Animal Care in Dublin Zoo

The Institute of Biology of Ireland works to disseminate biology in many forms and to different levels of education in Ireland. As part of that…

The Institute of Biology of Ireland invites its members, families, friends and the general public to attend this free lecture by Professor Tracy Robson entitled Tackling…

As part of the celebration of its Golden Jubilee, The Institute of Biology of Ireland invites you to a keynote Public Lecture in The National Botanic Gardens, Dublin 9 on Friday October 17^th 2014 at 7:30pm. FREE Admission.

‘Theories, Facts and Mind Games – Enthusing young minds to delight in understanding how lively plants really are!’ 
Presenter: Dr. Matthew Jebb, Director of the National Botanic Gardens

In this lecture Dr Jebb will explore how some of our greatest understandings of the world have come about through simple thought experiments. Not only are these highly informative ways of examining Nature, they are also highly appealing ways of teaching the application of logic in science. Newton, Einstein and Darwin were masters of such clear thinking. Zoology is often seen as easier to teach than Botany because animals are often thought of as more ‘alive’. He will  also explore some of the fundamental differences between animals and plants, with such questions as ‘Why aren’t animals photosynthetic?’, and ‘Do plants have senses?’, and will explain why many of these are merely problems of our perception of the world being naturally more animal-centric and trapped in a particular time paradigm. He will use both classic as well as a few new thought experiments to show how the origin of life, the ‘intelligence’ of plants and the classification of living things are all concepts that can be debated in a logical and lively manner.

The Institute of Biology of Ireland invites its members, the general public, families and friends to free lectures. More details on www.ibioli.net “Gene therapy approaches…