Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Presentation: 5:30pm
General Meeting: 6:00pm

Jeff Serbus will be presenting

An Introduction to Topology for Non-Math Majors

When most non-math majors think of Mathematics, they think of Arithmetic, High School Algebra, College Algebra, Calculus, or even Differential Equations. This however is not what most modern Mathematicians spend their time working on. We will explore one branch of modern Mathematics (properly founded in the late 19th century) known as Topology. Topology is sometimes called “Rubber Geometry”, because it is a study of spaces where stretching and bending are allowed (but not cutting or pasting). So a solid ball is topologically the same as a solid cube, however neither is the same as a doughnut. (A doughnut, however, is actually the same topologically as a coffee mug.)

I will give you the basic ideas needed to understand what a Topological space is, as well as build up some tools that Topologists use to tell when two spaces are different, and show you that sometimes it is not obvious when two spaces are the same.

Jeff Serbus is a Master’s student in Mathematics at the University of Kansas. His topics of interest are General Topology and Algebraic Topology, and plans to graduate in the spring of 2008, after which he plans to complete a second Masters and a PhD in Mathematics with an emphasis in Algebraic Topology at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Please join us at Vermont Street BBQ after the meeting!

Tuesday Oct 9 (tomorrow) at 5:30 PM

General Meeting in the PINE ROOM of the Kansas Union.

Student Daniel Hogan will give a short talk on his current research at 5:30PM titled:

Observation of Upsilon(1S) to gamma Kshort Kshort

Particle accelerators are used in high-energy physics to study exotic particles.

This talk will give a brief overview of the CESR/CLEO accelerator experiment and a typical data analysis.

 
At 6PM we will be discussing IMPORTANT upcoming events we are helping out with:

“The Kansas Board of Education: Why Should You Care” (2 forums held on Oct 25 and Nov 1)

&

Mr. Michael Bellomo will be coming to KU to speak about the misinformation surrounding Stem Cell Research on Oct 16.

Also, come and get updates on current issues in the evolution debate, including info about the new pro-creationist/intelligent design movie featuring Ben Stein.
Come grab dinner and drinks after the meeting at Vermont Street BBQ!

KU Students for Science

First General Meeting

Pine Room, Kansas Union

Laura Murphy will be presenting:

Archaeology of the Beacon Island Site:

A prehistoric bison kill in North Dakota

Tuesday, September 11

Presentation:              5:30pm
General Meeting:         6:00pm

Join your peers in exploring our world through the eyes of science in an exciting lecture series, hosted by the KU Students for Science.

We will be exploring many disciplines of science over the coming semester ranging from archaeology, physics, cell biology, evolution and more. We will also be discussing current and classic topics of science and preparing for upcoming events.

Attendance to both sessions is not required

 Come learn about the science of Archaeology and what the scientific study of soils can tell us about the past…. TODAY!

Explorations in Archaeology Presents:
A Tale of Archaeology and Elephants

Dr. Paul Goldberg, Professor
Department of Archaeology
Boston University

Friday September 7, 2007
4-5PM
Jayhawk Room, Kansas Union

Dr. Paul Goldberg’s talk illustrates how micromorphology can be used to decipher the formation and interpretation of archaeological sediments, and how the latter constitute a fundamental part of the archaeological record.

Although best known for his work with micromorpholgy in archaeology, Dr. Paul Goldberg has an exemplary record of geoscience-based research and teaching in all aspects of archaeology. Much of his research has focused on soils and sediments in archaeological settings in both the New and Old World. He recently authored a book (with Richard Macphail) entitled Practical and Theoretical Geoarchaeology. Dr. Goldberg has served as Co-Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, and in 2002 received the Geological Society of America’s George Rapp Distiguished Career Award in Geoarchaeology. Dr. Goldberg is the recipient of the Society for American Archaeology’s 2008 Fryxell Award for interdisciplinary research, which will be presented to him at the upcoming annual meeting in Vancouver.

Our first officers meeting of the school year will be this Thursday August 30th at 7PM.  We will be meeting at Pizza Street (W. 6th next to HyVee) to discuss the upcoming school year and eat pizza!  If you are interested in becoming an officer, or would like to learn more about the group, please join us!

