- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Karban, who studies volatile (chemical) communication between plants that affect their defenses against herbivores, will speak from 8:10 to 8:45. He is one of four speakers booked from 7 to 9 p.m.
The event, free and open to the public, begins at 6:30 with socializing and networking. It is sponsored by the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program.
Other speakers are
- Tami Spector, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of San Francisco, whose topic is “The Molecular Elusive”
- Katharine Hawthorne, a San Francisco-based dancer and choreographer, “Analog Bodies” and
- Cody Ross, a postdoctoral cultural and statistical anthropologist working at the Santa Fe Institute and UC Davis. “Art Is Offensive: Integrative Art and Social Justice.”
Karban drew international scientific and media attention with his research on “Kin Recognition Affects Plant Communication and Defense,” published in February 2013 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. He and four colleagues showed that kin have distinct advantages when it comes to plant communication, just as “the ability of many animals to recognize kin has allowed them to evolve diverse cooperative behaviors,” he told the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology in a news release.
“When sagebrush plants are damaged by their herbivores, they emit volatiles that cause their neighbors to adjust their defenses,” Karban said. “These adjustments reduce rates of damage and increase growth and survival of the neighbors.”
Karban was featured in Michael Pollan's piece on “The Intelligent Plant: Scientists Debate a New Way of Understanding Plants,” published last December in The New Yorker.” He is also spotlighted on YouTube.
A member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology since 1982, Karban received his bachelor's degree in environmental studies from Haverford (Pa.) College, and his doctorate in biology from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and has published more than 100 journal articles and two books.
Brief biographies:
Tami Spector, professor of organic chemistry at the University of San Francisco, will speak from 7 to 7:25 p.m. on “The Molecular Elusive.” She was trained as a physical organic chemist. Her scientific work has focused on fluorocarbons, strained ring organics, and the molecular dynamics and free energy calculations of biomolecules. Spector also has a strong interest in aesthetics and chemistry and has published and presented work on molecular and nano- aesthetics, the visual image of chemistry, and the relationship between chemistry and contemporary visual art. She serves on the governing and editorial boards of Leonardo/ISAST, co-hosts the San Francisco based Leonardo Arts Sciences Evening Rendezvous' (LASERs), and serves as the co-editor of an ongoing special section “Art and Atoms” for Leonardo Journal.
Katharine Hawthorne, a San Francisco based dancer and choreographer who makes live performances about thinking bodies in motion, will speak on “Analog Bodies” from 7:25 to 7:50. “How can analog signals and old technologies can be used as metaphors for understanding the body, and in
Cody Ross, now a postdoctoral cultural and statistical anthropologist working at the Santa Fe Institute and UC Davis, will speak on “Art Is Offensive: Integrative Art and Social Justice” from 8:40 to 9 p.m.
Ross works on projects concerning intergenerational wealth transmission and the persistence of economic inequality. His work, both academic and artistic, is targeted toward inspiring deeper discourse about issues related to social justice.
“This talk focuses on the intersection of Art (subjective) and Science (objective), with Activism/Justice/Justness (intersubjective),” Ross says in his abstract. “We use several of my own art pieces and performances to think through the ways in which integrative, socially, conscious art can provide a way of representing scientific knowledge in a manner that is intuitively digestible, and piercing. I especially focus on the offensiveness of art, both in the way: 1) an art piece at first glance can shock us and put us in a place of discomfort at what we are witnessing, which can move us out of the routine comfort we might feel with the injustices going on around us, and 2) the way art can be offensive (like the offence of a sports team) in the pursuit towards establishing a more just world. Art need not be relegated to illustrating the beautiful, instead by illustrating the horrific, it can inspire towards the realization of the beautiful in our world.
The UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program was co-founded by entomologist/artist Diane Ullman and artist Donna Billick. Ullman is a professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now Entomology and Nematology) and a former associate dean for undergraduate academic programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Billick is a self-described "rock artist" who has degrees in art and science (genetics). She retired from UC Davis earlier this year as a course instructor with the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program but continues her art.
Related Links: Rick Karban
Kin Recognition
New Yorker