This symposium will explore the enforcement of, compliance with and remedies flowing from the law in the information society. In 2005, Fordham hosted the first Law and Information Society Symposium to explore what law is or should be applicable in the information society. In this second symposium, we continue our exploration of the law by examining enforcement, compliance and remedies. We will review these aspects in four different substantive areas: international privacy; intellectual property; consumer protection; and data warehousing. These areas have been selected because of their significance in the information society and because they are areas where regulation is currently evolving.

This symposium is open to the public.

Registration Fee: $40

For more info. . .

Filmmaker and CineWomen NY co-president Alison McMahan (www.Cinewomenny.org) joins digital video artists Lynne Sachs (www.lynnesachs.com) and Susan Agliata (www.susanagliata.com) for a presentation on digital video art by women artists since the late sixties. To augment the discussion, Ms. McMahan will present a historical overview with clips by influential artists Carolee Schneeman, Mary Lucier, Mako Idemitsu, Shigeku Kubota, Cheryl Donegan and Max Almy. Sachs and Agliata will present their newly launched Abecedarium:NYC, an online exhibition initiated by The New York Public Library with funding by The New York State Council on the Arts that uses language to explore New York City through video, animation, photography and sound. Abecedarium:NYC is interactive and is waiting for original digital submissions, by artists like you! See it at www.nypl.org/abecedariumnyc

For more info. . .

Peter Head, FREng, FRSA, Arup Planning Plus - International Perspectives on Urban Agricultural Methods

Gregogy Kiss, AIA, Kiss + Cathcart - Vertical Farm Concepts

Ted Caplow, PhD, Director - NYSunWorks - The Science Barge

Ian Marvy, Exec Dir - Added Value - Red Hook Community Farm

Amale Andaros, AIA, WORKac - Public Farm 1 at PS 1

Organized by: AIA Committee on the Environment and AIA International Committee

For more info . . .

In a special collaboration, the Paley Center for Media presents the American premiere screening of Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives. In this poignant documentary, Mark Oliver Everett, creative force behind the indie rock band "Eels," embarks on a personal journey to understand the astounding contribution that his reclusive father Hugh Everett made to physics -- a theory of parallel worlds.

Following the screening, Everett will be joined by theoretical physicists Michio Kaku and Max Tegmark, and physicist/moderator Brian Cox, to explore why - fifty years later - his father's work is now gaining wider acceptance. This program is presented in partnership with NOVA, which will broadcast the film on PBS in the fall of 2008.

Brian Cox - Moderator
Brian Cox is a physicist and BBC television and radio presenter who appears in programs such as In Einstein's Shadow, Bitesize and Horizon.

Participants:

Paula S. Apsell
Apsell heads the flagship PBS science series, NOVA, now in its 35th year. Under Apsell's leadership, NOVA has won every major broadcast award and is the most popular science series on television.

Mark Oliver Everett
Mark Oliver Everett is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and creative force behind the independent rock band, Eels. He is the son of Hugh Everett III, the physicist who proposed the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Michio Kaku
Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and host of the nationally syndicated radio shows, Science Fantastic and Explorations in Science. He is the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics, at the City University of New York.

Max Tegmark
Max Tegmark is a leading cosmologist and an ardent proponent of the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. He is a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For more info . . .

Who deserves the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the element oxygen? Three scientists -- Lavoisier, Priestley, and Scheele -- lay claim to the prize in this play written by distinguished chemists Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann. With the drama unfolding in both 1777 and 2001, the play examines the nature of discovery and the desire for recognition that motivated scientists then as now.

Admission to this event is free, but seating is limited. Seating is first come, first seated.

For more info . . .

The seminar will investigate the antecedents of Jules Verne's futuristic visions within the context of France's cultural and intellectual history, and the reception of Verne's writings in France and abroad will be examined. Film adaptations of Verne's works, and the music associated with them, will be discussed in relation to the aesthetics of French music from Verne's time. The interest in exotic musical cultures, prompted by the several Expositions Universelles in Paris, will be addressed as a parallel to the unknown worlds where Verne set his adventures. Connections between music and film, and the power of music to elicit visual associations, will also be explored. The seminar is related to the Ensemble for the Romantic Century's theatrical concert From the Earth to the Moon. Speakers are Prof. Royal S. Brown, Professor of French, Film and Music Programs, CUNY Graduate Center and James Melo, ERC's musicologist and Senior Editor at RILM.

http://www.romanticcentury.org / 212-817-8606

For more info . . .

