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The
RSE
For further information or to register online:
www.royalsoced.org.uk
or contact the Events Department:
The Royal Society of Edinburgh
22–26 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2PQ
telephone: +44 (0) 131 240 2780
textphone: +44 (0) 131 240 5009
fax: +44 (0) 131 240 5024
email: events@royalsoced.org.uk
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Tickets and
Booking
How to book
Lectures & Discussion Forums
RSE Lectures and Discussion Forums are open to all and normally free to attend,* but
registration is required. To register please contact the Events Team (details found on
page 1). Please note that many RSE events run to full capacity. If, at any time, you book
a place at an event but are unable to attend, please inform the RSE Events Department
so that your place can be reallocated.
Conferences
RSE Conferences usually carry a registration fee, please see individual events for
registration details.
*Some Lectures and Discussion Forums may carry a charge to attend; please see individual
events for registration details.

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RSE @ Dumfries
and Galloway Discussion
Calendar Event Lecture Forum Conference
May 11 June 11 July 11
M 2 9 16 23 30 M 6 13 20 27 M 4 11 18 25
T 3 10 17 24 31 T 7 14 21 28 T 5 12 19 26
W 4 11 18 25 W 1 8 15 22 29 W 6 13 20 27
T 5 12 19 26 T 2 9 16 23 30 T 7 14 21 28
F 6 13 20 27 F 3 10 17 24 F 1 8 15 22 29
S 7 14 21 28 S 4 11 18 25 S 2 9 16 23 30
S 8 15 22 29 1 S 5 12 19 26 S 3 10 17 24 31
August 11 September 11
M 1 8 15 22 29 M 5 12 19 26
T 2 9 16 23 30 T 6 13 20 27
W 3 10 17 24 31 W 7 14 21 28
T 4 11 18 25 T 1 8 15 22 29
F 5 12 19 26 F 2 9 16 23 30
S 6 13 20 27 S 3 10 17 24
S 7 14 21 28 S 4 11 18 25
4
Date: Tuesday 10 May 2011 Time: 7 pm
4 Venue: Rutherford McCowan Building, University of Glasgow, Crichton Campus, Dumfries
RSE @ Dumfries
and Galloway
Public
Discussion
Forum
Open to all and free to Land Use: How Do We Resolve the Never-ending
attend – registration Conflicts?
required
Professor Roger Crofts FRSE – Chair and Facilitator
For further information
and to book, contact The speakers’ panel will include invited experts from leading land use
the RSE organisations.
This event is part of the How can the many conflicts between legitimate uses of land, from
RSE @ Dumfries and biodiversity and food production to renewable energy, be resolved
Galloway Programme effectively and provide the greatest public benefit? All those interested
in land use as owners, tenants, producers, advisers and citizens are
invited to join us in debating these important issues.

3. 5
Date: Monday 23 May 2011 Times: 6 pm Venue: The RSE 5
Lecture
Open to all and free to The Significance of David Hume: Scepticism, Science
attend – registration and Superstition
required
Dr Peter Millican, Hertford College, Oxford,
For further information
and University of Edinburgh
and to book, contact
the RSE David Hume’s notorious ‘scepticism’ can seem hard to reconcile
This is a joint lecture with his enthusiastic advocacy of human science. But recent
with The Institute for scholarship has revealed a strikingly modern and coherent thinker,
Advanced Studies in increasingly honoured as arguably the most significant philosopher
the Humanites (IASH) of all time. This lecture will present Hume in this light, as a scientific
and supported by the revolutionary and a crucial influence on Adam Smith, Darwin,
Journal of Scottish Einstein and a host of recent philosophers. It will also exhibit for
Philosophy the first time a new electronic edition of Hume’s posthumous
masterpiece, the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, whose hand-
written pages cunningly encode his still-disputed attitude to religion.
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6
Date: Wednesday 25 May 2011 Times: 5.30 pm Venue: The RSE
Discussion
Forum
Open to all and free to A Healthy Message? Understanding the History
attend – registration and Exploring the Future of Public Health Campaigns
required
in Scotland
For further information
Speakers will include experts from both the arts and humanities
and to book, contact
the RSE
and public health communities
This is a joint event with The core focus of this debate will be on public health strategies and
the Arts and Humanities will address topics such as: past practices and ideas that shape current
Research Council (AHRC) messages about health and illness in public health campaigns; ways
and the Scottish Funding of understanding how people experience and respond to public health
Council (SFC) programmes; and the place of the arts and humanities in imagining
new approaches to public health.

