2 Nobel Prize-winners Discuss Origins of Life at UAlbany

Two Nobel Laureates will discuss the chemistry that produced the origins of life when they serve as the keynote lecturers at Albany 2013: The 18th Conversation, presented by University at Albany’s departments of Chemistry and Biological Sciences on June 11- 15. The event will draw more than 300 delegates from over 20 countries to the UAlbany Uptown Campus.

Jack Szostak from Harvard University and Ada Yonath from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, will speak on June 12 at 8 p.m. in Lecture Center 18.

The lectures are open to the public!

Szostak is the co-editor of the book, The Origins of Life (2010).

The 18th Conversation is sponsored by the University’s departments of Chemistry and Biological Sciences and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which has funded the Conversation since 1981.

For more information, email Dr.Ramaswamy Sarma at rhs07@albany.edu.

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Junk DNA as Cultural Metaphor

French cultural theorist and genetic engineer (specializing in the DNA of beans) Thierry Bardini will be the keynote speaker of the 10th Annual English Graduate Student Conference, 5:30 PM, Friday 3/30.

The conference, entitled "WASTE," at the University at Albany downtown campus, all day, Friday 3/30.

Thierry's new book is Junkware (2010): "Examining cybernetic structures from genetic codes to communication networks, Thierry Bardini explores the idea that most of culture and nature, including humans, is composed of useless, but always potentially recyclable, material otherwise known as ‘junk.’ Junkware examines the cultural history that led to the encoding and decoding of life itself and the contemporary turning of these codes into a commodity."

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