http://www.leedsskeptics.org/events Upcoming events of Leeds Skeptics (C) 2012 Chris Worfolk Foundation Why should nothing matter? If anything matters, why should nothing matter? And yet it does, for there isn't anything, it seems, that nothing does not touch, or anything that does not touch nothing. History, philosophy, religion, science, art, literature, music - all look towards nothing at some point, stimulating questions that would otherwise not be asked. Who, for example, could have believed that nothing held back progress for 600 years in the Middle Ages, all because of mistaken translation, or that nothing is a way to tackle (and answer) the perennial question "what is art?"? Ronald Green uses nothing in a genuine attempt to look at the world in a different way, to give new angles to old problems and so to stimulate new thoughts. What is this nothing, that we can't actually see, touch or feel? Is it absolute? Is it relative to everything else? If we are able to think about it, write and read about it, is it something, and if so wouldn't it then not be nothing? This is precisely the mystery of nothing - that the more we think about it, the more there is to it. Disarmingly invisible, the point of nothing - to paraphrase Bertrand Russell on philosophy - is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth examining, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. Ronald Green is the author of "Nothing Matters - a book about nothing" (iff-Books). Philosopher, linguist, university lecturer and ESL teacher, with 13 ESL books published, Ronald has lectured and given workshops in Europe, North and South America and the Middle East on linguistics, ESL and the use of the Internet in education. His short stories have been published in Nuvein magazine, Tryst, Aesthetica, the Sink and Unholy Biscuit. He has completed a philosophical novel and co-authored a psychological thriller with strong philosophical underpinnings. For the past five years he has been thinking seriously about nothing, culminating in his recently-published book. http://www.leedsskeptics.org/events/43 Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000 Talk by Dr Neil Cooper from the University of Bradford. http://www.leedsskeptics.org/events/44 Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000 Imagine a world in which we could make fuels or pharmaceuticals in the same way we ferment malt to make beer. A world in which materials as strong as steel are made without industrial waste, or artificial viruses can be used to administer anti-cancer drugs without the usual side-effects of chemotherapy. Synthetic biology promises new technologies that could change our lives through the design and construction of new biological parts and devices, and the redesign of existing, natural biological organisms for new purposes. So, how can we redesign living organisms to perform useful functions? Can we create artificial life in a laboratory? Dr Bruce Turnbull, a synthetic chemical biologist from the University of Leeds will provide an overview of synthetic biology - the possibilities, practicalities, perils and potential profits. http://www.leedsskeptics.org/events/47 Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:00:00 +0000 Dr Dimitar Kazakov from the University of York presents an introduction to the general principles of artificial intelligence. http://www.leedsskeptics.org/events/45 Sat, 19 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000 Rob Lyons, author of Panic on a Plate: How Society Developed an Eating Disorder discusses the unjustified anxiety present in society around the topic of food. http://www.leedsskeptics.org/events/46 Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:00:00 +0000 More details will be announced nearer the date. http://www.leedsskeptics.org/events/48 Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:00:00 +0000