MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2015 Activities by Sponsor - Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences

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2015 EAPS Lecture Series: Origins of Life

Greg Fournier, Assistant Professor of Geobiology

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

The origin of life and the nature of its common ancestry is one of humanity’s greatest unanswered questions, and has remained mysterious despite over half a century of serious scientific inquiry. Knowledge of the mechanism, timing, and setting of life’s origin not only greatly enriches our understanding of biology, but also directly informs our understanding of planetary processes and conditions on the Early Earth, and provides an astrobiological context to our place within the Universe. With the advent and expansion of genomic technology, powerful new tools are now available to investigate our origins as never before.  This seminar highlights the work of researchers applying the tools of genomics, molecular evolution, and synthetic biology to these challenging problems, and the remarkable insights that can be gained from new computational and experimental techniques. 

Individual lectures in the series will be given in 54-915, noon to 1pm. Please check individual session listing for descriptions of each topic and the day it will be offered.

Since there is a delay in information posted to the IAP website please see <http://eapsweb.mit.edu/events/iap-2015> for up-to-date schedule information.

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Vicki McKenna, 54-910, 617 253-3380, VSM@MIT.EDU


Add to Calendar Jan/13 Tue 12:00PM-01:00PM 54-915

Kickstarting Evolution: The emergence of novel functional biomolecules at the origin of life and today 

Noam Prywes - Graduate Student


Add to Calendar Jan/20 Tue 12:00PM-01:00PM 54-915

Ascent of the proteome in ancient life

Aaron Goldman - Assistant Professor


Add to Calendar Jan/23 Fri 12:00PM-01:00PM 54-918

Engineering modern microbes with ancestral genes to explore ancient life

 

Betul Kacar - Research Scientist


Add to Calendar Jan/28 Wed 12:00PM-01:00PM 54-915, rescheduled to Feb. 3

Molecular evolution before the Domain ancestors: Indications for dramatic planetary changes during life¿s early evolution

Peter Gogarten - Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor


Add to Calendar Jan/28 Wed 01:00PM-02:00PM 54-915, rescheduled to Feb. 3

Panel Discussion: What do we know about earliest life on Earth?  Does biology constrain the early planetary narrative?

Greg Fournier - Assistant Professor of Geobiology


Electron Microprobe Analysis on the JEOL JXA-8200 Superprobe

Nilanjan Chatterjee

Add to Calendar Jan/16 Fri 01:00PM-03:00PM 54-1221

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

This session is to introduce new users to the JEOL JXA-8200 Superprobe. You will have hands-on experience (if time permits) on our electron microprobe equipped with enhanced imaging capabilities and learn about wavelength and energy dispersive spectrometry, back-scattered electron, secondary electron, cathodoluminescence, and elemental X-ray imaging. 

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Nilanjan Chatterjee, 54-1216, x3-1995, nchat@mit.edu


Introduction ocean data-model analysis

Dr. Gael Forget, Research Scientist

Add to Calendar Jan/15 Thu 10:00AM-11:30AM 54-1623
Add to Calendar Jan/16 Fri 10:00AM-11:30AM 54-1623
Add to Calendar Jan/22 Thu 10:00AM-11:30AM 54-1623
Add to Calendar Jan/23 Fri 10:00AM-11:30AM 54-1623
Add to Calendar Jan/29 Thu 10:00AM-11:30AM 54-1623

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/12
Limited to 15 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: None

The analysis of observations and modeling are intertwined components of modern observational oceanogrphy. This class intends to inform students and postocs of the wealth of ocean data and models that are readily available to them at MIT - including, but not liminted to, collections of Argo profiles and MITgcm output. The class will proceed through lectures and interacitve MATLAB sessions. The use of models as part of low level data processing, and within higher level data synthesis, will be exposed during the lectures by taking examples from recent and ongoing research. The interactive MATLAB sessions will aim to enable attendees to take advantage of available data and models for their own research.

