We at the Life Science Cafe team are very excited to present to you our next speaker of the season: Dr Sibongile Mafu who will be talking about her wonderful work on plants and the chemicals that they produce!

Please join us in learning about her research on Thursday November 12th at 6pm. Please register here.

Thank you everyone for joining us for our latest café ‘What’s bugging the bees?’ with Dr Rosemary Malfi! We had a lot of great questions that brought up some resources we would like to share with everyone.

What effect does Copper Sulfide and other pesticides have on bees?

• This compound is considered to have low toxicity based on lethal dosage studies performed in honey bees (there is a nice summary of toxicity of various agrochemicals from Michigan State Extension https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/resources/pdfs/Minimizing_Pesticide_Risk_to_Bees_in_Fruit_Crops_(E3245).pdf ). However, there appears to be at least one study (from Brazil https://entomologytoday.org/2016/04/11/study-shows-leaf-fertilizers-to-be-toxic-to-stingless-bees/ ) showing that solitary bee species may suffer greater impacts with oral exposure (e.g., eating it). Unfortunately, toxicity classifications are almost always based on what is lethal to honeybees, which likely do not represent the sensitivity of other species. With all that said, there is always a balance we are trying to strike between protecting pollinators and protecting our crops from pests and disease. Applying copper at times when a plant is not flowering and applying it in the evening will help to reduce direct exposure of bees to this compound. 

How can we help Pollinators?

How can I safely get rid of carpenter bees without using dangerous chemicals?

• The soda bottle traps are quite effective.
  • You can make your own: https://www.livingsmall.com/carpenter-bees-how-to-get-rid-of-them-with-this-diy-trap/ 
  • Or you can buy them: https://bestbeebrothers.com/products/best-carpenter-bee-trap?gclid=CjwKCAjw8-78BRA0EiwAFUw8LG7flH__pIPHWMsSxw-vAf59mXo0PHOH9S0gRc9hej12Zkxxl9Z4ixoCdZgQAvD_BwE

Our second café of the semester is the place to BEE! Join us and Dr. Rosemary Malfi to talk about what’s bugging the bees!

Link to webinar; https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/w/91487864665?tk=4Bba8P02B5Xhryw4N1Ss1IDB2P5EQ9A3cEoCA0R-Gzc.AG.XdNl_dbDbOtCA78-wIsGKKGwCo4zsHmZvPcNP79IdV56ZL1PU07mRZX0D18rbCbXR7px6a2XnUDTqvPOQ64oCBRnpKnhi12s.MjRJvN8Uw-1QwVJNaSdLqA.J_NITCPvY-A2lVK1&uuid=WN_p8rERDWOR4i5gqFhDovTxQ 

We at the Life Science Cafe team are very excited to present to you our next speaker of the season: Dr Rosemary Malfi!
Please join us in learning about her research on Thursday October 29th at 6pm. Please Register here.

We at the Life Science Café team are very excited to announce our first speaker of the season: Dr Abel Mendez!

Please join us in learning about his research on Thursday September 24th at 6pm. Please Register here

I hope you all have been having a good summer and a fairly smooth transition into fall. We at Life Science Café have been working hard to get a great lineup for this fall and we hope you are as excited as we are!  Please see the poster below for our exciting lineup this fall!

Sign up for this webinar at this link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJiyO0ygB-mX1z6fiokvBanig4e1yDEB0UbjprC0LP0DlpwA/viewform?usp=sf_link

A link to the webinar will be emailed to you after you’ve signed up.

Sign up for this webinar at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSckuHraqi0mMTaZck5EI8AOIOHqz5l0prxNq8TSkltot7Q_6Q/viewform

A link to the webinar will be emailed to you after you sign up above.

Hello all,

 The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented global challenge to modern human society. While a better understanding of the direct effects and prevention of COVID-19 are needed, we also must consider the indirect effects to societal dynamics, mental health, the economy, and more. While Life Science Cafe has been working to transition our normal science content to online formats, we have also received requests from our audience for programming about COVID-19. We are pleased to announce we will host a COVID-19 panel at 4pm on May 7th. The panel will be a Zoom webinar format which you can watch live, or view the recording of the panel afterwards. In order to register for the event (required for viewing live) and submit questions for the panelists, please fill out this form by May 5th. Once you register, further instructions will be sent about how to use Zoom to view our webinar. Live attendees will also be able to submit questions during the panel.

Our panel will feature three UMass Amherst faculty members, Drs. Linda Tropp, Matthew Moore, and Andrew Lover:

Dr. Linda Tropp is a social psychologist who studies how perceptions of threat and differences in perspective can fuel conflict and prejudice between groups. She is particularly concerned about how feelings of uncertainty associated with the Covid-19 pandemic are shaping attitudes and behaviors toward immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities.

Dr. Matthew D. Moore is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science who studies applied and environmental virology. His research focuses on the pathogenesis, detection, and control of viruses, and has historically focused on food and environmentally transmitted viruses.

Dr. Andrew A. Lover is an infectious disease epidemiologist in the Dept of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, and is actively involved in COVID-19 response at the local and state levels.

Life Science Cafe wishes you and your families the best in this challenging time. We hope to continue bringing you exciting science content, from a safe distance!

P.S. We will resume our regularly scheduled programming with a webinar on ‘New Insights From Old Bones’ with Dr. John Rowan on May 14th. Stay tuned for more information on that event!

Dear Science Cafe community,

We wanted to update you all on our Science Cafe events for the next few months. It should come as no surprise that we will not be holding our regular in-person events in April and May given the current need for social distancing. Rather than completely postponing all our events, we are considering offering at least one of the events as a webinar-style talk, and we would love to hear your opinions on this idea. Please fill out this quick 4 question poll if you have a minute, no later than Tuesday March 31st. At this point we are unsure when we can resume in-person events, but we will keep you posted. Link to poll:  https://forms.gle/ynT5PwxMFehvTvBJ7

All the Best,
Science Cafe Grad Student Organizers