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.

Computer Science Seminar: Will Crichton (Brown University)

• Monday, October 17, 2022. 10:30 to 11:30 am.
• Milstein 516 and Zoom.
• “Programming tools designed for people ought to derive from human-centered principles: how we think and how we learn. [Crichton’s] research is about translating concepts from psychology into practical insights for designing programming tools. In this talk, [Crichton] will present two kinds of cognitive design principles: how limitations of cognitive resources, namely working memory, influence the practice of programming” and “how people build mental models of programming concepts.” More information here.

Witnessing the formation of the first galaxies with Webb: what do we learn?

• Wednesday, October 19, 2022. 4:05 to 5:05 pm. 
• Pupin 1402.
• “The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was designed to detect very early stars and galaxies and to pin down the sources that ionized the bulk of the hydrogen in the Universe. In its first months of operation, JWST has performed superbly, and it has already delivered results that have generated great excitement. One such result is the detection of multiple ultra-high redshift galaxy candidates, which may be forming only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. It has been suggested that these galaxies, if truly in place at such early times, could be in tension with the standard Cold Dark Matter cosmological model. In this talk, [Dr. Rachel Somervill] will present some highlights from Webb’s early release science, and discuss the implications of these observations for our understanding of cosmology, reionization, and galaxy formation.” More information here.

The Future of Water: A Call to Action to Avert a Global Climate Crisis

• Wednesday, October 19, 2022. 6 to 7pm.
• Online. Registration required.
• “At the heart of climate consequences—from heat and fire to flooding and sea level rise—is water. Our lives and societies depend on water to survive, yet, at this time of unprecedented climate change, water-related risks are multiplying. This discussion considers the future of water, how to protect this precious resource, ensure access to clean drinking water, and how to avert catastrophic flooding and seawater inundation.” More information here.

Zain Rizvi – Legal Advocacy for an Equitable Epidemic Response

• Thursday, October 20, 2022. 12:10 to 1:10 pm.
• Jerome Greene Hall (Room 106), Columbia University, 435 West 116th Street, New York.
• “Zain Rizvi will share some of his research on COVID-19 and monkeypox vaccines and his advocacy for more equitable epidemic responses. Zain’s remarks will touch on his analysis of previously secret vaccine procurement contracts and his analysis of neglected but powerful US-government-held legal authorities in patents and trade secrets that could potentially expand access to vaccines.” More information here and here.

Rapid galactic disk settling at the end of bursty star formation

• Thursday, October 20, 2022. 4:05 to 4:35 pm. 
• Pupin 1402.
• Alex Gurvich is “a graduate student in Astronomy at CIERA (Northwestern University) working in the galaxy formation group with Claude-André Faucher-Giguère. [His] research uses the FIRE simulations to understand the connection between stellar feedback, the regulation of star formation, and the formation of galactic disks in spiral galaxies.” More information here and here.

Chemistry Colloquium, Presented by Prof. Allie Obermeyer

• Thursday, October 20, 2022. 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
• Havemeyer 209 or Zoom.
• “Protein de-mixing has been implicated in the organization of cellular components. These phase-separated membraneless organelles create distinct environments that are essential to cellular processes ranging from signaling to gene expression and stress response. The formation of several membraneless organelles appears to be driven by electrostatic interactions between proteins and nucleic acids. Here we seek to develop sequence-function property relationships in order to predict the formation and properties of artificial membraneless organelles in bacteria…here we will share our most recent understanding of the role of sequence in the creation of phase-separated organelles in living cells.” More information here.

Workshop: Experimenting with a Computational Model of a Neuron

• Friday, October 21, 2022. 12 to 2 pm.
• Milstein 516 and Virtual. Registration required.
• “In this workshop, participants will explore a computational model of a neuron in a Matlab LiveScript. No previous coding experience is required. We’ll discuss the origins of the model, demonstrate it, and then participants will have a chance to play with the model code and customize it and design their own experiments with it.” More information here.

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