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

6 to 12 November 2006

MONDAY, 6 NOVEMBER

"Controlling Microtubule Movement and Organization: Microscale Transport and In-Vitro Spindles," Maruti Uppalapati, Penn State, 12:00 noon, S-5 Osmond Laboratory, Center for Nanoscale Science/Material Research Science and Engineering Center (863-0007).

"Plant Cell Walls as a Resource for Biofuels: Valuable Insights Through Wall Mutants," Markus Pauly, Michigan State University, 12:10 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Daniel Cosgrove, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Plant Biology, Department of Biology and Biomass Energy Center (863-3892).

"Direct Organocatalytic Asymmetric Mannich Reactions," Max Majireck, Penn State, 2:30 pm, 102 Chemistry Building, host: Steven Weinreb, Department of Chemistry (863-0189).

"Gray Leaf Spot on Perennial Ryegrass and Kikuyugrass," Jeffrey Kern, Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 112 Buckhout Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology (865-3761).

"On Area-Preserving Newhouse Phenomena," Anton Gorodetski, California Institute of Technology, 3:35 pm, 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Evaluating the Effect of Root-Whorl Number on Performance of Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Plants Grown Under Low Phosphorus," Magalhaes A. Miguel, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 111 Tyson Building, Department of Horticulture (865-2571).

"Human-Environment Research Opportunities at the National Science Foundation," Bob O'Connor, National Science Foundation, 4:00 p.m., 114 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building (863-7091).

"The Workings of a Complex Molecular Machine: Structure and Function in Promoter Escape by T7 RNA Polymerase," Craig Martin, University of Massachusetts, 4:00 p.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Katsuhiko Murakami, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-2758).

TUESDAY, 7 NOVEMBER

"Fermions in Three-Dimensional-Spinfoam Quantum Gravity," Winston Fairbairn, Ecole Normale Lyon, (France), 10:00 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"Word Representations of m ^x n ^x p Proper Arrays," Jocelyn Quaintance, Temple University, 11:15 am, 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

ADDED AFTER EMAIL DISTRIBUTION:
"Polarized Fermi Gases," Erich Mueller, Cornell University, 3:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: David Weiss, Department of Physics (863-5343).

"Global warming: Evidence from Temperature-Depth Profiles," Rob Harris, Oregon State University, 4:00 p.m., 22 Deike Building, Department of Geosciences (865-2622).

"Pulsed Erythrocyte-Sedimentation-Rate (ESR) Spectroscopic Rules: A New Spin on Protein Dynamics,” Sunil Saxena, University of Pittsburgh, 4:00 pm, 102 Chemistry Building, host: Andy Ewing, Department of Chemistry (863-4653).

"The Sweet, Crunchy Crust of Plants: Why Do Cell Walls Have to be so Complex?"
Markus Pauly, Michigan State University, 4:00 p.m. (refreshments at 3:45 p.m.), 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Daniel Cosgrove, Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Biology (863-3892).

“What is a Planet? Why Not Pluto?” (Friedman Lecture), Darren Williams and Mercedes Richards + panel of faculty members, Penn State, 7:00 p.m., 100 Thomas Building, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics (865-0418).

WEDNESDAY, 8 NOVEMBER

"Climate Change: A Factor-Forty Problem” (video), John Shepherd, National Oceanography Centre and University of Southampton, 12:00 noon, 541 Deike Building, Office of the Dean of the Graduate School and Worldwide Universities Network (863-1274).

"The Global-Ocean Realm” (video), 12:15 p.m., 105 Deike Building, Fletcher L. Byrom Earth and Mineral Sciences Library (863-7073).

"Designer Nanoparticles: Nanotubes, Application from Nano-Bio Medicine to Electronics,” Sang Bok Lee, University of Maryland, 2:30 pm, 102 Chemistry Building, host: Thomas Mallouk, Department of Chemistry (863-9637).

ADDED AFTER EMAIL DISTRIBUTION:
"Icecube: Status and Plans for the Upcoming Year," Brendan Fox, Perimeter Institute, 2:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, hosts: Stephane Coutu, Department of Physics (865-2015).

"Generalised Measure Dimensions and Quantum Intermittency," Giorgio Mantica, Universita dell'Insubria (Italy), 3:35 pm, 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"‘Good’ Bugs go ‘Bad’: Molecular-Pathogenesis Studies of Actinobacillus suis," Janet MacInnes, Ontario Veterinary College, 4:00 pm, 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, host: Brenda Love (863-1984 or email: bcl10@psu.edu).

