The eye is sometimes described as the organ of sight, but the real work of vision takes place in the brain. Around 50% of the human cerebral cortex is involved in vision. Our impression of effortlessly perceiving the world as it really is in fact reflects complex computations performed by billions of neurons. The world's most powerful computers cannot see the world as efficiently as a human toddler. Yet our brains don't always get it right - and the type of mistakes we make guide scientists in understanding how vision usually works so effectively. In this talk, I will discuss what visual illusions are, how they help us understand our brains and show several intriguing examples of how our powerful visual system can occasionally be fooled.

Debunking the conspiracies Millions of pounds is poured into cancer research and drug development every year and although cure rates for many forms of cancer have improved dramatically in the last fifty years, some remain exceptionally hard to treat. An increasing number of passionate cancer conspiracy theorists claiming that ‘the cure’ has already been found and is being suppressed and that unproven alternative therapies are better than conventional therapies, are threatening the health of cancer patients and the reputation of cancer charities, doctors and researchers.

This talk will aim to address misunderstandings about the basic biology of cancer, look for any evidence behind the most popular touted ‘alternative cancer therapies’ and hopes to stimulate discussion as to why there are a growing number of people who believe in these largely-unfounded conspiracies.

Dr. Vicky Forster is a cancer research scientist at Newcastle University, and a survivor of childhood cancer. She is also passionate blogger for a large cancer charity and tweets a lot about her own work and demanding evidence for alternative cancer treatments and therapies.

From July 1794 London’s radicals and dissenters once again pressed for fair representation. The hero of Agents of Reason is Jeremiah Joyce who liaised between the reform societies and distributed radical political literature. He operated largely around Red Lion square, Fleet Street and St Paul’s Churchyard. He was working class, a Unitarian and a political radical. He also worked for the Earl of Stanhope and taught William Pitt’s nieces and nephews. By 1794 the system of spies and prosecutions for sedition and treason had stamped out the radical voice and Jeremiah ended up in Newgate.

Agents of Reason is based on the limited remaining archive and accounts a critical moment in the lineage of ‘the left’. John Issitt’s fictionalized account brings to life the personal compromises of a worker for freedom and justice who was used and abused both by circumstances and by his more genteel masters keen not to get their own political hands dirty. In this talk John Issitt will describe his own compromises in negotiating the orthodox register of academic history and the literary license of historical fiction.

Bio

Until September 2013 John Issitt was Provost of Langwith College in the University of York. Whilst retaining ‘survival’ teaching hours, he is now a writer and political commentator. Agents of Reason is his second book. He is currently working on Tom and Edmund which spans the 250 years from the childhood experiences of Tom Paine and Edmund Burke to their legacies in the modern world. He uses archival resources but fictionalizes and crosses literary genres to dig deep into the human issues at stake.

Skepticism and critical thinking isn’t just about UFOs, bad pharma and Creationism. It’s about the everyday things too.

After leaving school Stevyn gained places at both art and catering colleges, but turned them down and instead accepted a drunken £50 bet with his homicide detective father that he could survive six months as a police officer. He consequently joined the Metropolitan Police Service in London and ended up staying for 30 years.

During his service he found himself frequently challenging the traditional or ‘accepted’ ways of doing things; critical thinking and his own natural skepticism led him to explore different way of doing things, often in innovative and unusual ways. These included using wizards to tackle street gambling, lollipops to stop anti‐social behaviour and dog shows to prevent homicides. Ultimately, he was asked by Scotland Yard and the Home Office to be part of an experimental unit to explore some of these new ideas, many of which have now found their way into everyday policing across the UK.

The Skeptical Bobby is all about grass‐roots skepticism and why we should be critical thinkers in every aspect of our lives.

‘Superb talk at QEDCon by Stevyn Colgan. Intelligent and humane.’ – Professor Richard Dawkins

‘Stevyn Colgan was fantastic! Beautiful and inspiring talk’ ‐ The British Humanist Association