Demystifying the Expert: Dr. Kendra Letchworth-Weaver

To introduce the public to science in a combination of comedy and education, Dr. Anca Constantin and Dr. Klebert Feitosa host the event Demystifying the Expert. The program brings together a guest speaker, who is an expert in their field of science, and comedians from JMU’s very own New & Improv’d, who attempt to “demystify the expert.” Questions, games, trivia and improvised skits all contribute to the fun as the audience learns about the expert’s work. Podcasts for previous Demystifying the Expert events can be found here on SoundCloud!

            Kicking off the spring Demystifying series on February 28, 2018, Drs. Constantin and Feitosa and JMU’s New & Improv’d hosted Dr. Kendra Letchworth-Weaver (who typically goes by Dr. Weaver) from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  She completed her Bachelor of Science in physics at the College of William and Mary in 2007, and went on to pursue her Doctorate in physics at Cornell University in 2015.  After this, she worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, and is now a first year assistant professor at JMU. 

The members of JMU’s New and Imrpov’d who participated in the event were: Caroline Buddendorf, a sophomore theatre major whose favorite thing about theater is how active she gets to be, Ethan Shultze, a junior SMAD major who really hates The Incredibles II, and Noah Etka, a junior ISAT major who’s really into NASA. 

            The night kicked off with the twenty questions game, where each comedian took turns asking Dr. Weaver yes or no type questions to help them deduce what area of science she studies.  Our comedians went on a rocky start, but their questions were moving them towards the area of chemistry.  However, when asked if she studied chemistry, Dr. Weaver was only able to say that she did so half-way.  They did narrow down the field to something with materials chemistry, and in the end, our comedians deduced that Dr. Weaver worked in materials physics.

            After carefully dancing around this field, Dr. Weaver explained to everyone just what made materials physics different from materials chemistry and its applications with her elevator pitch.  She told us how, while some areas of both disciplines focus on characteristics of materials themselves, her work focused more on the interfaces between solids and liquids.  In particular, what makes these interfaces interesting to her is how they play with the properties of both solids and liquids with wildly different interactions in statistical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and quantum mechanics, all of which give a potential for many different possibilities of material property expression.  And how Dr. Weaver studies these interfaces is through the use of computer simulations, where she’ll put in some descriptions of a material that she could manufacture and then have the computer then produce information that she can extrapolate to determine what qualities this new molecule will exhibit.  Her work applies to renewable energy applications, in particular like batteries, and she also explained that cell phone fires due to poor interface design.

            The second game was the headliner game, during which the comedians guess words that complete titles of articles that relate to Dr. Weaver’s research.  From the get-go, our comedians were thrown a curveball, as the first word was actually cats!  From the headline provided by the Washington Post, “Cats are both solid and liquid, according to science,” for their propensity to have a defined shape when they want, but also occupy the space of containers that they were put into.  Dr. Weaver had a quip that showed us how these related to work, noting that since cats did this, they were very much like the nanoparticles that she works with.  The second word had a more obvious link to Dr. Weaver’s work, and was water.  As it happens, companies are working on developing materials that can act like sponges to extract water from the air and release it on demand, helping to solve a water scarcity we face.  The final word, supercomputer, gave us harrowing visions of a potential Terminator or Blade Runner scenario, with the headline stating that IBM’s new supercomputer is not only capable of taking orders, but also arguing against them!  As Dr. Weaver explained, supercomputers are being used in order to grow new knowledge out of current data and make their own decisions with neural networks, and this could be applied to materials data as well.  It remains to see if we will reach the technological singularity, but as of current, we aren’t quite there yet.

            

Next was the jargon game during which the comedians guess what certain acronyms or terms mean in the expert’s field. Here, the comedians learned about DFT, density functional theory, which is a way to approximate how packed electrons are in a certain material, and the reason for this is because if we know how packed they are, we can start to discover some more properties of how they will interact with each other and with external materials.  The second group of words showed us all how scientists have some fun in their labs, with the words being opium and pot!  Our comedians were able to deduce after some giggles that pot meant potential, like electrical potentials, but opium was harder – Dr. Weaver explained that Opium was a name for what is called an optimized pseudopotential generating code, which creates a stand-in electrical potential based off of the electrons surrounding an atom. 

