Synthetic biology, and its sister field systems biology, offers the means to reengineer DNA in ways (and at a pace) that Nature, in her evolutionary wisdom, never envisioned. Standing at the unique crossroads of biology, engineering, computer science and neuroscience, these emerging fields are working toward the development of novel drugs and energy sources, the cure of disease and prolongation of life, and even the creation of new forms of life.… read more »

Saturday, May 11th
2:30 - 4:30PM

Synthetic and Systems Biology: Reinventing the Code of Life

Synthetic biology, and its sister field systems biology, offers the means to reengineer DNA in ways (and at a pace) that Nature, in her evolutionary wisdom, never envisioned. Standing at the unique crossroads of biology, engineering, computer science and neuroscience, these emerging fields are working toward the development of novel drugs and energy sources, the cure of disease and prolongation of life, and even the creation of new forms of life.… read more »

Saturday, October 11, 2014
2:30-4:30pm

Cancer: Body & Mind

Throughout history, no other disease entity has exceeded cancer in its evocation of fear, taboo, misconceptions, and metaphors.

In her 1978 book, Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag threw down the gauntlet in her denunciation of metaphor applied to illness, as leading to a false connection between psychological traits and disease, scorning the contemporaneous, popular notion of a “cancer personality,” that “[p]assion moves inward, striking and blighting the deepest cellular recesses.”… read more »

Saturday, October 11, 2014
2:30-4:30pm

Cancer: Body & Mind

Throughout history, no other disease entity has exceeded cancer in its evocation of fear, taboo, misconceptions, and metaphors.

In her 1978 book, Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag threw down the gauntlet in her denunciation of metaphor applied to illness, as leading to a false connection between psychological traits and disease, scorning the contemporaneous, popular notion of a “cancer personality,” that “[p]assion moves inward, striking and blighting the deepest cellular recesses.”… read more »

Saturday, April 25, 2015
2:30-4:30 pm

The Changing Nature of Free Will

Central to Eastern and Western philosophical and theological traditions, the notion of free will, once confined to discussions of human agency, can find application in understanding a broader set of phenomena. How are advances in genetics and neuroscience influencing our concept of voluntary, individual choice, and what are the implications for jurisprudence?… read more »

Saturday, April 25, 2015
2:30-4:30 pm

The Changing Nature of Free Will

Central to Eastern and Western philosophical and theological traditions, the notion of free will, once confined to discussions of human agency, can find application in understanding a broader set of phenomena. How are advances in genetics and neuroscience influencing our concept of voluntary, individual choice, and what are the implications for jurisprudence?… read more »

Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 2:30pm EST

Designer Genes

Supernatural and other circumventions of the natural process of conception have been an abundant wellspring for magical, mythological, and religious narratives. It was held that the widowed queen of an Egyptian pharaoh could pull his posthumous sperm into her womb to create a child.… read more »

Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 2:30pm EST

Designer Genes

Supernatural and other circumventions of the natural process of conception have been an abundant wellspring for magical, mythological, and religious narratives. It was held that the widowed queen of an Egyptian pharaoh could pull his posthumous sperm into her womb to create a child.… read more »