UCL Minds

Happy Earth Day! This episode’s focus is on entrepreneurial climate action: what are businesses – particularly the AI sector – doing to combat the climate crisis and help reach net zero?  Helping our hosts Mark and Simon answer these questions are Sims Witherspoon (current UCL student studying for MSC in climate change and Climate and Sustainability Lead at Google DeepMind), Buffy Price (COO and Co-Founder of Carbon Re, an AI startup which aims to accelerate decarbonisation), and Zoe Cokeliss Barsley (Director of Sustainability at Oxford University Press) and UCL alumna (MSc Conservation 2003) Carbon Re https://carbonre.com/ Oxford University Press Responsible Publishing report https://oup.foleon.com/responsible-publishing-report-2022-23/2022-23/ For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/podcasts-videos/generation-one-climate-podcast  Sign up to our climate newsletter here: https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/6T06-7DL/subscribe-to-ucl-climate-hubs-newsletters  Date of episode recording: 14th February, 23rd February and 1st March 2024 Duration: 32.15 minutes Language of episode: English  Presenter: Mark Maslin and Simon Chin-Yee  Guests: Sims Witherspoon, Google DeepMind Buffy Price, Carbon Re Zoe Cokeliss Barsley, Oxford University Press Producer: Adam Batstone

To mark World Haemophilia Day, we sit down with Professor Amit Nathwani of the UCL Cancer Institute to explore his journey to commercialising the groundbreaking haemophilia A treatment, Roctavian. Host Nigel Campbell is joined by Prof Nathwani and Dr. Rick Fagan, UCLB Director of Biopharm, to explore how Amit’s work looking after patients with haemophilia in the NHS instilled a mission to develop a 'one and done' vaccine type approach to the condition. Amit’s lab to market story, working with UCLB, led to the creation of Roctavian, a one-time gene therapy used for the treatment of adults with severe haemophilia A. The therapy, which was licensed to BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc, received marketing approval in Europe in 2022 and US FDA approval in 2023, and is now available to patients commercially. Date of episode recording: 2024-04-10T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:23:58 Language of episode: English Presenter: Nigel Campbell Guests: Prof Amit Nathwani; Dr Rick Fagan Producer: Nora Amin

In this podcast, we examine what 'decent' living standards mean for people in low-income countries – including energy access and transport infrastructure – and how these are critically linked with the urgent need to reduce global carbon emissions. Join UCL experts Professor Priti Parikh, Professor Jing Meng and Dr Simon Chin-Yee as they discuss what's needed to lift living standards for low-income countries in the global climate crisis, and the role that high-income nations can play. Transcription link: https://bartlett-review.ucl.ac.uk/podcast-lifting-living-standards-with-low-emissions/index.html Date of episode recording: 2024-03-06T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:31:40 Language of episode: English Presenter: Professor Priti Parikh Guests: Professor Jing Meng; Dr Simon Chin-Yee Producer: Liz Griffith and Adam Batstone

What are individuals doing to fight climate change and how important is the role of local activism? This episode will be focusing on individual climate action, with our guests chatting to our hosts about the role of activism in initiating change. Featuring Louise Harris (songwriter and Just Stop Oil activist), Versha Jones, (Climate Reality Project - Volunteer National Coordinator, UK) Annabel Rice (Political Advisor at the Green Alliance) and Kris de Meyer (Senior Research Fellow in Climate Communications University College London, Dept of Earth Sciences). ‘We Tried’ song by Louise Harris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2XV20G85Tg The Climate Reality Project https://www.climaterealityproject.org/ For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/podcasts-videos/generation-one-climate-podcast Sign up to our climate newsletter here: https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/6T06-7DL/subscribe-to-ucl-climate-hubs-newsletters Date of episode recording: 14th February and 8th March Duration: 39.20 minutes Language of episode: English Presenter: Mark Maslin and Simon Chin-Yee Guests: Louise Harris, Just Stop Oil Versha Jones, The Climate Reality Project Annabel Rice, Green Alliance Kris de Meyer, Department of Earth Sciences, UCL Producer: Adam Batstone

