Author: Alfia

Marin Science Seminar on Vimeo

Why do Cancer Cells Grow Forever and Can we Stop Them? from Marin Science Seminar on Vimeo.
April 17th, 2013
Unlike normal cells, cancer cells can keep proliferating forever. This “immortality” allows cancer to spread through the body, causing destruction and often death. In this seminar, Dr. Stohr will discuss how cancer cells become immortal and how we might be able to treat cancer by targeting their immortality.

Brad Stohr MD/PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at UCSF. His laboratory studies telomeres and telomerase in human cancer. In addition, he serves as an attending physician on the autopsy service.

Here’s MSS intern Josh Leung teaser video for this month’s Astronomy speaker series.

Astronomy and Astrophysics – March 2013 from Marin Science Seminar on Vimeo.
March 6th: NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly known as GLAST) mission was launched into orbit on June 11, 2008. Its mission is to explore the most energetic and exotic objects in the cosmos: blazing galaxies, intense stellar explosions and super-massive black holes. Using experimental technologies developed by high energy particle physicists, Fermi’s astrophysical observations are being conducted by scientists world-wide. Unlike visible light, gamma rays detected by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope are so energetic that E = mc2 really matters! I will explain how Fermi uses matter and anti-matter pair production to track gamma rays to their cosmic locations, and will showcase recent exciting results from the mission

March 13: “I will begin by describing what black holes are (and what they are not!). I will then discuss how big black holes at the centers of galaxies are discovered, how they form, and how they give rise to some of the most remarkable and bizarre phenomena in the universe.”

March 27: One of the fundamental goals of astronomy and astrophysics is to understand how the Universe and its constituent galaxies, stars, and planets formed, how they evolved, and what their destiny will be. Dr. Barsony’s research is focussed on the formation of stars, brown dwarfs, free-floating planets, and planetary systems. The raw material is provided by the tenuous interstellar gas found in frigid clouds in our Galaxy. Since the present birthplaces of stars are hidden by interstellar dust mixed in with the gas, exploring the detailed mechanisms involved in star (and planetary system) formation requires observations at wavelengths whose passage is relatively unimpeded by the intervening dust: radio, millimeter, submillimeter, infrared, and X-ray wavelengths.

What it is and what we have Learned from it so far  

Photo from ParticleFever.com

with Beate Heinemann, Ph.D.

Marin Science Seminar Presentation: “The Large Hadron Collider: What it is and what we have Learned from it so far” Watch the protons fly as Dr. Heinemann returns to tell us the latest on CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS project. Download the flyer here, (November 16, 2011, 7:30-8:30 pm, Terra Linda HS, Room 207, San Rafael, CA)

R.S.V.P. on Facebook here:

“The field of “particle physics” tries to understand the physics of the most fundamental building blocks of matter. How many such building blocks are there? How do they relate to each other? Why are they there? Currently we do not have a good theory why we have any mass at all, even though of course we know that all matter has a mass. There are, however, many theories about why this might be and the goal of my experiment is to prove or disprove them, or to maybe find completely unexpected phenomena that will then need to be explained. One exciting possibility is that we find extra dimensions of space that could even result in the production of mini-blackholes. My experiment is called ATLAS and is situated at the “Large Hadron Collider” (abbreviated as LHC) that is located in Switzerland. There are more than 2000 physicists on my experiment, and many engineers and technicians: all of them collaborate with each other to answer some of the most basic and fundamental questions of Science today. In my talk I will describe how this experiment works and what we hope to discover there.” 

Dr. Heinemann is Associate Professor of Physics at UC-Berkeley.

Dr. Rich Schneider, Man of Mystery

Dr. Schneider will overview experiments in his laboratory that have revealed molecular and cellular processes involved in facial patterning. He will describe how his studies to understand the basis for skull shape in breeds of dogs led him to create a cell transplant system whereby duck embryos develop with quail beaks. He will bring an assortment of skulls. Get the flyer here. (October, 2009; October 19, 2011)

R.S.V.P. on Facebook here:

Photo by Vania Coelho

“Homeless Nemo: What Does the Future Hold for Coral Reef Communities?”

Coral reefs are undoubtedly among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Studies predict that without increased conservation and restoration efforts a complete collapse is only a few decades away. This talk will focus on the current status of coral reefs around the world, including threats to them and the consequences of those threats. (4/30/08, 9/29/10, October 5, 2011) Get the flyer here.
 
Dr. Coelho holds degrees in Biology, Ecology and Zoology and she completed doctoral research while working as a visiting scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. After completing her doctorate she held research scientist positions at Columbia University. Dr. Coelho’s research focuses on the ecology and evolutionary biology of marine invertebrates including benthic community ecology, population biology, behavior, systematics of crustaceans, and coral reef ecology. She is currently Associate Professor of Biology at Dominican University.