Happy New Year!

Let's make it a good one.

Popular posts from this blog

Science in the Streets

Image
Science in the Streets: A free public engagement event from the History of Science Society Thursday, Nov 21, 3-6 pm, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center [I have asked  Conevery Bolton Valencius , who teaches at UMass Boston, to write a guest post about an event she is helping to organize at this year's HSS.  Many readers of this blog are interested in popular science & science popularization, and I urge everyone to join us for what promises to be a fascinating discussion!] Current newspaper headlines make clear how anti-science and science-illiterate many Americans are, at least about some political issues.  But there are effective and interesting efforts going on all around to engage people in the workings and the wonderings of science.  Further, historians of science are doing a lot of that work – and sometimes have particular insight about what is new or very old about rhythms of scientific skepticism or scientific enthusiasm.  At next week’s annual...
Read more

The Secret Science Club presents a mind-blowing screening of "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives," Tuesday, August 24 @ the Bell House, 8 pm, FREE!

Image
Can time move backwards? Is the future different on different worlds? Are meetings of the Secret Science Club forbidden in a parallel universe? Singer-songwriter Mark Everett of the band Eels grew up not knowing that his father, Hugh Everett , was a genius —to him, his dad was the chain-smoking guy who didn’t say much at the dinner table. The fact that Hugh Everett was one of the world’s pre-eminent quantum mechanics , the physicist who came up with the Theory of Parallel Universes was just one more thing they didn’t discuss. Sadly, Hugh Everett’s theory was so revolutionary—so trippy in fact—that its elegance and importance were not recognized until well after his death. (Mark Everett was just 18 when he found his father lying dead at age 51 on the family’s couch.) Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives chronicles the journey of the musical-but-math-challenged son to learn more about his father’s profound contributions to science and the “Many Worlds” in which we all—for better or worse...
Read more

Tuesday, September 17, 8PM @ the Bell House, FREE! Secret Science Club presents Neuroscientist Moran Cerf

Image
Moran Cerf is a computer hacker turned neuroscientist . Security companies once paid him to break into banks. Now he hacks the human brain . Using electrodes implanted deep inside the craniums of patients undergoing neurosurgery, Dr. Cerf and his colleagues are studying “thought” as it’s never been studied before . . . He asks: How do we control our perceptions,  thoughts and emotions? What does the brain look like when it’s most intrigued? What is the future of brain-machine interfaces? Could brain-powered prosthetics not only replace lost limbs, but even enhance the human body? Dr. Cerf runs the C-Lab  (Curiosity, Creativity, Cognition, Complexity, Consciousness, Consumer Behavior, Computation) and is assistant professor of neuroscience and marketing at Northwestern University, visiting professor in neurosurgery at UCLA, and Alfred P. Sloan professor of screenwriting at the American Film Institute. He is also a Moth storytelling GrandSlam champion . Before & Af...
Read more