Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Dr. Jim Giordano is a Senior Fellow and Director Center for Neurotechnology Studies (CNS), Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Date:

Tuesday 13th July 2010

Title:

Seeing Anthrax Saved Us, and Other Lessons from the 2001 Biological Attack on the U.S. Capitol

Speaker:

Date:

Tuesday 1st June 2010

Title:

The Latest and Greatest News on the Cosmos: New Exoplanets, a Snapshot of the Universe when it was under a billion years old—and More!

Speaker:

Eric P. Smith, Program Scientist for the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes, NASA

The more we know about the Cosmos the stranger it seems to get. The new Kepler space telescope has detected many new “exoplanets”—planets in other star systems. Some of these planets are quite strange: one has the density of styrofoam and another appears hotter than the star it revolves around. The refurbished Hubble Space Telescope has now peered more deeply into the past than ever before, and the James Webb Telescope will soon allow us to see even further back in time. Come hear Dr. Eric P. Smith, NASA astrophysicist, to learn about the latest and greatest news from the cosmos.

Date:

Tuesday 4th May 2010

Title:

New Commercial Ventures in Space: From Space Tourism to Solar Power

Speaker:

John Mankins, President of Artemis Innovation Management Solutions and Joseph N. Pelton, Former Dean, International Space University.

Are we on the verge of a breakthrough in new commercial space ventures? Today, commercial space travel represents about a quarter of a trillion dollar industry worldwide, but new breakthroughs promise a surge in the commercial space industries: new satellites launched for broadcast and mobile services have antennas the size of basketball courts and space adventure flights to become “Citizen Astronauts” are scheduled to start in 2011. There are already tens of millions of dollars in reservation fees already booked by royalty, sports and movie stars. Soon NASA will likely award commercial contracts to develop space plane technology to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station in lieu of the Shuttle. Hypersonic jet flights may one day fly from New York City to Sydney, Australia in 3 to 4 hours. Bigelow Aerospace has already launched prototype commercial space stations (Genesis I and II) to orbit. The start-up company Solaren has signed a contract with energy companies to deliver solar-derived electric power from space starting in 2016. Even game-changing technologies such as “space elevators” and “tether-lift” systems are now under serious commercial study. Come hear—and see—some of these amazing new commercial space technologies that could revolutionize our 21st century world, and learn from leading space experts, Dr. John Mankins and Dr. Joseph N. Pelton about the next generation of commercial space breakthroughs.

Date:

Tuesday, April 6 2010

Title:

Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: A General Assessment and Applicability to Arlington

Speaker:

Roger Stough, Vice President for Research and Economic Development at GMU with comments from Zoltan Acs, Director of Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy at GMU, Thomas Lovejoy Biodiversity Chair at The Heinz Center and Terry Holzheimer, Director, Arlington Economic Development.

Sustainability has become increasingly important in our national policy debate as well as in the context of economic growth and development. While the relationship between advocates of a sustained environment and of economic growth and development is often adversarial, it is essential to find a non-adversarial interface (e.g., entrepreneurship). In this context, we have seen increased investment to help achieve sustainability goals while contributing to economic growth (including jobs and investment) and development. While government investment is tasked with finding new technologies for reducing environmental stressors, and the creation of resources and energy alternatives, much less attention has been paid to translate this new sustainability technical knowledge into productive economic knowledge. The presentation will discuss how entrepreneurship is the central agent for accelerating technology, commercial products and processes necessary to achieve significant growth and development while contributing to a more sustainable environment and energy production system. Examples and case studies will be presented and their applicability to Arlington is examined.

Date:

Tuesday 2nd March 2010

Title:

Breaking the impase in US energy and enviromental policy

Speaker:

Date:

Tuesday 2nd February 2010

Title:

The square kilometre array

Speaker:

Date:

Tuesday 5th January 2010

Title:

Climate change policy at home and abroad

Speaker:

President Obama, Governors of both parties around the country, and key international allies have made addressing climate change a top priority. This cafe will discuss the state-of-play in the development of US and international climate change policy.

Date:

Tuesday 5th August

Title:

Blackout? What Blackout? Fuel Cells: A Reliable Choice for Mission-Critical Applications 

Speaker:

Robert Rose, U.S. Fuel Cell Council/Fuel Cells 2000, Christy Cooper, U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Program

Be it the Internet, your computer, cell phone or wireless PDA, communication networks are increasing at an exponential rate and the need for more reliable, premium power is greater than ever before.  U.S. businesses lose $29 billion annually from computer failures due to power outages and are now looking to fuel cells – which can be up to 99.999% (five nines) reliable – to help prevent not only loss of power, but also loss of dollars.  Mission-critical locations such as hospitals, data centers, hotels, telecommunications/radio towers, airports, and even police stations use fuel cells for consistent energy, with the added benefit of substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions.  At this presentation you will not only learn about what a fuel cell is and why they are such an integral tool for creating an energy-efficient future, you’ll hear about cutting-edge fuel cell innovations and applications besides the highly anticipated fuel cell vehicle.   A representative from the U.S. Department of Energy will also be on hand to discuss how the federal government is working to bring this innovative technology to real-life installations and demonstrations – today!

