La Dolce Vita – movie by Federico Fellini
Mrs F Allen
“One of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s”. We will watch and comment on scenes of the movie.
How to deal with the lack of counterfactuals when dealing with causal effects
Mr J Stibora
For example, we would like to know how people who participated in a programme fared compared to how they would have fared if they had not participated in the programme. This is a problem arising in quite a few subjects, like medicine, politics and economics, to name a few. I will talk about the Doppelgaenger model, its applications to terrorism, cigarette smoking, unification of West Germany with East Germany and Brexit.
Mass Extinction Events
Mr M O’Brien
There have been at least five mass extinction events in the history of our planet. What caused them and what should we learn about how to stop a sixth?
Who owns space?
Mrs L Matthews
Outer space is quickly becoming a constested place. Who owns it? Who should get the profit from any exploration? Can you buy the moon? We will look at whether governments can work out a way to share equitably the spoils of space exploration.
Introduction to phonetics and speech science
Mr T O’Connell
Spoken communication is the bedrock of civilisation, yet it depends on a fantastically intricate dance between the lungs, larynx, tongue and lips. We look at the anatomy of speech and the acoustic properties of the sounds of some major world languages.
The Power of Social Media
Mr H Mistry
Social media has changed and evolved so much since the early days, it’s almost hard to believe how far we’ve come. How people use social media has changed as well. Gen Zs (now beginning to enter the workforce) only know a world with social media, compared to their counterparts – Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers – who can still fondly remember back to the days of snail mail and dial-up modems! Here’s a look at through some powerful moments that shaped the social media history.
Observing Higgs Boson using AI
Dr N Rolfe
What do protein structures, forgotten 19th century composers, discriminatory credit card companies and – ahem – grooming products have in common with the Higgs boson? Dr Nicolas Rolfe explores how artificial intelligence is pervading every aspect of our lives.