            Finally, the audience got to learn more about Dr. Weaver outside of her work as a computational materials physicist with the two truths and a lie game.  First, we learned that not only is Dr. Weaver a talented physicist, but she also used to be very involved with the performing arts as well!  She participated in theatre in high school, and also did a lot of tap dance before her college years.  Not believing that Dr. Weaver could tap dance, our comedians dared her to prove it, and much to everyone’s delight, she did!  In the second round, we learned that Dr. Weaver’s path to being a computational physicist was lined by a broken spectrometer (a very useful and expensive tool in many science laboratories) that she had dropped, and that her old babysitter ended up becoming someone she would publish papers with!

            The final planned event of the night was the improvised skit with physics-themed quotes from pop culture like Alice and Wonderland and the Warriors novel series by Erin Hunter, with a new title “The Game of the Fortune Cookie!”  In a first for Demystifying history, Dr. Weaver joined our comedians in the troupe, and what a skit it was!  Our group were engaged in the office hours of Professor Ethan’s Computer Violence 101 class, and entered a theological discussion of the toxic nature of water, the Old Testament divinity of computers, and a strange venture into a live student burial to ascend to a higher plane of existence.  You can view some of this wonderful impromptu using this link to access our Facebook page!

            We’d like to thank everyone for a great start to Demystifying the Expert’s spring run, and a very warm welcome to Dr. Weaver at James Madison University!  To hear more about future Demystifying shows and when podcasts of our previous shows are released, be sure to follow our Facebook page.  We'll see you in the fall!

Demystifying the Expert: Dr. Kevin Caran

To introduce the public to science in a combination of comedy and education, Dr. Anca Constantin and Dr. Klebert Feitosa host the event Demystifying the Expert. The program brings together a guest speaker, who is an expert in their field of science, and comedians from JMU’s very own New & Improv’d, who attempt to “demystify the expert.” Questions, games, trivia and improvised skits all contribute to the fun as the audience learns about the expert’s work. Podcasts for previous Demystifying the Expert events can be found here on SoundCloud!

On November 8, 2018, Drs. Constantin and Feitosa welcomed our final guest for the 2018 term, Dr. Kevin Caran from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as our guest expert for the evening.  He received his Bachelors Degree of Science in Chemistry from Cologne University and his doctoral degree from Emory University.  After a post-doctoral position at Georgia Tech, Dr. Caran came to JMU, where he has remained since 2003.

The members of JMU’s New and Imrpov’d who participated in the event were: Abigail, a sophomore theatre major whose fish acts like a dog, Kat, a freshman SMAD major who jumps out of planes for fun, and Noah Etka, a junior ISAT major who spends most of his time explaining to potential employers what ISAT is.  

The night kicked off with the twenty questions game, where each comedian took turns asking Dr. Caran yes or no type questions to help them deduce what area of science she studies.  Our comedians were scattered in their questions, unable to deduce much from Dr. Caran beyond how he didn’t study plants, animals, or humans.  However, near the end, our comedians were able to deduce that Dr. Caran studied chemistry, and from there were quickly able to discover that he was an organic chemist.

As he explained with open ended questions, there are many different fields of chemistry, from organic to analytical to materials, and he also explained that organic chemistry studies molecules based off of the element carbon.  In particular, he was involved with a process called organic synthesis, or the creation of new molecules that have never been created before. 

In his elevator pitch, where he gives a brief overview of his work and how it relates to the greater world, Dr. Caran explained that the types of molecules that he is interested in creating are amphiphiles, which have unique antibacterial properties that are able to kill bacteria in ways that most antibiotics currently do not.  Unlike most orally taken antibiotics, the molecules that Dr. Caran tries to manufacture are polymers, long carbon chains that form the basis for, in his study, plastics.  These plastics are potential key players in the fight against antibiotic resistance, as he says that if we are able to mass produce these plastics efficiently, we can create materials that bacteria cannot grow on at far lower costs.  The current regime utilizes many rarer metals like silver and costly to manufacture plastics, so if these materials are cost effective, they may be more accessible worldwide.

The second game was the headliner game, during which the comedians guess words that complete titles of articles that relate to Dr. Caran’s research.  Here, our comedians were very quick to guess the correct words, and the articles in question mainly talked about antibacterial properties, from the efficacy of current antibiotic medications to the solutions through antimicrobial plastics and shapes of these molecules that give them these resistant properties.  Dr. Caran also mentioned that the place where cheap antimicrobial implements were most needed was in the medical industry, where cross-contamination is a very dangerous scenario, especially if so-called ‘super-bugs’ with antibacterial resistances were to be spread. 

