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.

Science, Nature and Beauty: Harmony and Cosmological Perspectives in Islamic Science

• Ongoing event, through March 3.
• Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
• This event “showcases over 90 manuscripts, instruments and objects from the Muslim World Manuscript collection housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML), at the Columbia University Libraries (CUL).” More information here.

EE Seminar: Dynamic Materials and Systems Inspired by Cephalopods

• Monday, January 23, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.
• EE Conference Room (Mudd 1300).
• “Cephalopods (e.g., squids, octopuses, and cuttlefish) have captured the imagination of both the general public and scientists alike due to their sophisticated neurophysiologies, visually stunning camouflage displays, and complex behavioral patterns… Within this context, our laboratory has focused on the development of cephalopod-inspired systems and cephalopod-derived materials with unique capabilities and functionalities… The understanding of structure-optical function relationships in cephalopods gained from such studies has pointed to exciting new scientific opportunities in bioengineering, electrical engineering, and materials science.” More information here.

Physics Colloquium: Shih-Chieh Hsu, “Discovering the Dark Universe with Artificial Intelligence”

• Monday, January 23, 12:30 to 1:00 pm
• Pupin Hall Floor 8.
• “Compelling experimental evidence strongly supports searches for new particles predicted by theories Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). Such searches are connected to fundamental questions among the highest priorities of particle physics, like dark matter, baryogenesis, and hierarchy problems. At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the ATLAS experiment is ideally suited for detecting heavy states like heavy Higgs and dark scalars that decay to particles with high transverse momentum (pT) to the beam. In this talk, I will present the state-of-the-art heavy Higgs and dark scalar searches in ATLAS. Specifically, I will highlight how Artificial Intelligence plays a role to advance and expand the LHC physics program.” More information here.

Lindsay Campbell – Reading the Landscape

• Monday, January 23, 5:00 to 6:30 pm
• Online event, register here.
• “This talk will share insights from the Social Assessment of NYC parks and natural areas that was led by social scientists at the USDA Forest Service working in collaboration with NYC Parks and the Natural Areas Conservancy… By reading the landscape for social meaning, we can support management and programming of these sites not only as ecological resources, but as social spaces as well. The social assessment can also be used as a training and education tool to develop a new way of seeing.” More information here.

Examining SMUDGes

• Wednesday, January 25, 4:05 to 5:05 pm.
• Pupin 1402.
• “The (re)discovery of large, local, extremely low surface brightness (ultra-diffuse) galaxies has generated a variety of ideas regarding their formation — both within the standard galaxy formation cannon (these galaxies simply represent an extreme in properties, such as high angular momentum halos or extremely burst episodic star formation) or beyond it (these galaxies represent a unicorn event – formation in tidal tails, debris from direct collisions, extreme quenching events). I’ll present results from an ongoing survey to systematically measure ultra-diffuse galaxies (SMUDGes) that aims to provide a large, all-sky, homogeneous sample with which to address the question of their formation and evolution. I will describe the various challenges in assembling the required sample, with a few interesting detours along the way. Followed by wine and cheese.” More information here.

Ayah Nuriddin – Black Eugenics and the Struggle for Equality

• Wednesday, January 25, 6:00 to 7:30 pm
• Online (register here) and in-person in Fayerweather 513.
• “This talk will discuss the ways that African Americans understood and mobilized eugenics and racial science to challenge scientific racism in the twentieth century. African American physicians, scientists, scholars, and reformers believed that eugenics, along with other political and social activism, offered a solution to racial discrimination by improving the biological composition of the race. Though eugenic measures were ultimately weaponized against African Americans, there were some who believed that forms of eugenics could be mobilized to improve the health and welfare of the race. This talk will examine the ways by which African Americans respond to, reinterpret, and critique the scientific racism embedded within the eugenics movement as part of a larger discourse of black eugenics.” More information here.

Nyeema Harris – Carnivore Complexities within Dynamic Socio-Ecological Interfaces

• Thursday, January 26, 4:00 to 5:00 pm
• Online (register here) and in-person in Faculty House, Garden Room 1.
• “Nyeema Harris will discuss ways of furthering scientific understanding that informs land use development in ways that promote the coexistence of humans and wildlife across complex landscapes.” More information here.

Chemistry Colloquium: Harnessing Coulombic Forces to Guide Colloidal Self-Assembly

• Thursday, January 26, 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
• Havemeyer 209.
• “From snowflakes to nanoparticle superlattices, a menagerie of complex structures emerge from simple building blocks attracting each other with Coulombic forces… In this talk, I’ll show the robust assembly of crystalline materials from common suspensions of oppositely charged colloids through a generic approach which we refer to as polymer-attenuated Coulombic self-assembly. I will demonstrate that, when particles are held separated at specific distances by a neutral polymer spacer, the attractive overlap between oppositely charged electrical double layers can be systematically tuned, directing particles to disperse, crystallize, or become permanently fixed on demand.” More information here.

Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series: Rahul Satija, New York University

• Friday, January 27, 11 am.
• Online event, register here.
• As a part of the Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series, New York University’s Rahul Satija will be sharing his research. More information here.

Plasma Physics Colloquium: Egemen Kolemen, Princeton, “Overview of Fusion Research at Plasma Control Group”

• Friday, January 27, 3:00 to 4:00 pm
• Mudd Hall.
• “Fusion promises to be the ultimate green energy source of the future, as it is abundant, clean, and greenhouse-emission free, without the intermittency and location restrictions of solar and wind energy or fission’s safety and waste issues. While our current knowledge of plasma physics and technical capabilities is sufficiently mature for us to attempt to build fusion power reactors, the path to economic competitiveness lies with compact, high-energy-density fusion reactors. This requires operation at, simultaneously, physics parameters that are close to the edge of plasma instabilities and the technical possibilities of materials engineering and nuclear operation, which is challenging. Plasma Control Group at Princeton University try to tackle these challenges with a practical engineering perspective that incorporates relevant insights from plasma physics.” More information here.

Human Adaptation to Climatic Fluctuations in the Afar Lowlands Of Ethopia During the Early to Late Holocene (12,000 – 2,000 Years Ago)

• Friday, January 27, 4:10 to 6:00 pm.
• 963 Schermerhorn Ext.
• “We evaluate effects of Holocene hydro-climatic oscillations (controlled by the African Monsoon) on littoral formation processes, site preservation, settlement strategy, and subsistence economies at the height and at the end of the African Humid Period. Finally, we discuss how societies may have been affected by aridity and reduced precipitation, but also the impact that societies began to have on the environment and climate as they turned to intensive agriculture and pastoralism, namely in the highlands of Ethiopia 3000 years ago.” More information here.

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