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Special Event Lectures
What Is Café Science?
Café Science is a series of informal discussions about some of the most pressing scientific questions of our day, led by Columbia University's foremost scientists. The discussions are held at the Picnic Market Café at 2665 Broadway (between 101st and 102nd Street).
Space is limited; $10 cover (cash only) includes one drink
Science on Us, First Come, First Served
NO RSVP Necessary
For more information about Café Science events or Columbia Science Connection programs, contact us at cafescience@columbia.edu.
Summer 2008 Series on the Upper West Side:
The Neuroscience of Belief: Effects of Placebo Treatments on Brain and Body
Cognitive Neuroscientist Tor Wager
May 12, 6–7 p.m.
Humans have believed in the healing power of positive expectations since the beginning of recorded history. Often anecdotally documented and as often disputed, the idea that ideas heal has co-evolved with contemporary medicine. A recent incarnation is the phenomenon of the "placebo effect," a healing response caused by the meaning ascribed to a treatment rather than its intrinsic healing properties (e.g., a sugar pill to treat pain). With the advent of non-invasive measures of human brain activity, it is now possible to conduct scientific research on the mechanisms by which thought and feeling interact in the brain, and how those brain processes regulate the body's physiology. These studies suggest that placebo effects arise from a form of positive expectation that shape how the brain responds to aversive events. Come hear about this work and discuss how brain-based studies are leading to new models of interactions between thought, emotion, and health.
Global Drying: Lessons From the Past
Geochemist Wally Broecker
June 9, 6–7 p.m.
Based in model simulations, GFDL's Isaac Held predicts that global warming will bring about a progressive drying of the extratropics coupled with increased tropical rainfall. As 40 percent of the world's grain is grown on irrigated land and as many of the world's poorest live in drought-plagued areas, if correct, this prediction bodes trouble. This presentation will show that during the colder times of the last glacial period, the situation was consistent with Held's scenario. Drylands were considerably less arid and the tropics considerably less moist. Of course, the presence of large land and sea ice masses complicates the applicability of this cold analog.
Moving Pictures: Bringing Enzymes to Life
Biophysical Chemist Ruben Gonzalez
July 14, 6–7 p.m.
Enzymes catalyze almost every biochemical reaction in the cell; they play central roles in human disease and serve as targets for pharmaceutical drugs. In an ongoing effort to understand enzyme function, human disease, and drug action at the molecular level, scientists have generated striking three-dimensional static images of many enzymes. Come explore how the first "moving pictures" of enzyme function are being developed and what this is teaching us about human disease and drug action.
Nurturing Nature: The Impact of Social Experiences on the Brain
Behavioral Neuroscientist Frances Champagne
August 11, 6–7 p.m.
Can the experiences of one generation alter the brain and behavior of subsequent generations? Recent studies suggest that we inherit more from our mothers and fathers than DNA and that experiences early in development can shape the activity of our DNA. This Café Science will highlight recent advances in our understanding of the nature-nurture interaction and discuss new ideas about “inheritance”.
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SPECIAL EVENTS
Join The Columbia Science Connection and
The School of the Arts at Columbia University
for
Your Brain on Art
A discussion of neuroscience and art
Presented in conjunction with the
2008 Visual Arts MFA Thesis Exhibition
Panelists:
Dr. Oliver Sacks, Dr. John Krakauer, Dr. Stuart Firestein
Thursday, May 15, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Fisher Landau Center for Art
38-27 30th Street
Long Island City, NY
Register online
Two buses will run from the Time Warner Center (8th Ave. and 58th Street)
at 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.
Join Wallace S. Broecker
Newberry Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Columbia University
For a Lecture and Book Signing
CO2
Fixing Climate
What Past Climate Changes Reveal about the Current Threat—
and How to Counter It
Tuesday, May 20, 5-6:30 p.m.
(Reception to follow)
Schapiro CEPSR Building
Davis Auditorium
530 West 120th Street
RSVP required
www.earth.columbia.edu/calendar
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Your Brain on Art
