Readings/Lectures/Showings March 2006

NSWA Events Calendar

Please E-mail NSWA with suggested announcements.

Some events may require advance registration or admission fee. Check with the sponsoring organizations for further details. Please send additions or corrections to
alan.boyle@msnbc.com—and feel free to submit events for future calendars.

Thursday, March 2, 7 p.m.: “Stardust and Rare Earth”

Monday, March 13, 6:30 p.m.:
NSWA board meeting at Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee House, 607 S. Main, Seattle.

Wednesday, March 1, 7:30 p.m.:
Dr. Pamela Peeke, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, presents a talk on “Does Sex Matter? The New Science of Gender Specific Health and Fitness.” Peeke is also the author of Fight Fat After Forty, and host of the PBS special “Body for Life.”
Town Hall Seattle. Tickets are $5 at the door. http://www.townhallseattle.org

Wednesday, March 1, 7:00 p.m.:
John Nielsen, NPR environment correspondent, reads from and signs Condor: To the Brink and Back - The Life and Times of One Giant Bird.
University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, Seattle. Sponsored by KPLU-FM and University Book Store. http://www.bookstore.washington.edu/

Thursday-Sunday, March 2-5, begins 10 a.m. daily:
The Polar Weekend at the Pacific Science Center focuses on the Earth’s polar regions. Topics include climate and atmosphere; the living ecosystem: plants, animals and people and environmental changes during the 20th century. Sponsored by the Pacific Science Center and University Book Store. For admission fee and other details, check this Web page: http://psc.apl.washington.edu/psw/

Thursday, March 2, 7:30 p.m.:
Memorial gathering for science-fiction writer Octavia Estelle Butler. Local science fiction authors read favorite passages from her work and speak about her life and influence. Speakers include Greg Bear, Joel Davis, L. Timmel DuChamp, Eileen Gunn, Rahwa Habte, Brian Herbert, Leslie Howle, Vonda N. McIntyre, Nisi Shawl.
Level Three at Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, 325 Fifth Avenue N, Seattle. http://www.sfhomeworld.org

Wednesday, March 8, 7:30 p.m.:
Physicist Michio Kaku presents “Parallel Worlds,” an exploration of the far reaches of scientific speculation that another universe may be floating in hyperspace, just a millimeter away. Sponsored by the Seattle Science Lecture Series and the University Book Store.
Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street. Tickets are $5 at the door only. http://www.townhallseattle.org

Thursday, March 9, 7 p.m.:
Thomas Hinckley, UW professor of forest resources, draws upon examples from his 35 years of experience as a teacher and researcher to illustrate how we can meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century, in a lecture titled “Climbing, Research and Teaching.” This lecture is part of the 2006 College of Forest Resources Series: Sustaining our Northwest World.
University of Washington, Kane Hall, Room 120. The lecture is free, but advance registration is required by calling the UW Alumni Association at 206-543-0540 or by following this link:
https://ealumni.washington.edu/events/EventView.asp?ID=221&Private=N

Thursday, March 9, 7 p.m.:
Jonathan Patz, associate professor of environment studies and population health sciences at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, discusses the relationships between climate change, land use and infectious disease in “Climate Change: Is Our Health at Stake?” The lecture is presented by the Institute for Children’s Environmental Health and the Seattle Biotech Legacy Foundation as part of the 2006 Environmental Health Lecture Series. A reception follows the lecture. Tickets are $14/$15 at the door. Discounts are available for students and others with limited income. CME Category 2 credits will be offered. For tickets and more information visit www.iceh.org, call 360/331-7904, or write iceh@iceh.org. Town Hall Seattle. http://www.townhallseattle.org

Friday, March 10, 7 p.m.:
Journalist and novelist William Dietrich speaks on “Two Roads to Reality: Journalism, Fiction, and the Future of Writing.” This is the 2006 UW Libraries Blom Lecture, presented by the UW Alumni Association and UW Libraries. Suzzallo Library, Room 101. The lecture is free, but advance registration is required by calling the UW Alumni Association at 206-543-0540 or by following this link:
https://ealumni.washington.edu/events/EventView.asp?ID=242&Private=N

Friday, March 10, to Sunday, March 12:
The Northwest Branch of the American Society for Microbiology meets at the UW Health Sciences Center. Topics will include: bacterial and viral pathogenesis; physiology and gene regulation; astrobiology and life in extreme environments; genomics and computation microbiology; microbial diversity and evolution; clinical microbiology; new frontiers in microbial evolution. The registration fee for those attending the conference is $10, which includes a Friday reception and a Saturday box lunch. The schedule, maps and further details are online at: http://depts.washington.edu/micro/
If any science journalists in NSWA would like to attend sessions or interview scientists speaking at meeting, they may contact Steve Libby at 206-616-4941, slibby@u.washington.edu.