"Neutron Stars with Ultra-Strong Magnetic Fields", Andrei Beloborodov, Columbia University, 4:00 p.m., Room 538 Davey Laboratory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics (865-0418).

 

THURSDAY, 9 NOVEMBER

"Towards High-Efficiency, Low-Cost Materials for Solar-Energy Conversion and Storage," Craig Grimes, Penn State, 10:10 a.m., 26 Hosler Building, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, (865-4992).

"Promoter Binding and De-Novo-Transcription Initiation are Explicated for an N4 RNA Polymerase by X-ray Crystallography," Michael Gleghorn, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, Katsuhiko Murakami, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-2758).

"Organic Thin Film Electronics: A Materials Engineering Perspective," C. Daniel Frisbie, University of Minnesota, 11:30 a.m., 111 Wartik Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering (863-1375)

THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR 16 NOVEMBER:
"Permian-Triassic Boundary (P-T) Extinction: Extraterrestrial vs. Terrestrial," Lev Horodyskyj and Anthony Riccardi, Penn State, 2:00 p.m., 240 Deike Building, Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, (865-4074).

"Bending polyhedra," Yu Burago, Steklov Institute (Russia), 2:30 p.m., 113 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Buying Better Weather: Four Strategies for Managing Weather Risk," John A. Dutton, Penn State, 4:00 p.m. 112 Walker Building, Department of Meteorology (863-8566).

"Fluid Flow Through Seamounts: Implications for Global-Mass Fluxes and Hotspot Swells," Rob Harris, Oregon State University, 4:00 p.m., 202 Research West Building, Department of Geosciences and Geodynamics Research Group (865-7965).

ADDED AFTER EMAIL DISTRIBUTION:
"High Temperature Superconductors: Playgrounds for Broken Symmetries," Laura Greene, University of Illinois, 4:00 p.m., 117 Osmond Laboratory, host: Jun Zhu, Department of Physics (865-3721).

"Intelligent Agents and Knowledge-Discovery Applications", Thomas Potok, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 4:00 p.m. The Cybertorium, 113 Information Science & Technology Building, Department of Computer Science and Engineering. (865-9505).

"Lines of Minima are Quasi-Geodesics.," Young-Eun Choi, Penn State, 5:05 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

FRIDAY, 10 NOVEMBER

"Doubly Special Relativity and Quantum Field Theory," John Collins, Penn State, 9:45 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"Bone Physiology," Susan Bloomfield, Texas A&M University, 11:15 a.m., 127 Noll Laboratory, Noll Physiological Research Center (865-3453).

"DNA-Based Methods for Forensic Entomology," Jeff Wells, West Virginia University, 11:15 a.m., 107 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Entomology (865-1895).

"Salinity Tolerance of Greens-type Poa annua L." Jing Dai, Penn State, 12:20 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, (863-1601).

"Bad Comparison in the Cuntz Semigroup," Andrew Toms, York University (Canada), 2:30 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"X-Ray-Absorption Spectroscopy: Using Extended X-ray-Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) to Probe Structural Disorder in Amorphous Semiconductors" by Larry Barbour and (title to be announced) by Andrew Kucher, Penn State, 2:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: John Asbury, Department of Chemistry (863-6309).

"The Death Star: Hypernovas and Stellar Nurseries” (video), 3:30 p.m. 211 Davey Laboratory, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library (865-7617 or www.libraries.psu.edu/pams/filmseries.html).

(title to be announced), Panayot Vassilevski, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 3:30 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Embedding Population-Dynamics Models in Inference," Stephen Buckland, University of St. Andrews (United Kingdom), 4:00 p.m., 100 Life Sciences Building, Department of Statistics (865-1348).

"Why Ecologists Love Geography,” Bob Gardner, University of Maryland, 4:00 p.m., 112 Walker Building, Department of Geography (865-3433).

SATURDAY, 11 NOVEMBER and SUNDAY, 5 NOVEMBER

(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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Penn State is an affirmative action, equal opportunity university. Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the office in charge of the seminar in advance of your attendance. U.Ed. SCI 07-42

This issue of SCIENCE SEMINARS was produced by Leta A. Krumrine and Melissa Arnett.