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Genes Talking is a ground-breaking time-based installation of a live working laboratory in the ICA theatre (for more information, see page 18). Volunteer scientists will be doing genuine experiments using DNA sequencing technology, the technology used in the Human Genome Project. The public will be able to see the lab working on a day-to-day basis, talk to the scientists, and take part in the analysis of the results. To coincide with Genes Talking the following talks will take place: Is human language a natural progression of animal communications, or has there been a genetic leap in our ability to communicate? The issue of whether there is continuity between animal communication and human language has always been contentious. But what clues can the new science of comparative genomics offer? Professor Anthony Monaco, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Head of the Neurogenetics group; Professor Stephen Oppenheimer, Research Associate with the Institute of Human Sciences, Oxford University and author of Out of Eden , Heather van der Lely, Professor and Director of the Centre for Developmental Language Disorders and Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. Chair: Professor Amanda Fisher, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre.