DtaS is on a break while I prep for the 1st ever Bay Area Science Festival launching 10/29-11/06. Stay tuned to BayAreaScience.org for complete updates. DtaS will be back near the end of the year!
In the meantime, please contact me in case you are interested in keeping up the cafe while I’m on break.

When: Monday, April 25th 7-9 PM
What: High Anxiety: The Science behind Meditation and Anxiety
Who: Philippe Goldin, Research Associate, CAAN Center, Stanford University
Where: Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St @ Alabama St. in the Mission District
The Deets:
Once reserved for Tibetan monks, meditation has become popular especially here in the Bay Area. This practice of bringing one’s attention to the present has been said to provide tremendous well-being and emotional balance. Scientists have also begun to bring their attention to meditation for its affects in “re-wiring” the brain. This area of research …

Over the last three decades, the incidence of autism spectrum disorder, better known simply as autism, has risen dramatically in the U.S., from approximately 1 in 1,000 children to 1 in 110, arousing widespread concern among parents and psychiatrists alike. A few of the many potential possible culprits scientists have targeted are faulty genes and thimerosal, a mercury-laced preservative in vaccines. Former Newsweek senior journalist Mnookin focuses his masterful investigative skills primarily on the latter, highly controversial possibility, illustrating how the current, misguided anti-vaccine movement can be blamed almost equally on panic-driven parents, sensation-hungry media, and PR-challenged health authorities. In making his case, Mnookin covers a wide swathe of medical history, from polio outbreaks to the scare tactics of fringe British researcher Andrew Wakefield, who first forged the dubious vaccine-autism link. While Mnookin dismantles this link convincingly, his argument that multivaccine cocktails have been proven safe is ultimately less persuasive. Still, he’s an able, engaging wordsmith, and this cautionary tale about misinformed medical alarmism is thoroughly compelling.