Category Archives: Uncategorized

Irene Halliburton will talk about the process of drug discovery and progress towards a treatment for Malaria at the University of Dundee.

We all enjoyed Sabine’s talk on Peruvian culture. She has kindly provided handouts of her talk.

The first handout is a short description of Sabine’s research into clearances of the indigenous population from their agricultural land by Estate owners. There are remarkable parallels with Scottish history.

Dedenbach Clearances Peru – Handout (SD 20-11-16) SHORT

This handout describes the clearances in more detail

Dedenbach Clearances Peru – Handout (SD 20-11-16)

And finally, a short handout on “Coca is not Cocaine”. How Coca is used by the indigenous peoples in Peru.

LONGDedenbach Coca – Handout (SD 20-11-16

Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar is an expert in Latin American studies at Stirling University. She is going to tell us about two fascinating aspects of the indigenous Peruvian culture: the well-know use of Coca leaves and the less-well-known history of the Peruvian Highland Clearances.

We have a really interesting talk coming up this week. Dr Steve Brusatte, of the University of Edinburgh, is going to tell us about the discovery of Dinosaur fossils on Skye.  Friday 18th November. 7:30pm in the Souter Theatre, A K Bell Library. Perth.

On Friday 28th October Matthew Jarron, Curator of Dundee University Museum, will give the second “Curious Minds” talk of the season. Matthew will talk about one of the most remarkable Scottish academics of all time, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Thomson was Professor of Natural History at Dundee College and St Andrews University. Amongst many other accomplishments he is perhaps best remembered for his work “On Growth and Form” in which he described the mathematical basis for the growth of many features seen in plants and animals.

Mike Robinson, CEO of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, gave the introductory talk in the “Curious Minds” lecture series last night. Mike reviewed the evidence for man-made climate change and discussed some of the options that could help avert a global catastrophe. Interestingly, Mike pointed out that James Croll, one of the first people to put forward a model explaining climate change, was a self educated Perthshire man and member of the PSNS. More than 80 people attended and there was an enthusiastic discussion afterwards.