Night School Public Seminar 5: Okwui Enwezor, The Politics of Spectacle
Screening: Le fond de l'air est rouge (The Grin Without a Cat), 1977
Director: Chris Marker, Running time: 180 min

A Grin Without a Cat is Chris Marker's epic film essay on the worldwide political wars of the 1960s and 1970s: Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left. From 19670, the year Marker argues was the key turning point, the film is a sweeping, global contemplation of a defining ten years' political history.

Described by Marker as "scenes of the Third World War," the film is divided into two parts, each weaving together two strands:

Part 1: Fragile Hands
1. From Vietnam to Che's death
2. May 1968 and all that

Part 2: Severed Hands
1. From the Spring in Prague to the Common Program of Government in France
2. From Chile- to what?

Released in France in 1978, the film was restored and "re-actualized" by Marker fifteen years later (after the fall of the Soviet Union).

Night School is an artist's project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize and conduct the program. This month's seminar is conceived by Okwui Enwezor.

*This event is free, but tickets are required.

For more info. . .

Join Dr. Steven Kurtz, the artist accused by the US Department of Justice of "bioterrorism" stemming from his use of scientific materials in his award-winning art practice, and science writer Carl Zimmer for a panel discussion on the ethics of scientific and creative research and freedom of speech.

Kurtz, a University at Buffalo professor and founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble, uses biological materials in educational exhibits and performances designed to inspire debate about political and social issues, including those surrounding new biotechnologies. In May of 2004, he was detained on suspicion of "bioterrorism" for his possession of a small laboratory and petri dishes containing bacteria cultures used in several of Critical Art Ensemble's projects. When these accusations proved groundless, he was then charged with mail and wire fraud--charges which carried a possible sentence of 20 years in jail under the USA PATRIOT Act. Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed those charges; however, the US Department of Justice may still appeal the dismissal.

This month's Upgrade! New York is a collaboration between Eyebeam and the World Science Festival, with additional support from the Berkeley Center for New Media.

For more info . . .

In this special presentation with the Rubin Museum of Art, neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran explores the origin of human abilities and whether certain brain structures are unique to humans or whether they evolved from structures originally designed for other functions while inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil, examines the human implications if artificial intelligence surpasses our own.

Participants:

Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, and futurist. In several books for a general audience he has laid out his vision of a merger of man and machine that he contends will shape the future of humankind.

Vilayanur Ramachandran
V.S. Ramachandran investigates the nature of self and human consciousness. His work spans the causes and effects of synesthesia and phantom limb pain to questions about visual perception and the brain. He is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego.

For more info . . .

Join representatives from Con Edison Steam as they discuss the history of steam generation, steam's environmental benefits, and more.

Often overlooked in the recent discussions of energy are the millions of kilograms of steam that are pumped under New York City's streets every hour. For more than 125 years, steam energy has been providing heat, hot water, and cooling to many of New York City's most famous landmarks, hospitals, museums, and businesses. Join Saumil Shukla, Vice President of Steam Operations for Con Edison and James Gallagher, Senior Vice President, Energy and Telecommunications, New York Economic Development Corporation, as they talk about the history of steam generation, explain how the system works, and discuss steam's environmental benefits and plans for maintaining and upgrading the steam system in New York.

For more information please call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395

For more info . . .

The New York Academy of Sciences' Green Building initiative turns its attention to an investigation of the policy imperatives that will drive a new era of sustainable design. Two short lectures will set the stage for a panel discussion in which leading architects, engineers, policy-makers, and others, share views and perspectives upon the critical question - What role is government playing in catalyzing success in our efforts to achieve urban sustainability?

