It’s just not worth it. But you can state your need for community with some of these science events! As always, if you or a club you love is hosting a particularly juicy event, drop us a line at science@bwog.com

Optimizing Federal and Local Public Health Systems for the Next Pandemic

• Thursday, February 11, 2021 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM, register here
• About the lecture series: “Initiated in 2008, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Grand Rounds is a community conversation on the science, education, and practice of public health. The series provides an intellectual space within which to explore national and global public health challenges and the innovative approaches needed to transform the public’s health in the 21st century. COVID-19 has served as a magnifying glass on a broken, structurally racist and unequal health system which falls grievously short of protecting communities of color, the aged and the vulnerable.  It also has highlighted the devastating consequences of our country’s absence of a public health system charged with protecting and elevating health for all.  This year we will deepen our understanding, research, teaching and action on this topic, through our Grand Rounds on the Future of Public Health Series.”

How DNA Testing is Changing the Donor Conception Industry (Hosted by the CU Bioethics Society)

• Tuesday, February 9, 7:30 PM EST, click here for more information
• “Join us for a short presentation and a discussion on how DNA testing is changing the donor conception industry. Donor conception, or the use of donated sperm and eggs to conceive children, has been around since the 1970s. Maintaining the anonymity of gamete donors has been foundational to this under-regulated industry. But with the advent of direct-to-consumer DNA tests, like 23andMe, donor anonymity and other traditional aspects of donor conception are no longer sustainable.”

What’s going on with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout? Presentation and Q&A by Dr. Stephen Morse (Mailman School of Public Health) (Hosted by Columbia Public Health Club

• Thursday, February 11, 8 PM, click here to register
• “With mass vaccinations underway in New York City, the end to the COVID-19 pandemic is seemingly in sight. Yet the vaccine rollout process seems to have hit a few roadblocks along the way: shortages, waste, line-skipping, and inaccessibility. What’s gone wrong, and what’s gone right? Join the Columbia Public Health Club on Thursday, February 11 at 8PM Eastern for a discussion with Dr. Stephen Morse, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of Infectious Disease at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. At this crucial stage in the fight against the pandemic, it’s vital that we evaluate our next steps forward—be a part of the conversation!”

Meet the Director – Lessons from a “Spaceship Earth” in the Desert

• Friday, February 12, 2021 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM, click here for more information
• “Join Sustain What host Andy Revkin and guests for an exploration of “Spaceship Earth” – a documentary chronicling the strange and newly-relevant back story of the team of obsessive counterculture entrepreneurs, visionaries and scientists who built and occupied Biosphere 2 – a glass-encased experiment in sustainability in the Arizona desert. The story resonates afresh as billionaires chart paths to extraterrestrial settlement and strains on the global environment elicit new calls for humans to design an economy that doesn’t overwhelm ecology. Drawing on more than 700 hours of archival footage, the film’s director, Matt Wolf, has crafted a memorable portrait of an array of characters melding utopian ideals and cultish magnetism in pursuit of a singular dream.”

Snazzy header via Bwog illustrator Shane Maughn