Suds & Science isn't a lecture--it's a community gathering at the Norwich Inn where you meet other fans of science, enjoy local craft beer, gain an understanding of someone's scientific research, and engage with an expert in their field. Hosted by VCE biologist Jason Hill, there's no PowerPoint slides or overly-complex jargon...just compelling personal narratives from scientists. Do you want to learn how Arctic soils breathe, and then hear about being chased out of a soil pit by a polar bear? So do we. Do you want to gain an understanding of several million years of hominid evolution, and then hear what it feels like to discover a new-to-science hominid fossil buried in an unexplored African cave? Yeah, we thought so. So come check out a Suds & Science event.
If you're a dynamic and engaging botanist, an anthropologist with a flair, a public health specialist who can spin a science story...or you know one....then please reach out to Jason Hill and share 30 minutes of your science and story at a future Suds & Science event. The Vermont Center for Ecostudies' Suds & Science is a free event and meant for all ages, and all talks are recorded by our friends at CATV.
2019-2020 Schedule (all talks from 7 to ~7:40 pm + time for questions at the Norwich Inn)
November 5, 2019: Roger Pasquier [American Museum of Natural History]. Birds in Winter: surviving the most challenging season. [No video available, unfortunately]
January 7, 2020: A last-minute scheduling conflict for Simone Whitecloud [Dartmouth College] meant that we didn't get to hear about her fascinating alpine plant community research, but we'll make it happen next year. Not to be deterred, nine fans of Suds & Science joined Jason at Trail Break in White River Junction for an absolutely lovely evening of food, drink and conversation about everything from the revitalization of White River Junction to climate change and tick-born diseases. Wow, we're going to have to do that again--Dan Hudnut suggested we call it Tacos and Talk!
February 4: Brett Amy Thelen [Harris Center for Conservation Education]. Community-based conservation of migratory amphibians. Watch the video here!
March 3: Spencer Hardy [Vermont Center for Ecostudies]. The conservation status and uncertain future of Vermont's native bees. Watch the video here!
Note from Jason: due to COVID-19, we are canceling the April and May Suds & Science events. We hope to host Dr. Culler and Jordan Tourville in the future. Stay safe and be kind.
April 7 [Canceled]: Lauren Culler [Dartmouth College]. Mosquitoes in the cold and frozen north: what’s the buzz?
May 5 [Canceled]: Jordon Tourville [SUNY-ESF]. Forests on the move: how fungi might help trees thrive in a warmer world
Selected Past Talks to Watch
Stone tools: exploring the lives of New England's first human inhabitants
January 08, 2019Over 12,000 years ago what would become New England was a very different place. Open tundra in place of forests, huge herds of migratory caribou replacing our familiar whitetails and moose. This was the world of the Paleoindians, the first human populations to settle this area. While our knowledge of these first Native American groups is limited to stone tools, these materials can help us understand life during the Ice Age here in our own backyard. Nathaniel Kitchel, Dartmouth College. Watch it here! »
Monarch butterfly migration and the power of citizen science
March 05, 2019Known for its beauty and spectacular migration, the monarch butterfly is Vermont’s state insect. Last summer the butterflies were unusually abundant, but during the past decade they’ve become increasingly rare. What’s behind the fluctuations we see in monarch numbers? Elizabeth Howard, Journey North. Watch here! »
A Tall Order: Studying Giraffe Ecology and Conservation in the Savannas of Uganda
May 07, 2019The future of the giraffe is far from certain: over the past 30 years, giraffe numbers across Africa have declined by over 40%. The causes of this decline are undeniably complicated but dedicated teams of conservationists, researchers and rangers are working across the continent to understand and reverse these alarming trends. Michael Brown, Dartmouth College. Watch here! »
Backyard crickets and tropical katydids: The amazing world of insect sound and vibration
November 07, 2017The ability to detect, process, and react to cues in the environment underlies nearly every aspect of an animal’s life, from finding mates and food to avoiding predators. Therefore, to understand organisms, we must understand how they recognize stimuli to make decisions and how the process of recognition evolves, diverges, and interacts with ecological context. Dr. Laurel Symes, Dartmouth College. Watch here »