Moderator: Craig Kneeland, NYSERDA

Paul DeCotis: "State Energy Policy: Musing on Past, Present, and Future"

Paul DeCotis is Deputy Secretary for Energy in the New York State Executive Chamber where he serves as senior energy advisor to the Governor. In this capacity, Paul is also Chair of the State Energy Planning Board.
Paul previously served as Director of Energy Analysis for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority where he oversaw state energy forecasting and planning, policy analysis and development, legislative analysis, corporate planning, and energy and R&D program evaluation.
Until his appointment as Deputy Secretary on November 19, 2007, Paul was President of Innovative Management Solutions, a management consulting business, specializing in executive and Board development, strategy and planning, and mediation, a position he has held since 1991.
Paul served in the New York State Energy Office for fifteen years, serving in many capacities; including Chief of Policy Analysis, financial analyst, and economist. Since 1985, he has served as an adjunct faculty member at several colleges and universities including the Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Sage Graduate School. ...

John Krieble: "NYC Government Buildings - LEEDing the Way?"

John Krieble is a NYS registered architect who has worked for 29 years in the public and private sectors in New York City, including the last eight as Director of Sustainable Design at the NYC Department of Design and Construction. His office is responsible for developing the agency's sustainable design program and facilitates the incorporation of sustainable strategies into DDC projects through procurement, contract requirements, research initiatives, grants, and training. Mr. Krieble has been active on several interagency working groups charged with improving the City's construction practices from the standpoint of sustainability. He has advised the Mayor's office on the rules and reporting forms for the recently enacted Local Law 86/2005 that requires many city-funded projects to achieve a LEED rating and is currently advising on the PlaNYC2030 initiative to reduce City government greenhouse gas emissions by 30% before 2018. Prior to joining the City in 1997, he worked in several private architectural firms including Robert Stern Architects, Ehrenkrantz and Eckstut, and Croxton Collaborative.

This meeting is part of the World Science Festival; for more information please visit: www.worldsciencefestival.com/2008-festival/events/all-events-by-date

Sponsored by: Green Buildings, a PS&E program

For more info . . .

This symposium will explore the enforcement of, compliance with and remedies flowing from the law in the information society. In 2005, Fordham hosted the first Law and Information Society Symposium to explore what law is or should be applicable in the information society. In this second symposium, we continue our exploration of the law by examining enforcement, compliance and remedies. We will review these aspects in four different substantive areas: international privacy; intellectual property; consumer protection; and data warehousing. These areas have been selected because of their significance in the information society and because they are areas where regulation is currently evolving.

This symposium is open to the public

Registration Fee: $40

For more info. . .

Screening: The Case of the Grinning Cat, 2004, followed by moderated discussion with Jake Perlin, Assistant Film Curator/BAMCinematek
Director: Chris Marker, Running time: 58 mins

In his newest film, The Case of the Grinning Cat, Chris Marker reflects on French and international politics, art, and culture at the start of the new millennium. In November 2001, the filmmaker became intrigued by the sudden appearance of grinning yellow cats on buildings, Metro walls, and other public surfaces, the appearance of which are a recurring theme throughout the film.

This engaging record of Marker's cinematic peregrinations throughout the city, visually energized by his free-association montage style, chronicles strikes, demonstrations, memorials, election campaigns, celebrity scandals, international political incidents, and a seemingly endless variety of political protests (against the Iraq War, against China's occupation of Tibet, against the government's ban on the wearing of Muslim headscarves). The personalized commentary running throughout The Case of the Grinning Cat offers the simultaneously learned and witty reflections of the filmmaker, now in his early eighties, on both the contemporary and historical implications of these varied events and personalities.

The mysterious grinning yellow cats soon begin to appear amidst the banners and signs in some of the political demonstrations. Eventually, the creator of the grinning cats is revealed to be an art collective known as Mr. Cat, whose members are shown painting a massive representation of their mascot on the plaza in front of the Pompidou Center. The filmmaker's own famous cat caricature soon allies with Mr. Cat, as Marker speculates on the political possibilities of such a feline association.

Night School is an artist's project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize and conduct the program. This month's seminar is conceived by Okwui Enwezor.

*This event is free with Museum admission, but tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved online or at the Museum prior to the seminar's start; a limited number of tickets will be available the day of the event.

For more info. . .

Join renowned conservationist Richard Leakey and bio-acoustician Bernie Krause for an intimate look at some of the world's most endangered species of plants and animals.