Date:

Tuesday 1st July

Title:

Latitude – The World’s First Scientific Expedition to Measure the Earth, 1735-1744 

Speaker:

Science Historian Dr. Larrie D. Ferreiro, consultant to the BBC’s “Voyages of Discovery” series

The story of Longitude is an inspiring tale of an individual’s heroic struggle to solve a scientific problem. But at exactly the same time as Harrison invented his chronometer, a major international scientific expedition, sponsored by the French government, went to the Equator to settle the burning question of the Earth’s shape – was it flattened at the poles or shaped like an egg?  Their measurements and subsequent discoveries not only solidified our understanding of navigation, it opened the eyes of Europe to the richness of South America, and was the direct inspiration for the subsequent voyages of Humboldt and Darwin.  This presentation describes importance and impact of this little-known Geodesic Mission, which became the model for how government-sponsored scientific cooperation among nations could work.   The Ambassador of Ecuador Luis Gallegos and the French Scientific Counselor Michel Israël will participate in the discussions. 

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Dennis Dimick, Executive Editor, National Geographic Magazine

A slide show and discussion on the reasons why we are seeing warming (our use of coal, oil, and gas), an extensive range of on-ground examples of change we are seeing as temperatures rise and a range of potential solutions we need to begin implementing to reduce our carbon pollution, and hence the damage from human-induced climate warming.

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Tony Chan, Assistant Director, Mathematics & Physical Sciences, NSF

Mathematics, and mathematics research, is often viewed by the general public as inscrutable and irrelevant (beyond balancing their checkbooks). In fact, Math is ubiquitous and indispensable in our everyday life. I'll give some examples including GPS, Internet searches (Google), medical imaging and movies.

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Chris Mooney, Author of "Storm World" and Washington, DC correspondent for Seed Magazine.

Are hurricanes getting stronger or more frequent? What role does climate change play in the weather patterns that shape them? Join us as science journalist Chris Mooney, author of a new book on the subject, explores those questions and the scientific and political issues that surround them.

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

How did humans evolve into our present form?  Who are our ancestors, and how far back do they go?  And just what makes us different from other mammals?  As Director of the Human Origins Program and Curator of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Potts asks - and helps to answer - these and related questions. Come to hear what's new at the cutting edge of paleoanthropology.  

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Date:

Title:

See the light! What makes lasers so cool?

Speaker:

Date:

Title:

The "Shocking" Science behind Electric Cars

Electric cars on display to see and touch!

Speaker:

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Robert Clarke and Minetta Liu (Cancer Researchers, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University)

Date:

Tuesday January 9 2007

(Note:  This event is held on 2nd Tuesday, rather than the usual 1st Tuesday, due to New Year's holiday.)

Title:

How Bones Talk to Us: Clues From Forensic Science

Speaker:

Doug Ubelaker (Anthropologist, National Museum of Natural History)

Date:

Title:

Speaker:

Date:

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Note - second Tuesday, to avoid election day AND DIFFERENT VENUE - Bailey's Pub & Grill - Ballston Common Mall - Level 1 (under Macy's Furniture). For directions, click here.

Title:

The science of educational testing - what really happens behind the scenes

Speaker:

Ray Brogan (educational psychologist)

Date:

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Title:

Spring Vacation 2050:  The Science Behind Climate Change

Speaker:

David Evans (Smithsonian Under Secretary for Science) and Margaret Leinen (NSF Assistant Director for Geosciences)

Date:

Tuesday 7 September 2006

Title:

Speaker:

Date:

Tuesday 1 August 2006

Title:

Speaker:
 

Date:

Tuesday 6 June 2006

Title:

Your Phantasmagorical Brain

Speaker:

Kathie Olsen, Neuroscientist & Deputy Director, National Science Foundation 

Date:

Tuesday 2 May 2006

Title:

Are We All Martians?

Speaker:

Kathy Sawyer, science journalist; Mike Meyer, NASA Mars Exploration Lead Scientist

Date:

Tuesday 4 April

Title:

Before the Big Bang

Speaker:

Mike Turner, Astrophysicist