NEW Review the positive attributes as well as risks to the aging brain. Included will be a discussion of dementia, with a clear definition of this term, normal functioning of the aging brain and normal compensatory mechanisms, which may or may not be needed.

NEW A new environmental issue has grabbed public attention: microplastics! Amazingly, each of us ingests a credit card’s worth of plastics weekly, to unknown effect, and microplastic particles in the ocean now outnumber the stars in our galaxy by a factor of 500. What do we know about them? What do we do now?

NEW Our ancestors needed light in their lives every bit as much as we do. Yet, their resources were comparatively meager. Consider the primitive beginnings of artificial light in early America and trace the various means of its development to the time of the incandescent bulb.

NEW Birds do it, bees do it, and sentimental fleas? In a fun science-filled PG-13 lecture, explore the extraordinary adaptations and life stories of animals for sex and reproduction. giraffes “necking,” anglerfish hanging around literally forever, gender-bending clownfish, and more at the extraordinary antics of sex in the animal kingdom.