Featuring presentations of sounds now extinct from the wild, as well as stunning new video footage from the Arctic, the program takes us on a visceral journey through the past, present, and possible future of life on earth, and presents in no uncertain terms what's at stake in the fight to preserve our planet's rich biodiversity.

Participants:

Bernie Krause
Bernie Krause is a bioacoustician - an expert on the sounds of nature - who has traveled the world recording and archiving the sounds of endangered creatures and environments. He is President and CEO of Wild Sanctuary, Inc., one of the world's largest archives of natural sounds.

Richard Leakey
Paleontologist Richard Leakey's discoveries have helped shape our understanding of human origins. He is a committed conservationist and staunch advocate for the protection of Kenyan wildlife. A former director of Kenya's Wildlife Service, he is the author of several books including The Sixth Extinction.

David Thoreson
David Thoreson is an adventurer, photographer and sailor who has bicycled 10,000 miles around North America; sailed 36,000 miles around the planet; and crossed the Atlantic three times by sail. In the summer of 2007, he completed the Northwest Passage, where he filmed a documentary about the effects of climate change.

Tickets: $30.00, Student: $12.00

For more info. . .

We stand at a crossroads. Cities must change radically to achieve long-term sustainability. Energy, food and water sources, transportation systems and basic infrastructure, must all adapt to emerging pressures from climate change, dwindling resources and growing urban populations.

How will we meet this immense challenge? In a program that is part celebration of human ingenuity and part stark reminder of the problems we face, urban planner Peter Head, architects Blaine Brownell and Mitchell Joachim, environmentalist Majora Carter, and microbiologist Dickson Despommier lay out radical blueprints and innovative solutions as they imagine housing, feeding, transporting and sustaining city dwellers of the not too distant future. The event is moderated by President of the Aspen Institute and noted journalist, Walter Isaacson.

Participants:

Blaine Brownell
Blaine Brownell is an architect with expertise in how revolutionary eco-materials have the potential to facilitate sustainable building and design. He is a Visiting Professor in Sustainability at the University of Michigan as well as founder and director of the design/materials research firm, Transstudio.

Majora Carter
Majora Carter is a leading environmentalist whose rallying cry is "Green the Ghetto." A 2005 MacArthur fellow, she is the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, a community-based organization that is spearheading efforts to revitalize disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York City and beyond.

Dickson Despommier
Dickson Despommier is a pioneering researcher in the development of urban vertical farm skyscrapers for food production. He is a professor of public health and microbiology in environmental health sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Peter Head is an expert on the sustainable development of cities and the project leader for China's first eco-city, Dongtan. An award-winning structural engineer, he is the director of Global Planning at Arup, the worldwide engineering, design, and consulting firm. Head was recently named one of "50 global green heroes who could save the planet" by The Guardian newspaper.

Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of Time Magazine. He is the author of Einstein: His Life and Universe, as well as biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.

Mitchell Joachim
Mitchell Joachim is an architect and urban designer as well as a partner in Terreform, a New York based organization for philanthropic architecture and ecological design. His design of a compact, stackable "city car," developed with the MIT Smart Cities Group, won the 2007 Time Magazine Best Invention of the Year.

Tickets: $25.00 / Student Tickets: $12.00

For more info. . .

Okwui Enwezor lectures on the politics of the spectacle.

For more info. . .

Nearly 100 years ago, Russian geneticist Nikolai Vavilov - recognized today as the "father of biodiversity" - created the world's first seed bank with the dream of ending famine and hunger. Persecuted by Stalin, Vavilov was thrown into a Communist jail and died before he could enact his grand vision, but his groundbreaking discoveries triggered a global revolution in agriculture that continues today.

Peter Pringle, acclaimed journalist and author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov, joins Robert Goodman, Executive Dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University, to explore strategies for ensuring the survival of the planet's botanical heritage in the face of potentially catastrophic global threats. Award-winning science writer Carl Zimmer moderates.

Participants:

Robert Goodman
A plant biologist and virologist by training, Robert Goodman is a world authority on soil microorganisms and plant disease. His recent research explores the diversity of microorganisms in soil, and their resistance to cultivation.

