OSWEGO -- Science Today, a lecture series launched
last semester at SUNY Oswego to explore the interdisciplinary nature of
science, continues through the spring with talks touching on such
subjects as digital images, weather disasters and the environment.
All lectures are admission free and open to the
college and community. They begin with a pre-presentation reception at
3:45 p.m. Wednesdays in Room 306 of Park Hall, followed by 4:15 p.m.
lectures in Room 305 of Park Hall.
Michel Helfgott of SUNY Oswego's math department
will probe the "Interplay of Math and Science" Feb. 18. On Feb. 25,
Jose-L. Giner of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
will explain "The Chemistry of Euphorbia and the Joy of Natural
Products."
March lectures will include Maheesh Bhandari of
Oswego's math department, "Finite Fields and Their Application to
Error-Correcting Codes," March 3; John Hamilton Jr. of Eastman Kodak
Research Labs, "Color Interpolation for Digital Images," co-sponsored
by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, March 10; Leigh
Bacher of Oswego's psychology department, "Attention and Action in
Human Infants," March 24; and Nicholas Bigelow, from the University of
Rochester's physics and optics department, "Bose-Einstein Condensation
of Atomic Vapors," March 31.
April sessions will include Peter Ducey of SUNY
Cortland's biological sciences department, "Invasive Worms Clashing in
North American Soils: Everyone's Problem," co-sponsored by Sigma Xi,
the scientific research society, April 7; Robert Ballentine of Oswego's
earth sciences department, "Weather Disasters," April 14; and Alexei
Orlov of Notre Dame University's electrical engineering department,
"Nanoelectronics," April 28.
The series is an interdisciplinary effort geared to
provide biology, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences,
mathematics and biology majors a broad view of fields related to their
area of study. The program also shows students potential careers and
paths of research in the natural sciences.