Classical Sunday Concerts
2021-01-17 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-01-24 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-01-31 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-02-07 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-02-14 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-02-21 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-02-28 07:00 - 08:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Lighthouse Café
CLASSICAL SUNDAY CONCERTS
Sundays at 7 AM PST
Weekly piano concerts by Earl Kiech at the lighthouse cafe.

Wake up quietly, start your afternoon relaxed or take a seat in a comfortable armchair to end your day with us.
No matter what time zone you are in, Earl’s music balances a stressful week at any time of the day.
This is the perfect time to catch up with colleagues and friends.

Fireside Chat: Covid-19
2021-01-23 10:00 - 11:00 | Fireside
Fireside chats are intimate gatherings with the last speaker to have a free-form discussion. Audience drives the discussion with their questions or topics. This additional opportunity for the audience to receive answers to questions will be scheduled a few days after the last presentation.
This week the open introduction of this new addition, central today Covid-19. The questions are answered by Phil Youngblood Ph.D. and Robert Hendrix MD.

Phil Youngblood, Ph.D.
Robert Hendrix, MD

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Advances in DNA and RNA Science
2021-01-30 10:00 - 11:30 | Auditorium
Image: DNA vs RNA – Similarities and Differences Sciencenotes.org
Nucleic Acids: Advances in DNA and RNA Science / Forensics and Vaccines

Guests

1. Dr. Stephen L. Gasior

2. Dr. Mary Anne Clark

Matthew Burr

Previous panels on film

Fireside Chat Wednesday, February 3 at 4 PM PST

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Fireside Chat DNA/RNA Science
2021-02-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Fireside
Still having questions regarding “Advances in DNA and RNA Science“?
Come to the Fireside Chat and ask your questions, in a casual environment, to Dr. Mary Anne Clark & Dr. Stephen Gasior

Q&A with Dr. Mary Anne Clark & Dr. Stephen Gasior

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The Rest is Silence
2021-02-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Image: Wikipedia
Silent mutations are changes in the DNA of a protein-coding gene that do not result in a change in the encoded protein. How can silent mutations occur? How can you detect a silent mutation? How frequent are silent mutations relative to mutations that produce an amino acid change? Are silent mutations really silent? This presentation will address these and other questions about silent mutations.
A presentation by Dr. Mary Anne Clark
Max Chatnoir
M. A. Clark, Professor of Biology, Texas Wesleyan University

Dr. Mary Anne Clark

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

Fireside Chat Wednesday, February 10 at 4 PM PST

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Fireside Chat The Rest is Silence
2021-02-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Fireside
Still having questions regarding “The Rest is Silence“?
Or are you fascinated by Genetics?
Come to the Fireside Chat and ask your questions, in a casual environment, to Dr. Mary Anne Clark

Q&A with Dr. M. A. Clark, Professor of Biology, Texas Wesleyan University

Dr. Mary Anne Clark

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

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Heroes of Evolution: Richard Dawkins
2021-02-12 09:00 - 10:00 | Auditorium
Heroes of Evolution: Richard Dawkins

For the first time in this lecture series, I will discuss a still living icon of evolution. Richard Dawkins has had an immense impact in his lifetime on the advancement of evolutionary theory as well as science advocacy. His energy and commitment to science are still ongoing today. The talk will discuss his scientific work as well as highlight some of his activities advocating for rational thinking. The talk will consist of three sections:
Scientific Work
The Selfish Gene and select other books for the nonscience audience and their effect on science and culture
Advocacy for Skepticism and Atheism

Presentation by Dr. Stephen Gasior (Xootfly)

Dr. Stephen L. Gasior

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

Podcasts

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Rare Preservation of a Mother Crocodilian with Eggs
2021-02-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
“Rare Preservation of a Mother Crocodilian with Eggs”

Modern crocodilians exhibit parental care for their eggs during development, as do modern birds. However, given that pterosaurs (flying reptiles), which are more closely related to birds than crocodilians seem to have not exhibited parental care, this calls into question whether or not more ancient crocodilians and dinosaurs had parental care or not. A remarkably well-preserved fossil adult crocodilian with eggs helps resolve some of these issues by showing this behavior of egg-guarding likely extending back about 45 million years.
Presentation by Dr. Alex Hastings

