Report from recent Shaping Science student conference at the RI

Over 170 students and teachers gathered at the Royal Institution on the 7th November 2008 for a Shaping Science conference.

Harald Schmidt from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Following a welcome and introduction by Olympia Brown and Lisa Bailey from the RI and Paul Bowers Isaacson from the Nuffield Curriculum Centre, Harald Schmidt from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics spoke to the conference about Public health and controlling infectious diseases.

Harald's presentation covered issues such as 'What kind of vaccination
policy should we have in the UK?' and 'Whose job is it to ensure that we lead a healthy life?'. To dowload a copy of the PowerPoint used by Harald, click here (6.4 MB).

Elizabeth Pisani, epidemiologist and author After lunch, Elizabeth Pisani who is an epidemiologist and author spoke to the conference in a session entitled Prostitutes, policeman, petrol: HIV research in the real world. Elizabeth's recent book The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS explains why ideology and money have overtaken science in dealing with the AIDS epidemic and she drew on research from her book to explain why good science is only the first step! To download a copy of the PowerPoint used by Elizabeth click here (6.7 MB).

The conference closed with a session by Angela Melamed and Paul Bowers Isaacson from the Nuffield Curriculum Centre about AS assessment (3.2 MB).

Some further papers from the day are also available here (5.2 MB).

Students at the conference having lunch in the newly refurbished Royal Institution

Last updated: 12 November 2008