The relation between the human mind and the external world has been studied by philosophers for centuries, notably by David Hume and Immanuel Kant. Galileo said that the book of nature was written in the language of mathematics, while Plato saw mathematics as a world of pure ideas. This lecture will discuss the inter-relations of these topics in the light of modern scientific developments, including Darwinian evolution.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the Government agency which licenses medicines and medical devices for UK use, ensuring that these work and are acceptably safe. It is not concerned with cost or value-for-money. The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) advises NHS Scotland on the cost-effectiveness of newly-licensed medicines and may identify patients for whom the benefi t to cost balance is most favourable. The 14 NHS Boards in Scotland then decide, through their therapeutics advisory committees, which medicines will be locally available. The situation in England is broadly similar, with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), advising local health authorities. NICE is also charged with promoting good-health and preventing ill-health, and in that context, publishes Clinical Guidelines, which set medicines within an overall disease management framework. In Scotland, guidelines are produced by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), and both sets may be used by clinicians in Scotland. Thus, once licensed by MHRA, the decision as to whether a drug should be made available becomes multi-faceted, and a balance must be struck between finite NHS budgets, clinical effectiveness, broader societal benefits and costs and ethical considerations. This meeting will examine this decision-making process and consider how it might be improved.

On 27 September, the Society participated in Edinburgh's Doors Open Day, by offering guided tours of the building

Organised by the Cockburn Association, Doors Open Day offers an opportunity to explore some of Edinburgh’s most architecturally, culturally and socially significant buildings - all for free.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) together with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, UHI Millennium Institute and Scottish Natural Heritage is organising a conference entitled The Life and Culture of the Highlands and Islands. The first in a two part series of conferences will be held in Edinburgh at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Tuesday 23 September 2008. It is planned to have the second event in Skye in 2009.

Forecasts using the UK National Transport Model suggest that a well-targeted national road pricing scheme could achieve £10 billion worth of time savings a year in Great Britain alone. Road pricing has had strong theoretical support over many decades. So what’s the problem with implementing road pricing? This talk will outline some of the challenges, and, in particular, some of the technology, economic and network modelling issues.

Photographs courtesy of FasTrak Photo Library

Computer simulations have long been used by scientists and engineers to help design better materials and machines. Increasingly computers are being used to predict the future for natural and social processes, such as epidemics, climate change, economic forecasting and earthquakes. Why should these predictions be trusted, given the complexity of these systems and the many unknown variables involved? Should government policy be based on them? We have gathered together four leading computer modellers to present their views, and defend them in panel discussions. Since the consequences of their findings may affect us all, we will invite the audience to enter the debate by putting questions to two expert panels.

From the incense of ancient Mesopotamia in 3000BC, to the foul Black Death “miasmas” of the Closes of 17th century Edinburgh, people have been delighted and nauseated by smells. Only recently, however, has science revealed how our brains process odours, and this understanding has led us to develop electronic nose chips capable of learning and recognising odours. I’ll describe our journey to crack the “code in the nose”, from neurobiology to chips, and with nice and nasty things to smell.

Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful theories ever produced, making accurate predictions both in fundamental science and in the underpinning of today’s technologies. However, although highly accurate as a predictive tool, some aspects of quantum mechanics are not without their opponents. The fact that light has both particle-like and wave-like properties seems odd, but all agree these are simply convenient models that we use to describe the way that light behaves. The concerns over quantum mechanics lie much deeper, but they can be understood by considering a few simple experiments.
Photograph courtesy of Professor Miles Padgett

This event brought together a significant group of eminent researchers from around the world for an important scientific meeting in the two related and interacting fields of structures and granular solids, with a unique theme of bridging the gap between the development of new scientific understanding and its application to solve practical engineering problems. This has been a central theme of Professor Rotter’s work, and was therefore a fitting theme for an event organised to celebrate Professor Rotter’s contributions to science and engineering.
A Poster Competition formed part of the conference. Environment, School of Engineering and Electronics, The University of Edinburgh

