Science Cafe: Fitter, happier, more productive - how genes can be selfish and social

13 Jul

Time: Drop by from 7.30 for 8pm start end 10 pm

Location: Cafe-At-Bristol

Why do organisms cooperate with one another?  Individuals may suffer a great personal cost in order to benefit others – from people donating bone marrow, to meerkat ‘helpers’ bringing up another animal’s pups instead of breeding themselves, to bacterial cells committing ‘suicide attacks’ in order to kill competing cells from other species. 

Understanding how and why organisms cooperate can help us to understand  a lot about animal behaviour and biodiversity and also about human behaviour – understanding cooperation is key to understanding why we have such problems cooperating over important things like climate change or the way many pathogenic bacteria utilise cooperative behaviours to live inside their hosts.

Join Dr. Freya Harrison, Fellow by Examination in Biology at Magdelen College, Oxford, to explore ideas of cooperative behaviour and why we should bother studying it.

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Join us in At-Bristol's café on the second Tuesday of the month to discuss contemporary science with experts - scientists, engineers, mathematicians, industry professionals and historians.

Science Cafés are informal evenings where you can discuss the latest issues in science and technology over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

Check out the science café website for further details.