Science Lectures
Pacific Science Center is committed to advancing the public's understanding of science and contributing to the development of a scientifically literate society through programming for people of all ages. As part of that commitment, we support and sponsor a number of lectures in the Seattle area. Some are held at our facility, others are conducted at various locations.
Many of these lectures are closely aligned with Pacific Science Center's Science and Society initiative, which aims to provide our community with innovative opportunities for rich conversation, and sometimes debate, about the current and emerging science topics that are relevant to our lives here in the Pacific Northwest and as citizens of this world.
Here's what's coming up...
Infinity Box Theatre Project: Thought Experiments on the Question of Being Human: Robots and Artificial Intelligence (Set A)
Thursday, June 13, 2013, 7:30–9:30 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5-$17.
Five scientists, five playwrights, and robots—what could possibly go wrong? Consider “Thought Experiments,” a signature program of the 2013 Seattle Science Festival, an experiment itself: For this three-day festival, five local playwrights and five scientists collaborate on five original plays that ask: What does it mean to be human when robots and AI become an integral part of our lives? The four-event festival is broken into two sets: Set A, at 7:30 p.m. June 13 and 6 p.m. June 15, includes The Robot Decision by Pamela H. Carter, Mechanical Matters by May Nguyen, and Spotless by Maggie Lee; Set B, at 7:30 p.m. June 14 and 8:30 p.m. June 15, features Parameter Space by Jim Jewell and The Question of Love by Kathy Hsieh. Each evening also includes a conversation exploring the questions and issues raised in the plays, led by one of the project scientists: Peter H. Kahn Jr., Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington; Cady Stanton, Research Assistant in the UW Department of Psychology; Andrew Stewart, Ocean Engineer in the UW Applied Physics Laboratory; Paulina Varshavskaya, Image Processing Scientist at RareCyte, Inc.; and Luke Zettlemoyer, an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the UW. Presented by Infinity Box Theatre Project. Advance tickets are $10/$5 students & seniors/$17 festival pass for Sets A and B, at brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Infinity Box Theatre Project: Thought Experiments on the Question of Being Human: Robots and Artificial Intelligence (Set B)
Friday, June 14, 2013, 7:30–9:30 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5-$17.
Five scientists, five playwrights, and robots—what could possibly go wrong? Consider “Thought Experiments,” a signature program of the 2013 Seattle Science Festival, an experiment itself: For this three-day festival, five local playwrights and five scientists collaborate on five original plays that ask: What does it mean to be human when robots and AI become an integral part of our lives? The four-event festival is broken into two sets: Set A, at 7:30 p.m. June 13 and 6 p.m. June 15, includes The Robot Decision by Pamela H. Carter, Mechanical Matters by May Nguyen, and Spotless by Maggie Lee; Set B, at 7:30 p.m. June 14 and 8:30 p.m. June 15, features Parameter Space by Jim Jewell and The Question of Love by Kathy Hsieh. Each evening also includes a conversation exploring the questions and issues raised in the plays, led by one of the project scientists: Peter H. Kahn Jr., Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington; Cady Stanton, Research Assistant in the UW Department of Psychology; Andrew Stewart, Ocean Engineer in the UW Applied Physics Laboratory; Paulina Varshavskaya, Image Processing Scientist at RareCyte, Inc.; and Luke Zettlemoyer, an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the UW. Presented by Infinity Box Theatre Project. Advance tickets are $10/$5 students & seniors/$17 festival pass for Sets A and B, at brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Tickets are now on sale for the Closing Night event of the 2013 Seattle Science Festival. Presenting some of the greatest scientific and creative minds of our time, this program weaves together science, art and philosophy for an inspiring, thought-provoking and engaging evening.
Tickets: $15 Students; $30 General; $60 Premium.
Our 11th Hour: Straight Talk on Climate Change from People Who Know
June 15, 2013, 7:30 p.m. at Seattle Repertory Theatre
Climate change is widely recognized as the major environmental problem facing the planet. Some of the most important issues shaping our collective future hinge on how we address this matter. This thought-provoking event features three TED-style presentations with world-leading experts on climate change, including Dr. Kevin Trenberth, Dr. Richard Alley and New York Times journalist Andrew Revkin, followed by an uplifting 30-minute opera focused on environmental stewardship set in the Pacific Northwest, Heron and the Salmon Girl, performed by Seattle Opera and Seattle Opera's Youth Chorus. Emceed by Pulitzer- and Polk-prize winning environmental journalist, Usha McFarling. Tickets.
Infinity Box Theatre Project: Thought Experiments on the Question of Being Human: Robots and Artificial Intelligence (Set A)
Saturday, June 15, 2013, 6-8 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5-$17.
