Past Science Cafés:
December 2014
Transect: The Art & Science of Observing the Samurai Hydroid
by Dr. Katrina Mangin and Heather Green
Heather Green, a Tucson artist, and Katrina Mangin, a faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the UA, will discuss the process of their collaboration on “Transect” a science-art collaboration. Katrina Mangin did her dissertation thesis on a species of hydroid (a marine animal related to corals and anemones) that lives on rocks in the coastal zone of the northern Sea of Cortez. The hydroid was a new species which she named Samuraia tabularasa, the Samurai hydroid, because of its ability to kill barnacles. Heather Green became interested in the research from an art point of view after a few weekends helping Katrina collect data on the hydroids at her research site along the coast. Their friendship and collaboration resulted in an art exhibit called “Transect”.
May 2014
Growing Pains: The Tumultuous Youth of Forming Stars
by Megan Reiter
Megan Reiter is a graduate student in Astronomy at the University of Arizona who likes big stars, little stars, forming stars, dying stars, accretion, outflows, feedback, and blaming things on magnetic fields. She uses images from the Hubble Space Telescope and spectroscopy from the Magellan Telescope in Chile to study how more massive stars form and is in the process of finishing her dissertation.
March 2014
The Beauty of Art and Science
by Dr. Letizia Stanghellini
Dr. Letizia Stanghellini is an astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson. She researches planetary nebula, which are clouds of gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. These objects (like the Ring Nebula) are some of the most beautiful objects in the sky. Her team made the first discovery of extragalactic Buckyballs, carbon molecules that may have played a role in the origin of life. She is also an accomplished painter with shows of her work at the Tucson International Airport, the Mesch Clark & Rothschild Law Office, the JCC, the Ventana Health Center, the Dinnerware Artspace, and other location in town. She paints still lives, abstract work, and the human figure.
November 2013
The Beauty of Art and Science
by Dr. Letizia Stanghellini
Dr. Letizia Stanghellini is an astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson. She researches planetary nebula, which are clouds of gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. These objects (like the Ring Nebula) are some of the most beautiful objects in the sky. Her team made the first discovery of extragalactic Buckyballs, carbon molecules that may have played a role in the origin of life. She is also an accomplished painter with shows of her work at the Tucson International Airport, the Mesch Clark & Rothschild Law Office, the JCC, the Ventana Health Center, the Dinnerware Artspace, and other location in town. She paints still lives, abstract work, and the human figure.