About Science in the News and the Seminar Series
Seminar Series Presentations: [ 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 ]
Science in the News is a free evening seminar series for the public aimed at explaining and discussing today’s hottest scientific topics without the hype or exaggeration often introduced by media coverage. Now in its 5th year, the program is run entirely by graduate students from the Harvard Medical School community. Each seminar session consists of three individual 30-45 minute interactive presentations on a single topic; an introductory science lecture, a presentation about the recent research or innovations in this area, and a discussion of the ethical or social ramifications of this research. We provide free beverages and food during the lectures!
Different graduate students teach each section. A major benefit of our seminar series is the accessibility of the speakers: we take as much time as needed to discuss your questions and their answers! Often, the audience plays as large a role in the seminar as the speakers themselves. Nine topics are chosen each year and are designed to reflect current hot topics in the news that might be puzzling without the right knowledge of the topic. For this reason, new topics are introduced on a yearly basis, and some favorite lectures are given each year.
We assume no prior scientific knowledge at our seminars, and this has allowed us to attract a diverse audience from all walks of life. Due to generous funding from the Harvard COOP and the Public Affairs office of Harvard Medical School, we were able to achieve many exciting accomplishments over the past year. Over 400 audience members signed up to receive our monthly newsletters and updates and over 600 individuals attended our previous season's lectures.
On this site, you will always be able to find the schedule of upcoming seminars, copies of our previous seminar presentations for you to download, and information about our other programs, such as SITN Flash and SITN on the road.
