This is a past event
Join medical scientists as they illuminate how the brain senses light in the surrounding environment and how light lets us understand the brain.
This event is in celebration of UNESCO International Year of Light and British Science Week 2015. Each March the British Science Association Aberdeen Branch brings you dozens of events to celebrate the UK's only national festival of science.
We will illuminate how the brain senses the light of the surrounding environment, but also how light lets us understand how the brain works. Perry Barrett will reveal how animals match their behaviour to the season by sensing the long daylight hours of summer and short days of winter. Jasna Martinovic will discuss how the brain views the world in colour. Kevin Mackenzie will describe how microscopes work to reveal the structure and function of a world we never normally see and Ben Tatler will discuss how our eyes can be deceived and that believing isn’t necessarily seeing.
The British Science Week programme has events for people of all ages and interests including talks and activity days. There is a full programme of events taking place from the 13th to the 22nd of March around Aberdeen.
The event is free and there is no need to reserve a place
Perry Barrett joined the Rowett in 1989 on a project to investigate how melatonin regulates seasonal reproduction in the sheep. As obesity came to the forefront biological research, the focus of the research has shifted to how seasonal mammals use daylength to regulate seasonal changes in food intake and body weight including seasonal adiposity.
Dr Jasna Martinovic is a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology. After a PhD in human neuroscience in Leipzig, she undertook postdoctoral research on colour vision in Liverpool prior to joining the University of Aberdeen in 2009 as a lecturer. Her work investigates the dependence of colour perception on its context, using both behavioural and neuroscientific methods.
Kevin Mackenzie manages the Microscopy and Histology Facility at the University of Aberdeen’s Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS). He has over 30 years’ experience in the microscopy field and over this time has amassed a collection of stunning images from across a variety of disciplines including anatomy, plant science, zoology, and the medical sciences. His images have appeared many times in print and online. He contributes regularly to the Wellcome Trust’s online image library and has received several Wellcome Image Awards.
Ben Tatler trained as a neuroscientist at Cambridge and Sussex before moving into Psychology. He will be joining the School of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen in June as a Professor. Ben’s research centres around how we use vision to gather the information that allows us to complete our activities of everyday life. He studies vision in a variety of natural situations, ranging from making cups of tea to driving to watching a magician perform.
- Speaker
- Professor Peter McCaffery, Dr Perry Barrett, Dr Jasna Martinovic and Kevin MacKenzie
- Hosted by
- British Science Week
- Venue
- Suttie Centre for Teaching and Learning in Healthcare
- Contact