are you a generation 2 up-type quark? cause you’re quite the charmer! ;)

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:

• “Playing with Anger: Racial Literacy and Health Interventions for Black Boys and Men,” presented by Columbia’s Center for Justice
  • Thursday, February 22, 4-6pm, The Heyman Center for the Humanities, 2nd Floor Conference Room, RVSP at link
  • “Dr. Howard Stevenson, Professor of Urban Education at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss “the challenges and ramifications of culturally relevant interventions for men of color… Understanding how the unique life experiences of Black boys and men can be integrated into the intervention protocols and measurement of randomized and quasi-experimental trials is the focus of this talk. Two mental health research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health examine the benefits of racial literacy.”

• Student Townhall With The Hon. Catherine McKenna, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change
  • Wednesday, February 21, 1-2pm, Faculty House, RSVP at link
  • “Like many nations around the world grappling with climate change and threats to the natural environment and public health, Canada is taking action to address these challenges, including ratification of the Paris Agreement and a pledge to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by thirty percent in 2030 from 2005 levels… Minister McKenna will offer brief remarks focused on Canada’s work in climate change, but most of the time will be devoted to answering students’ questions.”
• Extreme Engineering – Astronaut Appearance: Peggy A. Whitson
  • Thursday, February 22, 6:30-8:30pm, Davis Auditorium, 412 CEPSR
  • Attend this talk, given by Dr. Peggy A. Whitson, a NASA astronaut! “Whitson completed two six-month tours of duty aboard the International Space Station, the second as the station commander for Expedition 16 in April 2008. This was Whitson’s second long-duration spaceflight. She has accumulated 377 days in space between the two missions, the most for any woman. Whitson has also performed a total of six career spacewalks, adding up to 39 hours and 46 minutes.”

• Columbia Astronomy Outreach, Stargazing and Lecture Series: “The LSST Revolution: These data belong to you and me!” presented by Federica Bianco
  • Friday, February 23, 7:00pm, Pupin Hall
  • “The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is the largest astronomical groundbased survey ever planned. Starting in 2022 it will image the entire southern hemisphere sky every three days for 10 years. It will yield tens of Terabytes of images each night, and all this data will be publicly accessible to the USA community! How are we preparing to study the 6 million solar system object, 20 billion galaxies, 17 billion resolved stars that LSST will see, and the 1-10 transients events, from exploding and erupting stars to plant transiting in front of their sun, that LSST will detect each night?”
• Science! The Musical
  • Friday, February 23, 8-9pm, 513 Fayerweather
    Saturday, February 24, 3-4pm and 7-8pm
    Sunday, February 25, 3-4pm and 8-9pm
    Student tickets available for $10 here
  • “Science! The Musical” is a new musical about life in the lab written by Presidental Scholar in Society and Neuroscience scholar Andrew Goldman and directed by Jenna Hoffman. Follow the story of Janice, a first-year Ph.D. student, who has just had her first paper accepted to an academic conference. The only problem is, she hasn’t written the paper yet! In the few short weeks before the conference, Janice must learn to do interdisciplinary science. Will she publish, or will she perish!?”

Intended for more advanced students of the given subject, but still open to anyone interested:

• Physics: “The Social Life of Heavy Quarks,” presented by Dr. Marek Karliner of Tel-Aviv University
  • Monday, February 19, 4:15pm, 428 Pupin Hall
  • “I will discuss recent developments regarding new types of hadrons involving heavy quarks: hadronic molecules, doubly heavy baryons, stable tetraquarks and others. I will also explain how the discovery of the doubly heavy baryon leads to quark-level analogue of nuclear fusion, with energy release per reaction an order of magnitude greater than in ordinary fusion.”

image via quora