Science Evenings With IDEAS

Winter/Spring 2012

These events are free and open to the public.

These evenings provide an opportunity for you to hear about science topics from the people who are directly involved in doing science research. You do not need a science background – the talks are appropriate for all.

Questions are encouraged - the goal is to make the evening a dialogue.

Teachers are invited to bring their middle and high school students to these Science Evenings. Teachers receive a certificate of attendance, which can be used for one hour toward professional development credit.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Nanomaterials for a Healthier and Cleaner World

Can we use nanofiber filters and membranes to clean wastewater or oil-polluted water (including water contaminated by fracking) so it is drinkable?

Can we create nanofibers that detect gas molecules in our breath and help us to prevent or treat diseases?

Find out the answers to questions like these when Dr. Perena Gouma, the director of the Center for Nanomaterials and Sensor Development (CNSD) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, discusses ongoing research using a type of nanomaterial called long nanofiber.

The CNSD, supported by the National Science Foundation, focuses on the synthesis and applications of nanomaterials for use in solving problems related to health, energy, and sustainability.

Dr. Perena Gouma, Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Director, Center for Nanomaterials and Sensor Development, Stony Brook University

For more information on Dr. Gouma and the CNSD, visit https://web.stonybrook.edu/cnsd/formservertemplates/page.html

Location: The Helene Fortunoff Theater (Monroe Lecture Center, California Avenue, South Campus)
Time: 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Past Events

Please Note this is a WEDNESDAY evening event!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
A Special Earth Day Celebration Event

Climate Change Now and in the Next Decade
The Day Before Tomorrow: Risk Managers Getting Ready for Climate Change Today

CLICK HERE FOR THE EVENT FLYER!

While the political debates over the reality and significance of climate change rage on, the people in business, government, and public health who are responsible for addressing threats to public safety are hard at work planning for a future that is already underway. Join us as we hear from risk managers who are already responding to a warmer climate, a rising sea level, and disruptions in established weather patterns on Long Island and across our region.

Introduction by: Dr. J Bret Bennington, Professor of Geology, Hofstra University

Speaker panel and discussion featuring:
John Maguire, Emergency Operations Center Manager, Nassau County Office of Emergency Management
Perry E. Sheffield, MD MPH, Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Co-sponsored by the Hofstra University Center for Civic Engagement and the Hofstra University Honors College.

Location: The Helene Fortunoff Theater (Monroe Lecture Center, California Avenue, South Campus)
Time: 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Space: The Asteroid Frontier

There are many ways of studying the Asteroid Frontier as a scientist. In her career, Lucy McFadden has used large telescopes atop a 14,000 ft mountain top observatory in Hawaii, used the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit around the Earth, traveled to Antarctica to collect meteorites sitting on the ice, and walked the desert with 50 students from University of Khartoum searching for fragments of an asteroid that collided with earth, exploded in the upper atmosphere and rained fragments on the desert floor. Most recently, she looked at one of the largest Main Belt Asteroids named (4) Vesta through the eyes of a robotic spacecraft named Dawn, exploring the asteroid frontier.

She will share her adventures, place the thrill of scientific exploration through NASA’s solar system exploration program in context and explain opportunities for students to engage in NASA’s exciting missions to expand scientific understanding of Earth and the Universe in which we live.

Dr. Lucy McFadden, Scientist and Chief for Higher Education, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Location: The Helene Fortunoff Theater (Monroe Lecture Center, California Avenue, South Campus)
Time: 7:30 to 9 p.m.

To learn more about what inspired Dr. McFadden to become a scientist and her career, visit these websites:

Read about her trip to Antarctica, including lots of photos:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/feature_stories/antarctica.asp

Thursday, March 8, 2012
A Darwin Day Event

Ancient Fossils, Regulatory Genes, and the Neurology of Language:
New Frontiers in Evolution Science

In celebration of Darwin Day 2012, Hofstra faculty will provide updates from the cutting edge of evolution research in geology, biology, and medicine, followed by a panel discussion and audience question and answer period. To close the evening, cake and ice cream will be served to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 203 Birthday!

In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, a book that convinced the scientific world of the reality of evolution and that provided a plausible mechanism, natural selection, to explain how evolution happens. Yet in spite of all he accomplished, there was much that Darwin did not understand. Still a mystery to Darwin and his contemporaries was the puzzle of the sudden, rather than gradual, appearance of animal life in the fossil record, the cellular mechanisms of inheritance and the expression of traits, and the evolutionary origins of uniquely human traits such as language. Now, over 150 years later, the geological, biological, and medical sciences have made tremendous progress solving these evolutionary unknowns. To provide an update on the current state of knowledge in evolution science three professors from Hofstra University will address our current understanding of the questions that vexed Darwin.

Dr. J Bret Bennington of the Department of Geology will highlight recent fossil discoveries that reveal a long history of multicellular organisms leading up to the “Cambrian explosion” of modern animal groups. These fossils extend the record of multicellular life back over 100 million years and are providing important insights into the timing and pattern of early animal evolution.

Dr. Russell Burke of the Department of Biology will discuss recent advances in our understanding of how genes control development in organisms. New research is revealing how genetic changes driven by evolution translate into new adaptations like the giraffe's long neck and the form and number of legs in insects, as well as how one species evolves into another.

Lastly, Dr. Patrick J. Gannon, Department of Science Education, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine will share his research into the origins of human speech. Dr. Gannon has shown that asymmetric “language areas” in the brain, once thought to be unique to humans, are also present in our closest living relatives, the great apes, and even in Old World monkeys like baboons with whom we last shared a common ancestor more that 30 million years ago. Dr. Daniel Rubey, Dean of Library and Information Services, will give a short introduction discussing the history of Darwin Day at Hofstra University.

Location: The Helene Fortunoff Theater (Monroe Lecture Center, California Avenue, South Campus)
Time: 7:30 to 9 p.m.

For background information, see:

International Darwin Day Foundation: http://darwinday.org/

Darwin Correspondence Project: http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/

Business Week article on Patrick Gannon’s research on the brain and language: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/635664.html

Podcast of Patrick Gannon’s lecture Evolutionary Depth of Human Brain Language Areas: Roles of Common Ancestors and Major Adaptive Shifts: http://www.amnh.org/news/tag/patrick-gannon/

Hofstra University