The lecture series will cover a wide range of contemporary issues, including the importance of prime numbers in mathematics and in constructing/cracking codes and cryptograms; HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa; Women and Science; Tracking Bird Populations; Monitoring the Earth by Satellite; Computers Made from Pencil Lead?; The Mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy; Pros and Cons of Having Your Genome Sequenced; Industrial Disasters; The Function of Research Institutions.

In the first lecture on January 5th, Professor Mark Achtman will give a lecture titled ‘Human Migrations from a Bacterial Perspective’. Professor Achtman is a Professor of Microbiology in the Environmental Research Institute, UCC. He will describe how he has used genetic analysis of a common human gut bacterium to trace human migrations over the last 80,000 years.

All the lectures will be filmed and the films will be posted on the UCC Public Understanding of Science website http://understandingscience.ucc.ie . The 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 Public Lectures are already posted on this website.

The SEFS Annual Public Lectures are very popular and regularly attract large attendances. Full details of the lectures can be consulted by visiting website http://understandingscience.ucc.ie/Lecture2011.pdf

The lecture series is organised by Professor William Reville, Public Awareness of Science Officer, SEFS. The first lecture will take place at UCC’s Boole Lecture Theatre 2 at 8pm on Wednesday, January 5th, 2011.

Admission is free, and as always, members of the public are invited to attend.

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