Ingenious inventions highlight Lawrence Livermore's popular lecture series

LIVERMORE, California -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) popular lecture series, "Science on Saturday," returns Feb. 4 and runs through Feb. 25 at the Bankhead Theater, located at 2400 First St., Livermore.

The series will offer four different lectures with the theme "Ingenious Inventions." Each lecture is presented by leading LLNL researchers who are joined by master high school science teachers.

Two presentations are offered each Saturday in February at 9:30 and 11:15 a.m. The free lectures target middle- and high-school students.

Kicking off the series on Feb. 4 is "Forensic Science in Crisis: How Proteins Can Help," presented by scientists Brad Hart, Deon Anex and Katelyn Mason. They will discuss the challenges of traditional forensic methods, which have come under increasing criticism by the scientific community and the work going on at Lawrence Livermore's Forensic Science Center (FSC) to address some of those challenges. They will be joined by Katherine Huang, who teaches classes in anatomy, physiology and biotechnology at Dougherty Valley High School.  

A complete schedule of lectures is available on the web:

• Feb. 4: "Forensic Science in Crisis: How Proteins Can Help," by LLNL scientists Brad Hart, Deon Anex and Katelyn Mason, along with teacher Katherine Huang of Dougherty Valley High School.
• Feb. 11: "Reconstructing a Rabies Epidemic: Byte by Byte," by LLNL scientists Monica Borucki and Jonathan Allen and teacher Elizabeth Lopez of Granada High School.
• Feb. 18: "3D Printing: From Imagination to Realization," by LLNL scientists Eric Duoss, Chris Spadaccini, Julie Jackson, William Smith and Melody Golobic, along with teacher Dean Reese of Tracy High School.
• Feb. 25:-"Building Biologically Inspired Nano-Bots," by LLNL scientists Matt Coleman, Amy Rasley and Wei He, along with teacher Erin McKay of Tracy High School.

Science on Saturday is sponsored by LLNL's Science Education Program. There is no pre-registration and seating is on a first-come basis.

The lecture series will be available online at a later date via the LLNL YouTube Channel.

For more information about Science on Saturday, visit the web or contact Joanna Albala, (925) 422-6803, or albala1 [at] llnl.gov (e-mail).