Harvard Society of Scientists Blog

Free; REGISTRATION BY OCTOBER 23 REQUIRED

http://www.ucsusa.org/about/40th-anniversary-symposium.html

Lunch Provided

Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Mario Molina joins former U.S.
Congressman John Porter and others at the UCS 40th Anniversary
Symposium exploring the civic responsibility of scientists. This free
day-long symposium  includes sessions on climate change, the future of
organic and sustainable agriculture, nuclear weapons and missile
defense.

In particular, “The Future of US Nuclear Weapons” session features two
outstanding nuclear weapons experts: geophysicist Raymond Jeanloz of
Berkeley and policy-expert Jeffrey Lewis of  New America Foundation.
Jeanloz is active at coordinating international arms control efforts
through the National Academy of Sciences and Jeffrey Lewis was
formerly director of the Managing the Atom Project at Harvard and runs
the highly recommended www.ArmsControlWonk.com blog.

Be sure to RSVP.

Besides general agreement on the need for both mitigation and adaptation in response to global warming, a more controversial approach has migrated from the science-fiction fringe into the main stream of public, political and scientific discussion. Climate engineering—intentionally manipulating Earth’s climate—is gaining currency as concerns over the implications of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mount. Many have come to see some form of engineered intervention as inevitable, if only to avert immediate climate catastrophe. But many others worry that such schemes simply divert attention from the pressing need to mitigate and adapt, by drastically reducing GHG emissions and planning for an uncertain climate future.
The desire to manipulate weather and climate is as old as humanity itself. New is the consensus realization that our very success as a technological species means that we do impact global climate, effectively engineering it by accident. Why then shouldn’t we choose to pursue this role with explicit intent—whether by removing GHGs from the atmosphere, limiting the net effect of solar heating, or both? The symposium will target this issue with a critical eye. Do we in fact possess the technological capability and scientific understanding to manipulate Earth’s climate with desirable or even foreseeable results? And what are the global political, social, legal and ethical implications of even trying?
Please join our acclaimed panel of expert scientists and thinkers for an invigorating day of rigorous discourse on a topic of pressing global importance.

Registration required:
http://web.mit.edu/esi/symposium2009.html

Description Six different Boston-based performers of international music and dance will join together to draw attention to the global climate crisis.

Featured artists include: Balkan and European music by members of the internationally acclaimed ensemble Libana; contemporary Indian classical dance with the Aparna Sindhoor Dance Theater; Japanese classical music for koto and shakuhachi with Ayakano Cathleen Read & Elizabeth Reian Bennett; Hindustani classical music with Warren Senders and The Raga Ensemble; middle-Eastern music with Beth Bahia Cohen, and traditional drumming and dance of Ghana with the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society.

Tickets are $20; $15 students/seniors. All proceeds will go to the environmental organization www.350.org.
Contact phone: 781-396-0734
http://www.350.org/it/node/3885

A regional tongue-in-cheek creative event
Gather en masse in downtown Boston’s Christopher Columbus Park, on the waterfront (Aquarium T stop) to participate in positive attention-getting and imagination-catching activities. The focus will be on the iconic image of sea level rise to draw attention to the threat of global climate change.

Travel from community events to the downtown location will be an important part of the day. Costumes, floats and theatrical events will draw attention to 350 and increase attendance. Participants in many morning 350 events will make their way independently (by foot, T, bicycle, roller-blades, canoe, and decorated vehicles) to downtown Boston.

http://www.350.org/fr/node/5998

A Public Address by: The Honorable Deval Patrick
Event Speakers: A special welcome from: President Drew Faust, Harvard University
Event CoSponsors: Office of the Dean, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Events-Meetings/JFK-Jr.-Forum-Calendar/FORUM-Harvard-Public-Service-Week-A-public-address-by-The-Honorable-Deval-Patrick

Wes Metheny — Senior Vice President for Alliances, Access and Affordability, PhRMA.
PhRMA is the advocacy arm of the pharmaceutical industry.   Mr. Metheny leads its government affairs, policy and external strategies.  He will address specifically and generally the business perspective on gaining access to the new leadership in Washington, including what changes have been made to adapt from the Bush administration to the style of the new administration and Congress.

