Thursday, November 17, 2005
Common Hour
Ethics in Neurological Practice: Discerning Appropriate Medical Care in Cases of Severe Brain Injury and Disease
Weiss Center, Rubendall Recital Hall, 12:00 p.m.

Issue in Context
Modern medical science has brought remarkable changes to every individual’s life. Due to advances in medical technology, more people live longer, and more productively, than any generation in history. However, these advances engender ethical dilemmas that no generation of doctors has ever had to face. New life-sustaining techniques and practices are forcing hospitals to pose questions that never needed to be asked before. Foremost of these is the question, “How far do we go to save a life?” In other words, when suffering is immeasurable, and a patient’s condition terminal, should doctors be permitted to end a patient’s life?

Syndromes like persistent vegetative state and the immense suffering caused by prolonged cancers and various debilitating diseases have many people, including some doctors, wondering if it would be more humane for physicians to withdraw treatment in order to hasten death than sustain the lives of those suffering or unconscious. The recent Terri Schiavo case gives relevance to the emerging quandary over life-sustaining treatments.

There is an irrefutable need to Read more

Monday, November 14, 2005
2005 Priestley Lecture and Award
Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Clinical Medicine
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:30 P.M.

Peter Agre, Nobel Laureate and vice chancellor of science and technology at Duke University, presented the Priestley Award lecture on “Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Clinical Medicine.” Agre discussed the high water permeability of certain biological membranes due to the presence of aquaporin water channel proteins, which have been associated with human clinical disorders such as brain edema and muscular dystrophy. Plant aquaporins are involved in numerous processes including the uptake of water by rootlets and carbon dioxide by leaves. Established in 1952, the annual Priestley Award honors a distinguished scientist who has made discoveries contributing to the welfare of mankind. The award commemorates Joseph Priestley, a Pennsylvania scientist, scholar and friend of Dickinson College, who isolated oxygen. Former Priestley Award recipients include Francis Crick, Stephen Jay Gould, Margaret Mead and Carl Sagan. Read more

Thursday, November 10, 2005
The Death Penalty: Does the System Work?
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Issue in Context
“The criminal justice system can and does fail to distinguish the innocent from the guilty, and the implications for capital punishment are ghastly.” – from a discussion on the Internet in January, 1997.

“While some [death penalty] abolitionists try to face down the results of their disastrous experiment and still argue to the contrary, the…[data] concludes that a substantial deterrent effect has been observed…In six months, more Americans are murdered than have been killed by execution in this entire century…Until we begin to fight crime in earnest [by using the death penalty], every person who dies at a criminal’s hands is a victim of our inaction.” – Karl Spence, Texas A&M University.

Over half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty either by law or by practice. However, the United States federal government and 38 states, including Pennsylvania, still have capital punishment as an option for sentencing. In 2004, 59 death row inmates in the United States were executed, in most cases by lethal injection. In November and December 2006 alone, Texas has scheduled six executions. Read more

Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Flashpoints on the Peninsula : The Koreas in 2005
Stern Center, Great Room, 1:15 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

Issue in Context
On Tuesday, September 13, 2005, the two Korean nations, in conjunction with the United States, China, Japan and Russia, opened dialogue in their 16th round of Cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang, North Korea. On September 19, after a series of negotiations since 2000, Pyongyang stated its intentions to abandon all existing nuclear programs and give up their nuclear weapons in a major breakthrough agreement. In exchange, the other five nations will provide energy and economic assistance.
In 1953, the Korean War ended in a truce, though never formally concluded with a peace treaty. In the years following the war, the North and South drifted farther apart as both sides were drawn into the Cold War. Communist North Korea maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with the Soviet Union, while South Korea remained close to the United States. The U.S. and South Korea have not only been close allies since then, but have also become important economic partners.
South Korea, with a GDP of over $500 billion, is now the twelfth largest economy in the world, and the Read more

Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Superconductivity and Superfluidity: A Century of Discovery
Stern Center, Great Room 7:00 P.M.

Issue in Context
As gases such as nitrogen or oxygen are cooled down further and further, they will at one point become liquids with similar traits to water. Helium is unique because, as it is cooled down even further, it develops some quirky qualities. For example, in extremely low temperatures, the “superfluid” helium can crawl through the tiniest of holes without any resistance and, given the chance, will crawl up and around the sides of any container.

These superfluids are reminiscent of superconductors, which have no electrical resistance. In theory, superfluids and superconductors both present novel concepts for future technologies. Physicists call these exotic states of matter “macroscopic quantum states.”

What discoveries have been made in the fields of superfluidity and superconductivity over the past century? What philosophical implications do they have? What implications might they have for future technologies? The lecture will explore these and other important questions facing the field.

About the Speaker
David Lee has enjoyed an expansive and distinguished career in the field of low-temperature physics. With his colleagues Douglas D. Osheroff and Robert C. Richardson, he has spent Read more

September 26, 2005
Civil Liberties in War Time
2005 Constitution Address
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Issue in Context
Wartime often leads the U.S. government into bestowing various demands on its citizens to help provide for the common defense. For example, the government has enacted conscription, commandeered property, and rationed resources.

Also during those times, the government has felt it necessary to restrict certain civil liberties for the sake of national security. The Sedition Act of 1798 was implemented to silence political dissent as our founders feared a war with France. During the Civil War, habeas corpus was suspended to imprison and exile Confederate sympathizers. In the 20th century, paranoia over possible invasions and infiltrations by enemies led to the Espionage Act of 1917, the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, and the explosion of McCarthyism at the dawn of the Cold War.

Now, as America is once again immersed in war, the government is trying to balance civil liberties with threats from terrorists. Soon after 9/11, Congress passed the PATRIOT ACT, which authorized law enforcement officials to use invasive methods to investigate terror suspects. As the war in Iraq intensified, especially during the 2004 election, protesters Read more

Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Healing: At What Price?
Stern Center, Great Room 12:00 P.M.

Issue in Context
Holistic healing refers to medical practices that seek to integrate the mind,body, and spirit. Proponents of holism argue that traditional medicine does not effectively address the spiritual and mental aspects of healing. Many holistic techniques are derived from ancient medical practices, and holistic therapy has gained popularity in the West over the past decade. According to the 2002 survey conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 36% of Americans had used a form of alternative therapy within the past year. Criticism of holistic techniques arises when alternative therapies cannot be supported by scientific data or lack adequate testing. However, there are areas in which conventional medicine and alternative techniques complement each other. Through analysis of Sub-Saharan African and Tibetan contexts, Bernard Ugeux will share his insight into the current success of holistic therapeutic practies in the West.

About the Speaker
Bernard Ugeux currently serves as the director of the Institute of Science and Theology and the director of the Center for African Studies in Toulouse, France. In addition, Ugeux is a professor of theology at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse Read more