Daily Archives: July 23, 2013

Arts, Books, Scotland

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2013…

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS

30 years ago in 1983, Jenny Brown welcomed visitors through the gates of Charlotte Square Gardens for Edinburgh’s first Book Festival, presenting a vibrant programme of some 80 authors including John Updike, Liz Lochhead and Alasdair Gray. Little did anyone realise that over the next three decades the event would grow to ten times its original size, becoming the biggest and best-respected festival of books in the world.

At 30, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is well established as a key part of Scottish cultural life with an international reputation: a means of helping us think differently about our past, our present and our future. The Festival this year, which starts on the 10th August, will proudly celebrate its birthday with events looking back over three astonishing decades, and forward to what might happen over the next generation.

The 2013 Festival will include special events hosted by the Book Festival’s former directors, by Guest Selectors Margaret Atwood, Gavin Esler, Neil Gaiman and Kate Mosse, and Illustrator-in-Residence Barroux.

30 YEARS BACK, 30 YEARS FORWARD

The Edinburgh International Book Festival will also examine the impact of changes to our social, political and cultural life since the Edinburgh’s first Book Festival in 1983. Thatcherism was blossoming; the Berlin Wall still stood; Nelson Mandela was in prison and the internet was the domain of science-fiction.

In literature, 1983 was the year Roald Dahl published The Witches and Mairi Hedderwick’s Katie Morag was born; it was the year Hergé and Tennessee Williams died, while a young Iain Banks was writing his first book. Many of today’s leading Scottish authors, including Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Irvine Welsh, James Kelman and J K Rowling, were yet to publish the novels that would bring them fame across the world.

All Book Festival events take place in Charlotte Square Gardens, Edinburgh. Author events last one hour (unless otherwise specified) and most are followed by a book signing.

All Book Festival events take place in Charlotte Square Gardens, Edinburgh. Author events last one hour (unless otherwise specified) and most are followed by a book signing.

Next year, Scotland faces a historic referendum whose outcome will affect the lives of future generations. The Festival’s 2013 programme attempts to provide a generation-wide, international (and politically neutral) context for the referendum debate. The Festival will also look at how writers are projecting forwards to imagine what might happen in the next 30 years. The Book Festival will look into its crystal ball through the eyes of leading public intellectuals, novelists and comics and graphic novel creators.

Opening day, Saturday 10th August…

The Edinburgh Book Festival begins at 10:00 and will see a range of authors on the opening day, from Graham Stewart’s ‘Thatcher’s Decade’ to Angus Peter Campbell’s work of ‘Gaelic Fiction in the 21st Century’, presented by Guest Selectors. List events are no more than £10 for entry (£8 for concessions). The Festival which will incorporate a Children’s Programme and Young Adult Events will close on Monday 26th August.

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Biotechnology, Health, Medical, Research, Science

Cell transplant gives hope for treating blindness…

A MAJOR ADVANCE

Scientists in Britain have made a major leap forward in efforts to treat blindness.

They have grown part of an eye in the laboratory and have extracted the light-sensitive cells which are the key to vision.

These cells were injected into mice, where they seemed to grow normally and formed the crucial connections between the eye and brain.

Such developments could pave the way for a treatment which could eventually give millions back their sight. It is hoped the first human patients could be treated in as little as five years. Transplanting just a small number of cells could have a big impact on quality of life.

Those who could benefit include men and women with age-related macular degeneration – the most common cause of blindness in the elderly. This condition affects more than 600,000 Britons and the number is expected to triple in the next 25 years as the elderly population swells.

There are few treatments for the condition – and no cure.

The research and experimentation is being carried out at University College London in which scientists are trying to replace damaged cells in the retina, the light sensitive ‘film’ at the back of the eye.

Last year, researchers used healthy cells from young mice to restore vision in adult animals. The results were said to be ‘dramatic’, with the treated animals able to quickly find their way out of a miniature swimming pool in dim light, while untreated ones swam around in circles.

Stem Cell Therapy for Blindness

The project’s lead-scientist, Professor Robin Ali, said the results amount to a ‘major advance’. His team took embryonic stem cells – ‘master cells’ capable of turning into other cell types and widely touted as a repair kit for the body – and used a cocktail of nutrients to coax them into turning into a retina.

They then raided the laboratory-grown retina for rods (key cells which pick up light and send it to the brain for conversion into images). The rods were then transplanted into the eyes of mice.

A retina has been grown in a dish before but Professor Ali’s team are the first to transplant cells from one successfully.

The journal Nature Biotechnology was the first to report the findings and has said that the lab-grown cells integrated into the existing eye was successful in forming the nerve connections needed to send information to the brain.

Professor Ali said:

… We are getting closer and closer to carrying out a trial.

However, the need to be highly confident that the treatment is safe and effective means that widespread use is at least 10-15 years away.

The Medical Research Council, which funded the team’s work, said in a statement:

… This study is an important milestone on the road to developing a widely available cell therapy for blindness.

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