Peter Pringle
Peter Pringle is author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov and co-author of nine previous books. His book, Food Inc., traced the history of biotech agriculture. The former Moscow bureau chief for The Independent, he has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic and The Nation.

Edward Toth
A leading authority on landscape management and plant conservation, Edward Toth is Director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, which collects and raises specimens of New York's indigenous flora and maintains a seed bank for preservation of local species. He has written extensively on ecological management of urban natural areas.

Carl Zimmer - Moderator
Award-winning science writer Carl Zimmer explores the frontiers of biology in his writing. His work appears regularly in the New York Times and many magazines. He is the author, most recently, of Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life. In 2007 he was awarded the National Academies' Science Communication Award.

Admission to this program is free with paid admission to the New York Botanical Garden.
Ticket information for the New York Botanical Garden can be found here: http://www.nybg.org/plan_your_visit/planyourvisit.php

For more info. . .

SkowheganTALKS, a new lecture series organized by the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, features conversations between some of the most influential visual artists working today. The final talk in the inaugural year of this series will take place on Saturday, May 31, with a conversation between artist Ellen Altfest and curator, writer, painter, and Dean of the Yale School of Art Robert Storr.

SkowheganTALKS features recent alumni of the residency program of the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in conversation with artists and others who have been faculty members at Skowhegan. While the association with Skowhegan is the common factor among the speakers, the conversations are not intended to focus on the speakers, respective experiences at Skowhegan, but rather will address subjects of broader interest including the participating artists' current and past work and the challenges and opportunities that are characteristic of working as an artist today. An especially interesting aspect of SkowheganTALKS is that the conversations are also intended explore the mentor-student relationship, a model that is becoming increasingly important for young artists in New York and worldwide. Because most of the conversations will pair individuals who met at Skowhegan when one was a participant and the other was a faculty member, the speakers have direct mentor-student experience with one another upon which they can draw.

Ellen Altfest received her BFA from Cornell University, her MFA from Yale University School of Art, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2002. From 2003-04 she was awarded a studio at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation in Tribeca, New York. She received a Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation grant from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 2006. She has had solo exhibitions in New York in 2002 and 2005 at Bellwether Gallery and in London in 2007 at White Cube. She has been included in group exhibitions at The Royal Academy of Arts, London, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Artists Space, New York. Altfest has also curated several exhibitions, most recently "Men" at I-20 Gallery, New York, in 2006. Altfest's work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Time Out New York, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Artforum and Modern Painters.

Robert Storr attended Skowhegan in 1978, was a faculty member there in 2002, and is a Skowhegan Governor. In 2006 he was appointed Dean of the Yale School of Art. Previous to this, he was the Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. In the spring of 2007 Storr directed the 2007 Venice Biennale, the first American invited to assume that position. From 1990 to 2002 he was the Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), stepping down as Senior Curator in 2002. Storr's accomplishments span the art world. He is a painter, an art historian and critic, and a prodigious writer about the theory and practice of Art. He has been the curator of many exhibitions at the MoMA and elsewhere, and the author of dozens of monographs and catalogues. He also organized a number of reinstallations of MoMA's permanent collection, covering such topics as abstraction and the modern grotesque. Storr received his BA from Swarthmore College in 1972 and his MFA in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978.

For more information about Skowhegan, visit www.skowheganart.org.

For more info. . .

Life. Some scientists are searching the cosmos for habitable cradles of it, others are combing Earth for exotic forms of it, while others still are on the verge of creating it in the lab. The forms life could take seem endless, at least in theory. But are there universal laws of life, much like the fundamental laws of physics, which govern or limit the characteristics that make it - in any form - possible? Join John Hockenberry for a vibrant discussion with leading astrobiologists Paul Davies, Steven Benner and Maggie Turnbull as they look at life through the lens of chemistry and physics in search of life as we don't know it.

Participant:

Steven Benner
Steven Benner is one of the pioneers of synthetic biology, which seeks to create artificial living systems. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida and a founder of the Westheimer Institute for Science.

Paul Davies
Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and author of numerous books about science for a general audience. His research ranges from the origin of the universe to the origin of life. Davies is the director of the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University.

