Date: Wednesday, September 22, 12:15 - 1;15 p.m.; successive Wednesdays through November 3
Location: Morrell Meeting Room, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick
Description: This year, the annual Adult Science Read and facilitated discussion series features Simon Winchester's Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883. The noon-time sessions begin Wednesday, September 22 and run through November 3 in the Morrell Meeting Room at the library. Feel free to bring a bag lunch.

In Krakatoa, Simon Winchester provides a fascinating blend of science and history to explain the scientific, cultural and social setting of the eruption of the volcano. Along the way, readers will find themselves gaining knowledge about topics that at first glance seem unrelated, such as the origin of logos for corporations and the impact of relatively "instantaneous" communication and world-wide awareness of news events.

Date & Time: Friday, October 8, 5:30 -7:30 PM
Light refreshments will be served
Location: Morrell Meeting Room, Curtis Memorial Library, 23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick
Program Description: October 5th marks the ten-year anniversary of Cornerstones of Science, the bright idea for accessible science for all people that got its start in Brunswick, Maine. The initial vision and continued support of Lee Grodzins, our partnership with Curtis Memorial Library, and participant support have been key to our success. Since then Cornerstones of Science has received national recognition and has expanded to include twenty libraries, sixteen in Maine and four across the country, through the generous support of ThermoFisher Scientific.We invite you to join us in celebration on Friday, October 8 as we highlight our first ten years, the people and participants who have made the vision a reality, and treat you to an evening with award-winning author Jane Brox.

5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Light refreshments, multimedia presentation, and remembrances by special guests.
6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Keynote address by award-winning author, Jane Brox. Jane Brox will speak about her new book, Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. She'll discuss her inspiration for the book, some of the discoveries she made during her five years of writing and research, and how those discoveries ultimately shaped her understanding of her subject. After her talk she'll answer questions from the audience. A book sale and signing will immediately follow the presentation.

Brilliant is receiving consistent accolades. Time says, "Jane Brox's extraordinary history of artificial light is aptly named. It's not just a record of technological innovation; it's a great human fable about how we went from desperately fending off darkness to searching for the last vestiges of true night in a light-bedazzled world." The Washington Post calls it, "warm and illuminating." The Seattle Times calls Brilliant, "a thought-provoking account of arguably one of the greatest technological changes in the history of the world...." Jane is the author of three previous books: Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm, Five Thousand Days Like This One, which was a 1999 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction; and Here and Nowhere Else, which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award.  Jane is the author of three previous books: Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm; Five Thousand Days Like This One, which was a 1999 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction; and Here and Nowhere Else, which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award.

Friday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Curtis Memorial LIbrary, Morrell Meeting Room - Brunswick, Maine

Alan Lightman, world renowned author and scientist, will talk about the lives and discoveries of a few of the great women scientists of the twentieth century, including Henrietta Leavitt, an astronomer who discovered how to measure the distances to the stars; Lise Meitner, a nuclear physicist who discovered many new aspects of radioactivity and provided a theoretical understanding of nuclear fission; and Barbara McClintock, a biologist who discovered that genes can move around on chromosomes. Alan will close the talk by discussing the work he is doing in Cambodia to empower young women to become leaders in science, law, and other professions. A book sale and signing of two of Alan's books, The Discoveries and A Sense of the Mysterious, will immediately follow the presentation. Sponsored by Cornerstones of Science. Free and open to the public. Location: Curtis Memorial Library, Morrell Meeting Room, 23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick, Maine.

Alan Lightman is a novelist, essayist, physicist, and educator. Currently, he is Adjunct Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Lightman holds a AB degree in physics from Princeton University and his PhD in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology. He has received three honorary degrees.

Lightman, born in Memphis Tennessee, is the son of a movie theater owner and a dance teacher. From an early age, he was entranced by both science and the arts and, during high school, he began his lifelong journey of combining the sciences with the humanities. His independent science projects won state-wide science fairs and his poetry the state National Council of Teachers of English literary award. He began publishing poetry in small literary magazines while he was a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics at Cornell. Within ten years his essays began appearing in the Smithsonian Magazine and the New Yorker. His career also took him to Harvard and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, then to MIT where he was appointed professor of science and writing, and senior lecturer in physics. At MIT he has headed the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, cofounded the Graduate Program in Science Writing, and the Catalyst Collaborative - a collaboration between MIT and the Underground Railway Theater of Boston that aims to convey science and the culture of science through theater. Alan is also cofounder of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Award for a play about science. This award is given biannually to the best play involving science written by a college student.

Title: Elephant Babies in the Forest - with scientist & author, Katy Payne
For: Children & Families
Date & Time: Saturday, October 16, 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Location: Curtis Memorial Library, Morrell Meeting Room - Brunswick, Maine
Program Description:Venture into the lives of elephants through the films and tales of adventure by scientist and author, Katy Payne. A book sale and signing will immediately follow. Titles: for adults, Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants; for children, Elephants Calling. Sponsored by Cornerstones of Science and part of the 10-Year Anniversary series of programs.

Katy Payne is a lifelong naturalist and musician who began her career studying the evolving songs of the humpback whale. He interest in the calls of elephants was sparked in 1984 during a visit to the Portland, Oregon Zoo. Katy felt vibrations, the low-frequency rumbling communication, of two Asian elephants who were separated from each other by a concrete wall. Katy recorded these infrasonic calls and began studying how low frequency calls are used by elephants in the wild to communicate over long distances. In 1999, Katy and colleagues founded the Elephant Listening Project (ELP) to further the use of acoustic research methods and aid in the conservation of forest elephants in Central Africa. ELP is based out of Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology. Visit ELP at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp/elephant/.

In 2004 Katy won the WINGS WorldQuest Women of Discovery Earth Award for her contributions to science. FMI about this award visit, http://explore.wingsworldquest.org/katy_payne.