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Event Of The Week
Beyond the Human Genome Project: Medicine in the 21st Century
James Joyce once said of his masterpiece Ulysses "I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant!". He might just as well have been talking about the human genome. Mapping the DNA of a human cell took 13 years, and that was just to produce a rough draft. This was the simple part. Fully understanding the genome and exploiting its medical potential will take decades, if not the Joycean centuries.
Eric Lander knows something of this odyssey. The mathematician turned biologist was a guiding figure of the Human Genome Project, and continues to play a leading role in the fertile area where genetics meets medicine. Anyone with any interest in anything…ever...would do well to visit the Royal Society on Monday, when Prof. Lander will give the 2005 Rosenblith Lecture. Even if you hate science and medicine and people called Eric, you should go along anyway. Getting a free butcher’s of the marbled interior to this remarkable Carlton House Terrace venue is alone worth the trip.
Sticking with the medicine theme, the Royal Institution, over on the other side of Piccadilly, examines the potential of extracting useful drugs from nature. The plant kingdom offers a cabinet-full of therapeutics; and we’re not just talking about the largely ineffectual complementary pharmacopoeia beloved of Prince Charles. Roots of a cure on Thursday examines sources of medicine from the natural world that have very real, measurable therapeutic effects - and the economic reasons why drug companies have become reluctant to invest as heavily as they might in this area.
The Dana Centre this week takes its unique brand of science-as-entertainment to hitherto unrealised levels of surrealism. Join them tonight for what must be the strangest meal since Alice took tea with the Mad Hatter. Tuck into a two course Dinner@Dana, with wine, as Brian J Ford discusses whether fish can fall in love. Then, tomorrow, Punk Science are back for a rerun of their musico-comedic take on the aliens debate. Finally, on Tuesday, things turn a little more serious with a discussion on Cybercrime. Apply for free tickets on-line; in someone else's name if you have a flare for irony.
Where and When
Dinner@Dana: Do fish fall in love?, Dana Centre, Tonight, 6.30-9, £13
Roots of a cure, Royal Institution, Thursday 7-8.30, £8.
Punk Science: Aliens, Dana Centre, Thursday 7-8.30, FREE
Beyond the Human Genome Project: Medicine in the 21st Century, Royal Society, Monday 6.30, FREE
Cybercrime: Stealing your identity, Tuesday 7-8.30, FREE