Don’t stress! Evolutionary explanations for why stress affects our health
January 09, 2018What are the evolutionary origins of stress, and how do environmental experiences shape patterns of human biology and health? The answers to these questions may provide insight into how poverty, trauma, and ethnic discrimination affect health. Dr. Zaneta Thayer, Dartmouth College. Watch here »
How warmer soils can affect climate change: From the Arctic to your backyard
February 06, 2018What do dog sledding and being stalked by a polar bear have to do with the terrestrial carbon cycle? Come find out, with a Whistling Pig Red Ale in hand, while casually learning about the interactions among plants, soils, and atmospheric CO2. Dr. Caitlin Hicks Pries, Dartmouth College. Watch a video of the presentation. »
The Social History of Invasive Beavers in the Fuegian Archipelago, Chile
May 01, 2018The year: 1946. An Argentinian Navy vessel introduced 50 North American beavers to the southern tip of South America. The intention: to create fur trading opportunities. The result: 60 years later there are >100,000 beaver, and they have fundamentally changed the ecosystem. Dr. Laura Ogden, Dartmouth College. Watch a video of the presentation. »
Bugs, aliens, and New England’s forests
March 07, 2017Dr. Aaron Weed, ecologist and Northeast Temperate Network Program Manager for the National Park Service, discussed his recent work on the biology and ecology of forest pests, how they impact individual trees to entire forests, and what this means for our local forests and the services we derive in a changing climate. Watch a video of the presentation. »
Introducing Homo naledi
November 01, 2016Suds & Science returned to the Norwich Inn on Tuesday, November 1st at 7pm. Paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, introduced us to Homo naledi - a new human ancestor from the cradle of humankind in South Africa. Jeremy has studied wild chimpanzees in Western Uganda, early human fossils in Museums throughout eastern and South Africa, and his anatomical expertise-- the human foot and ankle-- has contributed to our understanding of the origins and evolution of upright walking in the human lineage. Watch it here! »
Sex, Drugs and Bees: plant chemistry and pollinators
September 09, 2015Many plants rely on flower visits by pollinators such as bees in order to reproduce. When bees consume nectar and pollen, they must cope with naturally occurring plant secondary chemicals, substances usually associated with plants' defense against herbivores. Why would plants expose their pollinators to these chemicals? How do they affect bee health? And what are the consequences of plant chemistry for pollination of wild and cultivated plants? Leif's talk will draw on his research in Vermont exploring effects of plant chemicals on bumble bee--parasite interactions and bee foraging behavior. He'll also address the importance of wild bees to agriculture and ongoing efforts to halt their decline. Dr. Leif Richardson is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. He previously completed a PhD at Dartmouth College and served as State Lands Ecologist with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. He contributed to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies Bumble Bee Atlas project. He lives in Montpelier. Watch it here »
Presettlement Forests of New England
May 05, 2015Charlie Cogbill has spent a large part of his career studying a forest that no longer exists: the pre-settlement forest in New England and New York. His primary research tools are archives, located in town halls and other repositories, of land surveys made during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of these archives contain “lotting” surveys – the survey by which the proprietors of a new town divided the town into lots, which were then sold or granted to the earliest settlers. At each lot corner, the surveyors tended to place a monument, often a post or stake or a pile of stones. They also routinely made mention of a nearby “witness tree.” Through statistical analysis and a reliance on his background in field ecology, he has been able to paint a detailed and localized picture of what the forests of New England and New York looked like back when those forests were being settled by Europeans. Watch it here »
Revisiting Loons
April 07, 2015VCE loon biologist, Eric Hanson, just got back from a regional meeting of loon biologists and managers, Eric will share new research on migration, translocation experiments, red-throated loons, social chaos, and lead toxicity. Where the stories will go from there is anyone’s guess, but it is sure to be an entertaining evening full of lively discussion. Watch Eric's lecture »