The comedians and Dr. Caran briefly discussed what a day in the lab looked like, with Dr. Caran also mentioning his collaborations with the biology and physics departments at JMU, including with our own host, Dr. Feitosa, in the manufacturing of molecules.  This came into play when he explained that his work involved taking current molecules, analyzing their shapes and trying to see how to edit them to produce different qualities that we may want, including antimicrobial properties.  With biology, he is able to test their efficacy, and with physics, he is able to see just how these molecules can be created more effectively.

Next was the jargon game during which the comedians guess what certain acronyms or terms mean in the expert’s field. Here, the comedians learned about colloids, or systems where different items are mixed very finely, and how it is used in Dr. Caran’s work to see how molecules hold on to each other.  We also learned some of acronyms used, such as MIC, or the minimum inhibition concentration, or the lowest concentration of wasted materials used to produce Dr. Caran’s molecules, and his favorite acronym to say, SOPAR, or the sum of pi bonds and rings in a molecule.

Finally, the audience got to learn more about Dr. Caran outside of his life as a chemist with the Two Truths and a Lie game. During this game, the comedians and audience learned that Dr. Caran’s father had a family dog, Jilli, who was able to play poker to great effect!  And, we also learned that Dr. Caran not only plays guitar, but also writes songs about chemistry to help his students remember the material, such as his ‘Alkane Song,’ which we got to hear in its entirety!

The final planned event of the night was the improvised skit with quotes from chemistry related pop culture like Back to the Future and Medicine Man.  We had the typical student-professor scenario where students in Dr. Caran’s lab are trying to clarify some point in their work, but eventually goes into a sing-off between the students and Dr. Caran.  As an unexpected encore presentation, Dr. Caran sang his song ‘Fishy, Oh Fishy,” for us, and the comedians and even some of the audience members joined in during the chorus!

We’d like to thank you all for a great fall showcase of Demystifying the Expert, and we hope to see you at our next show in the spring on Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 7:00 PM at Taylor Down Under! 

 

Demystifying the Expert: Dr. Mark Gabriele

To introduce the public to science in a combination of comedy and education, Dr. Anca Constantin and Dr. Klebert Feitosa host the event Demystifying the Expert. The program brings together a guest speaker, who is an expert in their field of science, and comedians from JMU’s very own New & Improv’d, who attempt to “demystify the expert.” Questions, games, trivia and improvised skits all contribute to the fun as the audience learns about the expert’s work. Podcasts for previous Demystifying the Expert events can be found here on SoundCloud!

            On October 11, 2018, the first Demystifying the Expert event for the 2018-2019 term welcomed Dr. Mark Gabriele from the Department of Biology as our guest expert for the evening.  Dr. Gabriele has been faculty at JMU since 2001, after research appointments and received his doctoral degree from Wake Forest University, but he is also an alumnus from JMU!

The members of JMU’s New and Imrpov’d who participated in the event were: Michael Mathis and Ethan Schultze, both junior media arts and design majors, and Caroline Buddendorf, a sophomore theatre major.  Right before the inaugural twenty questions game, Dr. Gabriele asked each comedian what their favorite genre of music or band was, which would later clue in to how Dr. Gabriele entered his field and in particular what he studies.  Michael mentioned his Spotify recommendations being primarily hip hop, Ethan had classic rock and Queen being his favorite band, and Caroline named Gorillaz as her current most listened to group.

            After Dr. Gabriele’s questions, the comedians had their turn to inquire in the twenty questions game.   Each comedian took turns asking Dr. Gabriele yes or no type questions to help them deduce what area of science she studies.  Our comedians started off strong in narrowing his field down to something in biology, but then spent much of their time trying to figure out what exactly he did related to animals.  After twenty questions, Dr. Gabriel revealed that he, while he does use animals in the lab in his work, is a developmental neuroscientist with a focus in sensory integration, or the circuits within our brain that allow us to use our senses.

            As he explained with open ended questions, he does much work in the studies of audition, how we hear, and his love for music is what kept him in developmental neuroscience for the past two decades.  He also revealed his favorite band, The War on Drugs.  He shared his most fascinating discovery from his work, where he had seen that the brain had already developed the neural networks for hearing and vision before the ears and eyes were fully formed. 

            In his elevator pitch, where he gives a brief overview of his work and how it relates to the greater world, he mentioned how his work applies to many different disorders, from things as isolated in cause like tinnitus to much more complex disorders like autism-spectrum disorder.  And, in addition, he talked about how his work would be able to help improve therapy parameters for patients, but also that his work was trying to find a way to change the neural networks in order to alleviate these disorders.

