November 1 – Science and Prophecy of the Ancient Maya
Discover what is known and unknown about the ancient Maya and their conceptions of space and time. Professor Mark Van explores the prophecy of the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 and the many discoveries about Mayan science and philosophy.
December 6 – Ecological Impact of the Oil Spill
The Gulf of Mexico is no stranger to adversity; however, the millions of gallons of oil blown-out into one of America's most productive fishing grounds may have sealed its fate. We will explore the ecological impacts of the oiled-Gulf as well as current issues, restoration solutions, and the challenges that lie ahead.
January 3 – The Golden Age of Radio in the Era of MP3, and Satellite and Internet Radio
In the period between the early 1930s and the late 1950s, radio was the dominate family entertainment in the home. In the 1960s, radio retreated to news, music and some sports. David Groce will discuss a few of the technical aspects in the rise and fall of radio, but will give many audio examples of the variety of old-time radio programs. A CD of over 100 of these will be given to each attendee. Come and have some nostalgic fun, but be forewarned, your own imagination can be more powerful than the moving images of motion pictures and television.
February 7 – The Threat of New Infectious Diseases
New infectious diseases seem to be in the news much more frequently than they were a few decades ago. These new diseases rapidly spread around the world and affect all of our lives. Professor Stanley Maloy will lead a discussion about where these new diseases come from, why they are coming so much faster, and what is needed to stem the tide.
March 7 – Pushing the Envelope: Eggheads Are Yucking Up the Language
Our preoccupations as a people are found in our daily speech, and the words that started in science and technology feature prominently. From the Gold Rush to psychotherapy to gene sequencing, standard English is colored by strange science slang. We'll look at some strange and ordinary words, and their histories, and talk about why these additions to our lexis are a good sign we're innovating at more than neologisms.
March 1 – Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks
Dr. James Fowler joins the Fleet Science center for a fascinating discussion of how our social networks drive and shape virtually every aspect of our lives. How we feel, whom we marry, whether we fall ill, how much money we make, and whether we vote all depend on what others around us–even those distantly connected to us–are doing, thinking, and feeling. Learn how these connections have an ancient evolutionary past and how this will affect our new life as technology moves our networks online.
April 4 – Coding for Flash Memories
Over the past 50 years, the data storage industry has changed rapidly while introducing different types of memories such as Hard Disc Drives, CDs, DVDs, and more recently, Flash memories. Eitan Yaakobi will give an overview of the different types of memories. Flash memories have replaced hard disc drives in many of these applications because of their high data-transfer rates, mechanical durability, and low power consumption. However, on the other hand, these memories still suffer from several drawbacks and challenges. We will discuss some of these problems and show how coding solutions are employed with spectacular success in order to achieve performance trade-offs and improvements.
May 2: "Natural Products from Algae: From Biofuels to Toxins"
Photosynthetic algae are fascinating organisms that produce a variety of natural products of importance to humans. Algae hold great promise as potential sources of biofuels to meet our nation's energy needs into the future, and we have interest in the engineering and production of single-cellular algae for the purpose of biofuel optimization and production. Dr. Michael Burkart from the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology will discuss a sustainable renewable energy industry based on algae that has the potential to provide energy security and millions of new green-collar jobs.
June 6 – Decoding Depression
If you go door to door throughout the community, you find that one in 7 adults in the U.S. have experienced a major depressive episode at some point already in their lives. Despite the commonness of this emotional experience, the different disciplines that study depression disagree about even the most fundamental nature of depression. Karen Wager-Smith, PhD, will discuss a new analysis of biomedical research suggesting that an unforeseen cascade of neurobiological events occurs in the brain during a depressive episode. Surprisingly, this new biological scenario shows how conflicting bodies of knowledge about depression might actually fit together into one unified explanation. This development suggests that the path toward alleviating suffering in this painful condition may lie in an unexpected direction.
July 6: “Lunar Exploration – Past, Present and Future”
As the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission approaches, Dr. Philip Blanco joins us for an inspiring presentation with restored archival footage from the Apollo missions and lunar demonstrations.
August 1: “Pollinators in peril: what's up with the bees?”
Honey bees face multiple natural and man made dangers in their environment. Ironically, they are highly successful because of their use in modern agriculture, yet are suffering because modern agriculture imposes stresses from pesticides, diseases, parasites, and management practices such as mobile beekeeping. Join James Nieh, Professor of Biological Sciences at UCSD, to explore natural threats and the effects of pesticides on honey bee foraging. Learn more about the amazing solutions that bees have evolved to natural perils and how our use of pesticides may be contributing to their decline.
October 3: “Novae! The Solar Mass Ejection Imager Keeps a Watchful Eye”
The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI), launched into polar orbit on the Coriolis Spacecraft in 2003, provides photometric images associated with the aftermath of solar flares as they engulf the Earth. Dr. Bernard Jackson from UCSD’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences will explain how this instrument also observes novae, or white dwarf stars, that steal matter, in the form of hydrogen, from companion stars. Explore how scientists watch this runaway nuclear fusion reaction. Join Dr. Jackson to learn how the SMEI views these exploding stars that reach naked eye brightness and precisely measures them prior to maximum light.
November 7: “How We See: From Neurons to Perception”
Nearly every facet of human experience is colored by the sense of sight.