4. 7
Date: Thursday 26 May 2011 Time: 7 pm
Venue: Maxwelltown High School, Lochside Road, Dumfries 7
RSE @ Dumfries
and Galloway
Lecture
Open to all and free to The Lowland Clearances and the Transformation of
attend – registration Southwest Scotland
required
Professor Tom Devine OBE FRSE, University of Edinburgh
For further information
and to book, contact The Clearances are always associated in Scottish traditional song
the RSE and story with the Highlands. Modern research has challenged
that assumption by demonstrating the extent of removals
This event is part of the
RSE @ Dumfries and
elsewhere in Scotland. This lecture will demonstrate the scale of
Galloway Programme dispossession of people in one Lowland region, explain how it
transformed the way of life in the southwest forever and suggest
why the Highland Clearances are remembered yet the Lowland
Clearances are forgotten.
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8 Date: Sunday 29 May 2011 Time: 2.30 pm Venue: Lochinch Castle, Stranraer
RSE @ Dumfries
and Galloway
Lecture
This event will be taking Fantin-Latour: Flower Painter Extraordinaire
place as part of Lochinch
Castle Garden and Plant Professor David Ingram OBE VMH FRSE
Fair Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904) painted the most stunning pictures
Open to all – for further of roses and other garden flowers. David Ingram will take you on a
information please email virtual guided tour of Fantin-Latour’s works, interpreting the botany and
info@castlekennedygar- horticulture of these remarkable creations.
dens.co.uk or telephone
01776 702024
The paintings discussed by Professor Ingram, together with
other works by the artist, will be on display at The Bowes Museum,
This event is part of the County Durham from 16 April – 9 October 2011, in an
RSE @ Dumfries and exhibition curated by Emma House. For further details of the
Galloway Programme exhibition, please visit: www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk
Image of painting by Fantin-Latour, Fruit and Flowers, 1866,
courtesy of The Bowes Museum

5. 9
Date: Monday 6 June 2011 Time: 6 pm Venue: The RSE 9
Lecture
Open to all and free to Preventing Cancers of the Breast and Colon
attend – registration by How We Choose to Live Each Day
required
For further information
Professor Tim Byers, Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Dean
and to book, contact at the Colorado School of Public Health in Denver, Colorado, USA
the RSE. In countries such as Scotland and the USA, many cancers are now
In association with the caused by nutritional factors we can affect by our daily choices,
Scottish Cancer including what we choose to eat, how much we choose to eat, and
Foundation, supported by how much we choose to move about. Nearly half of all cancers of
the Cruden Foundation the breast and colon are caused by these choices. This presentation
This lecture forms part of will summarise what we now know about the ways in which these
an RSE Ordinary Meeting nutritional factors increase cancer risk, and what can be done about it
and so shall be preceded by choices we can make both personally and collectively.
by Society business, such
as Fellows signing the Roll
10
10 Date: Thursday 16 June 2011 Time: 6 pm Venue: The RSE
Michael Shea
Memorial
Lecture
Open to all and free Seeing Scotland Afresh - How We Look to a Changing
to attend – registration World
required
Sir John Elvidge KCB FRSE
For further information
and to book, contact Sir John Elvidge stepped down from the post of Permanent
Tina Sorensen Secretary in the Scottish Government last year after a long and
e: tina@international distinguished career in the civil service. In this lecture he will reflect on
futuresforum.com the challenges and opportunities for Scotland in a changing world,
t: 01383 861 300 both for how we see ourselves and how others see us. In particular,
with the shift of economic power to the East, is it time to shift our
This is a joint event
attention more towards our growing relationships in Asia rather than
with International
Futures Forum
the traditional diaspora in North America? What is it that China
finds so fascinating about Scotland, for example? And what are the
implications for policy and for practice of taking this broader view?
Image on right – Michael Shea (left) with HM The Queen at the Great Wall

