Kaikohe

 

This is a condensation of the first Kaikohe Café Scientifique Newsletter. The reason for the Newsletter is to inform those who are interested in attending Café Scientific meetings of the topic for the next meeting, as well as including scientific and engineering items of interest.

 

The meetings are held in the Pioneer Village café commencing at 3pm. Tea and Coffee is available along with some finger food. A small charge is made for the refreshments—the proceeds of which are donated to the Pioneer Village Administration.

 

The Café Scientific idea originated in England and France around 1998, and since then the number of  “Café Scientifiques” - or Science cafes—has grown to over 1,100 worldwide. Any interested person can attend informal, grassroots talks or video presentations in relaxed coffeehouse type settings.

 

It is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee, anyone can come to hear and ask questions about the latest ideas in science and technology.

 

Traditionally the format of the meetings is a 15 to 20 minute talk by a scientist or engineer on their specialty; a 10 minute break to refill coffee cups, and a gathering of thoughts about the topic; then a question and answer session which is limited to 1 hour or less.

 

In Kaikohe we will generally present lectures in the form of a video; but when available we will have a local or visiting scientist or engineer to make the presentation (followed by questions). 

 

Locally there are a number of science and engineering activities taking place which can provide interesting topics material for our meetings

 

These meetings are for everyone. The topics, although of a science or technical nature, are not ‘high-brow’, and will relate to anyone who has an interest in science and engineering.

 

Recent Science News Items

	Rosetta Comet

Lander touches down on a comet.  A spacecraft named Rosetta was launched by the european Space Agency in March 2004 to reach a comet named 67P (for short) about 10 years later.  This occured on 6 August last year.  The comet is shaped a bit like a rubber duck, and is about 6km long from 'head' to 'tail'. 

 

See the full news letter in pdf form

 

A new antibiotic offers great hope against resistent bugs.  The first new

antibotic to be discovered in nearly 30 years has been hailed as a "paradgim shift" in the fight against the growing resistance to such drugs. 

 

See the full news letter in pdf form

 

 

Upcoming Meetings

25 Januray Topic: The Higgs Boson Discovery.  Joseph Lykken, Deputy Director and Chief Research Officer of Fermilab USA gives an overview

Dr Clare Postlethwaite

of the LHC in Switzerland and describes the processes that discovered the Higgs Boson.

 

22nd Feburary.  Why Did the Pigeon Cross the Road.  A video of a talk by Dr Clare Postlethwaite from Auckland University shows how mathematics can help to understand many aspects of anmal behavior, using examples from homing pigeons, possums, bees and electric fish.

 

Full Newsletter in pdf format