'Physics of Golf' To Open Fall Science Saturdays Series

Four Yale faculty members will share their excitement and passion for science with “kids of all ages” in the fall 2008 Science Saturdays series, which begins on October 4 and will continue weekly through October 25.

The talks and demonstrations are aimed at youngsters in middle school and above, and are free and open to all interested members of the public, regardless of their age. The programs run from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Davies Auditorium of Becton Center, 15 Prospect Street.

“Science Saturdays focuses on topics that are fun, challenging and relevant to issues of every day living,” says Ainissa G. Ramirez, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Yale, who imagined the popular series in 2004 while writing a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF). “It brings out the ‘face’ and ‘personality’ of scientists and their science – shattering stereotypes and creating a sense of ‘I understand that’ in the participants.”

A contingency of the NSF grant was to share the research with the public. Ramirez initially envisioned “a few talks that might draw an audience of about 50.” Public response to the Science Saturday series has been overwhelming from the beginning and grown with each series.

Ramirez says, “Success of the series can be attributed to the Science Saturdays 3Ds — Demonstrations, Donuts and Dynamic lectures.” To date 24 researchers have engaged students and other interested individuals with their projects and personal perspectives.

The Fall 2008 program includes:

Robert Grober

October 4: “The Physics of Golf” with physicist Robert Grober.
Professor Grober has combined his passion for golf and his professional expertise as a physicist to produce a unique and effective audio biofeedback device for teaching and training golfers. He developed a golf club that has motion–detecting sensors, similar to those used for safety air–bag deployment in cars, embedded in the shaft. He will demonstrate how this “Sonic Golf” translates motion into a symphony of sound. A preview video is available on The New York Times web site.

William Mitch

October 11: “What’s in Your Glass of Water?” with environmental engineer William Mitch.
Surging population growth has spurred utilities to increasingly explore the use of drinking water sources containing algae and wastewater effluents.Recent media attention has also highlighted the presence of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals from consumer products in these waters, while less attention has been paid to the impact of carcinogens generated during disinfection.Professor Mitch will discuss the issues of drinking water treatment, wastewater recycling, and the disinfection of recreational waters in the United States and in the developing world.He will discuss his role in Engineers Without Borders and student involvement with this issue.

Antónia Monteiro

October 18: “Why Do Butterflies Have ‘Eyes’ on Their Wings?” with evolutionary and developmental biologist Antónia Monteiro
The wings of many butterflies and moths are decorated with intricate and beautiful patterns of concentric circles of color on their wings — known as the eyespots. What are these patterns doing? Why do they vary in number across wing surfaces and across species? And how did they evolve on the wings? Professor Monteiro will describe how combining molecular biology in the lab with sexual and natural selection experiments using “painted” butterflies and their predators is helping to answer these questions.

Anna Marie Pyle

October 25: “Molecules that Walk, Shuffle, and Carry Things Around” with molecular biophysicist Anna Marie Pyle
The cell is like an industrial city: full of machines and robots that work together to build products and move them from place to place.Motor proteins are Nature’s nanomachines that perform most of the work in the cell, carrying cargo to specific places, building up new structures and tearing old ones down. Professor Pyle will show the molecular structure of nanomachines — and show how they move, one molecule at a time.She will compare the cargo motors, the rotary motors and the motors that unwind our DNA — demonstrating their similar sets of working parts that snap together like Nature’s Lego set.

“Science is fun,” Ramirez declares “Understanding how things work and inventing and creating new possibilities are basic benefits of being a scientist. This program aims to show that and highlight a few of the areas that are making news now.”

Ramirez, a much honored materials scientist, has nurtured and expanded this program which has engaged teachers, parents, children and even professors who have asked to be part of this program. Yale honored Ramirez and the Science Saturdays program with the Elm-Ivy Award, and the Office of the Provost at Yale is supporting the expansion of Science Saturdays so that future series may include scientists from other institutions.

“It is exciting and tremendously rewarding to see the response this program has received from Yale and New Haven,” said Ramirez. “Having the programs re-broadcast on our local CTV was a first step in expanding the program.”

As the program branches out to reach more people, there are now DVD’s available for teachers and institutions; programs are streamed on the web www.sciencesaturdays.org; and the classroom demonstration book, called “Demoworks,” has been downloaded 55,000 times in the last two years.

The program is supported in part by the National Science Foundation, the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale Scientific Magazine, Tau Beta Pi, and Scienceworks. More information is available by contacting Patricia Wooding (patricia.wooding@yale.edu).

High resolution photos of participants are available on request.