Monday, June 8, 2009

Healthy Chocolate

Discover this brand of chocolate that was developed by scientists at NC State University. This treat really can be good for your health!
http://www.cocoavia.com/products/

Thursday, May 21, 2009

New Website!

As you may have noticed the Museum has an updated website. We are happy with all of the new possibilities it gives us. As with all new things though, we are working out some bugs. In case you have trouble finding the Raleigh Science Cafe webpage when you search with Google, just use this url in your browser...
http://www.naturalsciences.org/programs-events/?select=1076

I hope everyone will be able to come to next month's cafe on June 16th,
The Science of Chocolate, with Dr. Gabriel Keith Harris from NCSU Department of Food Science.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Local Foods

I hope that you can make it to next week's Science Cafe on local foods. Here is an interesting story that was on WRAL last week.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4936391/

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Interested in Dinosaurs?

If you are interested in dinosaurs and paleontology, come down to the Museum tomorrow night!
We are pleased to host a special presentation by Dr. Phil Currie Friday, February 6, 6:00 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public.

Paleontologist Phil Currie will discuss what recent findings tell us about the Museum's iconic dinosaur specimen, the Acrocanthosaurus. Currie is Canada Research Chair at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and an associated researcher with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. He helped describe some of the first feathered dinosaurs and is one of the primary editors of the influential "Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs."

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

So Much Snow!

Hi Science Cafe friends,
We have re-scheduled Dr. Reynold's Science Cafe for next Wednesday night (1/28). Same place (Tir Na Nog) - same time (6:30-8:15) - different day (1/28). I hope everyone can come.
Thanks very much, and be safe and have fun in the snow!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Astronomy throughout the month!

I hope everyone can come to our Super Nova Science Cafe on Tuesday January 20th. It will be a great cafe to start off 2009.
Other astronomical events that are happeninig in the area include an event hosted by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Chemical Society on January 21st (Information listed below) and our special Museum Astronomy Days on January 24th and 25th.
If you are interested in what is known about outer space and our universe January is a great month for you!


Astrochemistry:
What’s New in the Field of Astrochemistry?
Wednesday, January 21, 2009

RADISSON GOVERNORS INN
150 Park Drive, Research Triangle Park NC 27709-2168, USA.
Telephone: (919) 549-8631
http://www.radisson.com/researchtrianglenc

5:30 pm – Social Hour
Cash Bar (Wine/Beer), Soft Drinks hosted; Social/Networking

6:30 pm – Fixed-Menu Dinner*
Tossed salad ● Beef/potato or Chicken/rice, Mixed vegetable medley ● Chocolate cake

7:30 pm – Speaker, Dr. Yorke E. Rhodes

You do NOT have to be an ACS member to attend!
You may attend the presentation ONLY at no cost (7:30pm)!

*Fixed-Menu Dinner - Subsidized Advance Registration: $20 per person; $10 per student; limited to the first 40 persons and Advanced Registration payment must be received by Friday, January 17 (to meet the Radisson headcount deadline). See the Registration Page for dinner choices and advance registration instructions. Call (below) if you have registration questions.

Directions: From I-40 [Dan K Moore Freeway], exit at Davis Drive.
- Coming from the east (Raleigh), bear RIGHT onto Davis Dr. Ramp turning LEFT (south) across I-40 turning RIGHT into the Service Park bearing RIGHT at the 4-way STOP to the Radisson.
- Coming from the west, bear RIGHT onto the Davis Dr. Ramp continuing straight across Davis Drive (light) into the Service Park bearing RIGHT at the 4-way STOP to the Radisson.
- Enter the Radisson through the main lobby. Dinner/presentation in the 2nd Floor Ballroom A
(see also the Radisson web site above for a map)

For questions, please contact either of the following:

John Hines (919) 541-6647;
hines@rti.org
Melissa Pasquinelli (919) 515-9426; Melissa_Pasquinelli@ncsu.edu
Or the NC ACS Web Site at http://membership.acs.org/N/NCarolina

Abstract “Astrochemistry: What’s New….”