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Gael Forget, 54-1423, (617) 452-2977, gforget@mit.edu


The Art of Science Filmmaking

Dena Seidel, Assist. Prof. and Director, Center for Digital Filmmaking

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

This is a pivotal moment in the development of science communication. Drawing on her many years of science filmmaking experience including NSF funded "Antarctica: Beyond the Ice",  Dena Seidel will give two talks on creatively using film to communicate science to broad audiences

Dena Seidel is the Director of the Rutgers Center for Digital Filmmaking and an Assistant Professor in the Mason Gross School of the Arts. She is also an award winning filmmaker and the Director/Producer of the soon to be release feature documentary Antarctica: Beyond the Ice funded by the National Science Foundation and featuring an inter-disciplinary research team studying climate change in one of the most rapidly changing parts of the world.

 

 

 

 

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Vicki McKenna, 54-910, 617 253-3380, VSM@MIT.EDU


Add to Calendar Jan/14 Wed 12:00PM-01:00PM 54-915

Creative Ocean and Earth Science Filmmaking

Ocean and Earth research can be shaped into compelling science discovery narratives for the screen. Film narratives allow audiences to vicariously experiences a scientist's processes of discovery, beginning with an interest in knowing more about the natural world to the methods used to test a hypothesis  that eventually led to discoveries. 

Dena Seidel - Assist. Prof. and Director, Center for Digital Filmmaking


Add to Calendar Jan/15 Thu 12:00PM-01:00PM 54-915

Communicating your Research to the Public through Film

Narratives told from the perspective of scientists can effectively communicate science in a meaningful way. Public understanding of the work scientists do is essential for continued research funding and attracting young people to STEM fields. Hear how filmmakers and researchers work together to create narratives that engage the larger public in science learning.

Dena Seidel - Assist. Prof. and Director, Center for Digital Filmmaking


Tour of Wallace Astrophysical Observatory

Michael J Person

Add to Calendar Jan/23 Fri 08:00PM-10:30PM Wallace Observatory, Dress Warmly
Add to Calendar Jan/26 Mon 07:00PM-11:30PM Bldg 54 ground lobby, Dress Warmly

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Attendance: Repeating event, particpants welcome at any session

Come tour the heavens at MIT's George R. Wallace Jr. Astrophysical Observatory located 45 minutes northwest of Boston in Westford, MA. Use various telescopes from 14" to 24" for both visual observing and electronic imaging of the moon, Jupiter, and other celestial bodies. Two tours dates available.  Required signup via website: http://web.mit.edu/wallace/iaptour/

Sponsor(s): Wallace Astrophysical Observatory, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Michael J Person, iaptour@occult.mit.edu


Wonder, Beauty, and Meaning:Living at the Interface of Science and Spirituality

Dan Burns, Research Scientist

Add to Calendar Jan/21 Wed 12:00PM-01:30PM 54-209

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Have you ever been stopped in your tracks by the sound of a hawk, the laughter of a child, or a green sunset? Have you ever been amazed at an equation that captures a physical observation or the biochemistry of DNA?  Science is alive with the sacred and our lives are pregnant with purpose and meaning.  Yet we can compartmentalize our intellectual and spiritual selves into different boxes, imposing barriers that limit and constrain us.   Many of the most exciting areas in research are at the interface of different fields, involving the breaking down of barriers between science and engineering.  In our own lives we need to breakdown false compartments to live as whole human beings in mind and spirit. This is how we find the most happiness and fulfillment in life, the most meaning and balance.   There can be tension in seeing how to balance our spiritual and technical lives - how do we avoid feeling the need to leave our spiritual lives at the door of the lab and pick them up when we go home at night?  These questions were the basis of a seminar offered at MIT over a 10-year period.  We discovered clear points of commonality between our work and our spirituality.   Using personal experience, the lives of great scientists and mystics, and the insight of over 100 students from every religious tradition who took the seminar, we will look at five aspects of science and spirituality that can help integrate our lives: wonder, awareness, beauty, creativity, and meaning

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Dan Burns, 54-223, 617.253.7206, burns@mit.edu