Cafe Scientifique

CAFÉ SCIENTIFIQUE ARLINGTON

WHAT: Building brains and manipulating minds: Neuroethics and the future of neuroscience.”

WHEN: Tuesday, January 11* program begins at 6:15 PM. Come early to order food and drinks. *Please note that this is the second Tuesday

WHERE: The Front Page Restaurant, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA, located near Ballston Metro on the ground floor of the NSF building. Parking is available under the NSF Building or at Ballston Common Mall.

WHO: Dr. Jim Giordano, Senior Fellow and Director Center for Neurotechnology Studies (CNS), Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

HOW: 5:30 p.m. Special half price burgers; please come early to order table service and socialize. Presentation begins at 6:15 p.m. followed by Q&A
No science background required, only interest!
Free and open to the public. Preregistration requested www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/bsta

ABOUT THE TOPIC: The field of neuroscience – the study of the brain and its function – has made tremendous strides in the past three decades, due in part to both the use of highly sophisticated biotechnology, and the convergent focus of other disciplines such as genetics, engineering and nanoscience, upon neuroscientific issues. While striving to address and even answer profound questions about the nature of cognition, emotion, mind and self, and the causes and reasons for our feelings, thoughts and behaviors, neuroscience has also become a tool through which to enable our quest for flourishing. In this way, neuroscience has “come full circle”, and may now be seen as a venue through which we can engage various techniques and technologies to alter the brain, manipulate the mind, and control, enable and enhance ourselves. These issues and questions are the focus and work of the new, yet rapidly growing field of neuroethics, that seeks to define the ethical, legal and social effects and implications of neuroscientific research and its various uses and applications in medicine, public life and even national defense. This lecture illustrates these dimensions and directions of neuroscientific discovery and development, and explores the ways that brain-science can, will be used to affect, shape and even define our daily life, and presents the discipline of neuroethics as an essential element of any and all consideration of the ways that we might – and should (or should not) proceed toward the potential of a “neurocentric” future.

SUPPORT THIS CAFE: The Ballston Science and Technology Alliance, a nonprofit organization, is the sponsor of Café Scientifique Arlington. Since April 2006, the goal of Café Scientifique has been to make science more accessible and accountable by featuring speakers whose expertise spans the sciences and who can talk in plain English. Café is held each month on first Tuesdays at the Front Page in Arlington. Please go to www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/bsta and contribute. Help keep Café open and free to all!

COMING NEXT MONTH: Feb 8*, 2011, “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future” by Mark Stevenson, codirector of Flow Associates, Britain’s most respected cultural learning Consultancy, and ReAgency, a leading organization that promotes science communication.
*Note this is the 2nd Tuesday of month!

For more information contact Kaye Breen, ballstonscience@yahoo.com , visit www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/bsta or join us on twitter: http://twitter.com/sciencecafeva or facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ballston-Science-and-Technology-Alliance/116954825970, or our blog at http://bsta.wordpress.com.