Monday, March 13, 7:30 p.m.:
William T. Vollmann, winner of a National Book Award for fiction, provides a highly personal and philosophical take on Copernicus’s “De revolutionibus” (1543) in his new book Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. This Seattle Science Lecture is presented with University Book Store. Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street. Tickets are $5 at the door only. http://www.townhallseattle.org

Thursday, March 16, 5:00-8:30 p.m.:
The Pacific Northwest Bio/Technologies Alliance’s first quarterly meeting focuses on local innovations in biological research and technology that are changing the way we do research and the way we treat disease. The primary presentation will be by Teranode Corp. Amgen Helix Building. 1201 Amgen Court West. Featured talks begin at 6:15 p.m. Attendance is free, but pre-registration at the following website is required:
http://lab-robotics.org/member/meetings.asp?rid=6

Saturday and Sunday, March 18 and 19:
The Oregonian and the Poynter Institute present a National Writers Workshop in Portland, Ore. Expert reporters, writers and editors present a wide variety of seminars. The conference hotel is University Place in Portland.
Tuition is $75 or $60 for students. For information, consult:
http://www.oregonian.com/nww/workshop.html or
http://www.poynter.org/seminar/seminar_view.asp?int_seminarID=3926

Tuesday, March 21, 7:30 p.m.:
James Gordon, author of Manifesto for a New Medicine, screens a preview of an upcoming PBS documentary, “The New Medicine,” as part of a conversation of a philosophy of care that integrates all aspects of health, mind, body and spirit. Sponsored by the University of Washington School of Medicine, Bravewell Collaborative and Town Hall. Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street. Tickets are $5 at the door. http://www.townhallseattle.org

Thursday, March 23, 7:30 p.m.:
Elizabeth Kolbert traveled from Alaska to Greenland, and visited top scientists, to get to the heart of the debate over global warming. Growing out of a groundbreaking three-part series in The New Yorker, Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change brings the environment into the consciousness of the American people and asks what, if anything, can be done, and how we can save our planet. Lecture presented by the Seattle Science Lectures, co-sponsored by University Book Store, Town Hall Seattle, the Pacific Science Center and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Downstairs at Town Hall, enter on Seneca Street. Tickets are $5 at the door. http://www.townhallseattle.org

Friday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m.:
Seattle writer and ornithological researcher Lyanda Linda Haupt reads from and signs Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin’s Lost Notebooks. Her work, including Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds, is based on Darwin’s diaries, correspondence, journals, and pocket notebooks. http://www.elliottbaybook.com

Monday, March 27, 7 p.m.:
Science on Tap and collaborators from Sigma XI and NOVA ScienceNOW present “Fuel Cell Science Trivia,” with Eric Stuve, Chair of the UW Department of Chemical Engineering, as moderator. The audience participates in teams, competing for prizes as they answer trivia questions about fuel cell technology. http://www.scienceontap.org

March 27 - May 22, 2006 7 p.m.:
Ann Marie Kimball, director of the APEC Emerging Infections Network and professor of epidemiology at the UW School of Medicine, is the first speaker in an eight-part lecture series offered by UW Extension in partnership with the Global Health Resource Center and the Frameworks in Global Health program. Kimball's lecture is titled “Health in a Globalized World.” Individual lectures are $20; admission to the full series is $99. The topics for all eight lectures are listed below. For more information and to register visit: http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/special/globalhealth/default.asp

Global Health Issues Lecture Series
An eight-part lecture series offered by UW Extension in partnership with the Global Health Resource Center and the Frameworks in Global Health program, March 27 - May 22, 2006.

Health in a Globalized World
March 27, 2006
Speaker: Ann Marie Kimball.

TB, HIV and Malaria
April 3, 2006
Speaker: Chris Spitters, clinical assistant professor, epidemiology, UW Schools of Medicine/PHCM, contractor for Public Health Services, Seattle

Global Ecology and Environmental Health Issues
April 17, 2006
Speaker: Roger Rosenblatt, professor and vice chair, Department of Family Medicine, RUOP Director, School of Medicine

Structural Violence, Globalization and Dreams
April 24, 2006
Speaker: Steve Bezruchka, senior lecturer, UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine

Health Metrics: How Can We Benchmark Health?
May 1, 2006
Speaker: Sally Stansfield, Gates Foundation

Population Dynamics and Family Planning
May 8, 2006
Speaker: William Lavely

Impact of Political Instability, Armed Conflict and Displacement on Health
May 15, 2006
Speaker: Sanjeev Khagram

Nutrition in Developing Countries with an Emphasis on Micronutrient Deficiencies
May 22, 2006
Speaker: Jonathan Gorstein, faculty coordinator for the Peace Corps Master's International