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.

Building Bilaterian Brains: Innovations in Molecular Machinery, Cell Types, and Nervous System Architecture

• Monday, February 13, 12 pm.
• 601 Fairchild.
• “We study the evolution of animal form at all scales, with a particular focus on the origin and rise of their most fascinating trait, which is the centralized nervous system… To exemplify the evolution of form in the bilaterian brain, I will explain how we trace the assembly of conserved synaptic proteins, transmitters and receptors in a basic set of bilaterian neuron types; and how we trace the assembly of these neuron types into a basic set of neural circuits that make up the bilaterian brain.” More information here.

Charged Spinning Operators in CFTs: from Superfluids to Regge Theory

• Monday, February 13, 2:10 to 3 pm.
• Center for Theoretical Physics (Pupin Hall 8^th Floor).
• “In CFT, states with large quantum numbers often admit a simple universal description. Most famously, CFTs become approximately free in the large spin sector, with operators organized in Regge trajectories labeled by the twist. On the other hand, operators with large quantum numbers under the internal symmetries of the theory often admit an effective hydrodynamic description. In this talk, I will review these results and I will propose a series of EFT descriptions for operators with both large charge and large spin in 3d CFTs. The results smoothly interpolate between the hydrodynamic regime and the large spin Regge theory. Based on 1711.02108 with A. De la Fuente, A. Monin, D. Pirtskhalava, R. Rattazzi, and 2210.15694 with Z. Komargodski.” More information here.

Talk: Interactive Data Visualization and Storytelling with Journalist Caitlyn Ralph

• Monday, February 13, 5 to 6:30 pm.
• Online (register here) and in-person, 102 Milstein.
• “Join us for a talk with Caitlyn Ralph, Studio Director at Polygraph, The Pudding’s in-house data and visual storytelling agency. There, she manages data creation and visual storytelling. Caitlyn will speak about her background in computer science, journalism, and music and how that informs her work at The Pudding.” More information here.

Jason Weckstein – Avian Parasites and the Scientists Who Love Them

• Monday, February 13, 6 to 7 pm.
• Online event, register here.
• “Despite the rich bird life in the eastern Amazon basin, relatively little research has been conducted in the Belém Area of Endemism in northeastern Brazil – one of at least eight regions in Amazonia with unique species found only in each of these respective areas…Jason Weckstein will take the audience on an armchair expedition into this very special location, where he co-led a team conducting research to discover and describe the bird and bird parasite diversity in the region. He’ll share an up-close-and-personal look at everything from daily life in the field to the area’s biodiversity, the endemism patterns in birds and their associated parasites found there, and how the team’s findings are being used to advance our understanding of speciation, disease and parasite ecology, and conservation.” More information here.

Tracing the Impact of Plastic Pollution

• Tuesday, February 14, 9 to 10:30 am.
• Online event, register here.
• “Plastics are now ubiquitous! Single-use plastic, which constitutes more than 50 percent of the global production, mostly ends up in the oceans through local waterways, streams, and rivers. Tracing and managing this waste is further challenged by the breakdown. How do these plastics interact with our physical and biological systems? International conventions, policies, and environmental laws are critical to regulate plastic production, use, and disposal. Most countries have guidelines for managing plastic pollution but policy implementation becomes challenging in the wake of weak governance and lack of suitable alternatives. The session will feature presentations from experts on the impact of plastics on our biodiversity, health, and well-being, and will highlight the current policies and regulations, key challenges, and way forward in managing the crisis of plastics.” More information here.

Climate Action in Nigeria: Risks, Urgencies, and Opportunities

• Wednesday, February 15, 12 to 1:30 pm.
• Online event, register here.
• “While international organizations and global financial institutions debate the future of investment in fossil fuels on the African continent, African nations continue to suffer the worst impacts of climate change. The October 2022 devastating floods in Nigeria were the worst in half a century and displaced more than one million people while causing massive damage to agricultural production and industrial activity. Intensifying discussions over Nigeria’s role in adaptation to and mitigation of climatic changes underline the importance of exploring different perspectives–across sectors and different parts of Nigerian society–on what kind of climate action the country should prioritize.” More information here.

Nana Osei Quarshie – An African Pharmakon: Psychiatry and the Mind Politic of Modern Ghana

• Wednesday, February 15, 2 to 3:30 pm.
• Online (register here) and in-person, Payne Whitney Clinic, Weill Cornell Medicine.
• “Nana Osei Quarshie delivers a presentation on his research… This lecture is part of the Richardson History of Psychiatry Research Seminar. Hosted by the DeWitt Wallace Institute for the History of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.” More information here.

Tissue Talks: Leslie Leinwand, UC Boulder

• Wednesday, February 15, 3 to 4 pm.
• Online event, register here.
• “Join us every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET for the wildly popular Tissue Talks, our weekly webinar series hosted by Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, and the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering. Don’t miss the opportunity each week to hear from global leaders in Tissue Engineering!” More information here.

Dwarf Galaxy Archaeology with the Rapid Neutron-Capture Process

• Wednesday, February 15, 4:05 to 5:05 pm.
• 1402 Pupin.
• “The dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way provide a promising laboratory for studying nucleosynthesis and galaxy formation. They span a wide range of stellar masses and star formation histories, so the chemical abundances of their stars preserve a variety of different chemical signatures. In this talk, I will focus on elements synthesized in the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process), which is responsible for cosmic production of elements like gold, platinum, and uranium.” More information here.