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/events-calendar/organizing-for-power-influencing-policy-and-politics-gina-glantz-former-senior-advisor-to-service-employees-international/%28year%29/2009/%28month%29/10

By ticket only:
http://www.iop.harvard.edu/extension/forms/lottery.php?lottery=axelrod2

David Axelrod
Senior Advisor to President Obama;
Chief Strategist, Obama Presidential Campaign
Enter the lottery by Monday, October 19 @ noon

John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum

http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Events-Meetings/JFK-Jr.-Forum-Calendar/TICKETED-FORUM-The-First-Year-of-the-Obama-White-House-A-Conversation-with-David-Axelrod

Atul Gawande, M.D.

Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health
Research Director, Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Real Reform — Facing the Complexity of Health Care

Space is limited – RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu if you plan to attend.

A surgeon and a writer, Atul Gawande is a staff member of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the New Yorker magazine. He received his B.A.S. from Stanford University, M.A. (in politics, philosophy, and economics) from Oxford University, M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. He served as a senior health policy advisor in the Clinton presidential campaign and White House from 1992 to 1993. Since 1998, he has been a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine. In 2003, he completed his surgical residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and joined the faculty as a general and endocrine surgeon.

He is also Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Research Director for the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health. He has published research studies in areas ranging from surgical technique, to US military care for the wounded, to error and performance in medicine. He is the director of the World Health Organization’s Global Challenge for Safer Surgical Care.

In 2006, he received the MacArthur Award for his research and writing. His book COMPLICATIONS: A SURGEON’S NOTES ON AN IMPERFECT SCIENCE was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002 and is published in more than a hundred countries. He was editor of THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2006. His most recent book, BETTER: A SURGEON’S NOTES ON PERFORMANCE is a New York Times bestseller and one of Amazon.com’s ten best books of 2007. He and his wife, Kathleen Hobson, live outside Boston and have three children: Walker, Hattie, and Hunter.

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/events-calendar/public-service-week-at-hks-real-reform-facing-the-complexity-of-health-care

Feeding the Future: Agricultural Genetics and World Hunger
Wednesday  28 October, 7pm
Armenise Ampitheatre at Harvard Medical School, Longwood

Friend of the society, Naveen Sinha, will be speaking about genetics
in agriculture as part of the Science in the News outreach program.
Naveen is a 2nd year graduate student in Applied Physics at Harvard.
Over the years, Naveen has conducted research on a variety of

biophysical topics including building instruments to trap single
molecules, analyzing the microscopic properties of chocolate and more
recently observing the mechanical properties of biofilms. Naveen is an
immaculate speaker and I expect this will be a superb talk.

https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/

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The Harvard Society of Scientists is an e-newsletter that lists
upcoming events and resources for scientists  interested in issues of
policy and global affairs. The newsletter is maintained by Jason
Otterstrom  (otterst@fas.harvard.edu) and Andy Leifer
(leifer@fas.harvard.edu). All are welcome to join at

http://bit.ly/socsci

Google Calender:
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=harvardsocietyofscientists%40gmail.com

Rashi Fein on A Century of Debate: Historical Perspectives on
Universal Health Care
Tuesday October 27, 2009, 5 PM
Minot Room, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School, Longwood

RSVP at ARM@hms.harvard.edu

History has much to inform us about the current health care debate.
Rashi Fein is a Professor of Economics of Medicine, and has authored

numerous books on health care in the U.S. and they rising costs of
health care costs.  He will also be exhibiting 150 political pamphlets
on health care from the past half-century. There will be pizza and
refreshments.

https://www.countway.harvard.edu/menuNavigation/historicalResources/chmPrograms/eventsList/Flyer.pdf

—-

The Harvard Society of Scientists is an e-newsletter that lists
upcoming events and resources for scientists  interested in issues of
policy and global affairs. The newsletter is maintained by Jason
Otterstrom  (otterst@fas.harvard.edu) and Andy Leifer
(leifer@fas.harvard.edu). All are welcome to join at

http://bit.ly/socsci

Google Calender:
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=harvardsocietyofscientists%40gmail.com