“Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.”
A talk by Peter W. Singer, senior fellow, Brookings Institution.
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009

“Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking.”
A talk by Charles Seife, physics journalist.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

“Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn.”
Louisa Gilder, science writer.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

“The Evolution of God.”
A talk by Robert Wright, journalist and founder, Bloggingheads.tv.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Center for Science Writings Director John Horgan at John.Horgan@stevens.edu. The CSW is part of the College of Arts & Letters.

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Temperatures and sea levels are creeping up. Banks, auto-makers, companies of all kinds are falling down. More and more people in the U.S. and elsewhere lack jobs, homes, medical care, even food and clean water. Some are so crazed and desperate that they are shooting and bombing each other. The world is ending! Get what you can before it’s too late!

In pessimistic times like these we need optimists like Jeffrey D. Sachs. An economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Sachs is the epitome of the intellectual activist, who puts his ideas to work in real-world situations. He has served as an advisor to the U.N. and countries in Eastern Europe, South America and Africa coping with economic instability and poverty. (more…)

A Talk By Bernd Heinrich.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009, Babbio Center, Room 122, 4-5:30 pm.

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A Talk By Jeffrey D. Sachs, Winner 2009 Green Book Award.

Monday, April 20, 2009, Babbio Center, Room 122, 4:30-5:30 pm.

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The renowned author Dr. Oliver Sacks, a professor of neurology and psychiatry and “Columbia Artist” at Columbia University, spoke about the mysteries of the brain and mind in a conversation with CSW Director John Horgan. Dr. Sacks’s many bestsellers include his case histories of patients with neurological syndromes, notably The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, An Anthropologist on Mars and Awakenings (made into a film starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro); Uncle Tungsten, a memoir; and his most recent book, Musicophilia, an exploration of the neural underpinnings of music.

The Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology presents its annual Green Book Award to Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger for their book, “Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility.” A discussion follows with Nordhaus, Shellenberger, and special guest, New York Times reporter, Andrew C. Revkin.

Gary Taubes, an award-winning writer for Science, the New York Times Magazine and other publications, came to Stevens to discuss his controversial new bestseller, Good Calories, Bad Calories which argues that much of what we have been told about the relationship between body weight, diet and exercise is wrong.

Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, is one of the world’s most renowned experimental psychologists. Delving into the realms of language and human cognition, Pinker has authored seven books, including the bestsellers How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate, and The Language Instinct. Pinker came to Stevens on Wednesday, December 12, and covered a range of topics from his new book The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, including the relationship between fictional writers and cognitive psychologists in describing the human condition, why it would be a bad idea for the Democrats refer to taxes as “membership fees,” and the real meaning behind dirty words.

Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming. Journalist Chris Mooney, correspondent and blogger for SEED magazine and author of the controversial bestseller The Republican War on Science, discussed Storm World, his fascinating new book on politically fraught research linking global warming and hurricanes such as Katrina at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Some news for the Stevens community: we told the winners of this year’s CSW Prize for Excellent Undergraduate Science Writings of their distinction about a week and a half ago. Now that I’ve gotten final versions of the essays back, I’ve posted them with last year’s winners. This year’s winning essays are an exciting and well-rounded group: first place went to Chris Wightman ‘07, for “The Days of War Are Numbered”, in which he argues that, despite America’s efforts to the contrary, deaths from violent conflict have decreased steadily and without interruption since 1991 (as of 2005). He attributes this change to, among other things, the rise of (self-determined) democracy over the same period, arguing that successful democracies tend to exercise economic, rather than military, power. Brian Weiner ‘08 won second place, for his essay “A Fossil Fuel by Any Other Name,” in which he argued that, with current electricity production methods, many “alternative” energy sources are either still ultimately dependent on fossil fuels, or generate more pollution in their production than they prevent when used. Our third place winner was Ryan Fogarty ‘07, whose paper “The Implications of Darwinism” examined some of the ethical and social consequences of evolutionary psychology and genetic determinism.

The CSW Prize for Excellent Undergraduate Science Writings is graciously sponsored by Richard McCormack ‘53. Congratulations to all the winners. We welcome comments on any of the essays, either here, or at the essays themselves.

John’s on vacation this week, but he asked me to post this announcement, on behalf of the Graduate Student Society of Chemistry and Chemical Biology here at Stevens. It should be an interesting event, so if you’re around campus, consider stopping by.

The Graduate Student Society of Chemistry and Chemical Biology invites you to a special seminar on next Wednesday (4/4/2007) at 3:30pm in E222. The speaker will be Dr. John R. Timmer from Weill Cornell Medical College who is also a writer for popular technology website, Ars Technica (arstechnica.com) He is going to talk about ‘How scientists’ and the public’s views on science differ and how we can all begin to speak the same language’. Your attendance is highly appreciated.

Peter Woit discusses his book “Not Even Wrong” with John Horgan