Dr. Alex Hastings

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

Fireside Chat Monday, February 15 at 9 AM PST

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Fireside Chat Preservation Crocodilian
2021-02-15 09:00 - 10:00 | Fireside
Still having questions regarding “Rare Preservation of a Mother Crocodilian with Eggs“?
Or are you fascinated by the work and excavations of a palaeontologist?
Come to the Fireside Chat and ask your questions, in a casual environment, to Dr. Alex Hastings

Q&A with Dr. Alex Hastings

Dr. Alex Hastings

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

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Climate Change and Risk Analysis
2021-02-20 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Graphics tweeted by the International Federation of Red Cross / Red Crescent (IFRC) during the recent Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS 2021) summarize potential physical consequences of climate change and their social impacts.

Climate Change and Risk Analysis
Over the last 40 years, a wide scientific consensus predicted a global, annual average, temperature increase due to human emissions of carbon dioxide plus the feedback of the amount of water vapor that the atmosphere can contain as the atmospheric temperatures increased. The primary focus of scientific policy recommendations was mitigation of such global warming by shifting to carbon neutral energy production Nonetheless, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 has continued to increase from a preindustrial value of 285 ppm (parts per million) to a concentration in 2000 of 370 ppm to about 418 ppm today, high than any prior time in human history.. This increase is sufficient that we can no longer focus only on global emissions reduction but must reckon with local adaptations to already existing economic and social system risks, where a risk is considered to be an undesirable event stemming from a changing climate.

Graphics tweeted by the International Federation of Red Cross / Red Crescent (IFRC) during the recent Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS 2021) summarize potential physical consequences of climate change and their social impacts.

This initiates a project, often at the level of cities and counties, of identifying potential risks, estimating various levels of likelihood, tying those levels to consequences for human lives, social systems, and economics, and then pursuing means of adapting to reduce the risks.
Presentation by Dr. Keith Grant

Dr. Keith Grant

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

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Panel: Gravity
2021-02-27 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
To aid everyone in the audience in getting the most from our presentations, The Science Circle is introducing a series of presentations that seek to explain popular and important topics in different fields of science. Each presentation will start with a basic understanding that most pre-college students may have and gradually work up to the types of things that experts know, and still do not know, about each topic, all within an hour.

For this month’s Panel discussion, the topic is Gravity. Gravity is something so present in our lives that we may take it for granted, but it is also what makes possible some of the most fantastical concepts that explain, and objects that make up, our known universe.

Panel Host Matthew Burr will start by reviewing that we understood about Gravity until the beginning of the 1900’s, based on Newtonian mechanics.
Dr. Phil Youngblood will then review the new ideas that Einstein discovered at the turn of the century regarding the relativity of space-time.
Dr. William Wall will conclude by talking about Einstein’s field equations and the more exotic aspects of gravity associated with massive objects.
On March 20, Phil Youngblood will continue the series with an explanation of “Elementary Particles” at different levels of understanding.

Phil Youngblood
William Wall

Matthew Burr

Previous panels on film

Fireside Chat Wednesday, March 3 at 4 PM PST

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Fireside Chat Gravity
2021-03-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Fireside
Fireside Chat Gravity: The Reckoning
From black holes to landing a rover on Mars, gravity is the essential consideration. Gravity is not a classical force like magnetism. Newton described the behavior of objects subject to gravity, but did not describe its nature. Einstein showed mathematically that gravity is mass/energy distorting spacetime. Accordingly, gravity is now understood to be that mass-induced spacetime distortion/curvature. Please join us for an informal chat to explore the ramifications of the modern understanding of gravity and to have your questions addressed by our panelists.

with Matthew Burr, Dr. Phil Youngblood & Dr. William Wall.

