The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Spring Science and Arts Café Lecture Series kicks off Feb. 12 with a discussion on the climate.
Drs. Jack and Lindsey Waddell will present “Beyond the Hockey Stick: The Bigger Climate Picture.” The lecture will focus on climate change from a physics and geological perspective. Jack Waddell is a physicist, and Lindsey Waddell is a geologist. Both of the Waddells are members of the ASMSA faculty.
The graph of global temperatures over the past few thousand years, commonly known as the “hockey stick,” shows a dramatic rise over the 20th century. Much of the political debate over climate change has focused on this single graph, but an understanding of climate requires a much broader view. Jack Waddell will provide an overview of the physical controls of the climate at the solar system scale, and Lindsey Waddell will highlight significant climatic variations over Earth’s 4.6 billion-year history.
The Science and Arts Café series features a short lecture on an interesting topic in an informal setting. The lecture is followed by an open, casual discussion between the lecturer and audience members. Each program is free and open to the public. This spring’s lectures will be held at the Superior Bathhouse Brewery and Distillery at 329 Central Avenue on the historic Bathhouse Row in downtown. Each lecture will begin at 7 p.m. with the lecture and discussion period lasting about an hour.
Other lectures set for the spring series include:
• Dr. Jon Ruehle, a biology instructor at ASMSA, will present “Quantum Biology” on March 12. Modern physics has discovered biology, but biology has not yet embraced quantum physics. Just as the confluence of evolution and genetics at the start of the 20th century produced the Great Synthesis, quantum biology will reveal many mechanisms previously inexplicable to orthodox science. This has implications for everything from medicine and cognition to the social sciences and philosophy in ways we can hardly imagine.
• Bryan Adams, a global languages instructor at ASMSA, will present “Crash Course in Language: French Immersion” on April 9. Adams will guide the audience through an hour of language immersion using a variety of input methods that have proven to work well for him over his years of language instruction. At the end of the immersion period, Adams will ask for the audience’s input on the value of world language immersion programs in all public and private schools systems in the United States. Audience members will be given an audio CD containing all of the expressions taught in class as well as a printout of all the material.
• Ron Luckow, a humanities instructor at ASMSA will present “Comic Books in America” on May 14. The session will cover the origin and evolution of the superhero in American comic books. Comic books have reflected important events in American history, such as the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War and the civil rights movement. The lecture will also include discussion about the censorship of comic books.