Science at AMNH

The worlds’ oceans have changed dramatically in the 50+ years that marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson has been studying them. Overfishing, pollution, and climate change have converted once-thriving ecosystems like coral reefs and mangrove forests into slime-covered wastelands. But Dr. Jackson has shed his former nickname of ”Dr. Doom” and now focuses on the remarkable resilience of the oceans–if only humans can give them time and space to recover.

This SciCafe took place at the Museum on June 5, 2019.

The Titanosaur, Patagotitan mayorum, is the largest-known dinosaur to ever walk the Earth—weighing more than 10 African elephants. How did it get so big? How did it dominate the prehistoric landscape for millions of years? And what can this extinct animal teach us about our own future on this planet? Join paleontologist Diego Pol as he explores these questions and recounts his journey leading the team that discovered the Museum’s Titanosaur.

This SciCafe took place at the Museum on May 1, 2019.

Climate change may be affecting populations around the world in different ways, but the sobering state of our shared environment should worry everyone. How can we as a global community make changes to our economic, leadership, and policy models to panel of experts discuss the complex realities of climate change and the importance of putting aside cultural and political differences to address the environmental and human costs of our changing ecosystems.

This panel is moderated by Ana Luz Porzecanski, director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. Panelists include student and activist Vic Barrett; Erle Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland; Afua Bruce, director of engineering for New America’s Public Interest Technology program; Spencer Glendon, senior fellow at the Woods Hole Research Center ; Larry McDermott, executive director of Plenty Canada and Algonquin from Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation; and Paavo Järvensivu, researcher of economic culture at the BIOS Research Unit in Helsinki, Finland.

This lecture, New Science, New Solutions: Leadership, Economics, and Governance Under Climate Change, was generously supported by the Abel Shafer Public Program Fund, a fund created by the Arlene B. Coffey Trust to honor the memory of Abel Shafer.

This program was presented in collaboration with the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

What can science reveal about bias in our education, healthcare, and other social systems? It turns out, quite a bit. This series of short talks from experts in the fields of medicine, law, education, and business explores where bias comes from, the importance of facing the fraught history of bias, and how we might benefit from striving to be “good-ish” rather than “good.”

Speakers include: Dolly Chugh, professor at New York University's Stern School of Business; Marianne J. Legato, physician and director of the Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine; Daniel Braunfeld, Associate Program Director for Special Projects at Facing History and Ourselves; and Jonathan Kahn, the James E. Kelly Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

This lecture took place at the Museum on November 28, 2018, under the title “New Science, New Solutions: The Biology of Bias and the Future of Our Species.”

This lecture is generously supported by the Abel Shafer Public Program Fund, a fund created by the Arlene B. Coffey Trust to honor the memory of Abel Shafer.

Asteroids can teach us a lot about the origin of our solar system—but they can also pose a potential threat if they come too close to Earth.

Join Harold C. Connolly Jr. for an overview of the OSIRIS-REx and Hyabusa2 spacecraft missions that are currently probing the asteroids Bennu and Ryugu—two “potentially dangerous asteroids” whose orbits around the Sun are predicted to come within 5 million miles of Earth.

This Frontiers Lecture took place in the Museum's Hayden Planetarium on December 4, 2018.

Support for Hayden Planetarium Programs is provided by the Schaffner Family and the Horace W. Goldsmith Endowment Fund.

Select Hayden Planetarium Programs are sponsored by JetBlue.

Oxytocin, the so-called “love drug,” has been the subject of ongoing debate surrounding its impact on the human brain—but what does the latest science show? Bianca Jones Marlin, a neuroscientist and postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, looks at the brains of female mice to see how oxytocin affects the behavior of mothers, and explores how this research could offer solutions for human children who suffer neglect.

You can watch a video version of this SciCafe here: https://goo.gl/5tsBTx

For a full transcript of this podcast, please visit: https://goo.gl/BfvAqk

This SciCafe took place at the Museum on February 6, 2019.

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Imagine a robot that knows without being told which tool to hand to an autoworker, or how to match hospital patients with the most appropriate medical staff. The next generation of robotics may be capable of complex tasks like these—able to learn on the job and better anticipate the needs of human coworkers. Join Julie Shah of MIT to find out how scientists are creating smarter, safer robots, and the ways these new technologies have the potential to save both money and lives.

A video version of this SciCafe will be available on the Museum’s YouTube channel on Saturday, January 26.

For a full transcript of this podcast, please visit amnh.org/podcasts.

This SciCafe took place at the Museum on January 2, 2019.

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For information about upcoming events at the Museum, visit amnh.org/calendar.

Woolly mammoths and giant ground sloths are just a few of the strange animals that once roamed Earth, living on every habitable continent. But about 50,000 years ago, these “megafauna” began to disappear. What factors contributed to their disappearance? Why did some species survive while others did not? Ross MacPhee, curator in the Museum’s Department of Mammalogy, takes us on a journey back in time to the world of now-extinct megafauna, and explains what scientists think may have happened.

Watch the video version of this SciCafe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGYJgYZrMcE

This SciCafe took place at the Museum on December 5, 2018.

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For information about upcoming events at the Museum, visit amnh.org/calendar.

What does a carnivorous plant have in common with the design for a water-saving toilet? What about a hungry cell with surgical equipment? It may be surprising to learn that engineers still turn to the natural world for inspiration. For Tak-Sing Wong, a professor of engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, nature is a constant source of inspiration. In our November SciCafe, Wong introduces two cutting-edge technologies that have been directly modeled after natural phenomena.

A video version of this SciCafe will be available on the Museum’s YouTube channel on Saturday, November 24.

Subscribe to the Science@AMNH Podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The SciCafe Series is proudly sponsored by Judy and Josh Weston.

SciCafe: Engineering Technologies Inspired by Nature and related activities are generously supported by the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In April 2018, the Gaia space telescope released its second catalog of over 1.3 billion stellar distances, helping astronomers map the Milky Way like never before. Astrophysicist Jackie Faherty takes us on a tour through her current work using Gaia data to visualize and study the galaxy.

This SciCafe included brand new visualizations that let you literally fly through the galaxy. A video version with all of Faherty’s data visualizations will be available on the Museum’s YouTube channel on October 27.

This SciCafe took place on October 3, 2018.

Subscribe to the Science@AMNH Podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The SciCafe series is proudly sponsored by Judy and Josh Weston.