"Unveiling
the Origin and Early Evolution of Life: Molecular Phylogeny" is the second lecture
in the 2000 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science. The lecture will
be given by Janet Siefert, Keck Fellow in molecular biology at Rice University,
and will take place from 11 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, in 101
Thomas Building on the University Park campus.
"Astrobiology: Looking for Life in the Universe" is the overall theme of this year's Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, which are designed for the enjoyment and education of central Pennsylvania residents. The free public lectures take place on consecutive Saturday mornings.
Siefert will discuss how the genetic material found within all living things -- DNA and RNA -- have dictated virtually every activity that goes on within every cell since life began on Earth. Her lecture will include advances in technology that have created databases with entire genomes of organisms, including the human genome.
Siefert received her graduate training at the University of Houston, where she worked with George Fox, co-discoverer of the Archaea -- one of the three primary divisions of life forms along with plants and animals.
For more information on this talk or the remaining lectures in the series, call the Eberly College of Science Office of Public Information at (814) 863-8453, or e-mail science@psu.edu. Information also is available on the Web at http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/news.html.
John
J. Hopfield, professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, will present
the 2000 Erwin W. Mueller Memorial Lectures in Physics on Feb. 2 and 3 on the
University Park campus.
The lectures, which are free to the public, are "Brains Versus Electronics: How Do We Think So Fast" at 8 p.m. Feb. 2 in 101 Thomas Building, and "Color Vision and Smell: 'More is Different' Revisited" at 4 p.m. Feb. 3 in 117 Osmond Laboratory.
Hopfield is a MacArthur Fellow and an elected member of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
His research accomplishments throughout his career have bridged the fields of neurobiology, electrical engineering and the physical sciences. His work led to new understandings about the affect that the structure of a molecule, such as a protein, has on its functional properties.
The E.W. Mueller Memorial Lectures in Physics honor Erwin W. Mueller, a member of the Penn State Department of Physics from 1952 until his death in 1977. Mueller invented the field ion microscope at Penn State, which enabled him to be the first person to see individual atoms.
William L. Joyce, newly appointed Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair for Special Collections in the University Libraries, will present a lecture, "Smoking Guns and Roosting Chickens: Working with the Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board," at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31, in 112 Kern Building on the University Park campus.
President Clinton appointed Joyce to serve on the board, which completed its work in 1998. Congress established the independent federal agency in 1992 to facilitate the release of information related to the assassination of President John. F. Kennedy. According to Joyce, the board "created what could be an important blueprint for handling records of controversial events."
Joyce's lecture is part of the LIVES! Biography Series presented by the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies. Call (814) 865-0495 for more information.
The theme for this semester's V.O.I.C.E. Box (Variations Of Innovative Changes in Education) series is "What Works." The Schreyer Institute, The Leonhard Center, ECSEL and the USG Academic Assembly sponsor V.O.I.C.E. Box from noon to 1 p.m. in 304 Rider Building II, unless otherwise noted. Attendees may bring lunch; drinks are provided. For more information, check the Web at http://www.inov8.psu.edu/events.htm or e-mail inov8@psu.edu to be put on an electronic notification list.
The schedule follows:
n Feb. 2: "Combating Student Apathy: Student 2 Student Day," by Lynn Hendrickson, undergraduate student in health policy and administration.
n Feb. 21: "Getting Down to Business: A Successful First Year Seminar," by John Fizel, Diane Parente, Peg Thoms, Todd Palmer, all faculty members in the School of Business at Penn State Erie.
n March 1: "First Year Seminars: The Student Perspective," by Academic Assembly USG.
n March 16: "Using Interactive, Problem-based Learning Methods: Simulations and Cases," by John Nichols, professor of communications.
Sharon
Long, investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of biological
sciences at Stanford University, will speak on "Genes, signals and cell responses
in the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis" in the Life Sciences Consortium's Colloquium
Feb. 8. The colloquium will be videoconferenced from 101 Thomas Building to
Lecture Room D at the Hershey Medical Center at 4 p.m.
Long's research concerns the signal exchange of bacteria and plants in nitrogen fixing symbiosis.
She and her colleagues have found that plants produce specific chemical signals that induce bacteria to express specific nodulation genes; these bacterial genes encode enzymes that make a second set of novel chemical signals, which travel back to the plant and cause the plant to alter its developmental program. By study of such signals, it is possible to uncover new mechanisms that are used by cells in order to make decisions -- when to divide and when to change growth or shape.