            The second game was the fill-in-the-blank game, during which the comedians guess words that complete titles of articles that relate to Dr. Gabriele’s research.  Both related to the maps within the brain that transmit sensory data, but while the first mentioned how some people’s brains may have more connections between their cortices, the second article talked about how maps that never had a need to develop (as in the case of a person born without hands) were not only still developed, but eventually used in the event of ‘regaining’ sensory capabilities, as with a transplant procedure.

            Next was the jargon game during which the comedians guess what certain acronyms or terms mean in the expert’s field. Here, the comedians learned about the microglia, small cells in the brain that support neurons and are responsible for pruning brain connections into the proper maps.

            Finally, the audience got to learn more about Dr. Gabriele outside of his life as a biologist with the Two Truths and a Lie game. During this game, the comedians and audience learned that Dr. Gabriele, during his undergraduate career at JMU, was an Olympic-level swimmer, having his personal record for the butterfly stroke still standing at Godwin Hall.  In addition, we learned that he learned to balance his busy life with meditation, with most sessions lasting thirty minutes and the most public being in an airport.

            The final event of the night was the skit in which the comedians played out an imagined day in the life of the office hours of Dr. Gabriele.  With some mandatory quotes relating to biology and neuroscience from pop culture favorites like Gattaca, our comedians came up with a scenario where a humble student approaches Dr. Gabriele about a test question, but quickly delving into an exploration of the deeper meanings of life, friendship, and what is real and what is made real by the imagination.  From ‘Dr. Gabriele’ hinting that he may be a multi-dimensional being to judging a man, or imaginary man, by his outfit, it certainly was a wild ride!

            We look forward to seeing you at the second Demystifying the Expert event for the fall semester at 7:00 PM on Thursday, November 8, 2018, at Taylor Down Under, the first floor of Madison Union!

Demystifying the Expert: Dr. Barbara Reisner

To introduce the public to science in a combination of comedy and education, Dr. Anca Constantin and Dr. Klebert Feitosa host the event Demystifying the Expert. The program brings together a guest speaker, who is an expert in their field of science, and comedians from JMU’s very own New & Improv’d, who attempt to “demystify the expert.” Questions, games, trivia and improvised skits all contribute to the fun as the audience learns about the expert’s work. Podcasts for previous Demystifying the Expert events can be found here on SoundCloud!

            On March 29, 2018, the final Demystifying the Expert event for the spring semester welcomed Dr. Barbara Reisner from the Department of Chemistry as our expert for the evening, and in a change of scene, we had the great pleasure of hearing her at Pale Fire Tap Room in Downtown Harrisonburg.  The podcast for her show can be found here!

            The members of JMU’s New and Imrpov’d who participated in the event were: Alex Jacobs, a senior communications and philosophy major, Marian Duffy, a sophomore art-or-something-related major, and Drew Holt, a junior marketing major.

            The first game that the comedians played in order to determine what the expert studied was twenty questions. Each comedian took turns asking Dr. Reisner yes or no type questions to help them deduce what area of science she studies.  After a few questions, our comedians discovered that Dr. Reisner works in the chemistry department, and more specifically, inorganic and materials chemistry.

            With some more open-ended questions, Dr. Reisner explained some of the tools and tricks of her trade, including a brief description of what makes physical chemistry different from other types of chemistry.

            The second game was the fill-in-the-blank game, during which the comedians guess words that complete titles of articles that relate to Dr. Reisner’s research.

            These articles might not have seemed like they had much in common, with topics about superconductivity, meteorites, virus imaging, and greenhouse gases, but Dr. Reisner explained how each related to her work in the nano-scale.  In particular, one aspect of the work she does allows us to manufacture superconducting materials, and another allows us to essentially trap greenhouse gases in another type of material.

            Next was the jargon game during which the comedians guess what certain acronyms mean or terms that are used in daily life but have a different meaning in the expert’s field. Here, the comedians did well in guessing the more technical meanings of the Dr. Reisner’s jargon, with some words being clarified for those who had taken chemistry courses before.  Among the words were bomb, oven, and glove-box, with more foreign words like zeolites and diffraction. 

            Finally, the audience got to learn more about the Dr. Reisner outside of his life as a chemist with the Two Truths and a Lie game. During this game, the comedians and audience learned that, Dr. Reisner has kept very active her entire life, from participating in numerous sports in her high school career to singing in numerous choirs throughout her life to being an active advocate for the development of a new high school in Harrisonburg.  While she might not have beers created by herself at the Tap Room, one of her party tricks for parties involves spelling with the periodic table, which she very quickly demonstrated with her own name and those of our hosts.

