It's become commonplace these days to bash science in America. Politicians deny evolution and cancel physics programs, while our climate changes and China ploughs ahead with stem cell research. To help end this crisis, we need to rebuild the reputation of science in the media and in the public eye. Using Harley Davidson, Coca-Cola, and the characters of Star Wars as examples, I'll describe a marketing tool that can help create new brands for scientists and win back public support for science.
Countless books are filled with many fascinating stories about our past as a people. But emerging studies into our DNA also have stories to tell us, about who and where we come from and what it may mean for us today. How do we access this information and what does it tell us about our history, our ancestors and ourselves? This talk will use DNA to tell one such story.
Deriving energy and basic nutrients from one's surroundings is a fundamental process of life. We all know that we need to eat in order to have energy, but what happens after that? What happens when something goes wrong with the process? A Google search for "increase your metabolism" gives over a quarter million hits, but what does this involve? Countless products are being marketed to “boost” metabolism, but can this be done safely? We all hear that heart disease and diabetes are related to what you eat and how much you exercise, but how? While the basics of this process have been understood...
We all know that we will get old. But the outstanding question for Science is "Why?" Why do we age? What is the fundamental biology of aging? Understanding the biological imperative of aging sheds light not only on our fascinating and intricate biology, but helps us also reconcile perhaps the most fundamental question of all--why we die. For scientists, the biological basis for aging offers tantalizing insights into life, death and--perhaps most profound of all--the quest for immortality.
Your personal genome contains clues to your past and predictions about your future. The Human Genome Project created an explosion in the world of genetics and is now revolutionizing the practice of medicine. This talk will review our knowledge of genomics, how we analyze DNA, and the implications of new testing technologies for health care. We’ll also see how this evolving science has helped elucidate our Jewish genetic roots.
The Cassini mission to Titan has unveiled a world that experiences surface temperatures about 200 degrees colder than Earth’s, receives 100 times less sunlight, where hydrocarbon molecules rain from the sky and water ice is as hard as rock. But for all of its strange thermosphysical and chemical state, Titan exhibits landforms remarkably familiar to our own: extensive dunes in the dry regions, braided channel networks draining from mountains to large basins, and perhaps most astonishingly, large seas and lakes in the high latitudes filled with liquid methane and ethane. This presentation will...
