Bioethics & dual use – the potential for misuse of scientific research

“Ferret Flu Experiments, Ethics and the Dual Use Problem in the Biological Sciences”

Speakers: Professor Seumas Miller, Dr. Michael Selgelid
Panelists: Professor Ian Ramshaw, Dr. Gary Lum, Professor Roger Bradbury

 

Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) (Click on this link for fuller description of the seminar)

Public Ethics Seminar Series

Thursday 17th May 2012.

Doors at 5:00, Event 5:30 – 7:00 pm

The Chapel, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture,

15 Blackall Street, Barton.

 

In the Academy Library:

Johnstone R.W. 2008. Bioterror : anthrax, influenza and the future of public health security
Kuhse, H. & Singer, P. 2001. A companion to bioethics
E-Book : Singer, P. & Viens, A.M. 2008. Cambridge textbook of bioethics
In UNSW E-Journal Portal (SIRIUS): Miller, S. & Selgelid, M. Ethical and Philosophical Aspects of the Dual Use Dilemma in the Biological Sciences. Science and engineering ethics, 2007, Vol.13(4), pp.523-580 also Resnik, D.B. (2009) What is “Dual Use” Research? A Response to Miller and Selgelid. Science and engineering ethics, Vol.15(1),  pp.3-5.

 

 

Talking trees and illuminating ice. Considering tree rings, ice cores, climate and dating.

Measuring the past.

The University of Sheffield’s Dendrochronology Laboratory claims to have a continuous dendrochronological master sequence on oaks for England going back to about 5000 BC. It made me wonder whether there is something similar in Australia, and given the large Australian land area and the small number of Australian dendrochronology specialists whether Australia could ever claim the same. Besides Paleoclimatology applications, trees are also now used as archives for studying the spread and impact of soil and groundwater contamination. Due to the ability of trees to store in the tree-rings a record of the contaminant history, the application of dendro-ecology and dendrochemistry has become a tool for characterization of contaminant release.

50th Anniversay of The International Day of Human Space Flight – 12th of April

          ‘The International day of Human Space Flight’  50th Anniversary.

“12 April 1961 was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity. The UN General Assembly expressed its deep conviction of the common interest of mankind in promoting and expanding the exploration and use of outer space, as the province of all mankind, for peaceful purposes and in continuing efforts to extend to all States the benefits derived therefrom.” Source: UN website

We have a number of  ebooks about mans place in space at the Academy Library: ‘The new space race China vs. the United States’  by Erik Seedhouse.

‘Military space power a guide to the issues’ by Wilson W. S. Wong and James Fergusson.

‘Handbook of space technology’  Wilfried Ley, Klaus Wittmann, Willi Hallmann (editors).

As well as a number of books:   ‘Space security and global cooperation’  editors, Ajey Lele, Gunjan Singh.

‘Spaceplanes : from airport to spaceport’  by Matthew A. Bentley

‘Tourists in space : a practical guide’  by Erik Seedhouse.

‘Fly me to the moon : an insider’s guide to the new science of space travel ‘ by Edward Belbruno.

You might also like to explore the NASA website, the Australian Space Research Institute , and space.gov.au, also check out the Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla just south of Canberra.

Red wine and superconductivity

The Academy Library has a surprising amount of material on wine. The material covers a wide array of business, literature, history, chemistry, social research, even psychological applications & theory however there may be a gap in the materials science area…

MIT’s Technology review recently posted: ‘Red Wine, Tartaric Acid, and the Secret of Superconductivity‘ reporting further on last year’s discovery that red wine could turn some materials into semiconductors. A new paper had been posted this week at http://arxiv.org/ an Open access e-prints website.

Find more on sozzled superconductors* by exploring the terms: ‘wine superconductivity’ in UNSW SearchFirst.

New resource trial : GeoFacets

GeoFacets trial until 28/3/2012

Access through this link: GeoFacets
UNSW would welcome your comments and feedback on this resource.