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11th November 2026
In Search of Mermaids:
Tracking the World’s Elusive Dugongs
Dugongs, or ‘sea cows’, are among the ocean’s most elusive marine mammals and are thought to have inspired some of the earliest tales of mermaids. This talk by Patricia Davis from the Natural History Museum, Colchester follows efforts to locate and study dugong populations across Palau and Micronesia, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Madagascar and the Comoros Islands. It explores how researchers are combining traditional field techniques, including snorkelling and diving surveys, with novel approaches such as drones and environmental DNA (eDNA), while also drawing on the invaluable knowledge of Indigenous and local communities. Together, these methods are helping to reveal where dugongs still survive, how they use their habitats, and what can be done to conserve these increasingly threatened ‘mermaids’ of the sea.
14th October 2026
The Common Cold:
30,000 Years of the Sniffles
Speaker: Dr. David Miles*
Everybody knows what a cold feels like: miserable. The first cold virus was detected in a milk tooth shed over 30,000 years ago and ever since, the common cold has been a bane. Yet while sore throats and blocked noses are annoyingly familiar, the processes that lead to them are not widely known and often misunderstood. Processes like the misdirected immune response that makes us ill with a cold instead of protecting us from illness. Like the way heating a building enhances cold virus transmission. Like the way that most cold viruses can only exist at all thanks to the society we’ve built over the last few millennia.
And, most importantly, what we can do about them.
*Bio
David Miles is an infectious disease immunologist who spent ten years researching immunity to infections and the vaccinations that protect against them in various parts of Africa. He now lives in London and teaches on the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s online postgraduate course. His first popular science book, How Vaccines Work, was published in March 2023 and his second, Sneeze: The History and Science of the Common Cold, was published in March 2026.
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