Thursday, October 7, 2010

One Big Topic, Two Events, Three Speakers!

The Big One hits Cal Poly Science Café... twice!

10.13.2010 3:30 p.m. Cal Poly Science Café at the Kennedy Library
10.14.2010 7:00 p.m. Cal Poly Science Café at SLO Brew

Our speakers, Assistant Professor Robb Moss, Alumna Anna Lang, and Graduate Student David Bland share personal stories, video footage and photographs from their post-earthquake research and trips to Haiti, Chile, and China.

These perspectives will inspire a lively and engaging dialogue which may lead us to discuss any aspect of disaster engineering — social, political, scientific, or preparedness — fitting since October 13th is International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction!

Join the conversation about engineering for and against massive threats, and further explore the social, political, scientific, or preparedness considerations that contribute to a disaster's complexity. Both events will begin with similar stories but the conversation at each event will depend on... you!

Both events are FREE and open to the public.
Join the conversation anytime -- Cal Poly Science Café on facebook -- photos, discussions, video

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Big One is Coming... 10.13.2010


Threats from natural (earthquakes, tsunamis, large-scale flooding) and anthropogenic disasters (terrorism, structural failure resulting from improper engineering or improper maintenance) are both considered in engineering risk assessment. Add political, social, and fiscal pressures to the equation and you could have... a BIG mess.


How can you prevent potentially disastrous effects of THE BIG ONE if you don't know when, where, or how it will hit or even what IT will be? Expert scientists -- Cal Poly faculty, students, and alumnus -- lead us through what it's like to scientifically prepare for THE BIG ONE.
Join the Conversation!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Cal Poly Organic Farm Featured Saturday, July 24 at California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles

If your summer plans include a visit to California's Mid State Fair in Paso Robles, the Cal Poly Organic Farm will be their featured farm on Saturday, July 24th, from 12 Noon to 4:00 p.m.

Science Café featured the farm and its role in educating the Cal Poly community in November of 2009, with "Community Supported Agriculture, Education, and Intellectual Freedom."

If you can't make it to the fair, you can make a virtual visit to the farm, or visit in person during Monday or Thursday's CSA pick-up open houses to take a walk around and meet some of the student farmers.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

**Update to Science Café Topic: Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch**

Happening Now: SEA expedition sails June 10th, 2010 to the Atlantic Ocean plastic debris field!

Sea Education Association's (SEA) June 10th cruise is the first federally-funded research expedition dedicated solely to examining the accumulation of plastic debris in the North Atlantic Ocean. Plastics at SEA: North Atlantic Expedition from June 10 to July 17, 2010 will expand upon 25 years’ worth of data previously collected by SEA that reveals a region of extensive plastic pollution in a narrow latitude band in the western North Atlantic Ocean. With a diverse and multi-disciplinary crew made up of college seniors, professional mariners, corporate executives, scientists, musicians and most crew members are SEA Semester alumni.

This trip will explore an area southeast of Bermuda that is believed to be an extension of that plastic debris field. It is perhaps the Atlantic Ocean’s version of the region of the eastern North Pacific Ocean dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

For more details or to follow the expedition and posting of scientific information collected, visit http://www.sea.edu/plastics/index.htm

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Ethics of Human Enhancement Science Café - May 12th


Cal Poly Science Café at the Kennedy Library Presents:

"The Ethics of Human Enhancement"
Featuring Dr. Patrick Lin, Philosophy Professor and Director of Cal Poly's Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group.

Topic Summary:
Emerging technologies are pushing us beyond nature's limits — turning science fiction into reality. Nanoelectronics promise to give us tiny computing devices, embedded in our heads or clothing, to communicate by thought alone and access the Internet on demand. Neuroscience is helping to create soldiers that don't need to eat or sleep. Robotics is creating an exoskeleton that grants us super-human strength. Pharmacology already gives us drugs to enhance our performance in sports, school, and sex.

Our familiarity with this last category hints at the kind of concerns that new enhancing technologies will raise—from freedom to alter our own bodies to fairness in social institutions. Some view human enhancement as the natural course of our evolution; others see it as a threat to the idea of "being human" and a path toward creating a Frankenstein's monster.

This presentation will survey the ethical and practical issues in this important debate.

