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Where : |
Alternating locations, check
speaker schedule for location.
Usually the Annapolis Cafe Scientifique is hosted by the BB
Bistro or the 49 West Coffeehouse in Annapolis Maryland.
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When : |
Once a month, presently the last
Thursday of the month.
However, if a great speaker is in the neighborhood, their schedule
might be accommodated and the date might be shifted. Contact
Danielle to be put on the distribution list for the monthly
notification. |
| Web
Site: |
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Contact:
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Danielle Lucid and Ted Graham |
Upcoming events
(Read about our
previous events
here)
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Date: |
Thursday, July 31, 2008, 6:30PM
49 West Coffeehouse,
located at 49 West Street, Annapolis, Maryland. Information and
directions for the 49 West Coffeehouse can be found at: info@49westcoffeehouse.com
or call: 410-626-9796. |
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Title: |
Ice Ages |
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Speaker: |
Were scientists really predicting an imminent ice
age in the 70s? Did we avert one 8000 years ago? And when do
we expect the next ice age to start? Well, we've been in an ice
age for the last 25 million years, so maybe these are the wrong
questions. We'll chat about the types of ice ages, answer or at
least clarify the above questions, and in general enjoy some icy
thoughts in a typical blistering Maryland summer.
Robert Grumbine
is a Physical Scientist in the Marine Modeling and Analysis
Branch of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction,
NOAA. His work has included polar processes in meteorology,
oceanography, and glaciology. He also earned a NOAA Bronze
Medal for work towards implementing an Atlantic basin numerical
ocean model. Prior to this, he was a Postdoctoral fellow in the
UCAR Ocean Modeling Program at Pennsylvania State
University where he studied ocean circulation driven by polar
ocean processes. He earned his PhD from the University of
Chicago, Department of Geophysical Science, studying polar water
mass formation. As an undergraduate, he confused quite a few
people by getting his BSc degree from Northwestern University in
applied math - from the school of Engineering. He did his
honors project on continental ice sheets and ice ages, but
making his area of application Astrophysics. (This all made
sense, at least to him.)
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Date: |
September 2008 |
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Title: |
Global diseases, (another
great dinner time conversation!) |
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Speaker: |
Rita Colewell |
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Date: |
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Title: |
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Speaker: |
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Previous events
|
Date: |
TUESDAY, May 27th 2008 |
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Title: |
Ticks, tick-borne diseases
and vector ecology |
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Speaker: |
Karl Neidhardt. Karl received his BSc from Gettysburg College and MSc
in Entomology from Auburn University. After a short tour with the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture as an extension entomologist, he has
been working for the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and
Preventive Medicine as a Medical Entomologist since 1974. In 1994 he
was awarded the rating of Master Consultant by his agency. He is one of 22
awarded the rating of Master Consultant from a field of approximately 1000
professional employees to date.
Since the early 1980's, his work has been focused on the vector ecology of
ticks. It was his early recognition of the potential impact on
soldiers of emerging tick-borne disease that gained him National and DoD
recognition as an expert in the field. Karl has been active in
developing surveillance techniques, pathogen testing protocols, analyzing
tick-borne disease threat using GIS technologies, and control methodologies
for tick control and tick-borne disease threat reduction. He is a
Board Certified Entomologist and a member of the Armed Forces Pest
Management Board where he sits on the Medical Entomology Committee. He
is a member of the Entomology Society of America, the Society of Vector
Ecology, and Sigma XI. He has had numerous publications and presentations in
affiliation with these societies and serves as a reviewer for the Journal of
Medical Entomology.
Extramurally, he is a local sailor, craftsman, and acoustic bass player in
local bands. He resides in Severna Park with his wife Dr. Pat
Neidhardt recently retired from teaching, and he will be retiring after 35
years of DoD service this Thursday. This is the last freebie he will
be providing as a government employee to tax payers, so please enjoy. |
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Date: |
Friday March 28 2008 |
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Title: |
Investigating the Responses of
the Immune System to Nanomaterials. Tales of Language Barriers and
Glow-In-The-Dark Particles. |
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Speaker: |
Jennifer Nyland
Products incorporating nanotechnology are
becoming ubiquitous. According to the Whiting School of Engineering,
experts predict nanotechnology will have as great an impact on the
twenty-first century as televisions and computers had on the twentieth!
As all of this innovation occurs, where will you fit in? Now is your
chance to find out about the potential impact of nanomaterials on immune
systems.
Dr. Jennifer F. Nyland
is a Research Associate in the Department of Environmental Health
Sciences, where her focus is on environmental factors impacting
autoimmune disease. Her work as a Postdoctoral fellow in the Division
of Environmental Health Engineering included such topics as
mercury-induced exacerbation of autoimmune heart disease in mice,
autoimmune dysfunction in human populations exposed to mercury through
occupational exposure or fish consumption in Amazonian Brazil, and
immunotoxic impacts of nanomaterials in primary cell culture. Prior to
joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Nyland worked on developing a vaccine for
systemic lupus erythematosus at SUNY Upstate Medical University and as a
Quality Assurance officer for a private environmental engineering firm.
