Science for EveryoneUniversity of the Third Age
CSC's PhD Students Communicate Science to Retirees
The CSC played host to the Harrow branch of the University of the 3rd Age (U3A) for one morning in the Summer of 2008, during which time the visitors were treated to some lively and entertaining presentations of cutting-edge work by three young researchers, each with a penchant for communicating science to the public.
Zarinah Agnew, Emily Brookes and Matt Sanders presented their research to the U3A group, an organisation which promotes lifelong learning after retirement, covering everything from the role of mirror neurons in language acquisition and empathy, to the current obesity crisis, to the influence of epigenetics on the degradation of cellular metabolism during ageing.
Zarinah Agnew opened the session with a talk on mirror neurons, which are active in the brains of humans and newly-born macaque monkeys both when an action is carried out, and when the same action is observed, having been carried out by an external agent e.g. another human. Mirror neurons overlap with regions of the brain associated with motor function. As well as being implicated as a foundation to our innate theory of mind, allowing us to see other human beings as independent agents, and to empathise, Zarinah’s work has shown that they are also activated by spoken language, when the statement describes an action. Knowledge of the importance of mirror neurons in language acquisition is of immense value in the treatment of people of who have lost language skills, for example due to being the victims of stroke.
Matt Sanders followed with the rather ominous title “...a Potential Crisis on the Scale of Global Warming”—the crisis being, in this case, obesity. Matt discussed Prader-Willi syndrome and its characteristic obsession with food, often accompanied with learning difficulties. That one can be thin on the outside and fat on the inside—a ‘TOFI’, as named by Professor Jimmy Bell at the CSC—was explained, as was the beneficial redistribution of fat away from the internal organs due to exercise: it is often better to be fat and fit than thin and unathletic.
Emily Brookes’ talk, “Gene Regulation by RNA polymerase II in Embryonic Stem cells”, rounded off the session, touching upon the role of epigenetic modification of RNA polymerase II, the molecular machine that reads the genetic code and transforms it into the proteins that drive cellular metabolism. Degradation of the molecule over time is a determining factor in ageing.
The session was a resounding success, with each talk attracting a good number of intelligent and thought-provoking questions from the audience. The U3A members, who had all worked in a scientific field in some capacity during their working lives, were perhaps less fearful of science than a more general audience; they were all nevertheless extremely impressed with the level and quality of work being done at the CSC. The Harrow group coordinator, Graham Skeldon, thanked the three presenters for their presentations, which were “so interesting”.
The visit is likely to be repeated next July. If you would like to present your work to the U3A, and are a PhD student or Postdoc, please contact Stefan Janusz. stefan.janusz@csc.mrc.ac.uk
Zarinah, Emily and Matt all answered some questions about communicating science to the public.
Zarinah Agnew opened the session with a talk on mirror neurons, which are active in the brains of humans and newly-born macaque monkeys both when an action is carried out, and when the same action is observed, having been carried out by an external agent e.g. another human. Mirror neurons overlap with regions of the brain associated with motor function. As well as being implicated as a foundation to our innate theory of mind, allowing us to see other human beings as independent agents, and to empathise, Zarinah’s work has shown that they are also activated by spoken language, when the statement describes an action. Knowledge of the importance of mirror neurons in language acquisition is of immense value in the treatment of people of who have lost language skills, for example due to being the victims of stroke.
Matt Sanders followed with the rather ominous title “...a Potential Crisis on the Scale of Global Warming”—the crisis being, in this case, obesity. Matt discussed Prader-Willi syndrome and its characteristic obsession with food, often accompanied with learning difficulties. That one can be thin on the outside and fat on the inside—a ‘TOFI’, as named by Professor Jimmy Bell at the CSC—was explained, as was the beneficial redistribution of fat away from the internal organs due to exercise: it is often better to be fat and fit than thin and unathletic.
Emily Brookes’ talk, “Gene Regulation by RNA polymerase II in Embryonic Stem cells”, rounded off the session, touching upon the role of epigenetic modification of RNA polymerase II, the molecular machine that reads the genetic code and transforms it into the proteins that drive cellular metabolism. Degradation of the molecule over time is a determining factor in ageing.
The session was a resounding success, with each talk attracting a good number of intelligent and thought-provoking questions from the audience. The U3A members, who had all worked in a scientific field in some capacity during their working lives, were perhaps less fearful of science than a more general audience; they were all nevertheless extremely impressed with the level and quality of work being done at the CSC. The Harrow group coordinator, Graham Skeldon, thanked the three presenters for their presentations, which were “so interesting”.
The visit is likely to be repeated next July. If you would like to present your work to the U3A, and are a PhD student or Postdoc, please contact Stefan Janusz. stefan.janusz@csc.mrc.ac.uk
Zarinah, Emily and Matt all answered some questions about communicating science to the public.
