Sense of Space
Canton: Tuesday, Oct. 2
Potsdam: Wednesday, Oct. 3
Where are my keys? How far away is that stop sign? Do I turn right or left at the intersection? Our ability to answer these questions depends on our spatial reasoning skills – that is, how we visually perceive, remember, and navigate through space. Differences in sex, body size, topography, and expertise are among the factors that affect if people have a strong or weak “sense of space”. In this talk, St. Lawrence University Assistant Professor of Psychology Elyssa Twedt will summarize evidence of individual differences in spatial abilities and discuss ways in which spatial abilities can be improved or impaired.
How are Drugs Invented and Why is the Process So Expensive?
Canton: Tuesday, Oct. 23
Potsdam: Wednesday, Oct. 24
Natural materials (minerals, plants, and animals) were known to be useful in the treatment of illnesses from ancient times, but only with Paul Ehrlich’s development of the “magic bullet” concept, in the early 1900’s, did we realize that drugs could be invented, not only discovered. Science and technology led the way to the modern, rational drug design process, allowing the treatment of many diseases that were previously untreatable. But the road to a successfully marketed drug is still paved with many failures. Join Omar Stradella, associate scientific director of translational sciences at Sanofi S.A. (a French multinational pharmaceutical company), in a from-the-trenches discussion on the history of drug discovery and invention, the basics of modern drug design, and the economics of the process.