6. 11
Date: Wednesday 22 June 2011 Time: Full Day Venue: The RSE 11
Conference
Open to all and free Your Genes and Clinical Research - Being More than a
to attend – places are Guinea Pig?
limited, registration
required The science of genes is transforming the way we diagnose and treat
disease. That transformation depends on clinical research with
For further information
human subjects. But would you want to be a subject? What are the
and to book, contact
potential benefits – and what are the risks? How can we maximise
www.gengage.org.uk
or telephone Gengage:
the public benefit? Should commercial companies be involved along-
0131 651 4750 side universities and the NHS? Join us to learn more about the nature
and governance of clinical research, and to have your say about how
This is a joint event with it should be organised in Scotland.
Gengage (The Scottish
Healthcare Genetics
Public Engagement
Network)
12
12 Date: Thursday 23 June 2011 Time: 5.45 pm Venue: The RSE
Public Mock
Trial Discussion
For further information Trident: The Debate
and to book, contact
the RSE What should the UK do with its Trident submarines? Is there still a role
for the nuclear deterrent? Can we afford it? A distinguished panel
Tickets – £10 of experts will debate this issue at the RSE, with an impartial ‘judge’
overseeing proceedings. The invited panel will include:
The Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG HonFRSE PC,
Former Secretary General, NATO
Professor Michael Clarke, Director,
The Royal United Services Institute
Lord Cullen of Whitekirk KT PC HonFREng FRSE

7. 13
Date: Saturday 25 June 2011 Time: Full Day Venue : The Old Stables,
Drumlanrig Castle and Country Estate, Thornhill 13
RSE @ Dumfries
and Galloway
Workshop
Open to all – registration Gardens in Science and Art
fee applies.
The meeting will be convened by Professor David Ingram OBE VMH
For further information FRSE, Honorary Professor at Edinburgh and Lancaster Universities,
and to book, contact Former Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and RHS
the RSE Professor of Horticulture. Speakers will include invited experts from
Please note that spaces the worlds of art history, botany and horticulture.
are limited and will be
This one-day workshop will consider some ways in which
allocated on a first-come,
gardens and plants contribute to science and art. Topics discussed
first-served basis.
will include: gardens of Dumfries and Galloway; botanic gardens
This event is part of the and their collections; and gardens and plant forms and images in
RSE @ Dumfries and nineteenth century paintings and decorative arts.
Galloway Programme
Images (centre and right) courtesy of Drumlanrig Castle and Country Estate,
Glowing Sunflowers, 1936 – courtesy of Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
14
14 Date: Monday 5 September 2011 Time: 6 pm Venue: The RSE
Lecture
Open to all and free to Radiation and Reason: Straight and Open Thinking
attend – registration
required
about Choosing Nuclear
For further information
Professor Wade Allison, Emeritus Fellow, Keble College, Oxford
and to book, contact For more than 60 years, it has been accepted that radiation, that is,
the RSE nuclear radiation, is quite exceptionally dangerous. In this lecture
This lecture forms this question is re-examined and the answer is shown to be rather
part of an RSE unexpected. This will be explained in simple terms using
Ordinary Meeting incontrovertible evidence. In the light of such fresh understanding,
and so shall be nuclear technology may be welcomed and used carefully to benefit
preceded by the environment for the future without fear or excessive cost.
Society business,
such as Fellows
signing the Roll

