Science and Mathematics Education Institute

Science Cafe @ Cafe Semolino

Science Cafes National Site

Upcoming Science Cafes:

Join un in January for our next Science Cafe. More information will be posted in December.

Previous Science Cafes:

"Wonder Drugs gone bad" - the dark side of antibiotics

Satellites and Strange Space Clouds
Dr. Dianne Robinson, Hampton University, VA
From 9/2/2008 USA Today:
“A weirdly wonderful sight appeared to astronauts aboard the International Space Station this summer — thin blue clouds hovering at the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and the void. . .  . . Researchers speculate that the origin and spread of the clouds is linked to patterns of climate change associated with the modern era. But they are not ruling out a host of other possible factors, including methane, carbon dioxide, the number of meteors seeding the upper atmosphere, and even the 11-year sunspot cycle.”

The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite mission is exploring Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs), also called noctilucent clouds, to find out why they form and why they are changing.

Wind + Alternative Energies
Dr. Ruth Douglas Miller, KSU Electrical Engineering Department

Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs, and Sea Monsters: Oh My!
Mike Everhart

• OceansofKansas.com
• NationalGeographic.com

Mike is the author of “Oceans of Kansas,” upon which the National Geographic IMAX feature “Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep” was based. Come grab the chance to experience a paleontologist’s life up close and personal as Mike regales us with the ups and downs of practicing paleontology in Kansas.

Mike has collected fossils from the Smoky Hill Chalk of western Kansas for the last thirty-plus years and has been an Adjunct Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas since 1998. He was President (2005) of the Kansas Academy of Science, and is now the co-editor of the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, one of the oldest science journals in the U.S.

Academic Freedom
"What is academic freedom, what does it mean for science, and why should we care?"
Dr. Darrell Hamlin, FHSU

The Large Hadron Collider
"What's a hadron, and will the LHC blow up the world?"
Dr. Phil Baringer, KU Physics, LHC Researcher

Bioethics: How Science and Ethics Intersect
"...how do science and ethics interact, and why does it matter?"
Dr. Carl E. Miller, FHSU Philosophy

Exoplanet Discovery
Dr. Paul Adams, FHSU

How Stable Isotopes in Bird Feathers Give Us a Sense of Place in Time
Dr. Dave Rintoul, KSU Division of Biology

Mankind's Giant Leap
Dr. Paul Adams

Using Genomics to Address Environmental Change
Dr. Mike Herman, Department of Biology, Kansas State University
Dr. Herman is using resident nematode populations sampled from the Konza Tallgrass Prairie Biological Station near Manhattan, Kansas to link the responses of organisms to environmental
change at the genetic level. He hypothesizes that different species may have varying genetic capacities to respond to changes in the environment; either by differences
in the genes they possess or in how those genes are regulated.
HTTP://WWW.K-STATE.EDU/HERMANLAB

Violence in Women
Dr. Janette Naylor, FHSU Psychology Department
Dr. Naylor is exploring incidents of aggression between women in Larned State Hospital's Forensic Unit. Specifically, the situational and intrapersonal factors which may lead to high levels of aggression.

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