Penn State faculty will present research and teaching activities involving the use of new media during the Spring 2000 New Media Colloquia Series, sponsored by the Penn State New Media Centers and the Center for Academic Computing. The series will be held in 141 Computer Building on the University Park campus from noon to 1 p.m. Seating is limited.
Register via the Web at http://cac.psu.edu/training/. A CAC Access ID is required for registration.
The following talks will be offered:
n Jan. 28: "Diffusion of Innovations: A Course Delivered Entirely on the Web;"
n March 3: "Web Visualization for Teachers;"
n March 31: "Teaching 3D Computer Animation;" and
n April 28: "A Web-Based Learning Environment in Statistics."
For more information about the New Media Centers or the series, visit http://cac.psu.edu/nmc/ on the Web.
Four Penn State Schuylkill faculty members will share information on their academic research as part of the upcoming campus Faculty Lecture Series.
The noontime series in the conference room on campus kicks off Jan. 31 when Arthur Marsicano, professor of engineering, discusses "A Path to Energy Engineering."
Other talks in the series include:
n Feb. 24: "What Man Hath Wrought: The Chronic Technological Disaster," by Stephen Couch, professor of sociology;
n March 30: "Issues of Race and Gender in American Theatre," by Judith Stephens, associate professor of speech communications; and
n April 18: "Business Enterprise and the Social Contract," Robert D'Intino, assistant professor of management.
Michael Micci, associate professor of aerospace engineering, will present "Microwave-Generated Plasmas for Rocket Propulsion" as part of the EE 590 Colloquium from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, in 128 Sackett Building on the University Park campus.
Microwave-generated plasmas can obtain higher gas temperatures than today's conventional chemical reactions, providing a means to obtain higher performing rocket engines. Micci will talk about research at Penn State to develop rocket engine concepts using both waveguide and resonant cavity microwave-generated plasmas as the heat source.
The lecture is free to the public.
The Gerontology Center, along with the Geriatric Education Center of Pennsylvania, will hold a number of colloquia this spring. All events will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in 108 Wartik Laboratory on the University Park campus and Lecture Room D at the Hershey Medical Center unless otherwise specified.
The spring 2000 colloquium schedule follows:
nFeb. 2: "Stability and Change in Depressive Symptoms over Time: Evidence from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging," with Adam Davey, assistant professor, Department of Child and Family Development and faculty of gerontology, adjunct professor, life-span development, Department of Psychology, McPhaul Center, The University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.
nFeb. 16: "Overlapping Use of Caffeine, Tobacco and Alcohol and Potential Interactions with Medications in Older Adults," with Dr. Thomas V. Jones, associate professor of internal medicine in the College of Medicine.
nFeb. 23: "The Health Status of Hispanic Elderly from the Southwestern United States: Selected Findings from the Hispanic EPESE," with Kyriakos Markides, professor of sociology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.
nMarch 1: "The Gender Project: A Study of Health and Functioning in an Older Unlike-Sex Twin Sample in Sweden," with Carol J. Gold, senior research assistant, biobehavioral health.
nMarch 2: "Mechanisms Underlying Human Muscle Wasting; Specific Reference to Aging," with Dr. K. Sreekumaran Nair, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Place and time to be announced.
nMarch 15: "Racial Differences in Influenza Vaccination: The Effect of Medicare Coverage for a Vulnerable Population," with Kevin D. Frick, assistant professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, Baltimore, Md.; and Dennis P. Scanlon, assistant professor of health policy and administration, Penn State.
nMarch 22: "Retirement Transitions for Professionals: A Study of American Chemists," with Janice I. Farkas, assistant professor of sociology.
nMarch 29: "Portraits of Midlife," with Margie E. Lachman, professor of psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.
nApril 5: "Residential Care and Assisted Living in Four States," with Sheryl Itkin Zimmerman, professor, University of North Carolina School of Social Work, Chapel Hill, N.C.
nApril 12: "The Relationships Between Personality Traits and Vision-Specific Function Among Older People with Impaired Vision," with Robin Casten, program evaluator, Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia.
nApril 19: "Friendship and Family Support: Impact on Adaptation to Age-Related Vision Loss," with Joann P. Reinhardt, associate director of social research, Lighthouse International, New York, N.Y.