Our 2018 Lectures
Our 2018 adventure, something for everyone:
Scientific advances, social issues, general knowledge
The lectures will take place on alternate Thursday mornings from 10am to 11:30am—12noon commencing March 29, 2018, in the Trinity United Church Hall, 400 Stevenson St. N, Guelph
PDF Version
Scientific advances, social issues, general knowledge
The lectures will take place on alternate Thursday mornings from 10am to 11:30am—12noon commencing March 29, 2018, in the Trinity United Church Hall, 400 Stevenson St. N, Guelph
PDF Version
March 29th
Horses to Robots When retired farmer Peter Hannan was a child, fields on the family farm were cultivated and crops were reaped by equipment pulled by teams of horses. Soya beans could not be grown in Wellington County as the growing season was too short. Peter shows how crop science and the development and sophistication of farming equipment has increased crop yields and changed life on the farm over one man’s life time. April 12th Addressing the antibiotic resistance tsunami to prevent a post-antibiotic apocalypse University of Guelph Pathobiology Professor Emeritus John Prescott describes the expansion of antibiotic resistance and its fundamental threat to modern medicine and animal and human health. What’s the scale of the problem, how does resistance develop and spread, and what is being done to address the crisis? April 26th - CANCELLED - RESCHEDULED ON MONDAY 27 AUGUST 2018 Our apologies but circumstances beyond our control necessitated this change. Death in the Family CBC Producer and journalist John Chipman discusses oversights in the justice system that permitted incompetent pathologist Charles Smith to help convict innocent parents in their children’s deaths. Tragic as these very human stories are, he shows that what we have learned might protect us from similar miscarriages of justice in the future. May 10th The Geology of Iceland University of Waterloo Geology Professor Emeritus Alan Morgan describes the unique geology of Iceland, which lies over a hotspot, the Iceland Plume above the divergent boundary between the Eurasian and North American plates, and how it has from time to time affected the world’s climate in dramatic and sometimes devastating ways. May 24th Policing in the Twenty First Century Retired Detective Sergeant John Sheflin, previously in the Toronto Police Service, talks of the tremendous strides in computer technology and advances in the science of forensics that are making policing and criminal investigations both increasingly more responsive to the needs of citizens and more challenging for individual police officers. June 7th The story of the Guelph University Arboretum It began in 1905 when the late Professor Edward Zavitz planted white pines, some now over a hundred years old and still growing, at the corner of College Avenue and Victoria Road in Guelph. Associate Professor and University of Guelph Arboretum Director Shelley Hunt shares the long and diverse history of the Arboretum and past and current research aimed at protecting the Southern Ontario biome. June 21st “The Information Gap between Blind and Sighted Persons has Closed” says Jim Sanders, Past President and Chief Executive officer of CNIB, on giving his inspiring and positive thoughts on living with blindness, and how rarely it is the severe handicap that sighted people tend to view it as. He explains the remarkable recent advances in technology that enable the blind to “see” the world around them. Jim has been recognized for his achievements, receiving The King Clancy and Canadian Helen Keller Awards. In 2003 he was made a member of the Order of Canada and in 2017 was inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame. July 5th How has the family, Orchidaceae, become the most successful and largest family of flowering plants? Professor Emeritus Larry Peterson will discuss features of orchid biology that have led to a family that includes over 25,000 species. Topics include pollination mechanisms, associations with beneficial fungi, adaptations to a wide range of terrestrial habitats, and how numerous orchid species have taken to the trees as epiphytes. The amazing diversity in floral forms has resulted in orchids becoming popular house plants and to a multimillion dollar horticultural industry. As a result of their popularity, many orchid species are being poached from the wild. Because of this, and destruction of habitats, over 300 species are listed as endangered or threatened. July 19th (Please Note that this lecture will be in the Sanctuary) Caribbean Coral Reefs: Threats and Conservation Dr. Ryan Horricks of the University of Guelph and St. George's University of Grenada explains the world-wide importance of maintaining healthy coral reef populations in the Caribbean. He will discuss some of the challenges that various reef recovery strategies have faced and provide some thoughts on the future of Caribbean coral reefs. August 2nd The Life & Death of the Concorde Craig Skinner, a captain with Air Canada will look at what made the Concorde a unique aircraft to design, build and to fly and what ultimately led to its demise. August 16th (Please Note that this lecture will be in the Sanctuary) The Dust of Kandahar Retired U.S. Ambassador Jonathan Addleton provides a personal account of his year of service as Senior Civilian Representative of the U.S. Government to southern Afghanistan based in Kandahar. He movingly describes the everyday human drama of the soldiers, local tribal dignitaries, government officials and religious leaders with whom he interacted and worked. He also touches on the violence and tragedy of war, culminating with the attack by a suicide bomber in April 2013 that killed a fellow foreign service officer, his Afghan-American translator and three soldiers accompanying them. MONDAY 27 AUGUST 2018 This has been rescheduled to this fill in date from the original schedule of 26th April Antarctica! The Frozen Continent Dr. Alan Morgan - Geology Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo Antarctica is the fifth largest continent in the world and is mantled by ice that averages almost 2 km in thickness. The continent was first observed in 1820 and still remains one of the least visited areas on Earth. In this illustrated talk, Alan will take you to the Antarctic Peninsula that juts north toward South America. He will cover the voyage, some aspects of geology, avian and marine biology and some of the spectacular scenery of the region. August 30th Replacement lecture, Thursday August 30th, titled "Electricity, Oil and CO2" Monica Skinner, scheduled to talk on the history of the steel drum, will regretfully not be available on Thursday 30th. Bernard Skinner, retired mechanical engineer, has kindly agreed to step in and provide a very topical talk on the environmental impact of electricity generation. September 13 Annual General meeting followed by Weather Gone Wild: What Communities and Home Owners can do to Combat Extreme Weather Events Dr. Blair Feltmate, Head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo, will discuss climate change and worsening extreme weather events that are affecting communities across Canada. The most financially and socially costly of these events is flooding, and more specifically, residential basement flooding. He suggests actions that communities and home owners can take to reduce overall flood risk, and in so doing ensure affordable home insurance going forward. Blair is Head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo. The primary purpose of the Intact Centre is to mobilize practical and cost-effective means to help de-risk Canada from the costs associated with extreme weather events. Previous positions Blair has held include Vice President, Sustainable Development, Bank of Montreal; Director, Sustainable Development, OPG; and Partner, Sustainable Investment Group/YMG Capital Management. Blair has written textbooks on Aquatic Ecology (CABI Publisher), and Sustainable Banking (University to Toronto Press). He is generally interviewed by the media 100-150 times per year. He Chairs the development of two climate change adaptation Standards for the Canadian Standards Association; he is Chair, Federal Government of Canada Expert Panel on Climate Adaptation and Resilience Results; and, he serves on the Resilience Strategy Steering Committee, City of Toronto. |