Event of the week
We are living in a time of loss, claims Canadian journalist Terry Glavin. A ‘sixth great extinction’ is upon us, during which one animal species perishes every 10 minutes. Languages and traditions are also disappearing fast. Glavin discusses this bleak picture at Millers Academy of Arts and Science on 22 October. The talk is not without optimism, however, as Glavin ‘uncovers the hidden story of a long human struggle to conserve the living things in the world, and finds hope in unexpected places’.

Public lectures
Spare parts – one day you might need them forewarns the Dana Centre on 23 October. Experts on tissue banking discuss the legislation and ethics of transplants and tissue donation.

On 24 October, the British Interplanetary Society presents three speakers with rival plans for getting humans to Mars. Hear about the engineering challenges and possible solutions. One of this week’s Gresham lectures also looks to the heavens. On 26 October, Professor Ian Morison describes the tools and techniques that furnish us with a ‘surprisingly accurate idea’ of the size, age and makeup of the Universe.

The Royal Society hosts a talk by Ottoline Leyser from the University of York on 24 October. She discusses how plants — in the absence of a brain or nervous system — react to stimuli.

The following day, the Wellcome Collection presents three lectures on auditory hallucinations. Ten percent of people ‘hear voices’ at some point in their life. The talks will address why this happens, how it can be treated and whether it should be treated at all.

On 26 October, Simon Chaplin from the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons talks at the Royal Society about the private trade in corpses for dissection during the 18th century.

Academic lectures
On 22 October, Colin Crump from the University of Cambridge visits Imperial to discuss cytoplasmic assembly of HSV-1. The same day, Patrick Cavanagh from Harvard University is at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience to talk about the coordinates of attention. On 23 October, Imperial’s Sebastian Barg looks at insulin secretion on the scale of individual granules and single molecules.