This sense conveys physical, social, and aesthetic qualities of one's
environment using extraordinary brain mechanisms. A variety of
developmental, traumatic, and disease-related disorders highlight the
complexity of these mechanisms. Join Tom Albright from the SALK
Institute to learn what is being done to understand brain mechanisms of
visual information processing, with the promise of effective treatment
and remediation of disorders of vision, as well as insights into the nature
of our conscious experience of the world.
December 5: “The International Year of Chemistry 2011: Exploring Nanotechnology, Clean Energy Production, Advances in Health Care, and the Environment”
Due to its influence on many scientific fields, the discipline of Chemistry is
often referenced as the “central science”. Chemistry is at the heart of how
life is defined (DNA), is harnessed to keep us healthy (medicine), powers
the planet (petroleum, batteries, solar cells, etc.) and led to the discovery of
new materials that opened the frontiers of the space age. 2011 has been
proclaimed the International Year of Chemistry. Dr. David Brown,
Professor of Chemistry at Southwestern College, will discuss the impact
that chemistry has on all our lives and will present exciting examples of
how chemistry is advancing the quality of life for all on the planet.
May 3: “Astronomy in the 21st Century”
Since the dawn of mankind, humans have looked “up” and wondered. From nonverbal musings to analytical investigations, from the Megalithic Stone Builders to Copernicus and Kepler; this is the foundation of modern astronomy. Then, Galileo first turned a telescope to the sky in 1609 and the “Universe,” as we had come to know it, would never be the same. Take a journey through the astronomical ages, from ancient observatories to NASA’s Great Observatories, the International Year of Astronomy, the Large Hadron Collider, and beyond.
June 7: “Successful Aging & Cognitive Awareness”
Join Dr. Stephen Barnes of San Diego State University for a presentation on how and why human beings age. Particular emphasis will be on the 21 universal aging events all adults experience, as well as the latest research on memory loss and cognitive decline.
August 2 “Chaparral & Wildfire”
Of all the distinct, natural communities in California, only one is found throughout and only one can be said to represent the state’s most characteristic wilderness: the chaparral. Join us as we explore the chaparral’s unique natural history, reveal the truth concerning its many myths and surprising mysteries, and why it represents such a vital link to nature for all Californians. We will also discuss how we can create fire safe communities and protect our natural environment at the same time.
Greg Rubin is a native plant expert, lecturer, and writer and works with of The California Chaparral Institute, a non-profit research and educational organization focusing on California's shrubland ecosystems.
October 4 “Shooting the Moon: Getting Down with Gravity”
Join UCSD physicist Eric Michelsen for a look at current studies using Einstein's theory of gravity by tracing out the orbit of the moon around the earth with a laser, often to 1 mm accuracy (the thickness of a dime). Though General Relativity has never been wrong, it does not include quantum mechanics, so most physicists believe that General Relativity must break down at some small level. The presentation will include an overview of the experiment, the cutting edge technology used, and the science discoveries that have been made and those physicists hope for in the future.
February 6“Pollinators in Peril: What’s up with the bees?”
Honey bees face multiple natural and man made dangers in their environment. Ironically, they are highly successful because of their use in modern agriculture, yet are suffering because modern agriculture imposes stresses from pesticides, diseases, parasites, and management practices such as mobile beekeeping. Join James Nieh, Professor of Biological Sciences at UCSD, to explore natural threats and the effects of pesticides on honey bee foraging. Learn more about the amazing solutions that bees have evolved to natural perils and how our use of pesticides may be contributing to their decline.
Bio:
Dr. James C. Nieh was born in Taiwan, but grew up in Southern California. He received his B.A. at Harvard in 1991 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1997. He subsequently received a NSF-NATO Postdoctoral fellowship to study at the University of Würzburg in Germany. After this, he received the prestigious Harvard Junior Fellowship. In 2000, he joined the faculty in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California San Diego where he is currently a professor in the Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution. Dr.
Nieh’s interests focus on bee communication and cognition. He studies many types of social bees, including honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees. Currently, his lab is interested in exploring the evolution of bee language, how bees communicate and recruit nestmates to food, and in how pesticides and disease affect bee behavior, navigation, and communication.
March 5 “Return to the Moon - Apollo's legacy”
By the end of 2012 it will have been 40 years since a human being walked on the Moon. Dr. Philip Blanco will revisit some of the highlights of the Apollo program with newly restored archival footage and hands-on demonstrations, and will survey current and future efforts in lunar exploration. Bring your questions about the Moon, Apollo missions and space exploration in general!
Bio:
Dr. Philip Blanco is a lecturer in physics and astronomy at Grossmont College. Having gained his PhD in Edinburgh, Scotland he has since performed research in ground-based and space-based astronomy, and worked under contract to NASA to support one of its X-ray astronomy satellites. Among his early influences he counts watching the Apollo 11 landings on live television.
April 2 “Green Meteorology: Making the most out of your Solar Energy”
The rapid growth of solar energy launches California on the path to 33% renewables by 2020. After review different solar power technologies, we will address the challenges that large amounts of variable generation bring to the operation of the electric grid. Forecasting of solar power production is an emerging research area that can facilitate the integration of solar energy.
Bio:
Kleissl is an assistant professor at the Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Associate Director, UCSD Center for Energy Research. Kleissl received a Ph.D. in 2004 from Johns Hopkins University in Environmental Engineering and joined UC San Diego in 2006. Kleissl supervises 13 PhD students who work on solar power forecasting, solar resource model validation, and solar grid integration work funded by DOE, CPUC, NREL, and CEC. Kleissl received the NSF CAREER Award and the UC San Diego Sustainability Award.