MyGlasgow News

Learn Chinese at the Confucius Institute

Chinese language classes commencing in late April at the Confucius Institute of the University of Glasgow are now open for enrolment.

Our classes cater for all levels of Chinese language, with content ranging from basic greetings for beginners to the reading of newspapers for advanced students.

Enrolment forms with details of the classes are available on the website of the Confucius Institute. The Confucius Institute has three blocks of Chinese classes each year starting from January, April and September. We also have intensive classes over the summer.

Enrolment forms (Word)

Confucius Institute

Diversity Book Group - 18 April

The Diversity Book Group is open to all and is for those who want to learn about the wide variety of cultures and traditions on our campus by discussing books at lunchtime. These are informal and social sessions for those with open minds and an enthusiasm for reading.

Please join us on Wednesday, April 18 for a session exploring The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The session will be led by Laura Guthrie.

The session will take place from 1.15pm - 2pm in the Library's Lounge Lab.

Diversity Book Group web page

Dr Bike at Gilmorehill

The Dr Bike service is a mobile repair workshop including a van packed full of tools, lubricants and small spare parts hopefully to help you stay on the road. Dr Bike is a regular visitor to the University of Glasgow campuses. the mobile workshop service is well evolved and has been in operation for more than five years.

19/04/2018 Dr Bike will be at Gilmorehill, Wolfson Medical School, 11am – 2pm.

Cycling events at the University

Creative Conversations

Brit Award Winner Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian will be our Creative Conversations guest 16 April 2018, University of Glasgow Chapel, 1pm.

Stuart Murdoch is a Scottish musician, writer and filmmaker, and the lead singer and songwriter for the band Belle and Sebastian. His memoir The Celestial Café was released in 2010. In 2014, the film God Help the Girl, written and directed by Stuart Murdoch, was released, described by Esquire as "rife with the kind of giddy thrills and hormonal flushes you associate with being a teen”. It won World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award (Ensemble) at Sundance and was nominated for the Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Belle and Sebastian’s albums include: Tigermilk (1996), If You're Feeling Sinister (1996), The Boy with the Arab Strap (1998), Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000), Storytelling (2002), Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003), The Life Pursuit (2006), Belle and Sebastian Write About Love (2010), Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (2015). In 1999 the band was awarded with Best Newcomer (for their third album) at the BRIT Awards.

Creative Conversations are sponsored by the Ferguson Bequest

All Welcome, please feel free to bring coffee and/or a packed lunch.

Sneddon Lecture: Active Matter: Statistical Physics and the Arrow of Life

Professor Mike Cates FRS FRSE (University of Cambridge)

Monday 21st May 4pm-5pm Davidson 208

Active matter comprises particles whose microscopic dynamics breaks time-reversal symmetry (TRS) via the continuous conversion of fuel into motion, resulting in entropy production at the microscopic scale. Examples include bacteria and synthetic self-propelled collids. Equilibrium statistical physics concepts, for instance the Boltzmann distribution, are not applicable to active matter because these concepts assume the TRS of the underlying microscopic laws. When viewed at a coarse grained level, the microscopic absence of TRS may either remain obvious at large scales or become almost undetectable. In the latter case, we retain the hope that equilibrium concepts, at least in some modified form, may be applicable. This talk will discuss the mathematical toolbox needed to characterize the presence or absence of TRS at coarse-grained level, focusing on global and local measures of entropy production. Put differently: when, and how, can you tell whether life's movie is running backwards?

More here: gla.ac.uk/schools/mathematicsstatistics/events/details/?id=10041

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First published: 9 April 2018