New Horizons in Science 2009 Program

University of Texas, Austin, TX Oct 18–20, 2009

The 2009 New Horizons in Science meeting, hosted by the University of Texas, was held in Austin Oct. 18-20. The meeting featured several field trips and presentations on human sexual behavior, alternative energy in Texas, accelerated evolution, the genetics of aging, and medical research conducted on the battlefield in Iraq, among many other topics.

An archived video stream from the meeting is now available here, courtesy of UT and Ustream.

New Horizons in Science was held in conjunction with the annual meeting and workshops of the National Association of Science Writers as part of ScienceWriters 2009.

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Hosts and Sponsors

The 2009 New Horizons in Science briefings were hosted by the University of Texas at Austin with support from UT Southwestern Medical Center and Life Technologies Corp. More information about our hosts can be found on the UT ScienceWriters 2009 website.

Click date to see corresponding program

Sunday, 18th October

9:00am–12:30pm

Note: Slides from this session are now available for download by site members.
Topic: Information Technology
Mining hidden knowledge from Medline and DNA
Skip Garner, a physicist who has worked in artificial intelligence, fusion and high-temperature superconductors, is now devising expert systems of value in biomedical research. He’s devised a Medline search tool, called Iridescent, that finds correlations between papers that is leading to hitherto unsuspected new uses of existing drugs.   more…
Speaker: Harold "Skip" Garner , professor of biochemistry and internal medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Topic: Evolution
Rapid evolution: can mutations explain historical events?
We usually think of evolution occurring over millions of years. But modern humans changed their environment 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture and the decline of nomadic life. And they’ve been evolving very rapidly ever since. Genes for lighter skin, for example, are new and increasing in Europeans and Asians.   more…
Speaker: John Hawks , assistant professor of anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Topic: Neuroscience
Quantifying consciousness with information theory
Virgil Griffith is a computer-security expert whose accomplishments include cracking the security on debit cards widely used on college campuses; developing the Wikiscanner, a tool for identifying organizations that make edits on Wikipedia; and cross-referencing Texas vital records to predict individuals’ mothers’ maiden names.   more…
Speaker: Virgil Griffith , graduate student in computation and neural systems, California Institute of Technology
12:30pm–2:00pm, Lunch
2:00pm–5:00pm

Note: Slides from this session are now available for download by site members.
Topic: Aging
No starvation diet here: yeast cells eat and eat—and live longer
Much of what we know about aging was found first in yeast—and then later throughout the animal kingdom. Now a new discovery in yeast is challenging recent findings on lifespan and calorie restriction.   more…
Speaker: Frank Rosenzweig , associate professor of biology, University of Montana
Topic: Statistics
Can statisticians tell us who won a questionable election?
The 2006 election in Florida's 13th Congressional district was won by the Republican candidate by 369 votes, out of about 240,000. But an examination of the ballots revealed a disturbing discrepancy: In the Republican-leaning half of the district, about 3,000 ballots recorded no choice in the Congressional race (a normal number of so-called undervotes).   more…
Speaker: Arlene Ash , professor and Chief, Division of Biostatistics and Health Services Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Topic: Climate
Carbon and climate: some unfortunate surprises
Kevin Gurney and his colleagues have produced a high-resolution emissions map of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States (the Vulcan project), and he is working on expanding that map to cover the entire globe. He is also exploring interactions between the carbon cycle, climate change, and human beings. And the news is not good.   more…
Speaker: Kevin Gurney , associate professor, earth and atmospheric sciences, Purdue University

Monday, 19th October

9:00am–10:00am, Parallel sessions

Note: Slides from these sessions are now available for download by site members.
Topic: Physics
Higgs, dark matter and supersymmetry: what the Large Hadron Collider will tell us
The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, will begin operation this year in a quest to answer some of the most intriguing questions in physics. One of its missions will be to search for the Higgs boson, which Steven Weinberg predicted in a paper in 1967—nearly half a century ago.   more…
Speaker: Steven Weinberg , Regental professor of physics and director, theory research group, University of Texas at Austin
Topic: Energy
“This isn’t Cape Cod”: how Texas could become the nation’s leader in clean energy
Using corn, says Michael Webber, is the worst way to make biofuels. His alternative? Algae. It can be used to make oils, jet fuel, and animal feed, among other valuable commodities. It grows rapidly, and it cleans water as it grows.   more…
Speaker: Michael Webber , assistant professor of mechanical engineering, associate director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, and co-director of the Clean Energy Incubator, University of Texas at Austin
10:00am–11:00am, Parallel sessions

Note: Slides from this session are now available for download by site members.
Topic: Personality
Stuff: what it reveals about you
Those who remember a 1980s George Carlin routine about “stuff” (cf. YouTube) will have a preview of Sam Gosling’s research. People, he observes, are deeply connected to their stuff. Some is used to make statements about attitudes and values—such as bumper stickers, yellow ribbons, or Springsteen T-shirts.   more…
Speaker: Sam Gosling , associate professor of psychology, University of Texas at Austin
Topic: Anthropology
Blue highways
Among the most exciting questions in human evolution is how modern humans spread from Africa to the rest of the world. What routes did they take? When did the migration occur? And what behavioral adaptations facilitated the expansion? One theory suggests the migration moved northward along the Nile River toward the Mediterranean.   more…
Speaker: John Kappelman , professor of anthropology, University of Texas at Austin
11:00am–12:00pm, Parallel sessions

