Science Circle

Science Circle 10th anniversary
2018-02-17

“Quantification of Fossil Data”
2018-02-10 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Auditorium
“Quantification of Fossil Data” and an update on the fossil identification app
ABSTRACT:
It has been over 75 years, since Charles Butts published his famous and classic monograph on the fossils of the Appalachian mountains in 1941. Recently, I have been in the process of updating the taxonomy of his work and I am in the process of developing an app to help paleontologists identify fossils. This talk will present the results of my work which has revealed interesting evolutionary patterns in fossil organisms. At the request of Virginia Tech University and James Madison University, I have added traditional morphological filters to the database of the app, which has allowed me to increase the number of fossils the app can identify and the accuracy of the identifications. The app is currently being used by curators at the Virginia Museum of Natural History to identify their unknown fossil specimens.
by Dr. William F. Schmachtenberg (Dae Miami SL)
Virginia USA
Previous work in the Film Collection

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The Cold Case of SN 1054 by Giuseppe Longo
2018-02-04 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
The Cold Case of SN 1054
One of the most thrilling events on the sky would be Supernova (SN) event. Here, we investigate possible causes for missing historical records of SN1054 in Europe. We reconstruct the European sky at the time of the event and found that the new “star” (SN1054) and planet Venus are on opposite sides of the sky.
Namely, we find that Venus was in the east and SN1054 was in the west, with the Sun sitting directly between the two equally bright objects, as documented in East-Asian records. In spite of the relevance of the phenomenon no record of it is found anywhere in the European chronicles.
We present a likely explanation of such silence. An explanation which is connected with the schism between the Catholic and the orthodox churches and with the excommunication of Astrology and astrologers.
Event location

Giuseppe Longo
Professor of Astrophysics
Accademico Pontaniano
Associate – California Institute of Technology
Associate . INFN and INAF
Previous work in the Film Collection

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“Virtual Worlds as an Educational Tool” By Gregory Perrier
2018-01-26 07:00 - 08:00
How do instructors in higher education use virtual worlds to promote learning and make their class more exciting and fun? Many educators initially think of lecturing in a virtual world, but there are many other ways to engage students in learning. This presentation will cover 15 different ways that instructors incorporate virtual worlds into their courses and discuss how instructors have used each method.

Gregory Perrier
Previous work in the Library
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"The Common and Misplaced Racism of David Duke, Hitler, and Darwin: The Value of Diversity in Human Interactions” by Stephen L. Gasior
2018-01-13 10:00 - 11:00
“The Common and Misplaced Racism of David Duke, Hitler, and Darwin: The Value of Diversity in Human Interactions” by Stephen L. Gasior

Racism is the worst idea ever in its impact on the evolution of the human species and its longterm survival. Yet, it is a persistent and strong perspective that has early roots in our evolution that has continued through the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution, and modern day. This talk covers the biological basics of human genetic diversity as it pertains to race and some historical perspectives of notable individuals and how that has impacted culture. A more in-depth presentation on population genetics and interesting genetic traits will finish the discussion with a thought on how a rational anti-racism is beneficial in the continued evolution of Homo sapience.

Dr. Stephen L. Gasior
Previous work in the Library
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"Black hole Demographics" by Dr. Rob Knop
2018-01-06 10:00 - 11:00
Abstract:
The term “black hole” conjures up many fanciful images, some of which are false, and, surprisingly, many of which are true. To astronomers,”black hole” actually means two different things: first, the theoretical construct predicted by General Relativity (GR), and second, the objects in space that we have observationally confirmed; there is a subtle, at least semantic, difference. For a long time, we’ve known of black holes that are several to about ten times the mass of the Sun, observed as X-Ray sources in our Galaxy. We’ve also known about black holes that are millions to billions times the mass of the Sun, lurking at the cores of galaxies. In the last few years, thanks to gravitational wave observations, we’ve confirmed black holes that are thirty times the mass of the Sun. Are there any in between? Do black holes hundreds or thousands the mass of our Sun exist? If so, where are they hiding? In this talk, I’ll outline our current knowledge of where black holes exist in the Universe, and mention some of the remaining questions we have about these exotic objects.

— Rob Knop
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