Dr. Nyland has a BA in Chemistry from Cornell University and a PhD in
Immunology from Upstate Medical University.
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Date: |
Friday February 29th 2008 |
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Title: |
Poultry Pathogens and
Public Health |
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Speaker: |
Ellen Silbergeld
Trained at Hopkins in geography and environmental engineering with a
postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. Silbergeld also
received fellowships from Fulbright, Kennedy, Rockefeller, Danforth, and the
Woodrow Wilson Foundations. She was also a MacArthur Foundation "Genius"
Fellow. Presently she is on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health and is the Editor-in-Chief, of Environmental
Research. Silbergeld's research bridges the science of toxicology and
environmental and occupational health and public policy. Areas of current
focus include: cardiovascular risks of arsenic, lead, and cadmium;
immunotoxicity of mercury compounds; and health and environmental impacts of
industrial food animal production. These projects include epidemiological
studies and mechanistic research on gene/environmental interactions and
movement of pathogens in the environment. |
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Date: |
Friday January 25 2008 |
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Title: |
The re-introduction of the
American chestnut to North America |
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Speaker: |
Gary Carver |
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Date: |
Friday October 26 2007 |
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Title: |
Beyond ‘An
Inconvenient Truth': How can we control rising atmospheric CO2
and climate change? |
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Speaker: |
Bert Drake, Senior Research Plant Physiologist,
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Bert will focus on the approaches to replacing carbon
based energy with alternative energy sources. The presentation will
illustrate how much CO2 we are currently injecting into the
atmosphere and attempt to show how a variety of methods, including
conservation, nuclear energy, and various methods of harvesting solar power,
can be used to wean us from fossil fuels. |
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Date: |
Friday September 28 2007 |
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Title: |
Spiders:
Sex, Biodiversity, Webs, God |
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Speaker: |
Jonathan Coddington, Senior Scientist, Smithsonian
Institution Natural History Museum |
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Date: |
Tuesday October 23 2007 Special event co-sponsored
with Alliance for Science:
www.allianceforscience.org |
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Title: |
The Clergy Letter Project:
Scientists and Clergy Working Together To Improve Science Literacy |
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Speaker: |
Dr. Michael Zimmerman, Dean of the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Biology, Butler
University, Indianapolis, Indiana. |
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Date: |
Thursday June 12
2007
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Title: |
Out of the Blue: A
history of lightning, science, superstition, and amazing stories of survival |
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Speaker: |
John S. Friedman
The odds of being hit by
lightning in a year are only about 1 in 750,000 in the U.S. And yet this
rare phenomenon has inspired fear and fascination for thousands of years. In
this groundbreaking, brilliantly researched book, journalist John S.
Friedman probes lightning's scientific, spiritual, and cultural roots.
Blending vibrant history with riveting first-hand accounts of those who have
clashed with lightning and lived to tell about it, Out of the Blue
charts an extraordinary journey across the ages that explores our awe and
dread in the face of one of nature's most fearsome spectacles.
Herman Melville called it
"God's burning finger." The ancient Romans feared it as the wrath of God.
Today we have a more scientific understanding, so why our eternal
fascination with lightning? Out of the Blue attempts to understand this
towering force of nature, exploring the changing perceptions of lightning
from the earliest civilizations through Ben Franklin's revolutionary
experiments to the hair-raising adventures of storm chasers like David
Hoadley, who's been chronicling extreme weather for half a century. Friedman
describes one of the most treacherous rescues ever attempted in American
mountain climbing, profiles a Virginia ranger—dubbed the human lightning
rod—who was struck by lightning seven times, and tells of scores of others
who tell astonishing tales of rescue and survival. He charts lightning's
profound, life-altering effects on the emotional and spiritual lives of its
victims.
Combining captivating fact
with thrilling personal stories, Out of the Blue tells a remarkable
true tale of fate and coincidence, discovery and divine retribution, science
and superstition. As entertaining as it is informative, it is a book for
outdoor adventurers, sports enthusiasts, science and weather buffs, nature
lovers, and anyone who has ever been awed or frightened by the sight of
lightning.
John Friedman is the
editor of The Secret Histories: Hidden Truths That Challenged the
Past and Changed the World and First Harvest (The Institute for Policy
Studies, 1963-1983). He produced the Academy Award-winning film,
Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie and co-directed
and co-produced Stealing the Fire, a history of the
weapons-of-mass-destruction underground form the Holocaust to the end of the
twentieth century, which was selected by the International Documentary
Association as one of the ten best films of the year. |
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