Science In the News – a Harvard seminar series

More talks! Swine flu, green technologies, stem cells, gene therapy–we hear about science almost every day in the news. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more, check out this seminar series run by Science In the News (SITN),  a group of Harvard Ph.D. students enthusiastic about communicating science to the public. On Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 7pm, SITN will kick off its fall lecture series with a talk on influenza: “Of Swine, Seasons, and Shots: Our Immune System and the Flu”. The talk will be held in Arminise Auditorium at Harvard Medical School in Boston and is open to the public.

Our mission is to examine the science behind the media reports we hear everyday, to delve a little deeper into the science and bring that information to you so you might better distinguish scientific fact from pure speculation.

Logistics for attending a seminar:

Our evening seminar series is free to the public. No registration is necessary, just show up! In our seminars we aim to discuss today’s hottest scientific topics. Each seminar consists of three presentations; an introductory science lecture, a presentation about the recent research or innovations in this area, and a discussion of the ethical or social ramifications of this research. Our seminars are interactive, so feel free to come and ask questions at any point during our seminars!

If you’re like me, you’re probably tired of hearing about swine flu by now, but this seminar is an opportunity to take your questions live, talking with scientists as well as discussing with members of the community.  Check out SITN’s website for a listing of more talks throughout the fall/winter, on a range of topics including synthetic life, green cars, autoimmune disease, and agricultural genetics.

If you aren’t in the Boston area or can’t make one of the talks, the SITN website provides slides (pdf) and audio (mp3) recordings of past seminars.

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1. Micro/Nano-technology Seminar Series @MIT
2. Dec 1st CIMIT Forum: Life Science Innovation
3. Tracking science news across the web
4. Agresti talk on drop-based microfluidic screening
5. My entry to the Exquisite Corpse of Science