For the science writers/science enthusiasts among us...
Lockheed Martin-Borders science writers series commences
with co-author of "The Science of Jurassic Park" June 16-17
Lockheed Martin Corporation and Borders Books and Music are initiating a
"Books & Beakers" series of free monthly lectures with science writers
making monthly presentations at the West Knoxville Borders next to West
Town Mall on Morrell Road and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The first to make a presentation will be David Lindley, co-author of "The
Science of Jurassic Park: Or How to Build A Dinosaur." Lindley's
presentations will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 16 at the West Knoxville
Borders and 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 17 at ORNL's Weinberg Auditorium.
Science may be the first substantive word in the latest "Jurassic Park"
spin-off title, but Lindley and co-author Robert Desalle have written a
technology book about actually waking dinosaurs from their 65-million-year
"sleep." In Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park," T-rex and pals are
reconstituted from DNA fragments drawn from blood in the bellies of
mosquitoes trapped in amber. Desalle and Lindley start their own
nuts-and-bolts survey of dinosaur construction with amber gathering and
proceed to extracting the blood.
Doing any of these things is technically demanding and highly chancy. To
begin with, one needs amber old enough to have something contemporary to
dinosaurs trapped in it, and you have to clean and polish it to see whether
it contains a mosquito. Probability butts its ugly self in, too, for how
likely is it that there will be blood in the mosquito and that blood will
be a dinosaur's? Answer on both scores - not bloody.
So it goes with each step in the process. Meanwhile, Desalle and Lindley
relay a lot of technological and scientific knowledge as painlessly and
entertainingly as possible.
More information about the "Books and Beakers" series is available by
calling Fred Strohl in ORNL's Communications and Public Affairs office
(574-4165). Persons interested in attending the lecture at ORNL should call
the same number prior to June 17 to make reservations.
______________________________
Travis Parman phone: (423) 574-1641
Communications and Public Affairs fax: (423) 574-9127
Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation pager: (423) 417-5341
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but everybody trusts an unidentified source."
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