            The final event of the night was the skit in which the comedians played out an imagined day in the life of the research lab of Dr. Reisner with some mandatory quotes relating to chemistry and its reactions from movies and books like The Martian. The skit involved much work with small and dangerously powerful reactions to clean our ecosystem of greenhouse gases, some burgeoning romance between the lab assistants and Dr. Reisner quickly flipping from admonishment to advocacy, and a deep questioning of the intrinsic nature of the field, and of life itself.  It was a final recap of all that the audience, and the comedians, had learned in a brief but fantastical way.

            We look forward to seeing you at the first Demystifying the Expert event for the fall semester at 7:00 PM on Thursday, October 11, 2018, in our usual location at Taylor Down Under, the first floor of Madison Union!

Demystifying the Expert: Dr. Anthony Tongen

Once again,  we bring you a summary (including spoiler alert) of the latest  Demystifying the Expert event.  To remind everybody, this program brings together a guest speaker, who is an expert in their field of science, and comedians from JMU’s very own New & Improv’d, who attempt to...  “demystify the expert.”  Questions, games, trivia and improvised skits all contribute to the fun as the audience learns about the expert’s work.   This program is produced and hosted by our own Dr. Anca Constantin and Dr. Klebert Feitosa.  Podcasts for this and previous Demystifying the Expert events can be found here on SoundCloud!

           On November 16, 2017, the Demystifying the Expert event took place at Taylor Down Under, in Madison Union, on JMU campus.  Dr. Anthony Tongen from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and Associate Dean for the College of Science and Math at JMU, was the guest expert for the night, a departure from the usual line-up of experts in science fields.  Here is a direct link to this show. 

            The members of JMU’s New and Imrpov’d who made us laugh out loud on this date were: Ethan Schulze, sophomore SMAD major, Shelby Imes, a senior journalism and English major, and Drew Holt, a junior marketing major.

            The first game that the comedians played in order to determine what the expert studied was "twenty questions." Each comedian took turns asking Dr. Tongen yes or no type questions to help them deduce what area of mathematical research he studies.  After many a question, Dr. Tongen finally revealed that his studies fall in the realm of what would be called mathematical biology.

            With some more open-ended questions, we found out that Dr. Tongen's work with modelling and data fitting with various populations like those of lemur populations in Madagascar or guanaco populations in Chile.  He uses many equations and variables to model the population dynamics through many years, with the help of computers and codes.

            With the second game, which was the fill-in-the-blank game, the comedians guess words that complete titles of popular science articles that relate to Dr. Tongen’s research.

            All three articles were interesting, with 
the most intriguing and seemingly random blank to the comedians being ‘Robin Hood.’  In the context of the title, ‘Robin Hood effects’ on motivation in math,’ Dr. Tongen explained how different groups of students reacted to programs implemented by schools to increase the study of mathematics.  The name ‘Robin Hood,’ as he clarified, referred to how increased attitudes towards learning math resulting from the program were seen in schools where students’ parents did not view math as important as those who did.  The term ‘Robin Hood’ here denoting the redistributive nature of more increases being seen by those who did not see math as important when compared to those who had already regarded math as important.

            The jargon game that followed, during which the comedians guess what certain acronyms mean, or discuss the meaning of terms that are used in daily life but have a different meaning in the expert’s field. Here, the comedians did well in guessing the more technical meanings of the Dr. Tongen’s jargon, such as "normal," "elementary," and "well-defined."

            Finally, the audience got to learn more about the Dr. Tongen outside of his life as a mathematician with the Two Truths and a Lie game. During this game, the comedians and audience found that, while Dr. Tongen might not have been kidnapped at one point by the Mexican cartels, he did have to skirt around them during his time there researching monarch butterflies.  In addition, they learned that he was and remains active in advocating for minorities in mathematics, with some interesting research producing interesting titles such as ‘Does gravity gossip weigh heavily on your local area network?’

            The final (and most improv'd) event of the night was the skit in which the comedians played out an imagined day in the life of the research lab of Dr. Tongen with some mandatory quotes from movies relating to mathematics such as A Beautiful Mind, The Imitation Game, and Good Will Hunting. The skit involved a lot of references to trips in Mexico, some emotional heartache in a struggle for Dr. Tongen’s affections, and a heartwarming resolution for all parties.  It was a terrifically humorous final recap of all that the audience, and the comedians, had learned in a whimsical, impromptu scene.

            We look forward to seeing you at the next, and final Demystifying the Expert event for the spring semester at 7:00 PM on Thursday, March 29, 2018, in a brand-new location at Pale Fire Tap Room in Downtown Harrisonburg!