8. 15
Date: Monday 26 September 2011 Time: 6 pm Venue : The RSE 15
Facing up
to Climate
Change
Discussion
Forum
Open to all and free Facing up to Climate Change
to attend – registration
required The Rt Hon Lord Adair Turner HonFRSE, Chairman of the Financial
Services Authority (left) and
For further information Professor David Sugden FRSE, Professor of Geography, University
and to book, contact of Edinburgh and Chair, RSE Climate Change Inquiry (right)
the RSE
Climate change will affect us all, for example in energy, food security,
population migration and competition for resources. Scotland, given
its long history as a major contributor to rising greenhouse gas levels
and access to renewable energy resources, has a role to play. The RSE
Inquiry, ‘Facing up to Climate Change’, sought evidence from a wide
variety of people and organisations to highlight the opportunities of
a transition to a low-carbon future and the barriers to change. Lord
Turner and Professor Sugden will discuss what the challenges are and
what the future may hold.
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RSE @
Dumfries &
Galloway
RSE @ Dumfries & Galloway
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is delivering a high-quality programme of activities for
young people and the public across the region of Dumfries and Galloway during 2010/11.
The aims of the initiative are to enhance and improve the understanding and appreciation
that people, particularly school-aged children, have for their local community by:
• providing a greater understanding of the area’s past and present life, as a community,
existing within the context of Scotland, the UK and the wider world;
• re-generating a sense of identity and civic pride, particularly among young people, by
encouraging a sense of belonging to an area rich in cultural and human resources; and
• providing a sound and informed basis to empower the community to address current
issues related to its future development and continuing prosperity.

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RSE @
Dumfries &
Galloway
The RSE @ Dumfries and Galloway Programme is being part-financed by the Scottish
Government and the European Community, Dumfries and Galloway LEADER 2007–2013.
Other supporters to date include:
The Buccleuch Charitable Foundation
The Holywood Trust
Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland
James Weir Foundation
To receive updates on the programme, please register your interest:
contact: Kate Kennedy, Project Officer
email: dumgal@royalsoced.org.uk
telephone: 07502 111610
or visit: www.royalsoced.org.uk/events/Dumfries_and_Galloway
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Events
for
Young People
The RSE is actively promoting the education of young people throughout Scotland, from
the Borders to the Northern Isles. It has a dedicated Young People’s Programme of free,
lively, entertaining events designed to stimulate and develop our young people’s interest
in science, society and culture. RSE events for young people include: RSE@Schools Talks,
Discussion Forums, Christmas Lectures and Start up Science Masterclasses.
The RSE welcomes young people to its Lectures, Discussions and Talks. If you would like
to book tickets or make a group booking for any of the events included in this diary, please
contact the RSE Events Department, stating the school you are from.
For more information, visit our website: www.royalsoced.org.uk/schools
or contact: Maggie Twomey, Events Officer
email: mtwomey@royalsoced.org.uk
telephone: +44 (0) 131 240 5035

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Provision
of Evidence
and Advice
The Fellowship of the RSE represents a range of disciplines from the Arts, Humanities and
Sciences to Business and Public Service, providing a unique resource of multidisciplinary
expertise to offer expert advice on issues from many perspectives. Key areas of activity include:
• responding to Governmental and Parliamentary consultations and inquiries on national
and global problems;
• independent inquiries into major issues affecting Scotland – gathering and disseminating
the evidence across Scotland;
• holding expert seminars for Scottish Parliamentary committees;
• discussions with decision makers, including Ministers;
• providing access to experts from the Fellowship from whom MSPs and Parliamentary
researchers can receive advice.
For more information, visit our website: www.royalsoced.org.uk/govt_responses
or contact: William Hardie or Susan Lennox, Policy and Advice Team
email: evidenceadvice@royalsoced.org.uk
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International
Programme
The RSE initiates and supports a wide range of activities which enhance Scotland’s involvement in global
collaboration. Through events, strategic partnerships and publications, the RSE promotes the reputation
of the nation’s research, innovation and culture. By forging effective partnerships with equivalent national
academies overseas, amongst others, the RSE is helping to:
• facilitate two-way international exchange programmes, enabling top Scottish-based researchers, in
any field, to collaborate with the best of their counterparts anywhere in the world;
• promote the exchange of early-stage researchers, giving them the opportunity to experience research
activities in other countries;
• raise awareness overseas of some of the best of the research and innovation being undertaken in
Scotland;
• stimulate collaboration between centres of excellence through joint international events;
• provide a forum for discussion of international affairs, Scotland’s place in the wider world,
and international issues in science, the arts and letters, technology, industry and commerce.
For more information, visit our website: www.royalsoced.org.uk/international
or contact: Morven Chisholm, International Relations Officer
email: international@royalsoced.org.uk