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Henupoto Wara: Supernatural Anti-Hero of the Mythical Past
2021-03-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Graphic: The Emberá Comarca of Eastern Panama within the red circle

Henupoto Wara: Supernatural Anti-Hero of the Mythical Past

The Emberá, a tropical lowland tribe of the Darién rain forest of Eastern Panama and the Pacific coastal lowlands of Colombia, have a strong tradition of telling detailed stories about animals, spirits, and demons and of adventures in the mythical past. Henupoto Wara, or Leg-Born Child, is one of the most famous stories and chronicles the adventures of this cultural anti-hero as he engages the many supernatural ecologies and denizens of Emberá cosmology. This discussion presents the story and discusses an interpretation of some of the ecological images, assumed knowledge and cosmological implications embedded is this oft-told narrative.

Henupoto tries to tear off the face of the moon because the elders said the moon killed his mother.
The story of Henupoto is one of the most well-known stories of the pantheon of Emberá stories, myths, legends and narratives. It is the story of a man who is born of the union between a spirit and a woman. His mother dies in childbirth and he grows up a troubled but powerful orphan constantly trying to locate the being that killed his mother. As part supernatural being, he executes a series of herculean tasks that require his special skills. Like many characters in stories among the Emberá, Henupoto is not precisely a hero but rather a supernaturally strong anti-hero that makes embarrassing demands upon society that results in the elders always trying to figure out a way to get rid of him. However, no matter how difficult the task they assign or how unlikely he is to succeed at the tasks, he comes out victorious. That is, until the dramatic end. His efforts, it can be interpreted, profoundly protect society from the potential ravages of the supernatural world. Henupoto is constantly upsetting and resetting the balance between the human, the natural and the supernatural worlds. Although Henupoto is universally admired among the Emberá, for his strength, cunning, skill and determination, he is also an outcast and a cosmic misfit. He is also comically naïve as he attempts to track down the being that killed his mother when it was he, himself, when he was born, who caused his mother to die in childbirth.

Emberá in ceremonial dress from Emberá Drua, a village on the upper Chagres River, Panama
The Emberá have a sophisticated cosmology or, if you will, religion in which the many actors, spirits, demons, people, animals and natural forces interact in a complex and dynamic spiritual equilibrium. It is often the role of the shaman or in this case a human spirit being to maintain this equilibrium by creating harmony among all these competing forces and to ensure that the spirits from time-to-time can be bound to human intention through carefully executed rituals that seduce the often ambivalent spirits into cooperation. The Emberá have a strong narrative tradition that communicates ecological principles. The stories contain strong evocative images and symbols and form a type of encapsulated language, coding metaphorically the actions of the human and spirit world. This language, with its ecological imagery, shows what happens when the cultural rules are broken and they delineate the fine line between the cultural and spiritual domain.

Emberá Drua village in the upper Chagres River, Panama

The story of Henupoto dramatically illustrates the supernatural struggle of cosmological forces and demonstrates the power of narratives to encode culturally rich information. Myths, such as Henupoto, provide a unique view into the complex cultural perspective of traditional cultures that practice a pre-literary narrative tradition for countless generations.

Presentation by William Harp
Information Systems Technologist, Cultural Anthropologist and Geospatial Analyst

William Harp

Previous lectures on film

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Classical Sunday Concerts
2021-03-07 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-03-14 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-03-21 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-03-28 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-04-04 07:00 - 08:00, 2021-04-11 07:00 - 08:00 | The Lighthouse Café

A few of my favorite hemes
2021-03-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
A few of my favorite hemes.
The “heme cofactor” is familiar to us as the part of hemoglobin where oxygen attaches for transport through blood. It lends blood its characteristic color. However, the heme unit is a versatile part of many biological functions. It participates in the metabolism of perceived toxins by the liver, in the production and sensing of the neurotransmitter NO, and as support for other enzyme systems by managing electron availability. In this talk, we will explore some of the basic structural features of heme and their consequences in biological systems.

Myoglobin, Hemoglobin, and their Ligands
Heme Proteins
Nitric Oxide Synthase
Myoglobin
Cytochrome c
Heme metabolism

Dr. Mike Shaw

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

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Understanding Science: Particle Physics
2021-03-20 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Niels Henrik David Bohr 1885 – 1962. Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.