Maps are commonplace yet complex objects. Once regarded as truthful and accurate objects - mirrors to the world - maps are now seen as partial representations, mapping an expression not just of technical accomplishment but of political power and map makers’ authority. Once mainly paper, what is the future for maps and mapping in the digital age? In a lecture given to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Map Library of the National Library of Scotland, the past, present and future nature of the map as a geographical object and of mapping as a social and a technical process were illustrated and explored. Photograph courtesy of Professor Charles Withers

In 1976 Stephen Hawking imagined throwing a bit of information, a book, a computer, or even an elementary particle, into a black hole. Black holes, Hawking believed, were the ultimate traps, and the bit of information would be irretrievably lost to the outside world. This apparently innocent observation was hardly as innocent as it sounds: it threatened to undermine and topple the entire edifice of modern physics. Something was terribly out of whack; the most basic law of nature the conservation of information was seriously at risk. To those who paid attention, either Hawking was wrong, or the 300 year old centre of physics wasn't holding. Hawking's claim set in motion a controversy that eventually radically changed the way we thing about space, time, matter, and information; although not in the way he imagined. Instead of "A World Without Law," the new paradigm has become "The World as a Hologram."

It is estimated that at least 3% of the population have a moderate speech impairment that impacts significantly on their quality of life. Often precise diagnosis of the underlying problem is particularly difficult when conventional procedures are used. However, supplementing traditional speech and language therapy procedures with techniques such as Electropalatography (EPG), which records contacts between the tongue and palate during speech, offers real benefits in terms of more precise diagnosis and more efficient treatment. These benefits are demonstrated for a range of speech disorders including those associated with cleft palate, Downs Syndrome, hearing impairment and functional articulation problems.
Image courtesy of Professor William Hardcastle

Throughout human history, food availability has fluctuated, and survival during periods of famine has been possible due to nutrients stored in adipose tissue. More recently there has been a major change in this pattern, with sustained increases in food availability and concurrent decreases in physical activity. The consequent epidemic in obesity has been accompanied by dramatic upswings in the prevalence of serious illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and even cancer. Recent biomedical research advances provide potential explanations as to why weight gain is so unhealthy.
Surprising new findings suggest the body’s own immunological defence mechanisms are responsible, thus providing potential pharmacological interventions to supplement the more obvious avenues of diet and exercise.
Image courtesy of Professor Steven Shoelson

What are the similarities and differences between contemporary and classical approaches to music creation? Professor John Wallace OBE FRSE explored this question and highlighted how the Performing Arts can think the unthinkable and speak the unspeakable. They are a powerful educational tool. They expand societies' consciousness and raise a nation’s game. Wherever they flourish, modern economies flourish, so what is the value of both contemporary and classical music to Scotland, both at a local level, and beyond?

Part of the RSE@Arbroath series.

The most powerful accelerator ever built, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will start operation at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, in Summer 2008. It will smash proton beams of unprecedented intensity and energy, and huge high-technology detectors will record the products of the collisions. The LHC should be able to solve several mysteries, such as what is the origin of dark matter? Why do elementary articles have different masses, so that the heaviest quark weigh as much as a Gold atom and the photon weigh ... nothing? Is this due to the famous Higgs boson", the particle postulated in 1964 by Professor Peter Higgs FRS FRSE from the University of Edinburgh? This lecture will present the goals and challenges of one of the biggest and most difficult projects in science ever.
Image courtesy of CERN

The EU was conceived in a different era: the key challenges of the 21st century - globalisation, climate change, terrorism and WMD, poverty in Africa - were far from the minds of its Founding Fathers. Its institutions are widely seen as complex and arcane. Public opinion is indifferent or hostile. And when the EU tries to re-invent itself, the outcome seems to be political controversy, not a coherent and purposive continent. So is the EU past its best, and will it be relevant in the world of tomorrow?

