Campus Life

Series examines how the brain works; online viewers welcome

"Broken Brains: New Research on Brain Disease Is Revealing How the Healthy Mind Works" is the theme of the 2007 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, a series of free public lectures that began Saturday, Jan. 27.

Designed as a free minicourse for the enjoyment and education of the general public, the lectures take place on five consecutive Saturday mornings from 11 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. on the Penn State University Park campus. The lectures also may be viewed online.

The series consists of five consecutive lectures about recent research on the structure and function of the human brain. The free minicourse will give audience members and Web viewers an understanding of how the study of brain disease is helping researchers to make new discoveries about normal brain function. The lectures will include:

-- Feb. 3: "Addiction: A Bad Case of Good Memory" by Kyung-An Han, associate professor of biology at Penn State, in 100 Thomas Building;

-- Feb. 10: "Serotonin and the Misbehaving Brain: Unraveling the Biology of Anxiety and Depression" by Anne Andrews, assistant professor of molecular toxicology at Penn State, in 100 Thomas Building;

-- Feb. 17: "Schizophrenia: The Broken Brain and How to Fix It" by Robert Levenson, professor of pharmacology in the Penn State College of Medicine, in 100 Thomas Building; and

-- Feb. 24: "Brain Repair: Hopes and Challenges" by Gong Chen, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, in 112 Kern Building.

People outside the State College area can view the Frontiers lectures by pointing their Web browser to http://live.libraries.psu.edu/ online. The recommended browser is Internet Explorer, and users will need to have Windows Media Player installed on their computers prior to attempting to watch the live presentation. Windows Media Player is a free media player available for download to both Windows and Mac users at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx online.

The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science, with additional financial support provided by Pfizer Inc.

Last Updated September 29, 2010