KU Students for Science is hosting a showing of the movie Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus. If you missed it the first time, this is your chance to see it FOR FREE at the Kansas Union.

MONDAY APRIL 30
7PM
REGIONALIST ROOM

To view trailer, go to: www.flockofdodos.com/

You will also have the opportunity to purchase a 10 dollar Fund Raiser card good for 10 free buffets at Pizza Street. Money will go toward bringing speakers and additional events that support science to the KU campus.

Hope to see everyone there!

Dr. Taner Edis, Physicist from Truman State University, will lecture about the creation/evolution debate in the Muslim world, take questions from the audience and sign his new book: “The Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam”.

This event is APRIL 3, 2007, 7PM

The University of Kansas

ALDERSON AUDITORIUM, KANSAS UNION

“Edis makes a compelling case that classical Islamic thought cannot accommodate a modern scientific culture whose basis is experimentation, quantification, and prediction. He exposes the vacuity of faith-based science using a range of examples. But Edis does not rule out eventual acceptance of a reinterpreted Muslim theology that will, as in other world religions, allow science and Islam to go their own separate ways.”
—Pervez Hoodbhoy, author of Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality, and professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

In a cultural arena dominated by polemics, Taner Edis, a historically sensitive Turkish-American physicist, stands out as a voice of reason. I don’t know of a better introduction to science and religion in Islam than An Illusion of Harmony.”
—Ronald L. Numbers, author of The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design

http://www.news.ku.edu/2007/february/6/dodos.shtml

Move over Jayhawks, ‘Flock of Dodos’ coming to KU to celebrate Darwin Day

LAWRENCE — Hoping to avoid the fate of the extinct dodo bird, researchers and students at the University of Kansas will join a worldwide celebration of the 198th birthday of Charles R. Darwin.

Darwin Day is Monday, Feb. 12. The celebration will feature the Lawrence premiere of a new award-winning film, “Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus”; a costume contest; open house exhibits in two museums; and 10 special exhibits of KU research among other events all focused on the theme “We’ve come a long way since Darwin.”

“Dodos,” directed by former Kansan, KU alumnus and evolutionary biologist Randy Olson, uses humor to explore the controversy over teaching evolution in Kansas public schools.

“One theme of the film is how poorly scientists have communicated the basics of evolution to the general public,” said Robert Hagen, a Kansas Biological Survey researcher who is helping to coordinate Darwin Day at KU. “The implication is that scientists must learn to do a better job or we’re at risk of extinction, too.”

The film will be shown at 7:45 p.m. at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. Tickets are on sale in the Natural History Museum gift shop.

KU’s Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute and the Spencer Museum of Art plan open house events from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to showcase the breadth of evolutionary biology and concepts of evolution. In the Natural History Museum, KU researchers will have special exhibits of current research — ranging from fossils to frog courtship to psychology. KU Students for Science members will help answer questions. In the Spencer museum, the print room will feature special displays related to concepts in evolution.

Kansas Citizen for Science will award prizes of $100 and $50 for the best costumes of each of three categories: Darwin, at any age in his career; Muffy Moose (pictures of Muffy, mother of the “Dodos” film director, are online at www.muffymoose.com); and Dodos, which can be authentic or animated. All costume entrants receive free admission to the film.

Judging begins in Woodruff Auditorium preceding the film. The film’s audience will judge the best Darwin costumes. Muffy Moose, whose real name is Muffy Olson, will judge her category by Webcast from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. KU Natural History Museum biologists and staff will select the Dodo costume winners.

The “Dodos” cast includes two KU faculty members: Steven Case, assistant director of KU’s Center for Science Education, and Daphne Fautin, professor of invertebrate zoology. Others appearing in the film are John Calvert, retired attorney and director of the Intelligent Design Network Inc., and members of the Kansas State Board of Education and the Dover, Pa., school board.

Olson chose Darwin’s birthday as the occasion for the official release of his new film and has coordinated events at science centers and museums across the nation. The film will also be shown Feb. 16 and 17 at Science City in Union Station in Kansas City, Mo. That event is co-sponsored by the Kansas City Biosciences Authority.

