This town talk will be presented by Matthias Heyden, Arizona State University. Water is far more than a refreshing drink — its unique molecular properties make life possible. By forming a dynamic network of weak chemical bonds, water acts as both a selective solvent and a...
This town talk will be presented by Derek Posselt, Principal Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If you live on planet Earth, you have had to worry about the weather at some point. Most of us have heard some version of the expression: "If you don't like...
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...
