Science Lecture Series
Each year, Explorit invites some of our region's top scientists to make presentations about their work.
The Cutting Edge Lecture Series (CELS) is geared toward a general audience. The lectures are designed to be accessible to adults and teenagers. They provide information about new discoveries, controversial subjects and emerging trends in research.
Lectures are held at Explorit's neighbor, the Davis Musical Theatre Company, 607 Peña Drive.
The 2009-10 series will be announced in this fall. If you have suggestions for speakers, please email them to kadams@explorit.org with the subject line "Suggested CELS speaker." Thanks!
A look back at the 2008-09 Series
Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008
Vision after 43 Years of Total Blindness: Exploring Visual Perception and a Can-Do Spirit- Speaker: Michael May, founder and CEO of the Sendero Group in Davis
- Details: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Davis Musical Theatre Company, 607 Peña Drive, Davis. Free.
Michael May was blinded in a chemical explosion at age 3. In 2000, at age 46, he regained partial vision after cornea transplants and pioneering stem cell surgery. He'll tell his story - from the scientific advances that made sight possible to his discoveries about how years of blindness affect the brain's processing of visual stimuli. Mike will also discuss innovative developments in adaptive technology that are changing the way vision-impaired people live and navigate, including his own pioneering GPS system.
Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009
Your Neighborhood's Secret Dump: The Pacific's Floating Garbage Patches
- Speaker: Eben Schwartz, outreach manager, California Coastal Commission
- Details: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Davis Musical Theatre Company, 607 Peña Drive, Davis. Free.
There are many conveniences in modern consumer society, but perhaps the greatest convenience is that we don't see where all the leftover waste ends up. An increasing body of evidence, however, shows that our hunger for consumption is impacting the ocean's health in dramatic ways. Eben Schwartz of the California Coastal Commission will discuss what we know about the growing, floating Great Pacific Garbage Patch (some estimates put it at twice the size of Texas!), how it came to be, and what is being done about it.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
CSI Tanzania: Forensic Biology: Comes of Age in Africa
- Speaker: Dr. Ruth Ballard, biology professor at California State University, Sacramento,
- Details: 7:30 p.m. April 1 at the Davis Musical Theatre Company, 607 Peña, Davis. Free.
Since 2000, Dr. Ballard has run an active research program in DNA forensics, helping dozens of students train for careers as criminalists. In 2007, she finished a large-scale DNA project for the African nation of Tanzania, which will enable the country to begin solving crimes and establish paternity using DNA. In her talk, Ballard will explain how forensic DNA typing works, discuss how the project in Tanzania got started, and share many amusing and hair-raising stories from her travels.
