Presentations

Wolves: Timid Predators?

Red Riding Hood’s wolf, Peter and the Wolf, the Big, Bad Wolf, werewolves, the killing wolves Liam Neeson battles in ‘The Grey’… Reach back in your childhood library or reminisce about your movie-watching habits and you can probably conjure up frightening images of menacing critters. But are wolves as ferocious and fearless as depicted in popular media?

A Bird's Eye View of Science

Do birds of a feather really flock together? Can birds recognize individual people? And why do birds sometimes crash into windows? Utah State University ornithologist Kimberly Sullivan explores these questions and more at Science Unwrapped

Hiding In Plain Sight

Could scientists actually create an invisibility cloak like Harry Potter’s surprise Christmas gift? What if the U.S. Air Force could make fighter jets disappear like the Romulans’ Bird of Prey aircraft in the Star Trek TV series? Could operatives really sneak into a high-security building using optical camouflage like that depicted in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol?

Dancing With The Stars: The Unheard Symphony of Gravity

Physicist Sydney Chamberlin often refers to dead stars as ‘zombie stars’ for comedic effect, but her research on these stars, gravitational waves and other cosmic phenomena is ‘dead serious.’ The Utah State University Honors alum will discuss her out-of-this-world research as featured speaker at Science Unwrapped Friday, Oct. 14. A postdoctoral fellow at the Pennsylvania State University, Chamberlin presents “Dancing with the Stars: The Unheard Symphony of Gravity” at 7 p.m. in the Eccles Science Learning Center Emert Auditorium, Room 130, on campus.

Water and People: Friends or Foes?

Water and people share an uneasy alliance. On the one hand, people can’t survive without water. But too much water destroys lives and property. People love water, but are we loving this precious resource to death? Utah State University’s Science Unwrapped explores this extraordinary relationship Friday, Nov. 6, with USU water scientist Michelle Baker. She presents “Water and People: Friends or Foes?” at 7 p.m. in the Eccles Science Learning Center Emert Auditorium, Room 130, on the Logan campus.

Keepers of the Water

Science Unwrapped, the public outreach program of Utah State University’s College of Science, meets at the confluence of art and science as it welcomes environmental artist Betsy Damon as featured speaker Friday, Oct. 9. “Quality of water has to equal quality of life,” says Damon, founder of the internationally renowned, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Keepers of the Waters organization. “If we degrade water, we degrade our quality of life.”