4:30pm – Adamson Wing, 136A Baker Hall
A Revolution in Environmental Health Sciences: New Opportunities to Prevent Genetic Diseases
John Peterson Myers, CEO andChief Scientist, Environmental Health Sciences
Environmental Distinguished Lecture Series in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy
Advances in the environmental health sciences are dramatically broadening the range of genetic diseases that may be caused by environmental factors. This new perspective emerges from research that focuses on epigenetic control of gene expression, and emphasizes both fetal origins of adult disease as well as transgenerational impacts. These results severely challenge toxicological methods that have been used for decades to establish exposure standards intended to protect public health, indicating many are likely to be far too weak. Significant public health gains may be achievable by bringing those standards out of the scientific Jurassic.
This is the first in a series of three university lectures on Endocrine Disruption! Please mark your calendars for these dates also: Monday, February 12th (Professor Tyrone Hayes, UC Berkeley) and Monday, March 5th (Professor Shanna Helen Swan,
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Monday February 12th
4:30pm – Adamson Wing, 136A Baker Hall
From Silent Spring to Silent Night: Hermaphroditic Frogs, Breast Cancer, and Pesticides
Tyrone B. Hayes, Professor,
Environmental Distinguished Lecture Series in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy
The herbicide, atrazine is a potent endocrine disrupter that chemically castrates and feminizes exposed male amphibians. Further, atrazine exposure results in neural damage and hyperactivity and induces a hormonal stress response that leads to retarded growth and development, and immune suppression. The immune suppression results in increased disease rates and mortality. Though many factors likely contribute to amphibian declines, pesticides (such as atrazine) likely play an important role even in populations that appear to decline for other reasons, such as disease. Pesticides like atrazine are ubiquitous, persistent contaminants and, though more pronounced in amphibians, the effects described above occur in all vertebrate classes (fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals) examined, via common mechanisms. These observations demonstrate the critical impact that pesticides have on environmental health. Furthermore, reproductive cancers and birth defects associated with exposure to many of these same chemicals (e.g. atrazine) via identical mechanisms demonstrate that the impact on environmental health is an indicator of a negative impact on public health. Many of these mechanisms are being revealed only now in the scientific literature and agencies (such as the Environmental Protection Agency) are ill-equipped to deal with this emergent science and translate it efficiently into health-protective policies. Given the importance of this science and relevance to public health, there is a strong need to translate this information and provide public access to this knowledge. Command of the science and active involvement by the public in policy decisions is vital.
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URBAN FARMING
This is the second in a series of four lectures on Urban Farming—Reconnecting Our Farms, Food, and Community
Tuesday, February 13th
5:30pm – Rangos 1&2, UC
Creating Livelihoods from Greenhouses and
Jerome Osentowski, Director of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute
Co-sponsored by the Urban Farming Initiative
I will show from my own experience how we have created a viable commercial culinary and medicinal herb and salad green business within the understory of a forest garden and in greenhouses. The other business we have created and will be discussed is the edible landscape nursery which includes our heritage fruit tree collection. These will all be presented within the framework of permaculture ethics and principles.
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Monday February 19th
4:30pm – McConomy Auditorium, UC
Upgrading Humans – Technical Realities and New Morals
Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics,
In this presentation a look will be taken at how the use of implant technology is rapidly diminishing the effects of certain neural illnesses and distinctly increasing the range of abilities of those affected. An indication will be given of a number of problem areas in which such technology has already had a profound effect, a key element being the need for a clear interface linking the human brain directly with a computer. However, in order to assess the possible opportunities, both human and animal studies from around the world will be reported on.The main thrust will be an overview of Kevin's own research which has led to him receiving a neural implant which linked his nervous system bi-directionally with the internet. With this in place neural signals were transmitted to various technological devices to directly control them, in some cases via the internet, and feedback to the brain was obtained from such as the fingertips of a robot hand, ultrasonic (extra) sensory input and neural signals directly from another human’s nervous system.A view will be taken as to the prospects for the future, both in the short term as a therapeutic device and in the long term as a form of enhancement, including the realistic potential, in the near future, for thought communication – thereby opening up tremendous commercial potential. Clearly though, an individual whose brain is part human - part machine can have abilities that far surpass those who remain with a human brain alone. Will such an individual exhibit different moral and ethical values to those of a human? If so, what effects might this have on society? *****************************
Thursday, February 22nd
4:30pm – McConomy Auditorium, UC
A Dialogue with Phylicia Rashad
Sponsored by the
For event information—please contact Emily Half in Student Affairs—412-268-2075; ehalf@andrew.cmu.edu.
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Monday February 26th
4:30pm – Adamson Wing, 136A Baker Hall
Human Computation: Using Games to Channel Brainpower
Luis VonAhn, Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department
Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This talk introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel approach: constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk is an enjoyable online game -- many people play over 40 hours a week -- and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it. The ESP Game has been licensed by a major Internet company and will soon become the basis of their image search engine.
In addition, I describe my work on CAPTCHAs, automated tests that humans can pass but computer programs cannot. CAPTCHAs take advantage of human processing power in order to differentiate humans from computers, an ability that has important applications in practice.
The results of this work are currently in use by hundreds of websites and companies around the world, and over 100,000 people have played some of the games presented here. Practical applications include improvements in areas such as: computer vision, image search, adult-content filtering, spam prevention, common-sense reasoning, accessibility, and security in general.
The University Lecture Series is a partnership between the Office of the Vice Provost for Education and the Division of Student Affairs. All lectures are FREE and open to the public. For additional information, please call 412-268-8677 or send email inquiries to cr2@andrew.cmu.edu. ALL lectures are on Carnegie Mellon’s
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