The Science Scene

Thursday, September 2

"Achieving 100 Percent Clean Electricity in the Southeast: The Role of Solar." Emory Climate Talks features Bryan Jacob, solar program director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. His role ranges from conducting research on solar power trends to advocacy on utility resource planning and collaborating with stakeholders in the solar energy development industry. At 4 pm, via Zoom.

Thursday, September 9
Finding the Mother Tree

"Finding the Mother Tree." Emory Climate Talks features Suzanne Simard, professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia. Simard is the leader of The Mother Tree Project, which researches forest renewal practices that protect biodiversity against climate change. She will discuss her latest book, Finding the Mother Tree, which explores the ways in which trees learn and adapt their behaviors, remember the past, demonstrate agency over the future and cooperate with a sophistication typically ascribed to humans. At 4 pm via Zoom. 

"Story Collider: Unfamiliar Places." This edition of Story Collider features four performers telling true stories about how science has led them into unfamiliar places. The line-up includes Emory ethnobotanist Cassandra Quave, whose memoir "The Plant Hunter" will be published October 12, and Youssef Saklawi, an internal medicine resident at Emory who moved to the United States in 2019 from Beirut. This event will be held at 7 pm, outdoors in the garden area of Waller's Coffee Shop in Decatur. Tickets required.

Tuesday, September 14

"Space Oddity: Musical Syntax is Mapped onto Visual Space." Musicians ubiquitously apply spatial metaphors when describing the stability hierarchy of tonal syntax: Stable tones are considered spatially central and, as gravitational foci, spatially lower. Zohar Eitan, from Tel Aviv University, will discuss his investigations into whether listeners, musicians and non-musicians associate tonal relationships with visuospatial dimensions, including height, centrality, laterality and size, and whether such mappings are consistent with tonal discourse. At 4 pm via Zoom. 

Thursday, September 16

"The Anatomy of Loneliness." Neither a pathology, nor a rare affliction, loneliness is part of the human condition. Severe and chronic loneliness, however, is a threat to individual and public health and appears to be on the rise. Emory anthropologist Chikako Ozawa-De Silva will give a talk on what is and is not loneliness and the role of culture in loneliness. She will argue that the anatomy of loneliness is not the anatomy of a single individual, but of a type of society. At 4 pm via Zoom. 

Wednesday, September 29

"The Eye as a Window to the Brain: From Candlelight to Artificial Intelligence." Ophthalmologists Nancy Newman and  Valerie Biousse will present the 2021 John F. Morgan, Sr. Distinguished Faulty Lecture. For more than 150 years, physicians knew that the appearance of the back of the eye, known as the ocular fundus, is a window into the neurologic and systemic health of human beings, just as poets and writers also knew that the eye is the window to the soul. Through innovative technology, including artificial intelligence tools, Newman and Biousse have re-introduced the examination of the ocular fundus into mainstream medical practice. At 6 pm, both in person and via Zoom.

Thursday, September 30

Humane Animal Husbandry
"Humane Animal Husbandry and Environmental Sustainability." Will Harris of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, is featured in Emory Climate Talks. He is a fourth-generation cattleman, who tends the same land that his great-grandfather settled in 1866, and has returned to the farming methods used 130 years before. Harris has been recognized around the world as a leader in humane animal husbandry and environmental sustainability. He is the immediate past-president of the board of directors of Georgia Organics and the beef director of the American Grassfed Association. At 4 pm via Zoom.

Wednesday, November 3

"The Empathic Brain: The Neural Underpinning of Human Empathy." Empathy allows us to understand and share one another's emotional experiences. It allows one to quickly and automatically relate to the emotional states of others, which is essential for the regulation of social interactions and cooperation toward shared goals. Anthropologist Simone Shamay-Tsoory, from the University of Haifa, Israel, will discuss her research into brain-to-brain coupling during empathic interactions. At noon, via Zoom.

Links to Emory event calendars:

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