Investigating the Impossible

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For over 20 years, psychologist Richard Wiseman has delved deep into the mysterious world of the paranormal, carrying out high profile, and often controversial, investigations into the impossible. In this talk, Wiseman describes some of his more colourful adventures, presenting a scientific look at a range of seemingly paranormal phenomenon, including fire-walking, luck, and a psychic dog. Discover whether such phenomena really exist, how best to promote rational thinking, and why we are all attracted by the lure of strange stuff. Free packet of peanuts for the best question.

Prof Richard Wiseman is based at the University of Hertfordshire, and has gained an international reputation for research into quirky areas of psychology. He has written three best selling books. The Luck Factor, Quirkology, and 59 Seconds. A passionate advocate for science, Prof Wiseman is well known for his media appearances and has spoken at The Royal Society, Microsoft, Caltech, and Google. Over 1 million people have taken part in his mass participation experiments, and his YouTube channel has received over 10 million views. Most recently, the Independent on Sunday listed Prof Wiseman as one of the top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live.

NB: This talk is not on our usual first Wednesday of the month, but is a one-off event for 20th October. The date above is correct!

TBC

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Immortality has been an ancient dream. Whether or not this could be said to be achieved by reproductive cloning is debatable. Although this has been achieved in some mammals it is, rightly, banned in humans. Therapeutic cloning is different and offers great potential to treatment many diseases by making patient specific new cells. Therapeutic cloning involves taking the genetic material from a cell in an adult's body and fusing it with an empty egg cell. It could ultimately produce stem cells matched to individual patients which are the master cells that have the potential to develop into any other type of cell in the body. For example, they could develop into nerve tissue, blood, heart muscle and even brain cells. Scientists have been trying to isolate and culture these special cells in the lab for many years. When they finally achieved it in 1998, it was hailed as one of the great breakthroughs in modern research.

This has lead to controversy, as some groups argue that a human embryo, even the very small clump of cells being talked about here, is a human life and as such is sacrosanct. They see it as outrageous that scientists should be allowed to create something which has life merely to discard it after they have "harvested" some important cells. This debate, although recognised as ground breaking approach, thus bringing certain hopes to any degenerative disease where one cell type has gone wrong, was carried to parliament. Scientists are very confident new nerve cells can be transplanted into sufferers of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. New heart muscle could repair damaged hearts. Professor Alison P. Murdoch has been at the forefront of seeking the public discourse to create awareness thus inform the ethical debate also creating incentives to sustain getting donors for getting eggs, which is one of the major challenges.

In 2004 Alison Murdoch was one of only two people in the UK who could legally clone human embryos. Her supporters have described her work as revolutionary. Her critics say her research merely gives false hope to desperate people. Next to informing United Nations headquarters in New York and National governments on debates on human cloning that could determine the future direction of medical research for years to come, she has founded the Department of Reproductive Medicine in 1991 and has directed its growth and development into the leading Fertility Centre in the North East of England and beyond. Professor Murdoch is closely involved on a daily basis with patient care, being an active member of the fertility team and is leading the department into increasingly important areas of research both regionally and nationally. In addition she is a former Chairman of the British Fertility Society. She is a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Her research includes studies of the earliest stages of human development from the egg to the pre-implantation embryo. More recently her work on the donation of surplus embryos for stem cell research and therapeutic cloning has received high profile interest because of the associated ethical issues. The team at the University of Newcastle created the world's first cloned human embryo in 2005.