Past Events at FUSION

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Cosponsored by Fusion and the Bioethics Forum.

Monday, October 11th, 2010, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Cosponsored by Fusion and the DeCamp Bioethics Seminar Series.

Monday, October 11th, 2010, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:45pm

Cosponsored by Fusion, the Bioethics Forum and the Human Values Forum.

Professor James Hughes is a sociologist and bioethicist who teaches health policy at Trinity College. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, a prominent Transhumanist, and the author of "Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future."

Professor Peter Singer, of Princeton University is, without question, the most prominent Utilitarian and, quite possibly, the most influential Philosopher alive today. His contributions are innumerable, but he is best known for his work on Practical Ethics, World Poverty, Abortion, Euthanasia and Infanticide and Animal Liberation.

Professor Lee Silver, teaches in the Molecular Biology Department and Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. He is also the author of the book "Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family" and one of the most prominent advocates of cloning and genetic engineering.

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Frist 302

Is climate change occurring? Are humans causing it? How should legislators respond to it? Join us for what is sure to be a lively discussion with Professor Fred Singer, Professor Robert Socolow, and Professor Isaac Held.

Refreshments will be provided.

Professor Fred Singer is an atmospheric physicist who is a distinguished professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia, and one of the world's leaders in against global warming. He received his Master's and Ph.D. from Princeton University, and has held numerous academic and government positions such as Chief Scientist of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He has also authored and co-authored many influential books, such as Unstoppable Global Warming.

Professor Robert Socolow is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, and a prominent leader in research pertaining to global warming issues. He is the co-principal investigator of Princeton University's Carbon Mitigation Initiative, and is on two current committees of the National Academies. He is the co-author of the ground-breaking research article, “Stabilization wedges: Solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies” (Science, August 13, 2004).

Dr. Isaac Held is a prominent senior research scientist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), and teaches in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University. He was elected to the prestigious United States National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and was also honored as fellow for the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union.

Friday, September 17th, 2010 at 20:12 (that is, 8:12 p.m.)

Watch a free movie and mingle with Fusion members! You won't want to miss this award-winning action/drama film about the end of the world.

Professor Daniel Rubenstein (Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Director of the Program in African Studies) discussed the different ways in which media is produced and consumed and why science doesn’t always lend itself to easy interpretation by journalists.  He also proposed methods for scientists to make their work more accessible to the press and ways journalists can report on scientific findings more responsibly.

With Professors Harold Shapiro (Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton President Emeritus, and former Chairman of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission) & Lee Silver (Molecular Biology and Public Affairs).

Cosponsored by FUSION, Princeton Bioethics Forum, and the Pace Center's Civic Awareness and Action Series Committee.

Professors George Scherer (Civil & Environmental Engineering) & John Pinto (Art & Archaeology) joined us to discuss the science behind art conservation, as well as the artistic and philosophical concerns that come with it.

With Professors Ingrid Daubechies (Mathematics and Applied and Computational Mathematics) & Dan Garber (Chair of Philosophy Department).

With Professors Robert Schapire (Computer Science) & Karen Bennett (Philosophy).

A catered sushi dinner accompanied our philosophical discussion, followed by a showing of Steven Spielberg's 2001 movie AI.

Cosponsored by Paideia and FUSION.

Professors Leora Batnitzky (Associate Professor of Religion) & David Stern (Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology).

Professors Lee Silver (Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Affairs) & Nir Eyal (Harold T. Shapiro Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioethics, Lecturer in the University Center for Human Values).

– Read the Daily Princetonian article about the event's passionate discussions!

Professors Tony Grafton (Henry Putnam University Professor of History) and Ed Eigen (Assistant Professor of Architecture) spoke with us about romanticized visions of architecture, such as Princeton's own Gothic-style buildings, The Rule of Four, and many other issues while addressing the ways we view our past and present.

Renowned poet and Princeton humanities professor Paul Muldoon joined Philip Holmes, professor of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics as well as a poet, to speak about the worlds of math and poetry. It turns out that these two disciplines have more in common than you might think, particularly when it comes to creativity and thinking up new ideas.

Igor Stravinsky said that the musician should find in mathematics a study "as useful to him as the learning of another language is to a poet." And mathematicians have spoken about their activity using terms more often applied to music. The two disciplines dwell in different realms, but even though one is a science, the other an art, one useful, the other seemingly decorative, their common origins, their historical links and their continuing intersections point to profound similarities. Both create abstract worlds; both are concerned with proportion and ratio; both rely upon metaphor and image; and, in their most idealistic forms, both seek the beautiful and the true. Edward Rothstein, cultural critic at large for the New York Times, and author of "Emblems of Mind: The Inner Life of Music and Mathematics" offered a glimpse of where the two realms meet.

FUSION hosted a panel discussion that included Dr. Edward Rothstein, our guest speaker from New York, and Professor Schutt from Princeton's Department of Chemistry.

Dostoevsky has been celebrated as one of the greatest writers of the 19th Century. During the last 20 years of his life he also kept records of 102 epileptic seizures. In 4 of his novels Dostoevsky created characters that were afflicted with epilepsy as well. How did his illness contribute to his masterpieces and his writing? What is it about epilepsy that lent itself to Dostoevsky's work? Our guests included Professor Caryl Emerson from the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department, and Professor Barry Jacobs from the Psychology Department.

FUSION hosted a second dinner discussion on the rift between scientists and humanists with Professor Graham Burnett, a historian of science.

Professor Gordin from the History Department was our guest speaker during our discussion on the rift between scientists and humanists. How are these two cultures different? Are they really as different as they appear to be? As society (and technology) progresses how is the relationship between these two fields changing? How do we envision the future as the rift between these two cultures continues to grow? Professor Gordin discussed several readings, including CP Snow's historic lecture, "Two Cultures" and an essay by Trilling.

FUSION hosted a dinner discussion with Professor Soboyejo of Princeton's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department.

FUSION hosted a lunch with Professor Michael Gordin and discussed his new book on Mendeleev and the periodic table.

FUSION hosted a dinner discussion with Professor Peter Singer, Professor Jonathan Cohen, and Dr. Joshua Greene.