Science Seminar Series

Lynn Helena Caporale ABSTRACT

Karin Kiontke ABSTRACT The timing of developmental events is critical. I am particularly interested in the events that happen at the transition from a juvenile to an adult animal, the period referred to as puberty. In humans, it occurs between ages 12 and 16, neither earlier, nor later. There are genetic disorders that lead to … Continue reading Worm tails, RNAs and the timing of puberty →

Peter Jo ABSTRACT Neurological injuries such as stroke have a devastating impact on motor control. Walking is often impaired and many people have problems with mobility years after their injury. While some stroke survivors recover function, many others suffer life-long deficits. Their recovery reaches a plateau and they are expected to live with only minor … Continue reading Motor Control and Movement Variability in Stroke Rehabilitation →

To register for Night of Science and learn more about this open-to-all celebration of science, visit the Night Of Science page.

An informal mini-symposium to celebrate life and work of the Renaissance genius by NOVA faculty and students. Come and celebrate with over talks, art, music, and food. Participants: Mihaela Chamberlin (Chemistry): "Leonard DE Vinci Louvre, Paris 24 October 2019-24 February 2020"; Lisa Williams (Biology): "Linking Da Vinci's Anatomical Drawings with Medical Physiology"; Marty Bredeck (Mathematics): … Continue reading Da Vinci Festa ! →

Nick Gorkavyi ABSTRACT Rudolf Clausius introduced the concept of entropy in 1865 and formulated the second law of thermodynamics, which asserts the inevitability of entropy growth in closed systems. The classic problem of the heat death of the Universe has arisen. The talk considers the modern development of the concept of entropy. Ilya Prigogine proved … Continue reading Entropy: from Biology to Cosmology →

Christopher Bradburne ABSTRACT The convergence of technologies across biology, autonomous systems, and space exploration is enabling the broad new field of 'space biology'. Technological investments in biology and health are being leveraged to enable this new field. Astrobiology, precision medicine, and the public health concept of 'OneHealth' will form a foundation for combined autonomous and … Continue reading A Lot of Space for Biology: Astrobiology, bioastronautics, and the emergence of space biology →

Deborah Shaffer ABSTRACT The eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) is ubiquitous throughout eastern North America. Yet despite its commonness, gaps exist in our understanding of its population structure, primarily in the connectivity of its breeding ponds. Adult newts show extreme philopatry to breeding ponds, so it has been surmised that the terrestrial juvenile eft stage … Continue reading The Elusive Eastern Newt: A Genetic Population Study →

Jeff Urbach ABSTRACT We usually describe the properties of materials by categorizing them as solid, liquids, or gases, but lots of stuff doesn’t fit neatly in into any one category. Toothpaste, yogurt, peanut butter, and shaving cream are familiar examples of materials that can hold their shape like a solid, but flow like a liquid … Continue reading Shear thickening fluids: what’s going on in there? →

Jurij Fedynskyj ABSTRACT The ancient tradition of blind minstrels in Ukraine, called kobzari, had nearly disappeared and was carried into the twenty first century by a few survivors or Soviet era repressions and a handful of their followers in relative obscrity. This tradition revolves around the genres of epics and spiritual verses that capture the … Continue reading The Kobzar’s Prayer for Ukraine →

Daniel Nicholson ABSTRACT In 1926, Haldane published an essay titled ‘On Being the Right Size’, in which he argued that the size of an organism fundamentally shapes its way of life. Size constrains the kind of physical structure an organism can have, as well as its mode of behavior. Many of Haldane’s examples were based … Continue reading On Being the Right Size, Revisited →

See detailed description of the event on the dedicated page at https://blogs.nvcc.edu/scienceseminar/night-of-science/