Events

Battle of Ideas

Institute of Ideas
Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU, UK
31 October 2009 - 01 November 2009

The 5th annual Battle of Ideas festival, featuring thought-provoking debate and making a virtue of free thinking and the lively exchange of views.

The festival fosters an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and open-ended exploration of new ideas, research and social trends. This year's festival will incorporate a strand entitled Battle for Reproductive Technologies, whose opening session - Frankenstein's Daughters: From Science Fiction to Science Fact? - will feature BioNews Webmaster and Progress Educational Trust (PET) Communications Officer Sandy Starr, and PET Adviser Dr Alan Thornhill, on its panel of speakers.

Related sessions at the festival include Whose Right to Choose? Choice, Ethics and Regulation in 21st-Century Reproduction and Three's a Crowd? The Battle Over Population and Reproduction. The festival will be preceded by a satellite event on Monday 12 October 2009 (at which Sandy Starr is also speaking) entitled Age of Autism: Rethinking 'Normal'.

Attendance fees range from £5 to £140. To register, use this online form or contact Geoff Kidder at or on +44 (0)20 7269 9224.

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Find out more about fertility/embryology regulation in Human Fertilisation and Embryology: Reproducing Regulation, coedited by BioNews Contributing Editor Dr Kirsty Horsey (buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA); and find out more about genetics in The Rough Guide to Genes and Cloning, coauthored by BioNews Contributing Editor Dr Jess Buxton (buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA).

Further details of this event are available on the Battle of Ideas website.