LEARN. EXPLORE. DISCOVER. |
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Dear friends,
So you might be wondering if this was, in fact, written on Dec. 8? Maybe it's really a message from the past. Or maybe we're in another timeline entirely. Who's to say?
Anyway, since we're here now, we'd like to talk to you about the future.
Specifically, YOUR future.
One thing we're passionate about at UCR Palm Desert is bringing accessible educational programming to everyone in the community. That includes UCR Osher, which offers affordable courses for lifelong learners over the age of 50.
You'll read more about UCR Osher below. We encourage you to spend some time with the catalog and see what the future might hold for you. Maybe you've always wanted to know more about surrealist films. Maybe you're kicking yourself for not going to law school in the past — but you'd like to spend your present discussing judicial issues in the news. Maybe you want to dive into some history.
Take care and we'll see you sometime in the future. Or maybe we already did.
— The UCR Palm Desert Center team
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Winter courses for UCR OSHER start in January! Registration opened last week, and classes are already filling up — Osher members are eager to learn about things like science issues in the news; intro to wine tasting; the Monuments Men; and Fellini films.
Want to become part of this community of vibrant and mature lifelong learners?
Click here to take a look at the Winter 2022 catalog. When you're ready to register, you can do that here.
Also: Please pass this information along to your friends! New members help our Osher community thrive.
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Rabea Eghbariah is a human rights attorney with Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, for which he has argued cases before the Israeli Supreme Court. During a recent UCR Palm Desert event, he spoke about Palestinians and the Israeli legal system, highlighting land ownership cases including the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The discussion was co-moderated by Muhamad Ali, Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, and Michael Alexander, Professor of Religious Studies and Maimonides Chair in Jewish Studies.
If you missed the live program, you can watch the recording here.
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Slow Art Sunday
2 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12
Join UCR ARTS on the second Sunday of the month for Slow Art Sunday, a free in-person tour of current exhibitions. Slow Art Sundays are a time to slow down, look closely at a few works of art, and discuss.
At 2 p.m. Dec. 12, Gluck Student Fellow Ashley McNelis will explore the topic of invisible labor present in artworks by Lynne Marsh and Brandon Lattu.
Capacity is limited and visitors will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. Find out more here.
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It’s been said that crime scene investigation is the meeting point of science, logic, and law.
If the idea of joining these disciplines intrigues you, UCR Extension's Professional Certificate in CSI is just what you need. Gain all the necessary training to analyze a crime scene, from evidence collection to evidence preservation.
Next course starts Jan. 4. Enroll today and save $50 right here.
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We're pleased that Curative offers free, drive-up Covid-19 PCR tests at UCR Palm Desert Center.
Hours are 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. You can schedule your appointment here.
Please note this site does not offer vaccinations. Also UCR Palm Desert cannot schedule tests, and we do not have access to test results.
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CALIFORNIA NATURALIST UPDATE |
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Here's this week's California Naturalist update from Dr. Cameron Barrows, the director of UCR's Center for Conservation Biology.
“… The term species, as one arbitrarily given for the sake of convenience to a set of individuals closely resembling each other, and that it does not essentially differ from the term variety, which is given to less distinct and more fluctuating forms. The term variety, again, in comparison with mere individual differences, is also applied arbitrarily, and for mere convenience sake.” — Charles Darwin
Darwin wrestled with describing what a species is, but ultimately gave up. Defining this cornerstone of natural history, the basis of measuring biodiversity, the legal foundation for conservation-oriented policy, eluded the person who first identified the process of how species come to be. It still eludes scientists today. Whereas chemistry has clearly defined categories for the chemical elements, carbon or calcium, silica or sulfur, and the others, each defined by specific combinations of neutrons, protons, and electrons, biology is messy with no single definition that allows each species to fit into neat and exclusive boxes. Scientists needing things to be binary, black or white, become chemists or physicists. Scientists comfortable with shades of gray become naturalists and ecologists.
At first blush, distinguishing between species seems straightforward enough. Most of us can look at any two organisms and come up with a pretty good guess as to whether they might be the same or different species. Different flower structures, different shapes, sizes, or colors are all good hints, but those clues may not be enough. Take the desert dune cockroach. The males look very cockroach-like except they are a pale blond color. The females are very different; they are a dark red brown, lack wings, spend their lives burrowed into the sand searching for bits of dead plants to eat, and appear to be a closer match to a tidepool chiton in overall appearance. For decades, insect taxonomists considered them separate species, but on closer examination they realized that they were males and females of the same species.
The flip side of this paradox is that just because individuals look alike, does not necessarily mean that they are the same species. My 1983 first edition of the National Geographic Society’s “Birds of North America” lists just two species of western titmice, small gray relatives of chickadees, the plain titmouse and bridled titmouse. In my more recent, seventh edition of the same book, there are four species, the oak, juniper, black-crested, and bridled titmouse. The “new species” look nearly identical to each other, but their genetics tell a different story. Due primarily to different habitat preferences, the four species do not interbreed. Appearances alone can be deceiving...
Read the rest of this post — and catch up on other blogs from Dr. Barrows — on this page.
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News: Light-powered, soft robots could suck up oil spills |
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A floating, robotic film designed at UC Riverside could be trained to hoover oil spills at sea or remove contaminants from drinking water. Powered by light and fueled by water, the film could be deployed indefinitely to clean remote areas where recharging by other means would prove difficult.
“Our motivation was to make soft robots sustainable and able to adapt on their own to changes in the environment. If sunlight is used for power, this machine is sustainable, and won’t require additional energy sources,” said UCR chemist Zhiwei Li. “The film is also re-usable.”
Find out more about our soft robot friends here.
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Greater Good: Is it possible to find good in the bad? |
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The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought havoc around the world. Lives lost, businesses closed, economies in ruins, a wave of mental health issues. It’s hard to imagine that any good could have come of it—and little has for most of us.
Yet many people have consciously sought out silver linings from their experience, perhaps helping them to endure during this difficult time.
Greater Good magazine examined research into such post-traumatic growth. See what they found here.
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You can support the programming you appreciate at UCR Palm Desert Center!
UCR Palm Desert Partners receive special courtesies and help us continue our programming of mostly free community events, workshops, film screenings, lectures, and more.
Your support also goes toward student scholarships, ongoing research, and creating an intellectual space where we can all exchange ideas and advance society.
Find out more about the program here.
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UCR Palm Desert | 75080 Frank Sinatra Dr. | 760.834.0800
palmdesert.ucr.edu
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