|Past Events
Special thanks to the following speakers for volunteering to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with us:
2012
January 3, 2012
Maxine Singer, PhD
President Emeritus, Carnegie Institute of Science
Scientist Emeritis, National Institutes of Health
"Genes In The Garden"
2011
December 6, 2011
George Preti, PhD
Member MONELL Chemical Senses Center, Dept. of Dermatology School of Medicine
"Is Love in the Air? Facts and Fantasies About human Pheromones"
November 1, 2011
Paul Morgan, PhD
West Chester University
"Grappling with the Fallacy of Sustainable Education"
October 4, 2011
Douglas Jerolmack
University of Pennsylvania
"A hard year for The Delta: Impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill and the Great 2011 flood on the Mississippi Delta"
April 25, 2011, Special Event
Two speakers talked about the changes in the sense of smell as we age and how they are related to our health—from nutrition to Alzheimer's Disease.
Marcia Levin Pelchat
sensory psychologist, Monell Chemical Senses Center; AND
Richard Doty
U of P School of Medicine
April 5, 2011
Carlos C Martinez Rivera, Ph.D.
Amphibian Conservation Biologist, Philadelphia Zoological Gardens
"The Collapse of a Hotspot Within a Hotspot"
March 1, 2011
Paul Rozin, Ph.D
Professor of Psychology, University of Pannsylvania
"Eating in America: Our Love Hate Relation to Food"
February 1, 2011
Joel Peter Eigen, Ph.D
Professor of Sociology, Franklin and Marshall College
"Diagnosing 'Homicidal Mania': Forensic Psychiatry and the Purposeless Murder"
2010
December 7, 2010
John Allen Paulos, Ph.D
Professor of Mathematics, Temple University
"When a Mathematician Reads the Newspaper"
November 9, 2010
Stephen J. Morse, J.D., Ph.D
Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology & Law in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Law School
"Criminal Responsibility & the Brain"
October 5, 2010
Dr. Stanley Plotkin
Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania
and Professor Emeritus of Virology at the Wistar Institute
"All About Vaccines: including the history, how they act, safety issues and problems"
May 4, 2010
Dr. Ken Kremer
NASA Solar System Ambassador, NASA Ambassador & The Planetary Society
"6 Years of Mars Rover and the Search for Life (Special 3D Presentation)"
May 4, 2010
Dr. Art Caplan
Chair of Dept. of Medical Ethics & Director of Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
"Ethical Challenges of Getting Organs for Transplantation"
April 6, 2010
Dr. Douglas Jerolmack
Assistant Professor of Earth & Environment, University of Pennsylvania
"The Life & Death of the Mississippi Delta"
March 2, 2010
Anjan Chatterjee, M.D.
Professor of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania
"Art and the Brain"
February 2, 2010
Dr. Benjamin Horton
Department of Earth & Environmental Studies, University of Pennsylvania
"The Physical Evidence of Climate Change"
January 5, 2010
Adrian Morrison D.V.M., Ph.d
Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Neuroscience School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
"An Odyssey with Animals: Reflections on Animal Rights and Welfare Debate"
2009
December 1, 2009
Dr. Audra Wolfe
Department of History & Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
"Science and the Media; A Field Guide"
November 10, 2009
Dr. Ted Daeschler
Associate Curator & Chair, Vertebrate Zoology, Academy of Natural Sciences
"When fish got legs: New fossil discoveries in Pennsylvania and the Canadian Arctic"
October 6, 2009
Dr. Deena Slolnick Weisberg
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University
"OnceUpon a Time: How the Ability to Understand and Create Fictional Narrative Shapes Children's Development and Adult Lives"
June 2, 2009
Professor Robert J. Levis
Department of Chemistry, Temple University
"A Glass of Wine, A Piece of Bread: A scientific perspective on the difference between a $2,00 and $2,000 bottle of Wine"
May 5, 2009
Ivin Williams
Astrophysics/Cosmology Enthusiast
"Navajo Cosmology- Harmony In the Dark Upper: Navajo Creation Story of how constellations and stars were created"
April 7, 2009
Dr. Michael Schrlau
Temple University School of Medicine
"Carbon nano-tubes, and how they are being used in cell nano-surgery to allow scientists to discover secrets hidden in single living cells"
March 3, 2009
Dr. Robert Kurzban
Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
"Science of Myself; Explore many psychological phenomena ranging from optical illusions to very nature of 'self'"
February 3, 2009
Dr. Michael Weisberg
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
"A Primer on Evolutionary Theory: An Introduction to Darwin's Important Ideas and Contemporary Developments in Evolutionary Theory"
January 6, 2009
Dr. Arthur Caplan
Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Director of the Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
"Who is Afraid of Cloning a Human Being and Should They Be?"
2008
December 2, 2008
Dr. Stephen T. Miller
Associate Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Swarthmore College
"Small talk: how bacteria communicate and we might join the conversation"
November 11, 2008
Dr. Peter Dodson
Professor of Anatomy School of Veterinary Medicine & Prof. of Earth & Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania
"Forty ageYears of Ceratophilla – Confessions of a Dinosaur Lover"
October 7, 2008
Professor Gregory Jenkins, Ph.D.
Chairman, Department Physics & Astronomy, Howard University
"Investigation & Understanding The Climate Change Connection"
June 3, 2008
Elin Danien, Ph.D.
Research Associate in The American Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum
"Not Your Mother's Hot Chocolate: The Ancient Maya and Their Amazing Beverage"
May 6, 2008
Alfred Knudson, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Member Institute Of Cancer Research, Fox Chase Cancer Ctr
"Genetics, Human Biology and Medicine"
April 3, 2008
Dr. Martha Farah
Professor, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychology
"The Human Brain v2.0: How Neuroscience is Poised to Transform Humanity"
March 4, 2008
Dr. Dana Tomlin
Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania
"Geographic Information Systems: The Bird's Eye View from Worm's Eye Perspective"
February 5, 2008
Dr. Gino Segre
Professor of Astronomy & Physics, University of Pennsylvania
"A 1932 Physics Meeting at Niels Bohr's Copenhagen Institute"
2007
December 4, 2007
Dr. Michael Roberts
Former Chair. International Atomic Energy Agency, Fusion Power Coordinating Committee
"Fusion Energy: A discussion for the Layman"
November 6, 2007
Dr. David Williams
Professor of Psychology
"Finding the Treasures of Psychology's Remote Frontier"
October 2, 2007
Dr. Derrick Pitts
Director / Chief Astronomer, Fels Planetarium Franklin Institute
"Dark Matter: Hint of Another Universe"