Dr. Patrick Lin is an assistant philosophy professor and director of the Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Science and Art of Taking a Risk



Join us for the next Cal Poly Science Café, Wednesday, April 28 at 4:30 p.m.
Featuring Dr. Eduardo Zambrano, Professor of Economics, Orfalea School of Business.

The economic problems of recent years came about, in part, because we didn’t understand the risks we, as a society, were collectively taking. This presentation and discussion will explore what it means to take individual and societal risks, how to measure those risks, and how economics, engineering and psychology envision risk differently. Come prepared to be engaged in this lively discussion, and to take some risks (if you dare!).

Kennedy Library 2nd Floor lounge, Free! Refreshments will be served

Monday, April 5, 2010

Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch: Science Behind All the Trash Talk


Cal Poly Science Café presents...
"The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch: Science Behind All the Trash Talk"

Featuring: Scripps Institute of Oceanography SEAPLEX cruise members...
Lara Dickens (Science Teacher, Cal Poly SLO alumna - Engineering)
and
Jesse Powell( Scripps Institute Graduate Student)

We have partnered within our community to offer four age-specific events on this topic!

=> When: Thursday, April 15th, 5 to 7 p.m. hands-on, presentation at 6 p.m. (designed for pre-K to 8th grade)
Where: SLO Children’s Museum, 1010 Nipomo, SLO

=> When: Thursday, April 15th, 8 to 9 p.m. (all ages)
Where: Downtown Brew Upstairs Lounge, 1119 Garden, SLO

=> Friday, April 16th, 1:30 to 3 p.m. (all ages)
Where: Kennedy Library, 2nd floor Café Lounge, Cal Poly *Special Friday Edition - OPEN HOUSE*

=> Saturday, April 17th, 11 a.m. to Noon (designed for K to 8th grade)
Where: Exploration Station, 867 Ramona, Grover Beach


Science Café is an informal presentation by experts on a subject, which sparks conversations across disciplines. This Café features two scientists from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography research cruise (SEAPLEX) that visited the much-publicized floating garbage heap in late summer of 2009. Jesse Powell is a graduate student at Scripps and Lara Dickens is a high school science teacher and alumna of Cal Poly (Engineering). Their presentations will explain more about the Garbage Patch, the Pacific Ocean Gyre, their expeditions, and how they quantitatively and methodically sampled for plastics and made associated scientific observations. The Café is FREE, open to all ages, accessible, and refreshments will be served! Science Café is a program of the Kennedy Library at Cal Poly, and part of the international movement, Café Scientifique.


Cal Poly Science Café is a program of the Kennedy Library in San Luis Obispo. Special thanks to our co-sponsors for this topic: Cal Poly Biological Sciences; Downtown Brew of SLO; Exploration Station of Grover Beach; Ocean Informatics,Scripps Institute of Oceanography; and SLO Children's Museum.

Please mark your calendars for upcoming Science Cafés:
April 28th, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. "Risk-taking" Featuring Dr. Eduardo Zambrano, Economics department, Orfalea School of Business, Cal Poly


May 12th, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. "The Ethics of Human Enhancement" Featuring Dr. Patrick Lin, Philosophy Department, Cal Poly

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Jurassic Beer: Brewing a 45 million year old Beer!


Join us for Cal Poly Science Café at the Kennedy Library!
When: Wednesday, February 10 from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.

Our speaker is Dr. Raul Cano, Professor Emeritus Biological Sciences and Founding Scientist of Ambergene. Dr. Cano will tell the story of his accidental discovery of ancient yeast and his subsequent foray into Beer-making with Fossil Fuels Brewing Company. He will also tell of his future plans for the Environmental Biotechnology Institute, of which he is founder and director. Refreshments will be served.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Recent Space Exploration Reveals Mystery Objects


2009 marked the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and 2010 marks the 400th anniversary of his first published accounts of his telescopic observations of Jupiter's moons.

Fast-forward to 2010, here is contemporary news from the Kepler Telescope. The telescope has discovered 5 planets since it was launched by NASA in March of 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/04/science/AP-US-SCI-Space-Mystery.html?_r=1&ref=science

You can track the Kepler Telescope Mission here: http://www.kepler.nasa.gov/