Gerlinde Höbel, Associate Professor UWM Dept. of Biological Sciences Rafael Rodríguez, Professor UWM Dept. of Biological Sciences All animals communicate. How that is done, of course, varies by the creature and the purpose. This presentation focusses on treefrogs and treehoppers, …
Michael Carvan, Shaw Professor UWM School of Freshwater Sciences When environmental conditions change, animals must also change, in order to live. In this program, we will explore some truly unique ways that animals use to adapt to environmental extremes to …
Presented by Carmen Aguilar and Russell Cuhel from UWM’s School of Freshwater Science. In 2015, a previously unusual weather pattern caused dramatic late summer cooling along the western shore from Milwaukee to the Sturgeon Canal. 12°C (55°F) or cooler water …
The Two Faces of Microbes” describes what a microbe is, and then covers some interesting facts and perspectives about microbes. On one hand, they are essential to life, on the other, the can cause devastating and sometimes fatal diseases. McLellan …
Whatever rock genre you’re into — classic rock, soft rock or alternative rock, the Badger state has all three. But they’re not on your iPod — they lie just beneath your feet. Join us for a very different kind of …
Biologist Julie Oliver explains the inner workings of our heart and circulatory system in “Matters of the Heart: Cell and Cardiovascular Disease.” With audience participation, Oliver will unravel how blood cells called platelets function at the site of an injury …
In “Scientists Who Turned the World Upside Down,” mathematician Bart Adrian takes audience members on a trip through the history of game-changing discoveries by Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Richardson and Lorenz – but not always the breakthroughs you’ve heard about.
With color, what you see isn’t always what you get. Discover the reasons in “Hidden Colors Revealed” when UWM chemist Alan Schwabacher shows various ways that color can be present, but not visible — or uncovered. He’ll make a white …
Knowing how parts of nature interact in time and space is critical to our understanding of sustainability. Ecologist Tim Ehlinger looks at our interaction with the land from our first arrival on the continent: trapping, logging, farming, industrialization, urbanization, and suburbia. Through demonstrations he traces human behavior and how it has, and continues, to modify our environment. He builds a “beaver dam” and has “rain” fall on a farmyard and an urban development to show the enormous difference in rainwater retention. Meeting our needs without jeopardizing those of future generations is the theme throughout this look at sustainability.
Jolien Creighton — Geometry was invented to measure the Earth—to survey plots of land and to find distances between towns. We now use the same surveying methods to measure the distances to stars and the shape of the universe. But …
Carmen Aguilar and Russell Cuhel — Quagga mussels seem like invaders from another planet. Are they going to crush the historic wrecked ships on the bottom of Lake Michigan with all their bodies and shells? How did they wipe out the zebra mussels in such a short time? Are they stronger? Learn about the most ravaging invader Lake Michigan has ever seen!
Have you ever wondered how geologists reconstruct the Earth’s history? Join geologist Steve Dornbos as he takes you on a journey through geologic time showing us how fossils are formed, preserved and become more complex as faunal succession occurs. Learn …
Daniel Agterberg — Through interactive demonstrations and examples, we unravel the ideas that lead to John Bardeen’s remarkable discoveries for which he won two Nobel Prizes: the transistor and the explanation of superconductivity. The first created the modern day electronics …
Robert Greenler — The “red-eye effect,” halos from antiquity to modern times, the courting ritual of the woodcock, aerial views of Stonehenge — “a whole bunch of things, many of which can be explained by a similar effect” — work …
Beginning with the flat earth of Ancient Egypt, where tax collectors developed the principles of geometry, John L. Friedman moves through the centuries to show us how science has effected our understanding of concepts such as up or down, of …
Through the looking glass and on into inner space, this video is an adventure in wonderland for all who follow physicist Jun Nogami into the world of microscopes past, present, and future. The journey begins with the familiar magnifying glass, …
Robert Greenler — Change the angle and a drab butterfly displays a wash of brilliant blue; the vibrant green of a beetle turns a rich blue; and the intense red of the ruby-throated humming disappears. Almost like magic, in this …
Sound, motion, and a bit of fury pulse through this dynamic investigation into several imaging techniques used to examine the human body. Physicist Paul Lyman immediately captures the attention of his audience with his entrance, bumping down the long flight …
Science and art, fascination and controversy, all meet in this exploration by physicist Robert Greenler of optical devices and techniques possibly used in the painting of many of the masterpieces of Western Art. Did artists, beginning in the early 1400s, …
The science of color — some of its rules, its mysteries and surprises, its collusion with the human eye — comes under scrutiny in “The Pointillist Painter, the Sunday Comics, and Color TV: Color Mixing in Art Technology.” In this …
Sky effects and the solution of a mystery intertwine in this fascinating look at a photograph of the successful launch of space shuttle Atlantis on February 7, 2001. “What’s going on here?” the Boston Globe science writer asked physicist Robert …
The excitement of discovery, whether of something already known and experienced many times or of finding something for the first time ever in all of history, run throughout “Rainbows, Visible and Invisible.” Physicist Robert Greenler works with both pure science …
“I suspect a top is one of those things that wants to be invented,” Physicist Robert Greenler suggests as he spins fruits and vegetables — nuts, a strawberry with a twig stuck through it, a lemon, an apple on a …
Robert Greenler — What do we mean when we say that a geranium is red, an orange is orange or white white? When, in fact, and why is white white, and what is color? Answers to these and other intriguing …
This is no ordinary music lesson. The familiar out of the unfamiliar… “weird and wonderful things”… a magician pulling sounds out of the air.. .a heightened sense of physical principles and possibilities — all of these, and more are at …
