Why are bugs and slugs important? Of the many changes occurring in the world, one of the most striking is the decline of wildlife on land and sea. Why should we care? Join other curious minds at this month’s Science Pub RVA on Tuesday, March 5th at 7:00 p.m. at The Camel. Dr. J. Emmett Duffy, Director of the Marine Biodiversity Lab at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science will review some of the latest scientific evidence that biodiversity is not just a pretty face.  

Contemporary genetic medicine is both revolutionary and deeply traditional. Our mastery of the molecules of life is unprecedented - yet modern medical genomics shares some of the same basic goals with the eugenicists and geneticists of the early 20th century. Join Dr. Nathaniel Comfort, Associate Professor at the Institute for the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, on January 24th at STS@VCU’s “Art of Medicine” lecture series as he discusses how genetics became medical - and how medicine became genetic.

There are some folks that believe the world is going to end for a variety of reasons on December 21, 2012. Some think that a rogue planet will crash into the Earth while others are of the impression that a series of global natural disasters will bring our day-to-day business to a halt and usher in the end of times. These speculations make for exciting headlines, but make for pretty inaccurate scientific backings. There are a lot of scientists that would have had to be asleep on the job for quite some time to let all these various pending disasters go unnoticed. 

Have you ever wondered how your brain cells came into being? Why didn’t those cells develop into muscle cells instead? How we develop and age is a complex process. DNA is not the whole story and nature versus nurture isn’t so clear cut. While every cell in our body contains the same genetic information, it’s epigenetics (or “outside genetics”) that distinguishes our muscle cells from brain cells.  

Sounds complicated, but it will be easier to understand when a pioneering scientist in the field of epigenetics leads a conversation at Science Pub RVA, Tuesday, December 4th. Dr. Shirley M. Taylor, Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, VCU Massey Cancer Center, will talk about the chemical modifications that occur in our DNA and surrounding proteins. Join the conversation at this free, open-to-the-public gathering at The Camel.