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THE BEST EVENTS, TALKS AND SPORT
* How to be a City Gardener Some handy hints on how to create an oasis of blooms in a crevice of concrete or a sill of a window. See feature in Shop. page 11 1. The Hidden Gardens. Tramway, Thu 37 Mar & Thu 7 Apr. * FameLab! Presenting has come a long way since the days of Johnny Ball and Terry Nutkins. Now Channel 4 is seeking the new face of science TV. Come along and boggle them with your articulations of equations. Visit wwwtamelaborg. Glasgow Science Centre, Sat 9 Apr
* Beermattingl Do your best ideas happen down the pub? Perfect. then. This is an evening for budding inventors. entrepreneurs and anyone bursting with good ideas who likes to flow with a good pint of amber nectar. www.beermatting.com. Pond Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 72 Apr. =l< Challenging the Powerful: Richard Holloway Former Bishop of Edinburgh and now chair of the Scottish Arts Council. Richard Holloway (pictured) knows about power from all sides. The profound thinker who's never one to follow orthodoxies. talks about ideas his book Looking into the Distance. North Edinburgh Arts Centre, Wed 13 Apr.
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desire and anger: our skies are gala\ie\ ol'
te\t messages and phone calls bouncing bet\\een satellites. Science has beamed l'orxxard to surpass the dreams and lllg‘lllllltll‘cW ol‘ \ci-li uriterx and is arousing moral debate that goe\ to the heart ol. the big questions: xx here did he come l'rom: “here are we going: \\ ho controls creation'.’ lt real|_\ matters. and e\er_\one has an opinion.
One man \\ ho has consistentl} \tuck to and pioneered ideas ol‘ c‘\oltitioit;ii'_\ theor} is Richard l)a\\kin\. lli\ groundlu‘eaking book 'l'lic .S'i'liixli (iv/1c came jthl at the time \\hen genetic research “as entering ne\\ phases ot' controxerx} and dixcmer}. and eight _\ear\ beliu‘e Stephen ll;t\\l\lll\ “ax explaining a [fr/cf Hixlurt' of 'Iimi'. 'l‘ltexe t\\o botth took the micro and the macro ol' our planet and uni\er\e and tried to e\p|ain it to the common homo \apienx. l)a\\kin\. \\ith his charismatic manner and a glint in the e} c. brought our \ellish genes Ulll illltt the open. (HT 'l‘V tli\ctl\\ittll\ and ill at'tielex ill the prev.
lt hax tll\\;l}\ been a part ol‘ the ()\l'ord prot'exxorK mission to disseminate his ideas and research to as broad a public as [Tt)\\il3lc. and thix inxtinct has tapped a hunger l'or underxtanding. Ile come\ to the Science l"e\ti\;tl [U tll\ctl\\ ltlea\ ill ltl\ new book \xith editor ol‘ Xen- .S‘t'i'ciilixl. .-\lun Anderson. The .lui'i'xlurx ' 'lii/t'.‘ .-\ I’i/gi'inltigc In Illt’ Hun/1 u/ [in ix an alluring prospect. l\ing the age-old de\ice M an epic iourne}. l)a\\kin\ traces me back to its origin. We are not. though. he snows. in an} \xa} a clima\ oi e\olution limit which to work backuards. Lite.
80 comp lcated, so wonderful
Evolutionary scientist RICHARD DAWKINS embarks on a journey back to the dawn of life and wants to share the tale, as Ruth Hedges discovers.
organisms and species ha\e not been building and e\ol\ing to create us l)a\\kin\' \ixion l\ much more modest than that. 'llulnanx are \er} much not a clima\. We call e\pect that in It) million _\ear\’ time there‘ll be something \er_\ dil‘l‘erenl going on.' he \a)\.
In the introduction to The .-\iii'i'\/urx ' ‘lii/i' I)a\\kin\ \\ rites: ‘ll' )ou go backuardx. )oti end tip celebrating the unit} ol' lite and it )ou go l'oruard you e\tol dixerxit}.‘ I ask him it'. in the \cll\c ot' a unit}. he l‘eelx ait_\thing spiritual“? ‘.\'o.‘ be \a_\\ detinitel}. So he sees e\cr_\thing as biological and scientilic'.’ 'Yex. but I \touldn't \\l\l1 to dottnpla} that. I think lllal\ a rather grander \ ixion ol~ Inc. It l\ so complicated and \o \tondert'ul attd abo\ c all it\ \t) \tonderlul that we llt)\\ prett_\ \tell lllltlcl‘\litlltl it. and it reall} out— claxxex amthing that you could call \pirituaI.‘ So he reall) tech that we're at a point ol' tindcrxtanding'.’ ‘Yex. I do. We understand not )et e\'el"\tlting. btit hugcl} more than he did a centur} ago.'
B} thing a literar} de\ice ot' a pilgrimage. Dawkins is. in et‘l'ect. Ill}llit)lt)gi\lllg a scientific theor}. ‘lt‘x an epic intll‘llc‘}. \tith a goal in mind at the tar end and \tilll plent} ot~ [lllllgx happening along the nav‘ The \\ hole histor} ol’ me in one book.) l\ it possible.) 'l‘lilx ix )(itll' chance [0 ttxk the man \\ ho belie\e\ he understands the ol'igilh and patterns ol‘ lite and \Kl‘llc\ like a hard. Science is stranger than religion and fiction put together. it
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Richard Dawkins in conversation with Alun Anderson, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Royal Museum, Edinburgh, Sat 9 Apr.
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