At the dawn of the space age in the 1960s, a handful of molecules were known to exist off Earth. Since those days of early robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars, fly-bys with spectroscopy of the outer planets, and radio astronomy of distant areas of our own galaxy and parts of the universe have brought forth a burst of molecular information. About 120 molecules, some new and some known, have been identified to date. What types and kinds of molecules exist? What varieties of molecular species have been found? How did they form, where do they occur, and what mechanisms exist for molecular formation? Can we model and predict what other molecules may occur? How has interstellar organic chemistry evolved? The content of the talk varies and the level of the talk is adaptable to the audience present.


Biography

Yorke Rhodes received a B. S. in soil chemistry from the University of Delaware in 1957, as Senior of the Year in the College, and then earned an M.S. in organic chemistry in 1959 with William A. Mosher and Darrel Lynch. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1964 with Prof. James C. Martin, he was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow with Kenneth B. Wiberg at Yale University. He joined the faculty of New York University at the University Heights campus in 1965 and developed research areas in SO2 solvent chemistry, electrocyclic reactions, small ring chemistry, and carbocations, especially neighboring group cyclopropane-assisted cation rearrangements. He moved to the Washington Square campus in 1973 after a sabbatical leave with Horst Prinzbach at the Universitat Freiburg in West Germany. Work at he Square continued in carbocations, led to alkyl group migratory aptitude studies and to synthetic studies in silyl ketene acetal chemistry for synthesis of quaternary neopentyls. He was a State Department exchange visitor to Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Zagreb, Yugoslavia, in 1977 and was also Gastprofessor with Ivar Ugi at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM)in 1977, followed by a stay in 1978 as Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Awardee at the TUM with Ugi. NASA/IEEE Summer Fellowships were held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories at Cal Tech in Pasadena with Wes Huntress in 1980 and 1981 (astrochemistry). In 1987, he was professor associe at the Centre d'Astrophysique, Universite de Grenoble, France, with Alain Omont (astro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon chemistry). Rhodes was awarded the Golden Dozen Award for Teaching Excellence in the College of Arts and Science in 1991, and again in 1996. Professor Rhodes has been director of the Dual Degree Program in Science and Engineering at New York University and Stevens Institute of Technology, Professor in a Residence in a University residence hall, and is very active in the New York Academy of Sciences and American Chemical Society local section activities, sponsoring a variety of symposia, poster sessions and other activities for students. He was chair of the ACS New York Section in 1998 and as an ACS Councilor was also a member of the “Local Section Activities Committee” and welcomes discussions about local sections. He has served on Department of Education review panels and is an educational consultant/evaluator for several undergraduate and high school research mentoring programs.
ADVANCE REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS

ACS Tour Speaker, January 21, 2009 at the Radisson Governors Inn, RTP sponsored by the NC ACS. Social (5:30pm), dinner (6:30pm), and presentation (7:30pm).

Advance registration payment must be received by NC-ACS by Friday January 17th (final head count required by Radisson). Mail check together with the Advance Registration form (below) to:
John Hines
P.O. Box 12194
RTI International
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

All advance registrations will be confirmed by email on or before Monday, January 20th. Cancellations are subject to discretion of NC-ACS. Guests may also be able to attend without Advance Registration by making payment directly to the Radisson at the event for their own fixed-menu dinner costs (~$31-33 with tax and gratuity). Call John Hines (919-541-6647 work) to determine whether this is possible.

You do NOT have to advance register UNLESS you wish to participate in dinner!
(dinner will be held in the same room as the Social and Presentation)

Friday, November 7, 2008

What have you been drinking?

I hope that you can make it to our next science cafe that will be held on November 18th at The Irregardless Cafe on Morgan Street. We will be discussing water quality in our area.

Here are a couple of websites that you might find interesting. The first gives information about how populations of some animals (such as freshwater fishes and mussels) are doing in our waterways ... these animals are often good indicators of the health of our water resources.
The second website is from the city of Raleigh and gives information about the quality of Raleigh's water supply as well as a list of volunteer opportunities for those of you who might want to get involved in helping to keep our streams and rivers clean.
http://www.ncwildlife.org/fs_index_07_conservation.htm

http://www.raleighnc.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_306_202_0_43/http;/pt03/DIG_Web_Content/category/Resident/Stormwater/Cat-Index.html