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Modern science is evolving faster than laboratory fruit flies. Ask a Scientist is an informative, entertaining, monthly lecture series, held at a San Francisco cafe. Each event features a speaker on a scientific topic, a short presentation, and the opportunity to ask all those burning questions that have been keeping you up at night. No tests, grades, or pressure…just food, drinks, socializing, and conversation about the universe’s most fascinating mysteries! UPCOMING EVENTSPlease note that indoor seating is limited, but weather permitting, a projector and screen will be set up outside on the patio so latecomers can still see and hear everything that's going on inside. Bundle up! Tuesday, January 13th, 7:00 pmTopic: Bigfoot and Other Wild Men of the ForestBummer. The recent claim by two Georgia men to have discovered the remains of a Bigfoot corpse turned out to be a hoax. Sure, you didn't fall for it, but somehow a couple of blockheads and a frozen gorilla costume did manage to capture public attention and create a minor media stir. After all, Bigfoot, Yeti, and hordes of other cryptoid missing links have been igniting human imagination for ages. Even the most skeptical of us must wonder if it's possible there really could be large, undiscovered primates on earth, still unknown to us humans. Can we be so sure we've found them all? And if some enticing evidence presented itself, how would we test it scientifically? Tonight physical anthropologist Eugenie Scott will help us answer the question of whether or not we might one day be able to welcome some long lost relatives to the family tree. This event is presented in collaboration with the Bay Area Skeptics. Speaker: Eugenie Scott; Physical Anthropologist and Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education Location: Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) San Francisco Tuesday, Feb 3rd, 7:00 pmTopic: Ice Age Bay AreaThe hamburger joint on my corner has been there forever...or has it?? Set your time machine back to the most recent ice age, 10-20,000 years ago, and you'll find yourself in a San Francisco you would scarcely recognize. You might think you'd been transported to the African plains, a grassy landscape teeming with mammoths, mastadons, saber-toothed cats, camels, llamas, and lions. Our familiar local geography would be unrecognizable as well. While much ocean water was locked away in ice masses to the north, lower sea levels exposed miles of land off of our current coastline, and the Bay Area had no bay — in its place was a vast, lush valley with a massive river running through it. Join us on a trip backwards in time with the Oakland Museum's Douglas Long at the helm. Tonight's event is presented in collaboration with KQED's QUEST Science and Environment Series. We'll start the evening by watching QUEST's "Ice Age Bay Area" video. Speaker: Douglas Long; Chief Curator, Department of Natural Sciences, Location: Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) San Francisco Tuesday, March 24th, 7:00 pmTopic: Sex and WarWhy is it that humans, nearly unique in this regard, have a natural inclination to band together and kill off members of our own species? The fact that chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary relatives, are the only other animals known to exhibit such organized warlike behavior is a big clue. Malcolm Potts and Thomas Hayden, authors of the new book Sex and War, assert that the answers lie in our biological history — that aggression against our own species is rooted in deep evolutionary impulses and predispositions. In other words, intra-species battling among our protohuman ancestors gave a reproductive advantage to the most violent males — and here we are, their pugnacious descendants, still at it. Come learn how sex and war are inextricably linked, and perhaps, what we modern-day humans can do about it. Books will be available for sale at the event. Speakers: Thomas Hayden; science journalist and lecturer in the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University. Malcolm Potts; obstetrician, research biologist, and Bixby Professor at UC Berkeley. Location: Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) San Francisco Tuesday, April 7th, 7:00 pmTopic: Parasites Among UsImagine, if you will, a tiny creature with the ability to invade your body, hijack your cells, change your DNA, and modify you physically and behaviorally to suit its own devious goals. Sound like science fiction? Maybe, but it's also the modus operandi of the real-life parasitic organisms that live among, and inside, the rest of us animals. While some parasites, in their quest for survival and propagation, may live undetected in the bodies of their hosts, others can cause sickness or death. Some of the world's most pernicious and persistent diseases are caused by these supremely successful and sophisticated organisms. But according to evolutionary biologists, parasites have also played a significant role in shaping the human species — including why we use sex to reproduce. (Nice job, little friends!) Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Jim McKerrow returns to Ask a Scientist with more strange and wonderful tales of parasite biology. Note to the squeamish: stay home! Speaker: Jim McKerrow; Director, Sandler Center for Research on Parasitic Diseases Location: Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) San Francisco |
Amateur astronomers share their scopes after Jennifer Heldman's talk about the moon. Oct '08. See more photos. 
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