KU sponsors for Darwin Day are the Center for Science Education; Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute; Spencer Museum of Art; Kansas Biological Survey; Division of Biological Sciences; the departments of anthropology, ecology and evolutionary biology, chemistry, geology, molecular biosciences, physics and astronomy and psychology; Kansas Citizens for Science; and KU Students for Science.

Full listing of Darwin Day events at KU:

Noon — Center for Science Education Brown Bag Seminar at the Pine Room in the Kansas Union
“Forms Most Beautiful: Ideas of Evolution at the Molecular Level” by Richard Schowen, KU distinguished professor emeritus of chemistry.

6 p.m. — Open House at the Natural History Museum
The ongoing Explore Evolution exhibit focuses on seven research projects that illustrate discoveries in evolution ranging from viruses to whales. For Darwin Day, 10 special displays of current KU research in evolution will be on exhibit and the scientists will be available to talk with visitors. They are:
— Treating Depressive Illness: Applied Evolutionary Psychology by Stephen Ilardi, associate professor of psychology
— Trace Fossils and the Evolution of Animal Behavior by John Counts, graduate student in geology, and Stephen T. Hasiotis, associate professor of geology
— Fossil Plants by Edith Taylor, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
— KU Vertebrate Paleontology and the Orient: Mesozoic Birds over China by David Burnham, graduate student in geology, and Larry Martin, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology
— Corals, Anemones and Jellyfish: Evolution of an Early Animal Group by Daphne Fautin, senior curator of invertebrate zoology, and Paulyn Cartwright, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
— Primate Social Evolution by Jennifer Weghorst, adjunct research associate, Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Institute
— Honey Bee Evolution by Deborah Smith, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
— Evolution of Frog Courtship by Rafe Brown, curator of herpetology
— Hybridization and Parental Care in Mammals and Birds by Raymond Pierotti, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology

6-7:30 p.m. — Evolution and the Arts in the Print Study Room, Spencer Museum of Art

7:30 p.m. — Costume judging in Woodruff Auditorium

7:45 p.m. — “Flock of Dodos” in Woodruff Auditorium
Tickets are $2 and available in the Natural History Museum gift shop.

The Onion, “America’s Finest News Source” or favorite satirical news web page for many college students, released this article back in 2002 poking fun of science and it’s underling inability to reach the general public due to it’s failure to be comprehended by the scientists themselves. In true scientific fashion, the science-is-hard theorem was developed.

“We now believe that the theorem is 99.999% likely to be true, after applying these incredibly complex statistical techniques that gave me a splitting headache,” Farian said. “A theorem is like a theory, but, I don’t know, it’s different.”

Though clearly this article is an exaggeration and hilarious, it reminds me that now in 2007, scientists and students of science need to do more in the way of presenting in a public forum to explain their research and the benefits of research instead of this:
“Quantum physics has always been a particularly tough branch of science,” UCLA physicist Dr. Hideki Watanabe said. “But in addition to being some of the smartest Einstein-y stuff around, it is undeniably a really stupid, pointless thing to study, something you could never actually use in the real world. This paradoxical dual state may one day lead to a new understanding of physics as a way to confuse and bore people.”

The good news is that there are several events coming up this semester that the public is welcome to attend and that is sure neither to confuse nor bore.

The most important event is the celebration of Charles Darwin’s birthday on February 12th from 6-7:30PM in the Natural History Museum (Dyche Hall, KU Campus; see previous post for details), followed by a screening of the movie Flock of Dodos. This event was announced in the Lawrence-Journal World last week: ‘Dodos’ to help mark Darwin birthday, however, a more formal announcement is to come this week. I should also mention that a 100-dollar cash prize provided by Kansas Citizens for Science will go to the student or community member with the best Darwin, Dodo, or Muffy Moose costume.

The movie Flock of Dodos fits nicely with the idea of moving away from the science-is-hard theorem. The goal in mind is for the KU community and others to come together to present research and exciting findings in the biological, geological evolutionary, and anthropological fields to show how far we’ve come since Darwin.

Another open forum in science that will be taking place all semester is the Explorations in Archaeology lecture series held every other Friday from 4-5PM in the Kansas Union (see table for room).