Yes: hard to believe as it may be, sexual education was taught in the Middle Ages throughout Western Europe.

The recently completed Freedom Park provides a profound representation of South Africa’s troubled past, evoking memories of forgotten names and long suppressed South African identities.

Greek myths have always been powerful resources for thinking and feeling: they are ‘good to think with’. We shall illustrate this with the example of Polyphemus, the best known of the one-eyed, anthropophagous, pastoral giants known as the Cyclopes.

How should humans define themselves in relation to other animals? This familiar question has recently attracted new attention in several disciplines, with some radical results.