Science Seminars is a weekly list of science-related seminars sponsored by colleges, research institutes, and other organizations throughout Penn State. Science Seminars is published by the Penn State Eberly College of Science as a service to Penn State and its surrounding communities

Science Seminars

17 to 23 September 2007

MONDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER

"Diurnal and Circadian Regulation of Gene Expression in Plants," Todd Mockler, Oregon State University, 12:10 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Michael Axtell, Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Biology (867-0241).

"Forensic Chemistry: Drugs, Explosives, and Much, Much More," Suzanne Bell, West Virginia University, 12:20 p.m., 113 Information Sciences and Technologies Building, Forensic Science Program and Eberly College of Science (863-6758 or 867-0460).

"If You Can't Take the Heat: Temperature-Regulated Demography in a Salt-Marsh Bird?" Brian Olsen, Penn State, 1:00 p.m., 118 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Intercollege Graduate Program in Ecology (863-3371).

"Phylogenetic Resolution of Human and Plant Pathogens in the Fusarium solani Species Complex," Dylan Short, Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 112 Buckhout Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology (863-3206).

"Limit Theorems a la Darling-Kac," Jon Aaronson,Tel Aviv University (Israel), 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Distinct Roles of Core Histones, Histone Variants, and Linker Histones in Chromatin Function," Woojin An, University of Southern California, 4:00 p.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Yanming Wang, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-3775).

"Inflammation as the Key Interface of the Medical and Nutritional Universes," Gordon L. Jensen, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 209 South Henderson Building, Graduate Program in Nutrition (865-3448).

TUESDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER

"The Loop-Quantum-Gravity Vertex: A Proposal," Jon Engle, Centre de Physique Théorique (France), 10:15 a.m, 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"An Algebraic Model for Brane Topology," Gregory Ginot, Penn State and University of Paris 6 (France), 2:30 p.m., 315 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Ratner Theory of Unipotent Flows: Part Four," David Witte Morris, University of Lethbridge (Canada), 3:30 p.m., 216 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Surprising Spin Dynamics in Quantum-Dot Microlasers," Nitin Samarth, Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Gerald Mahan, Department of Physics (863-1089).

"Observations on the Parity of the Total Number of Parts in Odd-Part Partitions," James Sellers, Penn State, 3:35 p.m., 315 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Generating the Drosophila Interactions," Russell L. Finley, Wayne State University, 4:00 p.m. (refreshments at 3:45 p.m.), 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Zhi Chun Lai, Department of Biology (863-0479).

"Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) as a Dark-Energy Probe," Chris Van Den Broeck, Cardiff University (United Kingdom), 4:00 p.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"What is an L2-Betti Number?" John Roe, Penn?State, 5:00 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

WEDNESDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER

"Branching of Integral Curves of Generic Vector Fields," Wing Kai Ho, Penn State, 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Shining a Light on the Needle-in-the-Haystack: Studies of Dendritic Spine Function and Plasticity Using Glutamate Photolysis," Scott Thompson, University of Maryland, 4:00 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, Penn State Neuroscience Institute (865-1626).

"The Planck Mission and the Future of the Cosmic Microwave Background," Charles Lawrence, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4:00 p.m., 538 Davey Laboratory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics (865-0418).

THURSDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER

"Apple Fruit Size is Influenced by Crop Load, Rootstock, and Location: Using Analysis of Covariance to Interpret the Three-Way Interaction," Rich Marini, Penn State, 12:20 p.m., 108 Tyson Building, Department of Horticulture (865-2571).

(title to be announced), Dmitri Burago, Penn State, 2:30 p.m., 113 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

(title to be announced), David Hurtubise, Penn State, 3:00 p.m., 315 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"A New Data-Augmentation Scheme," Yuguo Chen, University of Illinois, 4:00 p.m., 201 Thomas Building, Department of Statistics (865-1348).

"Random Musings," Daniel Larson and Jayanth Banavar, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 117 Osmond Laboratory, Department of Physics (863-1089).

"Two Theorems of de Moivre and Poisson: Recent Extensions with Applications," Manfred Denker, University of Gottingen (Germany) and University of Cincinnatti, 4:00 p.m., 114 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Teichmueller Disks of Origamis and Outer Space," Gabriela Schmithuesen, Cornell University, 5:00 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

FRIDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER

"'Big Bounce' in Loop Quantum Cosmology: Past and Future," Alex Corichi, Universidad Nacional Autonoma Morelia (Mexico) and Penn State, 11:00 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"Tick-Feeding Lesion Formation," Albert Mulenga, Texas A&M University, 11:10 a.m., 107 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, host: Gary Felton, Department of Entomology (865-1895).

(title to be announced), Mark Kaufman, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 127 Noll Laboratory, Intercollege Graduate Program in Physiology (865-8165).

"National Action Program to Combat Desertification in Lebanon," Talal Darwish, National Council for Scientific Research (Lebanon) and Penn State, 12:20 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences (865-6541).

"Introduction to Property T: Part Two," Nigel Higson, Penn State, 2:00 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

(title to be announced), R. Lee Penn, University of Minnesota, 2:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Thomas Mallouk, Department of Chemistry (863-9637).

"Music of the Primes - Math's Greatest Riddle, Math's Greatest Minds, Part 3: From Turing to Tomorrow" (video) and "Black Holes, Pulsars, and Other Odd Bodies" (video), 3:35 p.m., 211 Davey Laboratory, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library (865-7617 or www.libraries.psu.edu/pams/filmseries.html).

(title to be announced), Michael Holst, University of California, 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

SATURDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER and SUNDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER

(none)

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Additions or cancellations will be noted on weekly Science Seminar listings on the Web.

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Science Seminars is a weekly list of science-related seminars sponsored by colleges, research institutes, and other organizations throughout Penn State. Science Seminars is published by the Penn State Eberly College of Science as a service to Penn State and its surrounding communities. Click here for additional information about Science Seminars, or for instruction on how to SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE.

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This issue of SCIENCE SEMINARS was produced by Barbara K. Kennedy, Kristen Devlin, and Melissa Arnett.