Welcome back to Science Fair, Bwog’s weekly roundup of science events happening around campus. As always, email science@bwog.com if you want your event featured.

Shamiri: A Simple, Scalable, and Stigma-Free Mental Health Intervention for Adolescents in Kenya

• Tuesday, January 25, 2022 9 to 10 am
• Online event, link here
• “At this Columbia University Seminar, our guest speakers will introduce the Shamiri intervention and present preliminary findings from a five-arm randomized controlled trial evaluating the intervention’s impact on mental health, wellbeing, and academic functioning. This Seminar is open to the Columbia Community and the Public. Please register in advance.”

Cosmic Probes of the Dark Sector

• Tuesday, January 25, 2022 1 to 2 pm
• Online event, link here
• “In this talk, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein will describe her efforts to understand the nature of the mysterious dark matter. She will give some insight into how she is using a range of tools — model building, computation, and neutron stars — to get at the basic question of “what is the statistical mechanics of dark matter?” She will show that the details of ultralight axion models can shift the astrophysical phenomenology and also that neutron stars are potentially interesting dark matter constraint laboratories. From the optical to the X-ray and gamma-ray universe, astrophysics has a role to play in understanding the details of this major problem in particle physics.”

Black Feminism in Space

• Tuesday, January 25, 2022 1 to 2 pm
• Online event, link here
• “How can we imagine leaving Earth’s surface and making a livable home elsewhere when we can’t even get it right here? Black feminism provides a framework for thinking about living in good relations with each other on earth’s surface and beyond. Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Originally from East L.A., Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is a graduate of Harvard College, University of California — Santa Cruz, and the University of Waterloo. One of under 100 Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics, she is a theoretical physicist with expertise in particle physics cosmology, and astrophysics, with an emphasis on dark matter.”

A Breathtaking Challenge: Charting the Course for Cleaner Air

• Wednesday, January 26, 2022 6 to 7 pm
• Online event, link here
• “It’s among the top five of health dangers, and it’s everywhere. Air pollution. According to global health experts, poor air quality causes premature mortality in up to nine million people every year. One third of deaths from stroke, lung cancer, and heart disease are caused by microscopic pollutants in the air that can infiltrate our respiratory and circulatory system, damaging our lungs, heart, and brain. On Wednesday January 26, join us online for the first Columbia Climate School Earth Series of the year, as two of the school’s world-renowned atmospheric scientists discuss an exciting interdisciplinary project aimed to better understand this threat and help move global policies to clear the air and protect public health.”

Angelo Caglioti – Science and Fascism, or Fascist Science?

• Wednesday, January 26, 2022 6 to 7:30 pm
• Online event, link here
• “While historians of Germany have made Nazi science an essential aspect of Hitler’s regime, Italian historians have always written about science and Fascism as two separate entities. This perspective confirms the assumption that good science, as a pure intellectual enterprise, can exist and function properly only in liberal-democratic regimes. Did science work differently under Fascism? In short, was there a “Fascist science”? In order to answer these questions, this presentation builds on the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to investigate the institutional mechanisms and power struggles of Fascist science by using the example of Italian meteorology. The analysis of the Italian Meteorological Society and the Aeronautical Meteorological Service as social and scientific networks at once is a key test of Fascism’s rhetoric claiming perfect coordination between Italian science, society, and the regime. The presentation will focus on the role of Fascist imperialism and anti-Semitism in transforming Italian meteorology. In short, the presentation offers the category of “Fascist science” as key to understand the successes and limits of Fascism as a scientific modernization project.”

Ice Edge: The Ikaaġvik Sikukun Story

• Thursday, January 27, 2022 2 to 3:30 pm
• Online event, link here
• “Five years ago, facing momentous sea ice changes, the Native Village of Kotzebue began a collaborative research project with scientists from Columbia University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks to better understand these changes. The project, called Ice Bridges, or Ikaaġvik Sikukun in the Iñupiaq language, melded Indigenous observations, aerial monitoring, ocean and marine mammal science to address questions developed with the projects Iñupiaq Elder Advisory Council. The first peer-reviewed studies have been published, as well as a 14-part film series that has been made available on Youtube. “Ice Edge” launch party is being held on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn on Jan. 27, from 2 to 3:30 pm ET. The event is hosted by Andy Revkin, one of America’s most honored and experienced environmental journalists, with discussion by Indigenous and scientific team members. This event will celebrate the launch of the feature-length film produced by Sarah Betcher of Farthest North Films, chronicling the years-long study and the relationships it forged. The film discusses the research and explores lessons that can inform efforts around the world to bridge local and western science expertise and perspectives when tackling urgent challenges where the impacts of climate change are greatest.”

Image via Shane Maughn