two cool, free events in Melbourne coming up

Get Inside Your Brain
and
Addiction and Mental Illness

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Get Inside Your Brain
At the Brain Awareness Week exhibition and lecture
A free public event

Thursday 10 March
The Sunderland Theatre
Medical Building
University of Melbourne, Parkville
5-8 pm

Your brain defines all that you are and all that you can be. It is the most complex structure yet discovered. Learn how research is deciphering the way your brain works in sickness and health.

• Learn more about the benefits of brain research and the progress being made in treating and preventing brain and mind disorders.
• Find out how the brain adapts to change in the womb and in adulthood and how those changes shape our lives.
• Use the MegaBrain to see and hear how the brain controls your body and behaviour.

5-6.45pm Visit the exhibition and talk to scientists about their research.

6.45-8pm Official Brain Awareness Week Launch in Victoria, and "Brain Research - a must for a healthy society". a lecture by Professor Samuel Berkovic, Director of the Epilepsy Research Centre and internationally recognised for his research in the genetics of epilepsy.

For more information contact Dr L.E. Ohman 8344 1636 or l.ohman@hfi.unimelb.EDU.AU
This event is sponsored by Australian Neuroscience Society and Neurosciences Victoria.

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"Addiction and Mental Illness: how research is revealing the brain connections that underlie brain and mind disorders."

Mental Illness and addiction often go hand in hand. Does one cause the other? Learn about the brain pathway that control these afflictions and if and how they may be linked at the free public lecture.

Tuesday 15 March
Sunderland Theatre
Medical Building
University of Melbourne, Parkville
7-9 pm

Convenor: Professor George Fink, Director, Mental Health Research Institute

Dr Dan Lubman, ORYGEN Research Centre
Substance use and mental illness: unraveling comorbidity.

Dr Murat Yücel, ORYGEN Research Centre,
Drug addiction-is it compulsive?
Melbourne europsychatry Centre

Dr Suresh Sundram, Mental Health Research Institute
Madness and Marijuana: investigating the link between cannabis and schizophrenia.

Dr Andrew Lawrence, Howard Florey Institute
Co-morbid depression and alcoholism: lessons from animal models.

For more information contact Dr L.E. Ohman 8344 1636 or l.ohman@hfi.unimelb.EDU.AU
Addiction Neuroscience Network Australia (ANNA) and the Mental Health Research Institute

and one for Brisbane (yay!)

Einstein at the Pub

A public debate on the topic of 'Einstein: Person of the 20th century or overrated?'.

Hosted by Robyn Williams from ABC TV and radio.


TIME: 2pm
DATE: Sunday 13 March
VENUE: The GPO hotel, corner of Ann and Ballow Streets, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane (upstairs in the 740 room)
(As it will be held in a hotel, the event is, unfortunately, for those 18 & over.)
COST: Free!

Audience prizes include Einstein action figures & books on Einstein.

Staged as part of celebrations for this year's Einstein International Year of Physics.

OUTLINE
To many, Einstein is a great hero. Indeed, a few years ago, 'Time' magazine named him as their person of the 20th century. In their eyes, his life was more significant than those of figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.

Was this the correct decison? Did Einstein really contribute more to the world than any of last century's great leaders, humanitarians, artists and anyone else? Or is he simply overrated?

Join Robyn Williams from ABC TV and radio as he hosts a debate on these questions between a panel of experts comprising two physicists and a debater.

The panelists are:
Dr Andrew White, The University of Queensland. Andrew is a world expert on quantum computers and is currently trying to build one of these ultra-powerful devices. In his spare time, he patches up his crumbling Queenslander house and reads just about anything he can lay his hands on.

Dr Kate Wilson, the Australian National University.
Kate is a lecturer in physics and is primarily interested in innovative approaches to teaching physics. Her hobbies include painting and trying to find something fun to do in Canberra.

Matt Smith, The University of Queensland.
Matt is a final-year medicine student who holds a degree in neuroscience. He is a keen debater and has represented Queensland at national-level debates.

the military are the Death Eaters from the Harry Potter books

Maximum pain is aim of new US weapon

How saddening. How do these people get research dollars when there are people starving in their own country?