Lunch Hour Lectures - Autumn 2009 - Video

Dr Armstrong will discuss the potential of ‘metabolic materials’ that possess some of the properties of living systems. By generating such materials it is hoped that our cities will be able to replace the energy they draw from the environment, respond to the needs of their populations and eventually become regarded as ‘alive’ in the same way we think about parks or gardens. Metabolic materials could become a key sustainable technology with the potential to transform the world’s urban environments.

Can we use evidence from the social epidemiology carried out in previous times to help us predict the likely effect of the present recession on public health? Mortality in unemployed men in the 1970s and 80s was around 30% higher than average. However, the 1980s saw a rapid increase in life expectancy in the population as a whole. Professor Bartley argues that we can now use evidence from longitudinal studies to understand the complex impact of recession on public health.

To celebrate Halloween. This lecture will look at tales of vampires and the undead with special reference to Central and Eastern Europe and some orthodox funeral customs used to placate and hopefully prevent their return as revenants to the world of the living. Participants are advised to bring garlic!

Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Selma Lagerlöf – the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature – 10 December. Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her novels inspired epoch-making early films, when she turned 80 she was one of the most widely translated Swedish authors ever, and her work continues to attract new readers today. This lecture gives a flavour of the range of her writing, looks at the explanations for her success and tests the findings of more text-focused scholarship.

rofessor Genn will focus on the critical ways in which courts support society and the economy and on how they have directly improved standards of medicine practice and health care. She will also discuss new evidence about the link between access to justice and health and consider whether much of what turns up in doctors’ surgeries (including requests for anti-depressants) are in fact the results of an inability to access the courts.