Henley Café Sci: The Common Cold: 30,000 Years of the Sniffles

Basingstoke Science Cafe enthusiasts are invited to the in-person talk hosted by Henley Cafe Scientifique on “The Common Cold: 30,000 Years of the Sniffles”.

Please try to avoid last minute bookings. It can cause lots of administration especially when we are full. Thank you

To attend, please email the Henley Café Sci organiser directly at:
[cafescihenley@gmail.com](mailto:cafescihenley@gmail.com)

SUMMARY
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.

SPEAKER:
David Miles
Infectious disease immunologist who spent ten years researching immunity to infections and the vaccinations that protect against them in various parts of Africa.

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 the second, Sneeze: The History and Science of the Common Cold, will be published in March 2026.
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HOW TO BOOK
These events can be very popular and MUST be booked in advance.

To book your places(s) please email the Henley Café Sci organiser directly at **cafescihenley@gmail.com**. When he has confirmed your booking, please RSVP here so that we know you are coming and can look out for you.

The booking process remains as before
1. Café-Sci announce an event by sending members this announcement email
2. You respond by requesting a registration to attend live
3. If you subsequently find you are not able to attend, please advise as often there is a waitlist
4. You attend at the newly refurbished Henley Hockey Club, where a few members bring their own cushions
5. Avoid the Tesco Car Park, gates close at 9pm.
6. If we cancel, the notice will go those who registered

TIMING AND REFRESHMENTS
Please arrive from 7pm for a 7:30 start. Usual format is 45 min talk followed by 45 Q&A. Liquid refreshments are available at the bar.

Admission is free, but the organisers ask for a voluntary contribution from about £3.

DIRECTIONS:
If coming into Henley along the Reading Road turn right at the roundabout towards Tesco, then first left and left again into the hockey club car park. The entrance is near the far end.

Avoid the Tesco Car park, gates close at 9pm.