Science Lectures
Pacific Science Center is committed to advancing the public's understanding of science and contributing to the development of a scientifically literate society through programming for people of all ages. As part of that commitment, we support and sponsor a number of lectures in the Seattle area. Some are held at our facility, others are conducted at various locations.
Many of these lectures are closely aligned with Pacific Science Center's Science and Society initiative, which aims to provide our community with innovative opportunities for rich conversation, and sometimes debate, about the current and emerging science topics that are relevant to our lives here in the Pacific Northwest and as citizens of this world.
Here's what's coming up...
Seth Mnookin & ‘Seattle Mama Doc’ Wendy Sue Swanson: Vaccine Myths, Parents & Modern Health Information
Tuesday, April 23, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Technology has both simplified and complicated how parents gather health information, how they use it to make decisions for their families, and how these decisions impact society as a whole. And perhaps no single issue illustrates that dichotomy better than the alleged vaccine-autism link, which doctors describe as a myth still perpetuated on the Internet and in some media despite the lack of corroborating evidence. Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus, draws on interviews with parents, public-health advocates, scientists, and anti-vaccine activists to tackle a fundamental question: How do we decide what the truth is? In a discussion moderated by WithinReach executive director Alison Carl White as part of National Infant Immunization Week, Mnookin and “Seattle Mama Doc” blogger Wendy Sue Swanson, a practicing pediatrician at the Everett Clinic, a staff member at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and a recently selected CDC Childhood Immunization Champion who advocates the importance of immunization, address how parents can use that insight to find accurate information and make the right decisions for their families. Presented by WithinReach, Town Hall, and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU; media sponsorship provided by Seattle’s Child. Advance tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 7 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Bill Carter: The Human Dimension of Copper Extraction—Pebble Mine & Beyond
Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Just as fishing fleets prepare to leave Seattle for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, one of the world’s most-productive and -sustainable salmon strongholds and site of the controversial proposed Pebble Mine, filmmaker and activist Bill Carter, author of Boom, Bust, Boom, explores the very human dimension of copper extraction and the colossal implications the industry has for each of us. Copper is a miraculous and contradictory metal, essential to nearly every human enterprise through most of recorded history: Today, it’s found in every house, car, airplane, cellphone, computer, and home appliance the world over. Yet the history of copper extraction and our relationship with the metal are fraught with difficulties, Carter says: Copper’s necessity to civilization costs the environment—and the people who mine it—dearly. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Eric Dinerstein: Why are Rare Species Rare?
Monday, April 29, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
We’re betting you’ve seen more robins out your window lately than you have Andean cock-of-the-rocks—or rhinos, or maned wolves, or California condors. But why? Why are some plants and animals rare and others common? Eric Dinerstein, lead scientist and vice president of conservation science at World Wildlife Fund-US, has spent three decades pondering the causes of rarity—from physical isolation and disparate populations to habitat loss and human wars—and argues that a better scientific understanding of why some species are rare can guide us to more effective ways of protecting all types of life. As more and more species teeter on the brink, Dinerstein, author of The Kingdom of Rarities, shares stories of his treks to catch a glimpse of our rarest critters, encouraging a deep appreciation for them, their ecological importance, and the urgent need for their conservation. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Advance tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Patrick Freeny: Spirit Bears of the Great Bear Rainforest
Tuesday, April 30, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
The rare and elusive spirit bear of the Great Bear Rainforest possesses a mystical, legendary place in the culture of the British Columbian coast—and a unique genetic makeup: It is not a polar bear or an albino, as its appearance might suggest, but a subspecies of black bear that gets its white fur from a double-recessive gene. There are only about 250 white spirit bears left on Earth, and while it’s illegal to hunt them, other threats such as logging have reduced their habitat—which, luckily for the bears, is awfully hard to reach. In the summers of 2009 and 2010, though, UW Radiology Professor Pat Freeny journeyed aboard his sailboat Nirvana with National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen to document the fabled bear. Freeny shares their amazing photos and videos (their report on the spirit bear was the cover story of National Geographic in August 2011) and discusses environmental threats to the bears, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and First Nations people. Presented by Town Hall as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Advance tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
UW Science Now: Alan Jamison: Cooling Atoms with Blinding Hot Light AND Jared Kofron: A Massive Problem: A Brief History of the Tiny Neutrino
Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 6-7:30 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
In this double bill, UW graduate students cover teeny-tiny topics. First up: At the tiny scales of atoms, the world runs according to a very different set of rules; for example, one atom can exist in many places at once. To explore these rules, we must keep our tiny samples safe from a world filled with noise. One key step in this exploration is to cool the atoms to temperatures 10 billion times colder than a winter’s day in Antarctica. To reach such remarkably low temperatures, we use lasers—beams of light so intense they can cut metal. In this talk, Alan Jamison, a Ph.D. candidate in physics at the University of Washington, describes how this is possible and shares some of the exciting things we’ve discovered so far. Next up: UW researcher Jared Kofron explores one of modern physics’ longest-standing puzzles: the nature of a particle called the neutrino, the lightest known particle. Since the early 20th century, physicists have been trying to measure or infer the properties of this ghostly particle, and the story of this research forms a fascinating journey of scientific inference. Kofron reviews the history of our knowledge as well as current efforts to determine the mass of the neutrino. Presented by Town Hall and UW’s Engage: The Science Speaker Series as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, with the University of Washington, Pacific Science Center and University Book Store. Series sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Advance tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 5:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. Double feature! Your ticket to this event also gains entry to Lee Smolin: Time is Real, at 7:30 p.m.
Lee Smolin: Time is Real
Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
The fact that time is real might seem obvious: You experience it passing every day when you watch clocks tick, bread toast, and children grow. But most physicists, from Newton to Einstein to today’s quantum theorists, see things differently: For them, time isn’t real; you might think you experience time passing, but they say it’s just an illusion. Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin begs to differ. Offering a radical new approach to cosmology, Smolin, author of the controversial bestseller The Trouble with Physics and the new Time Reborn, argues that time might be the only thing that is real—and its reality could be the key to the next big breakthrough in theoretical physics. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Advance tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. Double feature! Your ticket to this event also gains admission to the UW Science Now event at 6 p.m.
Paul Anastas: Designing a Sustainable Tomorrow
Wednesday, May 8, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Green chemistry uses and produces chemicals and chemical processes that reduce waste products and have nontoxic components and improved efficiency, thereby reducing or eliminating negative human and environmental impacts. Paul Anastas, director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University, is credited with establishing the field itself while working for the EPA. He is also the author (with John Warner) of Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, which takes a broad view of the subject and integrates a wide variety of approaches, touching on the design of safer chemical products, new reaction conditions, alternative solvents, and more. Dr Anastas’ visit to Seattle is sponsored by the UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, which is working to build capacity for researching, teaching, and implementing principles of green chemistry in Washington state. Presented by Town Hall as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, in partnership with UW DEOHS, Sustainable Path Foundation, and WA Toxics Coalition. Series sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Eric Drexler: How a Nanotechnology Revolution Will Change Civilization
Thursday, May 9, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology, the science of engineering on a molecular level—and the science that’s about to change the world. Already, says Drexler, author of Radical Abundance, scientists have constructed prototypes for circuit boards built of millions of precisely arranged atoms. This kind of atomic precision promises to change the way we make things (cleanly, inexpensively, and on a global scale), the way we buy things (solar arrays could cost no more than cardboard and aluminum foil, with laptops about the same)—and the very foundations of our economy and environment. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Evgeny Morozov: The Moral Consequences of Digital Technologies
Sunday, May 12, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
The temptation of the digital age is to fix everything—from crime to corruption to pollution to obesity—by digitally quantifying, tracking, or “gamifying” behavior. But should we? Evgeny Morozov, a rising star in the Internet-democracy world, warns that while advances such as cheap embedded sensors and consumer-spending logs make life more convenient, efficient, and even fun, they’re also changing the way we understand human society. Arguing that we need a new post-Internet way to debate the moral consequences of digital technologies, Morozov, author of To Save Everything, Click Here, says that as systems allow us to intervene in larger, society-defining areas such as politics, culture, public debate, and morality, we need to consider what happens when we delegate much of the responsibility for them to technology. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
