This week in science: 11/12 - 11/16

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November 12, 4:45 PM

by Christopher Langton, S.F. Science Examiner

 

 

Headlines first, followed by the details.

Tuesday, November 11th, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Transformed Social Interaction in Virtual Reality
Jeremy Bailenson, PhD, Director, Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Stanford University
SRI Menlo Park
Middlefield Road at Ringwood
Dining Room in the International Building (directions)

Wednesday, Nov 12th, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Saturn's Restless Rings: A Public Lecture
Mark Showalter
Foothill College Smithwick Theatre, Los Altos, CA (directions)

Wednesday, November 12th, 6 - 7 PM
The Time Paradox
Philip Zimbardo, Psychologist; Author, The Lucifer Effect and The Time Paradox
The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco
595 Market Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco

Wednesday, November 12th, 7:00 pm
Surviving in Space
Sherwin Gormly, Water Process Research and Development Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center
Ask a Scientist
Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) San Francisco

Thursday, November 13, 2008, 7 p.m.
Taking the Biological Pulse of Our Planet: ?The USA National Phenology Network
Jake Weltzin, NPN Executive Director
USGS, Conference Room A, Bldg 3,Menlo Park, California (directions)

Details (text from source)

Tuesday, November 11th, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Transformed Social Interaction in Virtual Reality
Jeremy Bailenson, PhD, Director, Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Stanford University
SRI Menlo Park
Middlefield Road at Ringwood
Dining Room in the International Building (directions)

Over time, our mode of remote communication has evolved from written letters to telephones, email, internet chat rooms, and videoconferences. Similarly, virtual environments promise to further change the nature of remote interaction. Dr. Bailenson's main area of interest is the phenomenon of digital human representation, especially in the context of immersive virtual reality. He explores the manner in which people represent themselves when the physical constraints of body and veridically-rendered behaviors are removed. Furthermore, he designs and studies collaborative virtual reality systems that allow physically remote individuals to meet in virtual space, and explores the manner in which these systems change the nature of verbal and nonverbal interaction.

Unlike telephone conversations and videoconferences, avatars have the ability to systematically filter their physical appearance and behavioral actions in the eyes of their conversational partners, amplifying or suppressing features and nonverbal signals in real-time for strategic purposes. These transformations have a drastic impact on interactants' abilities to influence others in social contexts.  Dr. Bailenson will discuss his research exploring the manners in which the use of avatars qualitatively changes the nature of remote communication, as well as insights into nonverbal communication and social identity. Implications for tele-immersive communications and social interaction will also be discussed.

Jeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab and an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford. He earned a B.A. cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1994 and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University in 1999. After receiving his doctorate, he spent four years at the Research Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and then an Assistant Research Professor.

Café Scientifique events are open to all free of charge.  No reservations are necessary.

Wednesday, Nov 12th, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Saturn's Restless Rings: A Public Lecture
Mark Showalter
Foothill College Smithwick Theatre, Los Altos, CA (directions)

Mark Showalter will share some of the amazing pictures and fascinating results from our exploration of Saturn and its rings in this nontechnical public talk.

Wednesday, November 12th, 6 - 7 PM
The Time Paradox
Philip Zimbardo, Psychologist; Author, The Lucifer Effect and The Time Paradox
The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco
595 Market Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco

Celebrated psychologist Zimbardo shows how our internal perception of time dictates who we are and how we see the world.

What if your attitudes toward time could explain why you are chronically late, why you're likely to fight for rainforest preservation, or why you might be predisposed to addictions? Zimbardo, renowned for his notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiments, will discuss how internal time perspectives determine every single one of our thoughts, feelings and actions. He even makes the case that attitudes toward time can influence national destinies.

Time: 5:30 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
Cost: $12 members, $18 non-members

Wednesday, November 12th, 7:00 pm
Surviving in Space
Sherwin Gormly, Water Process Research and Development Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center
Ask a Scientist
Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) San Francisco

Long-range space travel brings a new set of challenges to the already formidable mission of sending humans out into space. Now that the U.S. is ramping up plans to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars, NASA scientists must figure out how to supply crews with air, food, and water for stretches of months, and even years, at a time. The cost of shipping water into space, for example, will shut down a Tang party pretty quickly — every pound of water consumed in orbit costs around $10,000.

To meet such challenges, researchers like Sherwin Gormly and his colleagues are coming up with inventive ways to recycle in an enclosed space habitat. Arguably the most intriguing example is a 10-pound machine that turns urine into drinking water using processes that duplicate those that occur in nature. Pee-licious!

Come find out what Sherwin has to tell us about all aspects of exploration life support, and how such innovations could impact real-world conservation efforts here at home.

Thursday, November 13, 2008, 7 p.m.
Taking the Biological Pulse of Our Planet: The USA National Phenology Network
Jake Weltzin, NPN Executive Director
USGS, Conference Room A, Bldg 3,Menlo Park, California (directions)

    •    Phenology, an emerging integrated science, is combining government, university, and public knowledge to study seasonal cycles in the biosphere
    •    Recent findings in phenology are providing new insights into the timing of biological events and cycles in relation to changing seasons and global climate conditions
    •    Citizen scientists are contributing valuable information to Project BudBurst nationwide with backyard and field observations of nature
    •    Scientists are using phenology to study the effects of global climate change on the delicate interaction between plants and animals, and for predicting the future health of our environment
 

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