You are cordially invited to come and chat with a scientist about an interesting and/or controversial science topic.  Patterned after the International Café Scientifique, the Science Department has initiated
an outreach program to promote public interest in science.  Our goal is simply to have regularly scheduled sessions for informal discussions of scientific topics.



 

   The LCC Science Department would like to thank you for your interest
in Café Scientifique 2007-08.
We look forward to hosting Café Scientifique again
starting Fall 2008.

 Upcoming topics:

 Previous topics have included:

• This Discussion May Break the Law: The collision of intellectual property and intellectual freedom - Recent legal disputes revolving around the patenting of scientific advances have led to a situation where even the discussion of certain scientific observations may be considered patent infringement and subject to persecution.  What is the pivotal discovery that has prompted this controversy?  If we talk about it some attorneys say we are breaking the law!  We will reveal the secret and discuss how we should balance the need for intellectual property and the need for free discourse.
   
• Building the Ship in a Bottle on the Ship in a bottle - How are elements heavier than iron created?  Why is there a difference between the predicted and observed abundance of elements?  What is the precise nature of ultra-dense, several-tons-in-a-teaspoon neutron stars, which astronomers know to be among the brightest sources of X-rays in the universe?  The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at MSU is one of the world's top facilities for producing new versions of atomic nuclei.  By everyday standards, this is a construction process on a tiny scale, a necessary if challenging step in understanding how small objects on the atomic scale behave.  It is a quest that draws hundreds of researchers each year from around the world to request a nucleus be built with a certain mix of ingredients.  What fuels interest in this science?

• Why Does My Neighbor Hate Evolution? Understanding Antievolution, and Supporting Science Education - The polls have consistently shown that between 40 and 45% of citizens in the USA reject evolutionary science outright, putting us behind every other industrialized nation and just ahead of Turkey concerning general acceptance of evolution. Why is this the case, and just why is it that the antievolution advocates have had decades of success in weakening education on this topic?
   

• The Fact and Fiction of Organic Farming - Sales of organic foods are projected to reach $32 billion by 2009. Are organic foods really more healthy? Are the techniques of the 20th century's "Green Revolution" really that bad? Can we feed the world without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides?'
   

• Is There Life on Mars (or elsewhere)? - For millennia, humankind has looked up at the stars and wondered: Are we alone in the universe? Today, we send scientific probes to explore the planets, moons, and asteroids in our solar system.  Where should we look for life? What should we look for?  How will we recognize alien life if we see it?
  Why is water essential for life? How does knowledge about microorganisms that live in extreme environments on Earth (like Antarctica or deep-sea hot springs) influence ideas about where life could exist in the solar system?  Recommended book: Lonely Planets: the Natural Philosophy of Alien Life by David Grinspoon
   

• Stabilization Wedges Climate Change Game - What should we do about greenhouse gas emissions?  Continue "business as usual" and double emissions by 2055 resulting in significant rise in global warming or keep emissions flat until mid-century and then work to reduce them avoiding the worst case scenario of climate change?
   

• An Inconvenient Truth: The Rest of the Story - What are exponential growth, the first and second laws of ecology, and lag time? Why are they critical when considering global warming? How close are we to triggering a tipping point and producing, '...sudden, catastrophic changes across the planet'? What are Schellnhuber's 12 tipping points and how do they interact? What is the 13th tipping point and how close are we to that?
   

• Forensic Science: CSI Reality - Is there a "CSI Effect"? The gap between public perception and reality within popular TV crime dramas is vast! Is there an emerging paradigm shift in Forensic Identification Services because of converging legal and scientific forces?
   
• The Oddities of Sound, Music, & Hearing - What your brain hears that you don't; How do we process music?
   
• The Health Effects of Ubiquitous Endocrine Disruptors & the Implications of Using Plastics, Pesticides, Emulsifiers, etc. - Can plastic accelerate breast cancer growth? Why are sperm counts in the Midwest significantly lower than the rest of the country?
   
• The Oddities of Relativity & Quantum Mechanics - Do we know anything for sure? Is teleportation possible? Can the universe appear out of nothing?
   
• The Health Effects of Ubiquitous Endocrine Disruptors & the Implications of Using Plastics, Pesticides, Emulsifiers, etc.  Can plastic accelerate breast cancer growth? Why are sperm counts in the Midwest significantly lower than the rest of the country?
   
• The BIG BANG: A scientific model that helps answer some of the biggest questions ever asked.
• Genetically Modified Foods - Frankenfoods or The Green Revolution?
   
• Alternative Energy - Is Hydrogen a power source? Does Nuclear energy belong in the alternative energy discussion? Is Hydroelectric power worth displacing whole cities? Does a local geothermal system increase the value of your house?
• Global Warming - Fact or Fiction?
   
• Biological Basis of Sexual Orientation
   
• Stem Cell Research: Should Michigan repeal its ban against embryonic stem cell research?
   
• Nanotechnology - the Promise and the Peril.
   
• Science, Religion, and the Constitution: Can Intelligent Design be presented as a valid alternative to the Darwinian theory
  of evolution?
   
• Pluto: What is a planet and why not Pluto?

 Please join us at one or all of these events. If you have any questions, please contact Alex Azima by phone (517.483.1110) or
 by e-mail alex@lcc.edu.