A beautiful mind

The 2012 Melbourne Writers festival provides an invaluable glimpse into the minds of some of the most talented fiction authors alive today, such as David Vann, Sefi Atta and Tony Birch. For many of these writers, the catalyst of their imaginative tales lies much closer to reality than you might first expect.

There is plenty of intriguing and original fact still ripe for harvesting in the real world, and lucky for us a whole pile of it will be available for the plucking at MWF2012.

First on the plate is immunologist and Nobel laureate Peter Doherty’s talk Contagion (August 31st), which delves into the intriguing subject of ‘sentinel chickens’.

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring first introduced mainstream Western society to the idea that bird species could act as a barometer for environmental hazards. Now fifty years on, we know that birds help us understand a hell of a lot more about our world, including the origins of human cancer, malaria and influenza.

In many parts of the world, epidemiologists park flocks of ‘sentinel chickens’ to help monitor the spread of viral diseases, with global populations of birds closely observed for changes that may ultimately impact our own lives.

“Not only chickens, but puffins, eagles, canaries and toucans—, birds of all kinds are recruited by humans to help us interpret changes in our increasingly challenged and unpredictable world. These wonderful creatures continually sample the atmosphere, oceans, fields and forests, signalling toxic and environmental dangers that threaten all vertebrates.”

Next up is the godfather of creative non-fiction Lee Gutkind. If you haven’t already checked out our recent interview with Lee, you’ve still got plenty of opportunity to hear him talk on robotic subcultures in Making Robots Think (also on August 31).

Gutkind’s latest book Almost Human saw him spend six years as a fly-on-the-wall at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, watching a group of scientists try to develop human movement and decision-making capabilities. To get your AI remakes humming, check out this video of Gutkind talking about some of the highlights of his time ‘amongst robots’.

If that doesn’t shave close enough to your ethical edge, then Margaret Wertheim’s talk Physics on the Fringe should tip you over. An award-wining science writer and journalist, Wertheim has written extensively on the role of physics in modern society.

Her latest book Physics on the Fringe looks at ‘outsider physicists’; non-academics convinced of their own theories of the universe, such as James Carter, a trailer-park owner in Enumclaw, WA, who in 1993 announced the publication of a book in which he proposed a complete alternative theory of physics.

Wertheim is also the co-founder for the Institute For Figuring, an organisation dedicated to the aesthetic and poetic dimensions of science and mathematics. Wertheim’s recent TED talk provides great insight into her approach to science:

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Peter Doherty and Margaret Wertheim will be joined by fellow science luminaries Michael Corballis and Elizabeth Finkel at The Story of Science on Saturday 1 September at 1.00 pm.