Professors, Experts Discuss Hot Topics in Science

Dinosaurs had feathers. Poison ivy could take over. Plants are celebrating as humans perish in the San Diego fires.

Last night, top scientists amused, informed, and, at times, disturbed and provoked an audience of alumnae, faculty, and students in Lehman Auditorium for a discussion of the latest advancements in evolution, ecology and physics and human awareness of science.

Entitled “Hot Topics in Science,” the panel was a collaboration between Barnard College and the American Museum of Natural History. A series of speeches by the panel of evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, and an astrophysicist bridged the gaps between the different fields by highlighting an eminent topic, global warming, from a variety of expert perspectives.

Ellen Futter BC ’71, president of the American Museum of Natural History and former president of Barnard College, opened the evening with comments on the relationship between the sciences and society—emphasizing poor scientific understanding throughout the world, and particularly in America.

“We need to prepare today’s and future citizens for active, informed citizenship,” Futter said. “There is an essential link between public understanding of scientific issues and our capacity to investigate them.”

Laura Kay, professor of physics and astronomy and chair of women’s studies at Barnard, explained how scientists use other planets in the solar system, such as Venus and Mars, to understand phenomena of Earth, like global warming.

According to Kay, global warming appeared in textbooks as early as the 1960s when data about the high temperatures of Venus, around 800 degrees Fahrenheit, first became available. According to the “runaway greenhouse” theory, Venus may have originally had water and a similar atmosphere to Earth, but its slightly closer proximity to the sun was enough that carbon dioxide began to dominate the atmosphere, attracting radiation and resulting in increased temperatures and the evaporation of Venus’ water.

“Why is Earth special? Because Earth’s atmosphere was changed by life,” Kay said. “Photosynthesis converted carbon dioxide to molecular oxygen while at the same time carbon dioxide was absorbed into rocks, plant life, and the ocean. But since the Industrial Revolution there’s been the release of more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

Continuing the focus on Earth, Hilary Callahan, assistant professor of Biological Sciences at Barnard, highlighted how organisms can respond to environmental changes. After inciting some unsettled laughter in the audience by discussing how increased carbon dioxide increases the growth rates and potency of poison ivy, Callahan explored both evolution, changes in a type of organism over many generations, and phenotypic plasticity, changes in an individual organism over its lifetime.

Michael Novacek, senior vice president and provost of science and curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, explained how such changes in the biosphere correlate with changes in the geosphere and how both elements are studied.

“We are able to reconstruct the atmosphere of the past Earth,” Novacek said. “We can figure out what gases made up our atmosphere at different times, and how these gases affected life on Earth. There have been times in the past when we had a greenhouse Earth.”

The audience seemed engrossed even at the end, as Ward Wheeler, curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, finished the speeches by explaining how fossil records show life rebounding after the extinction of dinosaurs and other species 65 million years ago when an asteroid the size of Mt. Everest smashed into Earth. Wheeler also surprised the audience, and left them with something to share with their children: scientists are now certain that dinosaurs had feathers.
Ashley Pandolfi can be reached at ashley.pandolfi@columbiaspectator.com.