Note: Slides from this session are now available for download by site members.
Topic: Computation
Where computation and fabrication meet: using computers to mimic biology
Zack Simpson will talk about the unique ways the living world exploits technology; living things, he explains, are computational machines that manipulate matter. He will discuss mimicking biological methods through synthetic biology and molecular amorphous computing.   more…
Speaker: Zack Booth Simpson , research fellow, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas at Austin
Topic: Neuroscience
The brain in reproduction and aging
Andrea Gore is exploring the surprisingly complex and important links between the brain and the endocrine system, especially reproductive hormones. She has found striking changes with age in neurons related to reproduction, perhaps explaining menopause and fertility declines in middle-aged men. And she has found that exposure to PCBs and other pollutants can profoundly disrupt reproduction.   more…
Speaker: Andrea Gore , Gustave and Louise Pfeiffer Professor of pharmacology and toxicology, University of Texas at Austin
12:00pm–1:00pm, Lunch
1:00pm–5:00pm, Campus tours

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Texas Petawatt Laser, Center for Electromechanics, Texas Institute for the Indoor Environment, Visualization Center, George Brown Network for Earthquake Engineering ... PLUS soccer-playing robots, the chemistry of art conservation and rare astronomical tools. For details, see the University of Texas conference website. 

Tuesday, 20th October

9:00am–12:00pm
Topic: Military Medicine
PTSD on the battlefield: collecting data during combat
The diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans remains controversial, in part because little is known about combat PTSD. Most studies have been retrospective, so the question remains: What factors in a soldier who has not yet seen combat could predispose him or her to PTSD?   more…
Speaker: Michael Telch , professor of psychology and director, Laboratory of the Study of Anxiety Disorders, University of Texas at Austin
Topic: Obesity
Twinkie neurons? The brain's role in obesity
See if this sounds familiar: You eat pretty well Monday through Thursday. Then you celebrate the weekend with a burger, fries, and a beer Friday night. And Saturday or Sunday, you nibble on junk while watching a ball game or a movie. On Monday, you want to get back on track, but you’re hungrier than you were on Friday.   more…
Speaker: Deborah Clegg , assistant professor, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
Topic: Evolutionary Psychology
Why do women have sex?
Many of us think we know the answer to that one. Three obvious guesses might be: For pleasure, because they’re in love, or to have children. And we might think of a few more if we worked at it. David Buss and Cindy Meston asked 1,500 women why they had sex, and they came up with a list of 237 different reasons.   more…
Speaker: David M. Buss , professor of psychology, University of Texas at Austin
Speaker: Cindy Meston , professor of clinical pathology, University of Texas at Austin
12:00pm–1:00pm, Lunch
1:00pm–4:00pm

Note: Slides from this session are now available for download by site members.
Topic: Genomics
Dangerous drugs and the genetic causes of disease
Assuring the public that prescription drugs are safe is a tricky business, because the data are often locked in pharmaceutical company vaults. Bruce Psaty has used publicly available court documents released in lawsuits to write about drug-safety problems that have been kept secret by the drugs’ makers.   more…
Speaker: Bruce M. Psaty , professor of medicine and epidemiology, University of Washington
Topic: Cell Biology
The tale of the tails: the crucial role of cilia in early development
John Wallingford began his research trying to figure out how a fertilized egg changes from a small cluster of cells to something with shape—a head and a tail. How do tissues organize themselves to create that shape? Cilia, the small tails once thought to be mainly for swimming, turn out to be crucial for communication—helping cells know where to go and what to do.   more…
Speaker: John Wallingford , associate professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, University of Texas at Austin; Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Topic: Behavior
Territorial battles in the aquarium tank: the molecular basis of social organization and behavior
Why are some species monogamous, and others polygamous? Hans Hofmann is trying to understand the ecological and molecular basis of divergent social organizations. He’s also trying to decipher the most basic molecular and hormonal mechanisms underlying social behavior in individuals.   more…
Speaker: Hans Hofmann , professor of biology, University of Texas at Austin
8:00pm–9:30pm, Star Party

In celebration of the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, UT-Austin McDonald Observatory astronomers will host a Star Party. They will set up their telescopes and tell us what to look for as we view the Moon, planets, and deep-sky objects (weather permitting).

Wednesday, 21st October

8:00am–6:00pm, Optional CASW-NASW events

On Wednesday, New Horizons attendees can choose from an all-day field trip or an all-day multimedia workshop. Registration for both can be made through the ScienceWriters 2009 website.
Topic: Workshop
All-day Multimedia Workshop: Succeeding in the Web 2.0 World
8:30AM – 6:00PM In this session, you will learn how to... * Set up your own (good, user-friendly) website * Set up a (good, readable) blog * Blog (effectively) * Write for the Web (instead of print) * Write for SEO (and learn what “SEO” stands for) * Create and use visuals for...visual effect * Become familiar with tools for creating podcasts and Web video.   more…
Topic: Field trip
Preserving Global Landscapes Field Trip: Seed collecting in the Precambrian granite of central Texas
Texas is second only to California in plant biodiversity, and five ecoregions converge at Enchanted Rock, a 400-foot-tall expanse of exposed, Precambrian rock not far from Austin. Among the plants are dozens of species collected as part of the Millennium Seed Bank project, an international effort to collect thousands of seeds from each of thousands of species around the world that define native landscapes.   more…
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