home sweet home

We’re back with Science Fair, Bwog’s weekly curated list of interesting STEM-related talks, symposiums, and events happening on campus. For science and non-science majors alike, our list will bring you events that will satisfy your scientific curiosity for everything from astronomy to zoology, and everything in between.

For anyone, related-majors and non-majors alike:

• Embodied Cognition and Prosthetics: Are Our Tools Part of Our Bodies?
  Monday, October 15, 4-6pm, Heyman Center for the Humanities (74 Morningside Dr), register at this link
  Event description: “Embodied cognition theorists emphasize the role of the body and the environment in constituting mental processes. By examining how our brains interact with the rest of our bodies and how our entire bodies interact with the environment, we can learn much about human behavior and the human mind.”
• Seminars on Sex, Gender, and Autism Spectrum Disorder
  Monday, October 15, 6:15-8:30pm, Fayerweather 513, register at the link
  Event description: Using relevant readings from research, this seminar will examine the interplay of sex and gender in how male-female phenotypes of ASD are characterized. Speakers include Rebecca Jordan-Young (Barnard), Chiara Manzini (George Washington University), and Russell D Romeo (Barnard)
• “Face/Off or On? Face Transplants and the Resistance to Categorization” presented by Sharrona Pearl (UPenn)
  Wednesday, October 17, 6-8pm, Fayerweather 513, more info at the link
  Event description: Both like and not like cosmetic surgery and whole organ transplants, facial allografts have proven difficult to categorize. This talk will show how bioethicists, surgeons, and journalists have conceptualized face transplants as neither and both, and the resulting stakes for each.

• “Vacation Guide to the Solar System” with Columbia Astronomy Public Outreach
  Friday, October 19, 7pm, Pupin Hall, more info at the link
  Event description: Columbia Astronomy Public Outreach offers a regular astronomy lecture, geared toward the public, as well as rooftop stargazing in the Pupin observatory. Learn about the planets, comets, and other cosmic entities present in our solar system!

For more advanced students of the given subject:

• “Engineering Biomaterials for Cell Reprogramming” BME Seminar by Song Li (UCLA)
  Friday, October 19, 11am-12pm, more info at the link
  Event description: Our work demonstrates that functionalized biomaterials can be tailored with desirable biophysical and biological properties and have tremendous potential for stem cell engineering, cell reprogramming and regenerative medicine applications.