Upcoming Digital Events
The story of Earth
Digital Event | Tue 27 Apr | 6.30pm | FREE
How have the planet’s minerals evolved?
If we want to understand the origins of life on earth, and how early life developed, we need to understand the earth itself and what it was made of. When US mineralogist Robert Hazen was asked if he knew what minerals existed on early Earth, he started a research journey that led to a new idea – mineral evolution – a theory that proposes that the mineralogy of terrestrial planets and moons evolves because of the varied physical, chemical, and biological processes that lead to the formation of new minerals.
Join Robert Hazen in discussion with UNSW Sydney geologist and astrobiologist Martin Van Kranendonk as they discuss the story of Earth, mineral evolution, where carbon fits into all of this, and the rich challenges of doing science and being able to study nature.
Privilege
Digital Event | Wed 5 May | 6.30pm | FREE
Poverty, equity and the drivers of health.
Decolonising global health means a dismantling of privilege and the structural barriers to health, both across countries and within. In a world where everyone’s health matters, whose knowledge do we value? Whose voice is loudest and how do we shift the dial?
Sabina Faiz Rashid, a distinguished scholar in global health, works at the coalface of public health in Bangladesh. Join her for a conversation with UNSW Sydney’s Rebecca Ivers as they discuss Sabina’s research in Bangladesh, and they unpack what it will take to achieve true change.
Daniel Kahneman in conversation
Digital Event | Tue 18 May | 6.30pm | FREE
Nobel Prize winning psychologist and bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman, joins Ben Newell, Professor of Cognitive Psychology at UNSW Sydney, to discuss his work ahead of the release of his latest book. A psychologist whose work on the foundations of behavioural economics was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, Daniel Kahneman has had an enormous impact on our understanding of how we think, and the process behind how and why we make good and bad decisions.
In his new book, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement, Kahneman (with Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein) explores our susceptibility to ‘noise’ – the random factors and mental distractions that interfere with the judgement and decisions of organisations and individuals. Although we now try to acknowledge the impact of bias, ‘noise’ is even more common, but there is little awareness of it. Can we reduce both noise and bias to make better decisions?