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Research
Awards
A commitment to the future of Scotland’s social, economic and cultural wellbeing underpins the
Research Awards programme of the RSE. Each year, approximately £2 million is made available
to exceptionally-talented academics and potential entrepreneurs through the RSE. These highly-
competitive schemes enable people with good ideas, across a spectrum of disciplines, to research
and develop their work, for the good of Scotland and beyond. As well as supporting academic
research, awards are given to provide the time, financial backing and resources to commercialise
practical projects, derived from the research.
Application forms and full guidelines can be downloaded from our website:
www.royalsoced.org.uk/research_fellowships/index.htm
or contact: Anne Fraser or Tracy Rickard, Research and Enterprise Awards Team
email: resfells@royalsoced.org.uk
telephone: +44 (0) 131 240 5013/5023
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FIRST-CLASS CONFERENCE VENUE
The RSE Scotland Foundation manages the Society’s conference facilities, which are situated in the
heart of Edinburgh. This unique venue offers a perfect location, with a variety of rooms suitable for
meetings, lectures, seminars, weddings, dinners and other celebratory events. These are backed up
by modern audio-visual equipment and a full range of technical support. Catering suitable for a wide
range of events can be arranged, with one of our approved caterers, and tailored to suit individual
budgets and specific requirements.
For more information, visit our website: www.rsescotlandfoundation.org.uk
or contact: Martina Hlinkova, Front of House Manager
email: rooms@royalsoced.org.uk
telephone: + 44 (0) 131 240 5034
fax: + 44 (0) 131 240 5024
The RSE Scotland Foundation is Scottish Charity No SC024636

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Our
Supporters
The RSE wishes to thank the following organisations who have supported the activities in this Diary:
• Arts and Humanities Research Council • Lochinch Castle, Stranraer
• Cruden Foundation • Logan Botanic Garden – A regional
• Drumlanrig Castle and Country Estate garden of the Royal Botanic Garden
• Gengage (The Scottish Healthcare Genetics Edinburgh
Public Engagement Network) • Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
• Institute for Advanced Studies in the • Scottish Cancer Foundation
Humanities • Scottish Funding Council
• International Futures Forum • Scottish Government
• Journal of Scottish Philosophy • The Bowes Museum
To find out how you or your organisation can support RSE activities
contact: Róisín Calvert-Elliott, Business Development and Events Manager
email: events@royalsoced.org.uk
telephone: + 44 (0) 131 240 5026
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How to
Find Us
By Car: Main roads into Edinburgh are the M8 from the West, the A1 from the South, and the A90,
followed by Queensferry Road, from the East. Street parking near the RSE is metered until 6.30pm.The
nearest car parks are at the St James Centre, approached from either Queen Street or Leith Street, and
Greenside Place car park on Leith Street. Both are a 10-minute walk from the RSE.
By Bus: Edinburgh’s bus station is situated on North St Andrew Street, off St Andrew Square, which is
a 5-minute walk to the RSE.
By Rail: Waverley Station, which has frequent local and national services, is a 10-minute walk
to the RSE.
By Air: Edinburgh Airport is approximately 30 minutes transfer time from the centre of
Edinburgh. A shuttle bus service from the airport leaves every 10 minutes to Waverley Bridge, which
is a 5-minute walk to the RSE.
Guidance for visitors to the RSE: The RSE provides facilities and services for disabled visitors. Please
visit the RSE web site or contact the Events Department for details (see page 1 for contact details).