A major conference on the meaning of beauty is to be held in Edinburgh later this year - with a special paper delivered by Sir David Attenborough.
One of Scotland's most distinguished bodies, the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), is holding the conference later this year.
Sir David will be giving a paper on "Beauty and the Birds" at the conference, which will be run in the society's headquarters in the city's George Street from November 10-11.
The world famous naturalist, writer and television presenter, who made the award-winning The Life of Birds for the BBC in 1998, will be delivering the paper among leading mathematicians, neuro biologists, physicists and other experts.
Earlier this year Sir David made a documentary about one of his "lifelong passions", birds of paradise of New Guinea.
He was the first to film many of their beautiful and often bizarre displays, and over his lifetime he has tracked them all over the jungles of New Guinea.
Professor Alan Alexander, general secretary of the RSE, said: "We are very excited to be hosting this unique conference.
"It is a real pleasure to bring together so many eminent speakers around a fascinating theme that has so many topical angles: from beauty in the arts and sciences, to the role and function of beauty in the natural world.
"It will be an important part of the RSE's winter events programme."
The RSE say the event will ask "deep questions" about the concept of beauty and art at the conference.
A statement said: "What is common to the experience of beauty derived from sensory sources such as music and visual art, highly cognitive ones such as mathematics and from moral sources?
"What is the relationship between aesthetic judgment and aesthetic experience? And what is the grander biological significance of the experience of beauty?"
Other speakers at the event include Sir Roger Penrose, the leading mathematician and physicist who will speak about the "Role of Art in Mathematics".
Other papers will discuss the neurobiology of aesthetic judgements, the neurobiology of beauty, the "beauty of tears" and the neurobiology of sorrow, as well as perceptions of human beauty.
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