Welcome back to Columbia and to Science Fair, Bwog’s weekly roundup of science events happening around campus. Have anything you’d like to discuss regarding STEM on campus? Run a club and want your event featured? Email us at science@bwog.com.

Breathing in the Amazon

  • Monday, February 16, 12 to 1 pm.
  • Fayerweather Hall, 1180 Amsterdam Ave., Room 513. Registration not required for those with Columbia ID.
  • Amazon fires produce smoke waves that blanket the region with unhealthy air for months, affecting millions of people, yet there’s barely any ground-based air quality data outside major cities. Marcia Macedo, Assistant Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, will share how a local monitoring project in Brazil grew into a regional grassroots movement involving Indigenous communities, universities, and municipal governments. Learn how this data supports public health policies and fire management. More information.

Doing History with Animals

  • Tuesday, February 18, 6 to 7:30 pm.
  • Buell Hall, 515 West 116th Street. Registration required.
  • Can animals be historical actors in their own right? Philosopher Vinciane Despret explores how a growing number of historians are rejecting exclusively human-centered history and researching animals as subjects with their own histories, and who can act as historical actors.Free and open to the public. Hosted by Maison Francaise and co-sponsored by the Center for Science and Society and the Alliance Program.

Revealed Sciences: Religion, Science, and the Occult in Early Modern Morocco

  • Tuesday, February 18, 6:30 to 8 pm.
  • Hybrid event: Gallatin School, Room 527, NYU, 1 Washington Place and online. Registration required.
  • The conventional narrative claims intellectual stagnation in the Muslim world during the 16th-19th centuries, however Justin Stearns, Professor of Arab Crossroads at NYU, challenges this by examining the social status of natural sciences in early modern Morocco through legal, biographical, historical, theological, and mystical writings. By establishing a new narrative of how religious scholars interacted with natural science, this talk provides fresh insights into the history of Islam and science while questioning longstanding historical assumptions in both fields.

Beyond Abstinence: Measuring What Matters in Cannabis Use Disorder

  • Thursday, February 19, 4 to 5:30 pm.
  • Online event. Registration required for Zoom link.
  • Dr. Margaret Haney and Dr. Christina Brezing will discuss their research on developing medications for Cannabis Use Disorder. With recent large trials showing limited efficacy, they’ll make the case for non-abstinent endpoints, which are more achievable outcomes that better reflect what patients actually want from treatment. This talk explores patient-centered approaches to medication development and challenges traditional abstinence-focused treatment goals. More information.

Science Fair via Madeline Douglas