We are facing an antibiotic resistance crisis. This Town Talk, presented by Zemer Gitai from Princeton University, will review some of the scientific and socioeconomic factors that have made it hard to solve the crisis and let us in on some new approaches powered by...
[caption id="attachment_2824" align="alignnone" width="300"] Lucy Hutyra, Boston University[/caption] Our city trees offer well-known benefits—from cooling overheated neighborhoods to sequestering carbon—but the story is far from simple. This talk examines how trees grow in the challenging urban environment and the ecological trade-offs they face. We’ll explore how...
[caption id="attachment_2818" align="alignleft" width="195"] Ann McDermott, Columbia University[/caption] For proteins, aka “the building blocks of life”, shape is ultimately important. Shape, more than other properties, confers function, information about protein shapes is coveted in the development of new medicines and diagnostics. Most proteins are somewhat flexible,...
[caption id="attachment_2810" align="alignleft" width="200"] Milan Delor, Columbia University[/caption] Moore's law - the long-standing trend of computer chips getting constantly faster and cheaper by doubling the number of transistors on a chip every two years - is coming to a worrying end. The hunt for new materials...
[caption id="attachment_2801" align="alignleft" width="300"] Kade Head-Marsden, University of Minnesota[/caption] There is an exponential cost to obtaining molecular information pertinent to important processes such as catalysis, photosynthesis, and energy transfer and storage. While quantum computing showed early promise for reducing the scaling of these problems, practical realization...
[caption id="attachment_2797" align="alignleft" width="233"] Guillermo AcunaFriborg University[/caption] A scientific revolution is happening at the smallest of scales—one where we fold DNA, the molecule of life, into intricate nanoscale shapes. This field, called DNA origami, turns DNA into a programmable building material, allowing us to craft structures just...
[caption id="attachment_2790" align="alignleft" width="300"] Rohit Pappu, Washington University in St. Louis[/caption] What are the unifying themes in neurodegeneration in the context of ALS and other dementias, success of heart transplantation, the onset and progression of an assortment of cancers, and stress responses of plants? In all...
[caption id="attachment_2780" align="alignleft" width="200"] Josh Schaidle[/caption] To enable secure, resilient, and domestic supply chains, Dr. Josh Schaidle and his colleagues of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado are pursuing innovative routes to diversify the feedstocks utilized in production of the fuels, chemicals, and materials that...
[caption id="attachment_2763" align="alignleft" width="263"] Natalie Shustova, University of South Carolina[/caption] Photochromic materials are quietly woven into the fabric of our daily lives, yet they are also driving some of the most exciting frontiers in science and technology. One familiar example is transition lenses for glasses which...
Plastic waste is piling up, with projections estimating 25 billion tons by 2050—most of it ending up in landfills or the environment. Traditional mechanical recycling falls short, with only a tiny fraction of plastics truly recycled into similar products. This Town Talk challenges us to...
