RSWB

The Spark of Life

Friday 20th March 2015 6 pm, Presbyterian Community Centre, Tenby St.

Professor Frances Ashcroft FRS, University of Oxford, UK. 2015 Royal Society of New Zealand Distinguished Speaker

Frances Ashcroft is a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford and Director of OXION, a training and research programme on the physiology of ion channels. Ion channels are unique proteins found in the membranes of all cells, which allow charged particles (ions) to flow in and out of cells, thus producing electrical signals. Frances’ thesis is a reductionist one, that all our activities, behaviours, sensory perceptions, conscious or unconscious thinking, are governed by these electrical signals and the transmission of such signals between cells.
Professor Ashcroft weaves real-life stories with the latest scientific findings, including her own discoveries, to explain the fundamental role of ion channels in our bodies, why they represent the “Spark of Life”.