Science Cafe

Potsdam: Wednesday, February 8, 7:15 p.m.

Humans spend nearly 33 years of their lives in bed, with 26 years of those years actually sleeping, but how much sleep do we actually need for adequate functioning? Additionally, what determines when we sleep, how does sleep change with age and what can we do to improve our sleep? Prof. Serge Onyper (Psychology, St. Lawrence University) will deliver a fun, interactive presentation examining these questions. He will also address briefly the issue of how behaviors adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as video conference calls, are associated with changes in sleep.

Potsdam: Wednesday, March 1, 7:15 p.m.

Developing behavioral self-regulation–the ability to understand and manage your behavior and your reactions to feelings and things happening around you–is important in children’s first years. But what happens when babies are exposed to violence? In this talk, Prof. Ying Zhang (Psychology, Clarkson) will present her study on the effects of exposure to intimate partner violence on children’s development of behavioral self-regulation. She will specifically address and highlight the issues of if, when, and how violent home environments could alter the onset and development trajectory of self-regulation in children.

Potsdam: Thursday, March 23, 7:15 p.m.

Food banks are not-for-profit organizations that aid in surplus food recovery/food rescue and redistribution. They collect donations from individuals, farmers, corporations, retail chains, food industries, and restaurants and distribute them either to charitable agencies or directly to people in need. Having operated for decades in North America, food banks are only now starting up in several European and Asian countries, where people struggle for resources and with local setbacks. In this talk, Prof. Ajinkya Tanksale (Engineering & Management, Clarkson) will share his experience with nascent Indian food banks and his research on improving their effectiveness and efficiency using mathematical programming.

Potsdam: Wednesday, April 5, 7:15 p.m.

Sexual differentiation is a central component of reproduction and thus vital to the survival of many species. Despite being a common feature in plants and animals, the development of separate sexes is controlled by a remarkable diversity of genetic mechanisms. Sex chromosomes are often described using a handful of animal-model organisms harboring very diverged sex chromosomes, like the X and Y chromosomes of humans. In this talk, postdoctoral scholar Prof. Caroline Cauret (Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University), will present on the diversity of sex-determining systems and describe how progress in genome sequencing and editing has advanced our understanding of the mechanisms behind the evolution of sex determination.

Potsdam: Wednesday, April 19, 7:15 p.m.

The need to significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to forestall climate change is critical and no longer in dispute. It is now imperative that we transition to more environmentally friendly processes, as well as to using sustainable energy sources and alternative fuels for the transportation sector and for stationary systems. Join us for an evening with Prof. Simona Liguori (Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Clarkson), as she discusses her research into clean energy alternative sources and ways to reduce their impact on the environment.