Month: February 2014

LEXINGTON, Ky.—When physicist Ronald Mallett was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack. Within a year, inspired by a comic book based on “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells, Mallett began to imagine traveling back in time in the hope of saving his father’s life. The idea became a lifelong quest to make time travel possible. Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee is adapting Mallett’s memoir, “Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality,” for a feature film. Mallett, professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, will share his gripping personal and scientific journey during the Kenan Lecture on Tuesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m., in Transylvania University’s Haggin Auditorium. A reception and book signing will immediately follow in Carrick Theater. The lecture and reception are free and open to the public. Designed for a general audience, the lecture—“The Real Science of Time Travel”—will draw from his memoir and also focus on the scientific possibility of time travel based on Einstein’s theories of relativity. It will highlight Mallett’s own current research and consider the problems and paradoxes of time travel. When asked what kept him focused on his lifelong quest, Mallett explained, “My passionate desire to see my father again is what kept me primarily focused on my goal of understanding time travel. When I realized that time travel might be possible based on Einstein’s theories of relativity, I felt that this was a

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LEXINGTON, Ky.―According to author, playwright and storyteller Kevin Kling, “There’s the trip you plan and then there’s the trip you take. Our stories told and retold define who we are, where we come from, what’s funny, what’s sacred.  And the best story is a love story.” Kling delivers that best story with “Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names” on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lucille C. Little Theater at Transylvania University. Written and performed by Kling, “Breakin’ Hearts” is a hilarious and heartfelt collection of stories and songs about “love gone right, love gone wrong and everything in between.” Arguably one of America’s very best storytellers, Kling is known for his popular commentaries on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and his storytelling stage shows like “Tales from the Charred Underbelly of the Yule Log,” which are notable for having just the right mix of sentiment and silliness. A Minneapolis native, Kling has authored five books, had his plays and adaptations performed around the world, and been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The McKnight Foundation and The Bush Foundation, among others. He is a McDowell Fellow and has received the Whiting Award, the A.P. Anderson Award, the Jeahny Award from VSA and the Eric Peterson Award. Kling was born with a congenital birth defect—his left arm is about three-quarters the size of his right arm, and his left hand has no wrist or thumb.

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—In many regions of the United States, including Kentucky, water is endangered or in short supply. As the recent chemical spill in Charleston, W. Va., has shown us, what happens up river affects the communities below. Indeed, West Virginia and Kentucky are part of the same expansive Ohio River watershed that runs from Pennsylvania to Illinois. Water connects us. Our lives depend upon its quality and availability. Yet, more than 40 years after the creation of the Clean Water Act, our water is often compromised beyond use. How do people, laws and nature get along? Peter J. Longo, professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, will provide insight in his presentation “Water Policy on the Great Plains: There’s No Fooling Mother Nature” on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 p.m., in Transylvania University’s Cowgill Center, room 102. The lecture is free and open to the public. Longo will offer an overview of the culture of the Great Plains and address the local ecology and laws related to water. “Water issues and resulting policies and laws [bind] the citizens and political actors of the Great Plains,” Longo explains. “However, policies and laws are no match for Mother Nature.”Longo holds a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He teaches, researches and writes about civil rights and liberties, constitutional law and environmental policy. His writings on water range from how laws affect farmers to a legal history

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—This matchmaking service is for the birds. Transylvania University biology professor Becky Fox came up with a sort of “eHarmony for parrots” when she discovered how cockatiels’ personality types predicted long-term compatibility. She’ll share the results in an upcoming issue of the journal Zoo Biology. “It’s my hope that some zoos that are managing birds in captivity might find this kind of thing useful,” Fox said. If there were a Valentine’s Day for cockatiels, these findings would offer hope to any of the small, crested Australian parrots who are, shall we say, hawkish. The paper is based on data she collected in graduate school about a colony of captive cockatiels that have called the University of California, Davis, home since the 1970s. Observers, mostly undergrads, rated birds on personality traits and waited to see who they paired with. Then the researchers watched the birds for things such as how much they fought with their “spouses” (the species can form lasting relationships), whether they managed to hatch eggs and how well they coordinated incubating. Unsurprisingly, the survey showed birds that got along better were more skilled at coordinating behavior and raising chicks. But did this have to do with how well the personalities of these popular pets meshed? You bet. Turns out, birds of a feather don’t seem to flock together. Specifically, two aggressive birds—ones that will race across the aviary to knock another off a favorite food dish—aren’t a

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