Big ideas, brilliant minds

The Victorian Government has announced a line-up of international and local scientists, authors and thinkers heading to Melbourne for the 2007 Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures.

Noble Laureate Sir Paul Nurse, philanthropist and civic activist Robert Klein, researcher and founder of GlobeImmune Dr Alex Franzusoff and science writer Matt Ridley will take part in this year's free public lectures.

The lectures include:

Science, Politics, Philanthropy and Money: building community consensus for controversial medical research and difficult decisions

Californian Robert Klein was frustrated that a US government moratorium was holding back stem cell research that could help his diabetic son. So he created proposition 71 - a $3 billion US bond offering to fund the Californian Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

It wasn't the first time that Klein has stepped in to advance issues. He had previously negotiated passage of a $1.5 billion federal bill to support diabetes research; organised $3 billion in funding for public/private housing projects; and campaigned to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons.

Klein will talk about why he believes that stem cell research is essential; how he built community consensus in California for Proposition 71; the role of the public and business in directly supporting medical research and the future for stem cell research in California

• Venue: BMW Edge, Federation Square
• Date: Monday 25 June
• Time: 6.00 pm - 7.30 pm
• Cost: Free event, no bookings

Deakin Lectures

Cancer treatments innovations - how studying yeast can help

Striking similarities have been found between humans and simple baker's yeast with regard to the changes their genes undergo as they age. While yeasts don't get cancer, they do have one of the major hallmarks of malignancy - genetic instability. Researchers are using yeast to help explain why there is an abrupt increase in cancer risk as people age, and what triggers the genetic instability.

Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse and Dr Alex Franzusoff will talk about the importance of yeast in cancer research. Nurse is an active researcher and president of Rockefeller University, and Franzusoff is the founder of US biotech GlobeImmune. His company has engineered yeast in clinical trials for pancreatic cancer and another in clinical trials for hepatitis C.

Nurse's research led to the identification of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) as the key regulator molecule controlling the process by which cells make copies of themselves.

Sir Gustav Nossal will facilitate the lecture. It has been developed as a free public component of the 23rd International Conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology.

• Venue: Lower Melbourne Town Hall
• Date: Friday 6 July
• Time: 12.30 pm - 2.00 pm
• Cost: Free event, no bookings

Deakin Lectures

Nature? Nurture? What makes us human?

The dichotomy between nature and nurture has fascinated people since an Elizabethan schoolmaster first coined the phrase. It is an argument that tore apart anthropology and psychology in the twentieth century.

In this lecture, science writer Matt Ridley will argue that the debate can now at last be resolved, thanks to the reading of the human genome. In 2000 we became the first species to read our own recipe and what it revealed was a startling new idea: the difference between a man and a mouse lies not in what genes each has, but in where and when those genes are switched on.

And the switching on and off of genes happens throughout our lives in response to all sorts of triggers, including conscious ones. So, as we learn, we change the expression of our nature. Nurture turns on nature.

Natasha Mitchell of Radio National's 'All in the Mind' will be the moderator for a discussion that will include an expert panel and the audience. The implications of nature and nurture upon human health and behaviour will be discussed.

• Venue: Melbourne Town Hall
• Date: Tuesday 10 July
• Time: 6pm - 7.30 pm
• Cost: Free event, no bookings

Deakin Lectures

Science, business and the law: Locking up innovation or sharing and harvesting it -- which way to go?

As open source software continues to transform the internet, what can science learn from the computing revolution?

Are we missing out on the full benefits of science and technology because of outdated ideas about copyright and patenting?

This lecture will consider whether in our rush to protect intellectual property we are locking it up and damaging our capacity to deliver solutions for the critical issues of the 21st century.

John Wilbanks believes that existing social and legal infrastructures are choking science. He is working to create new ways to share scientific papers through scholar's copyright; share biological materials, and open source data mining of biological abstracts.

Richard Jefferson, the founder and CEO of CAMBIA-BiOS, based in Canberra, says that biological innovation has transformed humanity and still has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of the nearly four billion people in the world who live on daily incomes lower than the price of a latte. However, the biotechnology revolution of the last 20 years has led to the tools for innovation becoming locked up, he says.

Brian Fitzgerald, lawyer and editor, has seen the best and worst of copyright management. He's led the introduction of Creative Commons into Australia and has campaigned against the onerous copyright provisions of the Australia US free trade agreement.

The discussion will be moderated by broadcaster and science journalist Robyn Williams.

• Venue: Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library of Victoria
• Date: Monday 16 July
• Time: 6.30 pm - 8.00 pm
• Cost: Free event, booking required

Deakin Lectures