Science Forum

Each term, some of our weekly Jam Session are replaced by an E.E. Just Science Forum presentation. This event features talks by Dartmouth faculty, by visiting scientists, and/or by E.E. Just fellows or interns. The gatherings usually include a relatively brief presentation with a Q&A session. The speaker typically spends a little time with the audience—either before or after the talk—over dinner in the E.E. Just Room. This is a great opportunity for our fellows and community members to learn more about exciting ideas in STEM and to network with scientists working at the forefront of their fields. 

Prof. Esteban Orellana

Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine
 

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The cells in your body contain genes made of DNA. Genes store the genetic information passed on to you by your parents. This information serves as the recipe to make proteins, and proteins build, maintain, and heal every tissue in your body. The cellular machinery that makes proteins reads this recipe with the help of small molecules called transfer RNAs (tRNAs), which supply the necessary building blocks in the correct order to construct specific proteins. To function properly, tRNAs must fold into the correct three-dimensional shape, a process that requires tRNAs to be decorated with chemical modifications. In this seminar, we will discuss the importance of this decorating process in normal physiology and in the context of diseases such as cancer.

Prof. Theresa Ong

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College

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Urban community gardens are often viewed as a means for improving equity and access to greenspace and ecosystem services in cities, yet persistent inequities in homeownership and wealth in cities across the US may influence species composition in urban gardens and consequently what kinds of ecosystem services are provided, to who, and for how long. In this paper, we link patterns of tree planting and perennial crop cultivation in urban gardens to trends in garden abandonment, homeownership, and race across the city of Boston, MA where the nation's oldest urban gardens persist in a landscape segregated according to lines of wealth and race. We find that urban gardens with more trees are older, have less plot abandonment during the growing season, higher proportions of perennial plant species including many medicinal herbs, and are positively correlated with white populations and homeownership, revealing an interconnectedness between trees, perennial plants, race, and land tenure security.