Understanding Science
Particle Physics: The Search for the Smallest of Things

Only a century ago, while the concept of an irreducible object known as an atom was long known and there was growing evidence for its existence, most people had little idea that atom were composed of even smaller particles, many of them with exotic characteristics.

Richard Phillips Feynman 1918 – 1988 was an American theoretical physicist
In the next few decades, electrons, protons, and neutrons, the relatively stable particles that make up the atoms that constitute all matter were discovered, followed by particles only found in natural events involving high energy. As more powerful particle accelerators were developed, still more exotic particles were theorized and discovered and a Standard Model of how particles interacted and were related was formed in the 1960’s-1970’s.

What does the Standard Model reveal about the particles that make up everything? How can Feynman diagrams show particle interactions? What is missing from the Standard Model? Join me as we explore the search for the smallest of things – subatomic particles – and what we have learned about them.

Presentation by Dr. Phil Youngblood

Dr. Phil Youngblood

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

Podcast

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Panel: Ministry for the Future
2021-03-27 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
The recent state-wide cold snap that left many Texans without electricity and water seems like a good time to consider Kim Stanley Robinson’s book The Ministry for the Future.

This book is disaster novel wrapped loosely around a series of essays, stories, metaphors, reports and commentaries about economics, politics and social inequality. The story line follows two characters: Frank, the sole survivor of a lethal heat wave, and Mary, the director of the Ministry for the Future, an agency established by the U.N. Their relationship is complicated by an incident that results in Frank’s arrest. The book is not an easy read, dealing as it does with a serious effort to alter human behavior enough to ward off the dire consequences of ignoring our own contributions to climate change. Robinson recognizes both the difficulty of making such changes and the necessity to do so and argues convincingly for some possible solutions.

A not-too-long interview with the author Kim Stanley Robinson that touches on the main ideas of the book, to help you prepare for the discussion.

Guests

Mary Anne Clark

Linda Morris Kelley

Natalie Foster

Matthew Burr

Previous panels on film

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Early Cretaceous Meat-Eating Dinosaurs of Maryland and Virginia
2021-04-03 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Image: Dinosaurus.nl
Early Cretaceous Meat-Eating Dinosaurs of Maryland and Virginia

512 fossils from the Early Cretaceous of Maryland are currently stored at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, USA. Of those most are bones of a large, long necked 4-legged dinosaur called Astrodon, which belongs to the Sauropod group. We also have bones from armored Ankylosaur dinosaurs, ornithopod or bird footed dinosaurs, and two meat eaters, Acrocathosaurus and Deinonychus. Acrocanthosaurus was almost the size of a T. rex, and Deinonychus was a raptor. A group of high school students in Virginia and New York collaborated to analyze teeth from these meat eaters in order to reconstruct the ecology of Maryland and Virginia during the Early Cretaceous.
Dr. William Schmachtenberg will present the results of their research during this meeting. The students work have been submitted to the New York Paleontological Society for publication.

Dr. William Schmachtenberg

Reference work in the library

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Methamphetamine
2021-04-10 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
The History, Pharmacology & Pathophysiology of Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine was first derived from another stimulant in 1893. Initially unrestricted, it seduced populations of many countries by its stimulant effects and addictive nature.
Aside from a few accepted medical uses as a controlled substance, it has played
– an economic role as a profitable drug,
– a geopolitical role as an agent of enhancement for military personnel and political leaders,
– and with underground manufacture and distribution, in the illegal drug trade in the United States and elsewhere.

This presentation will discuss the pharmacology of N-methamphetamine and its use in medical treatment as well as drug abuse, with emphasis on the mechanisms of action and pathophysiology that arises from addiction and long term use. We will also examine the medical costs and criminal impact on society arising from the existence of this drug.

Robert A. Hendrix, MD

Reference work in the library

Previous lectures on film

Podcast Global Outbreak of Fatty Liver Disease

Podcast Doctor’s Tips for Healthier Mind and Body

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