Women in Tech Cape Town: Getting Cozy with Catastrophe
Wed Jul 5, 18:00 - Wed Jul 5, 20:30
22Seven
ABOUT
Getting Cozy with Catastrophe: Superbugs, Drug Resistance and the Power of Long-term Thinking
Less than a hundred years ago, a papercut could result in a life-threatening infection and the average life expectancy hovered around thirty. Thanks to the marvels of science and medicine, today many of us can comfortably expect to live to eighty or older. But the tide is turning. If left unchecked we may destroy the gains we’ve made in human health, due to the rise of drug-resistant superbugs.
While this talk may seem like “just another doomsday” scenario to compete for your attention among the others: climate change, the water crisis or the collapse of local and international relations. Our speaker, Dr Imogen Wright, will talk about the experience of communicating catastrophe, what works and what doesn’t, and some tentative suggestions that we can all consider to help us become the kind of species who can weather the coming storms.
Dr Imogen Wright is a recovering theoretical physicist turned bioinformatics software developer. She co-founded the company Hyrax Biosciences, and was the 2016 runner-up for the Innovation Prize for Africa for Exatype, a groundbreaking drug resistance testing product.
Twitter handle: @imogenwright
URL: https://hyraxbio.co.za
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