Sydney Ideas

In this thought-provoking discussion, Lino Pertile, a Harvard professor specializing in Dante, and Dirk Moses, a historian with expertise in post-war European culture, examine the connections between Dante's 'Inferno' and Primo Levi's harrowing experiences at Auschwitz. They delve into how literature serves as both a reflection of suffering and a resilient force in preserving humanity. The conversation highlights themes of survival, identity, and moral responsibility, exploring how literary culture can affirm hope amidst unimaginable darkness.

A panel of the University of Sydney experts and practitioners discuss the possible benefits and risks of mindfulness, and how it has been used in education and workplace to produce resilient students and healthy employees. Speakers: Professor Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Chair, Healthy Sydney University Professor Nick Glozier, Brain and Mind Centre Associate Professor Rae Cooper, Sydney Business School Professor Jane Burns, Faculty of Health Sciences Ms Jane Cox, consultant and leadership coach Dr Benjamin Veness, medical registrar, Sydney alumnus and Churchill Fellow Co-hosted by Sydney Ideas and Healthy Sydney University, a university-wide initiative that brings staff and students together to promote the health and wellbeing of our University community. More event information http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/can_mindfulness_save_the_world_forum.shtml

What is happening in the US election campaign and where does the support for this ‘populist’ political movement come from? On the day after the second Presidential debate, a diverse panel of academics, students and election observers discussed changes in new media platforms, youth politics and activism, and the impact they are all having on the traditional election campaign processes.

Don Watson and fellow Quarterly Essayist James Brown discuss the strangest election campaign the US has ever seen.

Approaching death is an opportunity for individuals and those who care for them to reduce unnecessary suffering and achieve something more human and humane. Sadly, few dying people or their carers achieve these ends. What can we do differently ? In this exclusive Sydney Ideas event, Dr Bruce (BJ) Miller, a TED speaker and hospice and palliative medicine physician, reveals how The Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco is redesigning palliative care to bring compassion and imagination to the care of the dying. His presentation was followed by an expert panel discussion and opportunities to ask questions.

The twentieth century saw the emergence of a number of authoritarian regimes – China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, the USSR – that have both challenged the global order and persisted in the face of massive external pressure and catastrophic economic downturns. Drawing on in-depth case studies and statistical analysis, Lucan Way (University of Toronto) argues that the threat and resilience of such regimes can be traced to their origins in violent revolutionary conflict. A history of violent revolutionary struggle encourages external aggression but also inoculates regimes against major causes of authoritarian breakdown such as military coups and mass protest. More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_lucan_way.shtml

Humans are superorganisms with two genomes that dictate phenotype, the genetically inherited human genome (25,000 genes) and the environmentally acquired human microbiome (over 1 million genes). The two genomes must work in harmonious integration as a hologenome to maintain health. Nutrition plays a crucial role in directly modulating our microbiomes and health phenotypes. Poorly balanced diets can turn the gut microbiome from a partner for health to a “pathogen” in chronic diseases, e.g. accumulating evidence supports the new hypothesis that obesity and related metabolic diseases develop because of low-grade, systemic and chronic inflammation induced by diet-disrupted gut microbiota. Due to the tight integration of gut microbiota into human global metabolism, molecular profiling of urine metabolites can provide a new window for reflecting physiological functions of gut microbiomes. Changes of gut microbiota and urine metabolites can thus be employed as new systems approaches for quantitative assessment and monitoring of health at the whole-body level with the advantage of measuring human health based on the results of interactions between the two genomes and the environment rather than just host genomic information. Large-scale population-based studies in conjunction with these whole-body level systems methods will generate pre-disease biomarkers with predictive power, thus making preventive health management of populations with rapidly changing disease spectrums possible through re-engineering of the imbalanced gut microbiomes with specially designed foods/diets. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Professor Liping Zhao is a distinguished Professor of microbiology at School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He is a senior editor of the ISME Journal and a fellow of American Academy of Microbiology. A Sydney Ideas event on 4 October, 2016 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_liping_zhao.shtml

Indonesia has struggled with corruption in its natural resource sector, with unchecked environmental destruction the result . Laode M Syarif, the newly elected Commissioner for Indonesia Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) presents recent progress in the prevention and prosecution of corruption.

Legal academic Professor Annalise Acorn argues that criminal punishment, devoid of all emotions of blame, is inhuman in relation to the offender and contrary to a morally robust justification for the criminal law. More info about this lecture and the speaker: tinyurl.com/zfya9qc

Lecture by Professor Fran Bagenal, Co-investigator and Leader of the Plasma Teams for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and Juno mission to Jupiter, and Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado. A Sydney Ideas talk co-presented with Sydney SpaceNet at the University of Sydney, 22 September 2016. http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_fran_bagenal.shtml