Our planet is rapidly changing, and with those changes comes a demand for new solutions to growing energy, health, and agricultural challenges. Join us for a night of science dedicated to the obstacles presented by worsening climate change and how science can help us overcome them.
Food and drinks will be available for purchase from the main bar.
Cami Collins
Power for Our Future: The Dawn of the Fusion Energy Era
Researchers are learning how to control 150 million-degree plasmas to recreate the power of the sun, where hydrogen fuses into helium and releases massive amounts of energy. Experiments at the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego are advancing the science needed to achieve net fusion energy gain in new devices like ITER in France, where construction is nearly 60 percent complete. We’ll discuss highlights and challenges in bringing this clean, safe, and nearly limitless source of electricity to the grid.
Stanley Maloy
Zika, Ebola, and more! Where are new infectious diseases coming from?
Although infectious diseases have always plagued humans, the appearance of new infectious diseases has been increasing over the last several decades. Some of these new diseases come from our exposure to microbes that have existed in secluded environments for many years. However, some of the new diseases seem to arise de novo. Understanding how new diseases evolve may allow us to develop more effective ways to stop epidemics before they happen. I will talk about where these new diseases come from.
Sarah Shackleton
Ice Sheet Time Machine
We'll go over how ice cores can teach us about past climate and how we can learn about future ice sheet vulnerability and sea level rise from past warm periods.