Emotional Dexterity: Afro-Puerto Rican Resistencia in Bomba’s Batey

• Wednesday, February 15, 4:10 to 6 pm.
• 963 Schermerhorn Extension.
• “Sarah Bruno’s work centers on Blackness in Puerto Rico (and the States) and decolonial practices. She leans into music, dance, information technologies and emotions to animate her ideas of Puerto Ricans living in the hold of colonialism. Based on ethnographic material in Puerto Rico and Chicago, this talk centers bomba as the launchpad from which to map out a history of Black feeling amongst Afro-Puerto Rican women. With specific attention to embodied practices, Bruno theorizes how practices in bomba’s dance circle, the batey, lend towards better understanding the recent social movements in Puerto Rico and the diaspora. More than that, by listening to and mirroring Puerto Rican history with bomba, Bruno is (re)membering Black genealogies and geographies that colonialism has tried to silence and thinks through an articulation of resistencia.” More information here.

New Approaches to 3D Vision

• Wednesday, February 15, 4:30 to 6 pm.
• Online (register here) and in-person, Jerome L. Green Science Center, 9^th Floor Lecture Hall.
• “3D vision is central to a number of contemporary innovations. In Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D vision is enabling autonomous cars and robots to freely navigate the world and helping AI to solve fundamental scientific questions like protein folding. In animals, brain recordings from freely moving animals are enabling us to understand how animals process and navigate through space. In humans, virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D cinema are all having a transformative effect on our 3D visual experience. In turn, these innovations are revolutionizing our understanding of 3D vision and navigation. In traditional approaches to computer vision (SLAM: simultaneous localization and mapping), animal navigation (cognitive maps), and human vision (optimal cue integration), the assumption has been that it is important to produce an accurate 3D model of the world. By contrast, these new approaches rely on partial or distorted models of the world, or no model at all.” More information here.

Robert Bilott – The Global PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Public Health Threat

• Thursday, February 16, 12 to 1 pm.
• Online (register here) and in-person, Allan Rosenfield Building, Room 1102.
• “Robert Bilott will discuss the scientific, regulatory, and legal history of our discovery of the worldwide threat to human health and the environment posed by man-made PFAS ‘forever chemicals’, along with how this threat was covered up from the scientific community, regulators, lawmakers, and the public for decades, and what actions were necessary to reveal the truth and spur steps to begin protecting the public and the environment.” More information here.

Suzanne Pierre – Emerging Voices in the Geosciences and Society

• Thursday, February 16, 4 to 5 pm.
• Online (register here) and in-person, Faculty House.
• “Suzanne Pierre considers how human-derived environmental conditions and concepts shape unequal societies, or potentiate justice.” More information here.

Intercalation and Functionalization in 2D Materials

• Thursday, February 16, 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
• 209 Havemeyer.
• “The large surface areas and interlayer gaps of 2D materials enable surface functionalization and intercalation as effective post-synthesis design knobs to tune the properties of 2D materials using ions, atoms, and organic molecules. For complete engineering control, detailed understanding of the interactions between the 2D materials and the molecules adsorbed on 2D materials surface or between the 2D materials and the intercalants is necessary… I will first discuss surface functionalization to tune the electrical properties of 2D materials… I will then discuss electrochemical intercalation into 2D materials to induce novel phases that were previously undetected and to study heterointerface effects on the intercalation induced phase transition.” More information here.

Crossing and Probing Biological Barriers

• Friday, February 17, 11 am to 12 pm.
• 501 Schermerhorn.
• “The Mucosal Associated Immune System Engineering and Lymphatics (MAISEL) Lab’s research integrates materials science, immunology, mucosal barrier physiology, and drug delivery to design nanoparticles to take advantage of and study the interface between biological barriers, particularly the lymphatics, interstitial tissue, and mucosal surfaces, and nanoparticles. Lymphatic vessels are critical for maintenance of tissue homeostasis and forming the adaptive immune response, as they are the natural conduit between peripheral tissues and the lymph nodes, where the immune response is shaped… The Maisel Lab has made significant progress in understanding how nanoparticle material properties like surface chemistry, affect their transport across biological barriers and how this can be harnessed to study biological barriers and design therapeutics.” More information here.

CSC+ERC Workshop: Interactive Data Visualization

• Friday, February 17, 12 to 2 pm.
• Online (register here) and in-person, 516 Milstein.
• “We’ve all seen cool visualizations featured on websites that are interactive and engaging. We’re able to engage with the data in a completely different way than when they’re static charts/graphs/maps on paper or even on a website. Come join us to learn how to create beautiful and interactive data visualizations like those using Svelte and D3!” More information here.

Rhiannon Stephens – Poverty and Wealth in East Africa

• Friday, February 17, 12 to 1:15 pm.
• Online (register here) and in-person, Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room.
• “In Poverty and Wealth in East Africa, Rhiannon Stephens offers a conceptual history of how people living in eastern Uganda have sustained and changed their ways of thinking about wealth and poverty over the past two thousand years… Stephens uses an interdisciplinary approach to write this history for societies without written records before the nineteenth century. She reconstructs the words people spoke in different eras using the methods of comparative historical linguistics, overlaid with evidence from archaeology, climate science, oral traditions, and ethnography. Demonstrating the dynamism of people’s thinking about poverty and wealth in East Africa long before colonial conquest, Stephens challenges much of the received wisdom about the nature and existence of economic and social inequality in the region’s deeper past.” More information here.

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