Professor Garrett reviewed the birth of radio astronomy, from the earliest discoveries of cosmic radio emission just before and after the Second World War, through to the construction of the huge paraboloid dishes that became synonymous with the dawn of the modern space age (e.g. Jodrell Bank). He described the unique role radio astronomy has played in advancing our understanding of the nature and evolution of the Universe as a whole, as well as our own place within it. In particular, he looked forward to the transformational science that will be conducted by a new generation of radio telescopes over the next 15 years, including new and increasingly sensitive searches for extra-terrestrial signals from intelligent life elsewhere in the Galaxy.
Image Courtesy of Jodrell Bank Observatory

Over the past few decades Venetian historiography has highlighted architecture as one of the means of expression of the so-called ‘Myth of Venice’. It has become accepted among architectural historians that the Republic sought to project its ideology to the public through the patronage of public buildings. This lecture questions this assumption through a close examination of decision-making procedures in prominent public building projects of the 16th century. It suggests that ‘democratic’ processes often impeded the formulation of coherent ideologies of state, while technological innovation on the building site earned as much respect as classical erudition.
Image courtesy of Professor Deborah Howard

The Royal Society of Edinburgh regularly holds joint events with other organisations and this is the second time that the Society has had the pleasure of providing a Scottish platform to launch and discuss the Council for Industry and Higher Education’s latest report on how UK universities might best evolve their international strategies.

Supported by the Scottish Funding Council

The RSE@Arbroath programme aims to benefit over 3,000 people including primary and secondary school pupils, college students and members of the wider public and will cover the following themes: Identity and the People of Arbroath (January - March 2008), Wealth Creation in Arbroath (March - June 2008), The Arts in Arbroath (June – August 2008) and Places in Arbroath (August- December 2008).

Scotland and China may be thousands of miles apart, but the RSE/NSFC Joint Workshop on March 17 and 18 very clearly showed how close we are, in terms of both science and business.
Organised by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the two-day workshop on management science at the RSE in Edinburgh brought together 22 speakers from both countries, discussing everything from wildlife, agriculture and technology to risk, innovation and trust.

The talk encompassed product specification and design, project planning and commercialisation of Optomap®. Optomap® is a totally new (and disruptive) eye imaging technology aimed to improve preventative diagnosis of eye and general health problems. Based upon his personal experience of observing difficult manual eye exams undertaken on his five year old son, Douglas Anderson described the history and the secrets of the whole Optos story from sceptics "it’s impossible and not needed anyway" right through the 15 year innovation and entrepreneurial processes. Today Optos (now an LSE list plc) have 3,000 users and over 13million patients have benefited from this new type of eye exam.
Image courtesy of Optos plc

The potential of the oceans to deliver a new drug pipeline is enormous. In the area of anti-infectives alone, there are 4 natural products with annual sales over $1 billion, Augmentin®, Zithromax®, Biaxin® and Rocephin®. The rate of new natural products discovered from land based organisms is slowing down, and scientists around the world have recognised the importance of the marine environment for the provision of new biological diversity that vastly out numbers the species diversity of land based organisms. Already, marine organisms are yielding exciting drug prospects as research has shown a wide variety of new chemical entities of pharmaceutical potential.
Image courtesy of Aquapharm

The last half-century has seen a breathtaking increase in the pace of scientific discovery. Science has changed, is changing and will continue to change the way we live. It is impossible therefore for governments or citizens to ignore these developments. Science has increased our understanding of nature and ourselves, and the exploitation of that understanding has led to improvements in health and wellbeing. Governments worldwide regard it as a vital ingredient for success in globalised knowledge economies.

However, the engagement of both governments and citizens with science is limited in ways that undermine its utility and corrode democratic decision-making. At the same time, the use of scientific understanding has brought and will continue to bring unintended adverse consequences, not the least being the massive impact the human species has on the planetary environment and its life support systems. Moral, social, and political progress have not kept pace with our mastery of the physical world, and many current challenges require international cooperative behaviour on an unprecedented scale.

We must find ways of relating the enlightenment project of rationale progress, to which Edinburgh and Scotland contributed so much, to the complexity of global relationships. Scotland, its universities, and the whole research community, must play a central role in these issues and in ensuring that the university roles in education, research, innovation and in engagement with citizens and government are appropriate to the needs of the times.

We are becoming used to a world in which information is power and that money is a sequence of digits in a computer file but, in a world of hackers and fraudsters, just how safe are we? It is surprising and perhaps worrying to realise that internet purchases and international bank transactions rely on the same simple (and unproven) ideas from pure mathematics. Remarkably, developments in quantum theory provide the means (at least in principle) to hack into these transactions, thus rendering money valueless. But don’t worry yet, quantum theory also provides its own radical solution. Photograph courtesy of Professor Stephen Barnett