Five scientists, five playwrights, and robots—what could possibly go wrong? Consider “Thought Experiments,” a signature program of the 2013 Seattle Science Festival, an experiment itself: For this three-day festival, five local playwrights and five scientists collaborate on five original plays that ask: What does it mean to be human when robots and AI become an integral part of our lives? The four-event festival is broken into two sets: Set A, at 7:30 p.m. June 13 and 6 p.m. June 15, includes The Robot Decision by Pamela H. Carter, Mechanical Matters by May Nguyen, and Spotless by Maggie Lee; Set B, at 7:30 p.m. June 14 and 8:30 p.m. June 15, features Parameter Space by Jim Jewell and The Question of Love by Kathy Hsieh. Each evening also includes a conversation exploring the questions and issues raised in the plays, led by one of the project scientists: Peter H. Kahn Jr., Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington; Cady Stanton, Research Assistant in the UW Department of Psychology; Andrew Stewart, Ocean Engineer in the UW Applied Physics Laboratory; Paulina Varshavskaya, Image Processing Scientist at RareCyte, Inc.; and Luke Zettlemoyer, an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the UW. Presented by Infinity Box Theatre Project. Advance tickets are $10/$5 students & seniors/$17 festival pass for Sets A and B, at brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Infinity Box Theatre Project: Thought Experiments on the Question of Being Human: Robots and Artificial Intelligence (Set B)
Saturday, June 15, 2013, 8:30-10:30 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5-$17.
Five scientists, five playwrights, and robots—what could possibly go wrong? Consider “Thought Experiments,” a signature program of the 2013 Seattle Science Festival, an experiment itself: For this three-day festival, five local playwrights and five scientists collaborate on five original plays that ask: What does it mean to be human when robots and AI become an integral part of our lives? The four-event festival is broken into two sets: Set A, at 7:30 p.m. June 13 and 6 p.m. June 15, includes The Robot Decision by Pamela H. Carter, Mechanical Matters by May Nguyen, and Spotless by Maggie Lee; Set B, at 7:30 p.m. June 14 and 8:30 p.m. June 15, features Parameter Space by Jim Jewell and The Question of Love by Kathy Hsieh. Each evening also includes a conversation exploring the questions and issues raised in the plays, led by one of the project scientists: Peter H. Kahn Jr., Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington; Cady Stanton, Research Assistant in the UW Department of Psychology; Andrew Stewart, Ocean Engineer in the UW Applied Physics Laboratory; Paulina Varshavskaya, Image Processing Scientist at RareCyte, Inc.; and Luke Zettlemoyer, an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the UW. Presented by Infinity Box Theatre Project. Advance tickets are $10/$5 students & seniors/$17 festival pass for Sets A and B, at brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Brian Fagan: More Humans = More Threats from Rising Seas
Thursday, June 20, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Over the past 15,000 years—the entire span of human civilization—we have witnessed dramatic sea-level changes, beginning with rapid global warming at the end of the Ice Age. Over the next 11 millennia, the oceans climbed in fits and starts; these rapid changes had little effect on the humans who experienced them, though, because there were so few people on Earth, and because they were able to adjust to new coastlines. Sea-level changes are cumulative and gradual, says Brian Fagan; no one knows when they will end. But their threat to us has increased as we’ve crowded along shores to live, fish, and trade, and since 1860, the world has warmed significantly and the ocean’s climb has speeded. Fagan, author of The Attacking Ocean, explains the rising complexity of the relationship between humans and the sea at their doorsteps: It’s a complexity created not by the oceans, which have changed little, but by us, and our numbers on Earth. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Advance tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
John “Jack” Horner: Digging Around with a Rock-Star Paleontologist
Monday, June 24, 2013, 7:30-9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
John “Jack” Horner, one of the world’s foremost paleontologists, discovered his first dinosaur fossil when he was 8—and, it would appear, his destiny: In the years since, Horner has made groundbreaking dinosaur discoveries (the first dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere, the first evidence of dinosaur colonial nesting, the first evidence of parental care among dinosaurs, and the first dinosaur embryos), written several books, and served as technical adviser (and inspiration) for three Jurassic Park movies. Also noted for his fieldwork and some of the best reconstructions of fossil dinosaurs ever assembled, MacArthur Fellowship “genius grant” recipient Horner is the Regents Professor of Paleontology at Montana State University and Curator of Paleontology at its Museum of the Rockies, which houses the largest Tyrannosaurus rex collection in the world. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Susan Schneider: The Science of Consequences
Thursday, July 11, 2013, 7:30 – 9 p.m.
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Every day, our actions have consequences, large and small—a completed chore, a smile, a promotion. And even consequences have consequences: They motivate us and shape our choices—and our choices shape us and our societies. They also appear to follow a common set of scientific principles, and to share some similar effects in the brain, says biopsychologist Susan Schneider, with the science of consequences becoming an integral part of psychology, biology, medicine, education, and economics. Taking an “interacting systems” approach, Schneider, author of The Science of Consequences, describes this science and its role in the larger realm of nature-and-nurture, and explains how something so deceptively simple can help make sense of so much. Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU. Tickets are $5 at townhallseattle.org or (888) 377-4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
