The idea of hunting for wild food of the land is crazy for someone like myself…I haven’t even adjusted to the farmers markets at this point. But when I ask Iso Rabins, founder of ForageSF, why eat wild…his first answer isn’t about climate change or connection to the land…it’s taste.

Wild foods bring some of the most intense and interesting tastes in the world. Like the spicy taste of a cultivated radish? Just wait until you try some wild radish greens! Wild blackberries, picked fresh off the vine, have no equal.

The climate change value is clear, using wild food grown naturally here locally vastly trumps those foods flown in from South America. I try to be green just like the next person…but this is food, doesn’t it have to taste good?

That’s why we’ve arranged a guided Forage with Iso Rabins….first to learn how to identify edible foods in the wild. More importantly, he’s going to cook up our found goodies so we can determine if he’s right. If you want to get in on the hunt, click here to get tickets for the event on Sunday August 9th. You can also read more about Iso’s local exploits here.

At the event next week, Dave will be bringing in a special Magnolia brew. I’m hoping for the Big Cypress Brown, but that Magnolia Branthill Malt Project sounds good….

Last month’s Down to a Science on Stem Cells was featured in VidSF. About a week and change ago, the VidSF piece was also picked up by the Chronicle in a piece here.

The interview is spot on, albeit mildly embarassing as I admit alcohol being a key component of a great science cafe. I guess my love of beer really shines through.

And it will shine through next Monday as Science of Beer rolls into the Atlas Cafe. $2/pints with a side of science? Can’t beat that math.

Keep an eye out for the mini cards at upcoming events!

One of my favorite magazines, SEED (a magazine about the intersection of science & culture), just put out a great piece about the public perception of science.

Yes. People within the academic culture, in general, do not know how to speak to the public. And that’s not only scientists—that’s English professors, too. Some of the political problems the scientific community encountered in the past decade had to do with scientists not getting out into the public square to tell their stories. I think scientists realize this has to change, but I’m not sure they know how. The short answer is: Keep it simple.

As part of that article, there is a small piece on the emergence of science cafes, which directly address the above point. Science cafes are all about bringing scientists onto the public’s turf. In a way, what we do every month is the training ground scientists to tell their story.

We started with an interview of Adam by Jeff Miller of LBL that debunked many of the myths around memory & aging (some such as that menopause affects memory were confirmed). Adam then dove into his presentation on aging, highlighting the distinctions between attention and memory. His lab utilizes a combination of methodologies: fMRI, EEG, TCS for studies on memory. Adam discussed many of his results, indicating that as we age, we don’t lose the ability to remember as much as our ability to ignore irrelevant information goes down…meaning we can’t ignore the useless info making it harder to focus on the important info.

The audience asked scores of intriguiging questions from how diet/exercise affects memory to using games to enhance memory. For the full story, check out the videos below:

More Resources:
Adam’s Lab
PNAS paper on Top Down Modulation
Posit Science Brain Excercises

Part 1

Part 2

Dr. Phillipe Goldin, a past speaker on the Neuroscience of Meditation, is looking for participants in a social anxiety study (the anxiety is mitigated through meditation) . I took part in such a study last year, you can read about my experience here. More info can be found below.

In addition, our next speaker Dr. Adam Gazzaley, runs studies on normal aging in adults. He is mainly looking for adults aged 18-35 or over 60. Most of the studies involve fMRI or EEG, check out Wired Science for a story of a guinea pig. For more info, check out Adam’s participate page.

Dr. Goldin’s Study
Treatment Study for Social Anxiety at Stanford University

We are running two studies at Stanford University where we are offering (1) 16 sessions of free state-of-the-art cognitive behavioral therapy, or (2) 9 weeks of stress reduction (either a mindfulness based stress reduction or an exercise stress reduction) to people with social anxiety. The treatment study?s goal is to better understand the mechanisms of therapeutic change and its long-term impact in individuals who suffer from social anxiety.

We are seeking people with English fluency who are right handed, age
21-55 individuals who primarily have problems with social anxiety and are able to commute to Stanford University assessments. Treatment can take place in SF or the Peninsula. We also ask that study participants be willing to discontinue use of mood or anxiety medications and concurrent therapy for the duration of their participation in the study.

If you would like more information or you have a referral, please view our website (http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~caan/) and call
(650-723-5977) or email us (caan at psych.stanford.edu)

It was an amazing tour…they have tours every Friday at 4 PM. More info at Speakeasy’s website.

Enjoy the pics in the meantime!

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The study runners are looking for a few more participants in order to complete the study. If you’re interested, read on:

The Stanford Prevention Research Center is currently in the final stages of recruiting research study participants for two ongoing studies funded by the National Institutes of Health to examine the possible health benefits of dietary antioxidants and omega-3 fats. We hope to close recruitment by the end of September 2008. A brochure with more details is attached to this e-mail.

For more information about our studies, visit our web-site: http://nutrition.stanford.edu , or call Antonella Dewell, study coordinator, at 650-736-8577.

To quickly go to our on-line surveys to determine your eligibility, please click on the following links:

For the Antioxidant study: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=324193360481
For the Omega-3 study: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=793233362741