John Hockenberry - Moderator br/> John Hockenberry is an award-winning journalist with twenty-five years experience in radio, broadcast television and print. He is co-host of WNYC and PRI's The Takeaway with John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji, host on The DNA Files, and a contributor to The Infinite Mind. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the MIT Media Lab.

Maggie Turnbull
Margaret Turnbull leads the science team of the NASA New Worlds Observer mission looking for Earth-like planets and signs of alien life. She is an astrobiologist at the Global Science Institute in Wisconsin.

Tickets: $17.00 Student Tickets: $12.00

For more info. . .

The Fight to Free the Charleston 5
E. Paul Durrenberger & Suzan Erem

Longshoremen stand at the nexus of the global economy, handling nearly every cargo container that enters or leaves any country. Even in the face of the "containerization" of cargo in the 70s and 80s, a development that decimated longshore unions, they have managed to win contracts that provide exceptional benefits and high wages.

On the Global Waterfront tells the story of how longshoremen in South Carolina confronted attempts to wipe out the state's most powerful black organization. When a Danish shipping company began to shift their transportation to a nonunion firm in 1999, Local 1422 in Charleston, South Carolina, mobilized to protect their hard-won rights. What followed culminated in a protest in which 660 riot police arrayed against fifty dockworkers, a group that grew to 150 before the night was over.

On the Global Waterfront explores in detail a local conflict and in the process exposes the powers that rule the United States and the global economy. This compelling narrative of a local struggle, a transformed union leader, and a newly energized international worker movement highlights the resounding importance of the international labor movement that is not only still vital, but still capable of stopping global commerce on a dime.

Suzan Erem has worked in the union movement as an organizer, union rep, communications director, and elected officer, mainly in Chicago. She is the author of Labor Pains: Inside America's New Union Movement (Monthly Review Press). She is now a freelance writer.

E. Paul Durrenberger is a professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. Together Erem and Durrenberger recently wrote Class Acts: An Anthropology of Service Workers and Their Union and Anthropology Unbound: A Field Guide to the 21st Century. They are married and live in Pennsylvania.

Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15

For more info. . .

Recent years have seen an increasing level of dialogue between chemists and biologists, the lines of communication consolidated by the availability of recombinant biotechnology tools for manipulating the chemical structure of genes and the proteins they encode. This has led to an explosion of interdisciplinary activity at the chemistry-biology interface, now coined chemical biology. The goal of the Chemical Biology Discussion Group is to bring together chemists and biologists working in the New York area who are interested in hearing about the latest ideas in this rapidly growing field. This group will provide a forum for lively discussion and for establishing connections, and perhaps collaborations, between chemists armed with novel technologies and biologists receptive to using these approaches to solve their chosen biological problem.

Keynote speaker: Michael Famulok, Universitat Bonn.

Short Presentations by: Yu Liu, New York University; Phillip Effraim, Columbia University; Elizabeth George Cisar, The Rockefeller University; Justin Cisar, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Liz Harker, Yale University; Keith Baessler, Stony Brook University

Keynote Address: Exploring Chemical Space with Aptamers
Michael Famulok, Universitat Bonn
Small molecule inhibitors of proteins are invaluable tools in Chemical Biology. Their identification can be tedious, because most screening methods have to be tailored to the corresponding drug target. We have developed modular assays based on aptamer displacement or protein-dependent reporter ribozymes for the screening of small-molecule inhibitors. As aptamers can be generated for virtually any protein, the assay potentially identifies inhibitors for targets or individual protein domains for which no functional screen is available. Thereby, chemical space is explored in a rapid, focused, and modular manner, by indirectly taking advantage of the highest molecular diversity currently amenable to screening, namely that of 1016 different nucleic acid sequences. I will discuss the application of these approaches to find new inhibitors for several target proteins. Examples showing that these modulators can be used as tools for gaining novel biological insight are provided.