Date of lecture: Tuesday 19 March 2024 About the lecture: Beauty and aesthetics have always played a multi-faceted role in human society. During the last decades, smile attractiveness has become a very important factor influencing both personal and professional aspects of everyday life. This has been compounded by the effect of social media and marketing. Dentistry has also evolved significantly over the last decades and has the capacity to predictably restore missing teeth with various modalities, including dental implants, or completely transform the shape and colour of teeth with smile make-overs. The demand for such services has steadily increased and patients are faced with a multitude of offers from dental colleagues. Such dental treatment is usually elective and expensive which also leads to the phenomenon of dental tourism. This presentation will showcase the state-of-the-art dental treatment modalities available today for tooth replacement with dental implants and smile design/make-overs but will also highlight the pitfalls of misinformation, overtreatment and marketing of some dental services. About the speaker: Professor Lambis Petridis qualified from the Dental School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

About the Lecture: A tapestry of cosmic events stretching over the past 13.8 billion years have shaped our existence in a vast universe. This lecture will explore how the computer simulations to study the cosmos have developed in tandem with more down-to-earth pursuits like weather forecasting. We will see how the resulting computer codes have unlocked our understanding of the universe, from galaxies and black holes to the essence of matter. And the lecture will conclude with a look at the multiverse and the contentious idea put forward by some philosophers and scientists that we may already be living inside a simulation, Matrix-style. The talk is based on the lecturer's critically-acclaimed book “The Universe in a Box”, published in 2023. About the Speaker Andrew Pontzen, Professor of Cosmology at UCL Andrew Pontzen is a professor of cosmology and author of the recent highly-acclaimed book The Universe In A Box. His award-winning research uses computer simulations to shed light on the cosmos. He has written for the Guardian, New Scientist, BBC Sky at Night and BBC Science Focus; appeared on BBC, Amazon Prime and Discovery Channel documentaries; and contributed to BBC radio programmes including Inside Science, CrowdScience and The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry.

About the Lecture: Understanding reproductive health is key for everyone, whether we want children or not. Since writing a book called Your Fertile Years, Professor Harper has been researching into all aspects of reproductive health education and heads the International Reproductive Health Education Collaboration who aim to deliver reproductive health education to everyone. She created a survey to ask teenagers around the world their attitudes and knowledge to reproductive health. So far data has been obtained from the UK, Belgium, Greece and Japan. And she asked UK teenage girls how they feel about having a period. She has also surveyed over 6000 women to ask their attitudes and knowledge of their periods and menopause. Through this research, resources have been created to help teachers and health professionals provide education and she is heading the development of the UK Menopause Education and Support programme, so that all women in the UK can understand what happens during menopause. About the Speaker Joyce Harper, Professor of Reproductive Science at UCL Joyce Harper is an award-winning educator, author, podcaster, academic, and scientist. She is Professor of Reproductive Science at University College London in the Institute for Women’s Health where she is Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group. She has worked in the fields of fertility, genetics and reproductive science since 1987, written over 240 scientific papers and published three books. She is leading the development of a UK Menopause Education and Support Programme with support from key organizations. She is co-founder of the UK Fertility Education Initiative (www.fertilityed.uk) and founder of the International Reproductive Health Education Collaboration (www.eshre.eu/IRHEC). She is working with schools in the UK and globally to help deliver reproductive health education. Her latest book, Your Fertile Years, What you need to know to make informed choices, was published in 2021 by Sheldon Press. Her podcast is called Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me This? Is available on all podcast channels. Further information – www.joyceharper.com Follow on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Tiktok and Linkedin - @ProfJoyceHarper

In part two of a two part medical special we focus on the question 'If I am good at Maths and Biology and I want to go into Neurosurgery and Science, do I have to start out as an ordinary doctor? I am also interested in Pathology, where do I start with this?' In this episode we focus on the second question and Dr. Shoba Poduval talks us through a career in Pathology. Date of episode recording: 2024-03-19T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:11:37 Language of episode: English Presenter: Roberta Livingston Guests: Dr Shoba Poduval Producer: Roberta Livingston and Emma Bryant

In part one of a two part medical special we focus on the question 'If I am good at Maths and Biology and I want to go into Neurosurgery and Science, do I have to start out as an ordinary doctor? I am also interested in Pathology, where do I start with this?' In this episode we focus on the first question and Dr. Shoba Poduval talks us through applying for medical school and how to pursue a career in Neurosurgery. Date of episode recording: 2024-03-19T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:11:37 Language of episode: English Presenter: Roberta Livingston Guests: Dr. Shoba Poduval Producer: Roberta Livingston and Emma Bryant

This week we’re looking at disputes between states and international investors. How are they resolved? And why should every one of us care about them? Date of episode recording: 2024-02-29T00:00:00Z Duration: 38:13 Language of episode: English (UK)

 Presenter: Prof Alan Renwick Guests: Lauge Poulsen Producer: Eleanor Kingwell-Banham