If you saw the iconic film Alien, you may remember the alien parasite bursting out of the human host’s chest. That type of thing actually happens in nature with parasitoid wasps and their insect hosts. While they’re vital to our environment, the insect world is often a nearly incomprehensible realm…
De-extinction, or resurrecting an extinct species, is an intriguing notion. But the science is challenging and the ethics are complicated. On the one hand, it’s exciting to think about bringing back the woolly mammoth or the carrier pigeon or the saber-toothed cat and we can see the way in which…
Science diplomacy: these two words do not commonly pair up in conversations at cocktail parties. Through the stories of how scientific collaboration with countries such as Russia, Iran, and Cuba, and on global challenges like climate change, have in the past advanced diplomacy, we can see why they can go…
Movies and television shows often transport us to new and surprising landscapes that exist within a carefully constructed framework of rules that ensure that things make sense and hang together. The creative process of world building is informed by what is, while being inspired by what can be. This same…
It’s not news that fatty foods, sugary drinks, salty snacks and a sedentary lifestyle are bad for us. But recent trends in life expectancy in the United States are making it pretty clear just how bad all this is. For the first time since the 1800s, things aren’t going in…
For more than 20 years, virologist Matt Frieman has dedicated his career to the study of coronaviruses. So for a good part of his professional life, an introduction at a cocktail party required that he first explain what epidemiology was followed by a justification for exclusively studying novel coronaviruses. Of…
You are invited to join us in celebrating this year’s Sundance Film Festival Sloan Award recipient, After Yang, with a special talk-back featuring director Kogonada and futurist B Cavello from the Aspen Institute and moderated by Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer, John Nein. Starring Colin Farrell and Jodie-Turner Smith, the…
The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on us all, but perhaps some of the most striking and consequential impacts have been to our children. Deeply dependent on social interaction to nourish their developing brains, babies and young children require the stimulation provided by in-person engagement to flourish and thrive. Patricia…
Socially Assistive Robotics have massive potential to empower people and improve human quality of life. Maja Matarić wants to endow these machines with special qualities so that they can help us in new ways that go far beyond practical use. Ranging in potential applications from childhood development to elder care,…
How do people impact ecosystems? In so many cases we pretty much wreck things in our effort to make seemingly the whole world into a built environment, driving animals away or to extinction. However, there are examples of rapid evolution, when wild creatures adapt to human failings, triumphs, and disasters.…
