Science On Tap 2/14 Beaverton: Every Brain Needs (Love) Music (Photo) -01/29/25

Date: FRI, Feb 14th, 2025

Time: 7:30 pm

Location: Patricia Reser Theatre for the Arts

Tickets: $19.50 - $44.50

Event Website: https://www.scienceontaporwa.org/events/reser_feb_14_music_brain/

 

How do our brains and music work in harmony?

 

This multi-media Valentine’s Day concert and lecture is a collaboration between the Portland Chamber Orchestra and Science on Tap, using music, visuals and science to show how our brains and music work in harmony. Audiences will enjoy world-class performances of modern and classical love songs while gaining perspectives on learning to play, teaching, how to practice and perform, the ways we react to music, and why the brain benefits from musical experiences. The program includes:

1. Neuroscientist, public speaker, and lifelong musician Dr. Larry Sherman, who co-authored the popular book Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music
2. Grammy award-winning, Hopi-Nez Perce Native American flutist James Edmund Greeley
3. Internationally acclaimed gospel, jazz and blues singer Marilyn Keller
4. Singer, composer, pianist and recording artist Naomi LaViolette, and
5. Members of the Portland Chamber Orchestra

Music- and science-lovers from all walks of life will enjoy this unique show, and will experience both wonderful old and new music while gaining fresh perspectives on the roles of music – and love – in their lives.

 

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Science on Tap is a science lecture series where you can sit back, drink a pint, and enjoy learning. Listen to experts talk about the science in your neighborhood and around the world. You don't have to be a science geek to have fun--all you need is a thirst for knowledge! For more information on this event or about Science on Tap, visit Science on Tap OR WA.

Science On Tap 2/12 In Vancouver: Why Most Trees Don’t Fall Over (Photo) -01/27/25

Date: Wed, Feb 12, 2025

Time: 7 pm

Location: Kiggins Theatre Vancouver, Wa

Tickets: $15-$45

Event Website: https://www.scienceontaporwa.org/events/kiggins_feb_12_trees/
 

Have you ever noticed a tree not fall over?  A tree’s natural state is upright—it’s their default mode. Yet, myths pervade:

• “You should thin your tree”
• “You should top your tree”
• “Douglas-firs have shallow roots”
• “Lone trees are more likely to fall”
• “The roots will ruin my foundation”
• “That tree will fall and kill my whole family”

Despite the ubiquity of normal, upright trees around us, we often only notice those scattered few that stop being upright, most often in extreme weather.  And frankly, those few sully the good reputation of the thousands of others.

In the Pacific Northwest, our trees grow to be some of the tallest and largest organisms on the planet, and that can be understandably intimidating as you watch them bend and sway during winter weather from your home.  Luckily, our trees did not achieve their prominence by accident, and this talk will explain what the trees are doing, how they react to their environment, and what you can do to make sure your trees are safe.

 

How does a tree build itself?  How does it choose which direction to grow?  Is it a giant, static monolith waiting to crush everything beneath it? or a dynamic, self-optimizing living system that wants to keep itself upright arguably more than you? Join us on a journey through the lifecycle of a tree: how it grows, lives, and dies.  In other words: how do trees become trees and what makes them so good at it?

 

An arborist, a dendrologist, and educator, Casey Clapp is the principal consultant with Portland Arboriculture and co-host/co-creator of CompletelyArbortrary, a weekly podcast about trees and other related topics. 

 

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Science on Tap is a science lecture series where you can sit back, drink a pint, and enjoy learning. Listen to experts talk about the science in your neighborhood and around the world. You don't have to be a science geek to have fun--all you need is a thirst for knowledge! For more information on this event or about Science on Tap, visit Science on Tap OR WA.

Science On Tap: Confirmation Bias In Science: Disastrous Yet Essential (Photo) -01/08/25

Date: Wed, Jan 22th, 2025

Time: 7 pm

Location: Alberta Rose Theatre

Tickets: $15-$45

Event Website: https://www.scienceontaporwa.org/events/alberta_jan_22_conf-bias/

Humans unconsciously filter experience based on what they already believe (called confirmation bias). Seeing is not believing – rather, believing is seeing. Despite specific scientific methods to address this bias, it continues to confuse and confound science, leading to errors, mistakes, and failures – many on a monumental scale.

Confirmation bias begins the moment a person has a belief, regardless of its origin or truth, even if the belief is harmful to the person who has it. (Remember Prosper-René Blondlot and the great fiasco of N-Rays?)

Why would we evolve such a seemingly maladaptive trait? Surprisingly, despite the damage, without confirmation bias, forward progress in science would stop. It’s even essential to human thinking.

In this Science on Tap, Dr. James C. Zimring will explore how and why confirmation bias both drives science forward and can also drive it off a cliff. He’ll explore the questions:

• How do we harness the remarkable advantages of confirmation bias?
• How does promoting diversity maximize those advantages?

James C. Zimring MD, PhD holds the Thomas W. Tillack chair in experimental pathology at the U of Virginia. For the last 20 years, Dr. Zimring has been highly involved in teaching the “science about science” at the graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as a course on scientific thinking for high school. Dr. Zimring has published two books on the topic: What Science is and How it Really Works (Cambridge University Press) and Partial Truths (Columbia University Press).

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Science on Tap is a science lecture series where you can sit back, drink a pint, and enjoy learning. Listen to experts talk about the science in your neighborhood and around the world. You don't have to be a science geek to have fun--all you need is a thirst for knowledge! For more information on this event or about Science on Tap, visit Science on Tap OR WA.

Science On Tap 1/8 In Vancouver: Storytelling With Data: Great Graphs, Bad Logos, & The Ethics Of Data Visualization (Photo) -01/04/25