Interlocking Molecules by Coupling Across a DNA Duplex Helical Turn
Yu Liu, New York University (Canary Group)
Two uridine monomers containing 2'-thio-alkyl linkers functionalized with -amine or -carboxylate groups were synthesized and incorporated into oligonucleotides (ODNs). Amide coupling across one full helical turn of DNA with these modified ODNs was examined under the templation of a complementary DNA. The coupling efficiency was evaluated by denaturing gel electrophoresis and MALDI MS, and the formation of coupled product was also characterized by complete nuclease digestion. The construction of a hybrid catenane based on this strategy proved the interlocked structure. The free 3' and 5' ends of the coupled oligonucleotides also provided useful handles for post-synthetic labeling or modification.

Aminoacyl-tRNA Substrate Specificity of the Translation Machinery
Phillip Effraim, Columbia University (Cornish Group)
The translation machinery is able to catalyze the mRNA-template directed synthesis of polypeptides with an error rate of only one in every 103 to 104 peptide bonds synthesized. Significant advances in the last decade make it possible for the first time to examine how the translation machinery is able to work with the chemically diverse 20 natural amino acids, but at the same time have such a low error rate. Several lines of evidence suggest that the current kinetic model of the elongation cycle does not fully account for substrate selection, and that there are other factors in addition to the codon anticodon interaction that are important for substrate selection. We have developed assays that, combined with our purified in vitro translation system, allow us to test the hypothesis that the ribosome is able to read-out the amino acid-tRNA combinations during translation.

Reception to follow.

Sponsored by: Chemical Biology Discussion Group

Organizer: Paramjit Arora, New York University

For more info. . .

Americans are slowly but surely becoming more aware of their food and how it gets to their tables. In recent years, the terms locavore, foodshed, and community supported agriculture (CSA) have entered the popular lexicon. This heightened cultural and economic awareness has highlighted previously obscure problems of our food system . We are becoming better cooks, more informed consumers, and, in the words of the Slow Food movement, "co-producers." Our panel will explore the lexical contours of the changing American "foodscape."

Panelists include Brian Halweil, publisher of the new magazine Edible Manhattan; Anne Saxelby, proprietor of Saxelby Cheesemongers; and Michael Anthony, executive chef of Gramercy Tavern. Co-sponsored by Edible Manhattan and The New School Food Studies Program.

Admission: $8; free to all students and New School faculty, staff, and alumni with ID

Box Office Information: In person purchases can be made at The New School Box Office at 66 West 12th Street, main floor, Monday- Friday 1:00-7:00 p.m. The box office opens the first day of classes and closes after the last paid event of each semester.

For events scheduled during the summer term, the box office will open one hour before each event. During this period only, reservations and inquiries can be made by emailing boxoffice@newschool.edu or calling 212.229.5488.

For more info. . .

The Situationist International & the French Revolution of May/June 1968

Steve Duncombe, Marie-Claire Picher & Others TBA

As the general strike in France in May and June 1968 began to ebb, Rene Vienet, a member of the Situationist International, assessed those events in a polemical document entitled Enrages and Situationists in the Occupations Movement (Enrages et situationnistes dans le mouvement des Occupations [Paris: Gallimard, 1968]). Vienet wrote: "History offers few examples of a social movement with such depth of struggle as that which erupted in France in the spring of 1968....The great majority of the masses mobilized by the revolutionary crisis of May began to understand what they were living, and therefore understood what they had previously been living. And those who were able to develop the clearest consciousness recognized the total theory of the revolution as their own."

The strike, and subsequent occupations by all sectors of the working class of the factories and the universities--as well as the streets--was, in reality, a social revolutionary movement that challenged not only capitalism but also the staid and ossified left-wing unions, parties and organizations, their bureaucratic structures and their fossilized ideologies. Not since the first French Revolution happened in the late eighteenth century has a revolutionary movement challenged and confronted not *merely* the outmoded forms of social and economic organization, but also the very conditions and essence of daily life as extensively and completely as the French working class did in 1968. The left-wing bureaucracies, which sought to expropriate the revolutionary impulse by claiming to represent it, had been superseded by the working class itself. The most revolutionary grouping during these times was the Situationist International (SI). Our discussion tonight will focus on the theoretical positions put forth by the SI and how those positions manifested in the daily, ongoing revolutionary activities of May and June 1968. Marie-Claire Picher is a former director of the Brecht Forum and a founder of and facilitator with the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory. She was at the Sorbonne in 1968 and participated in the occupation activities.

Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15

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