Faculty Members and Students Crowded Season 3 of USERN mTalks

One Week Left to Iranian New Year Resolution, Third Round of USERN Miniature Talks Quickly Became Crowded with Students and Faculty Members who gathered to Watch Lectures Moderated by Professor Azarakhsh Mokri, Professor Bahram Mobasher, Siavash Safarian Pour and Ehsan Rezaei on March. 11.

In his lecture: "science promotion", TV producer Siavash Safarian Pour Acknowledged Carl Sagan creator of Cosmos Documentary, American astronomer and science populizer, as his idol.

Sagan and the Cosmos are perhaps the reasons I know myself as a knowledge advocate not a scientist. –Siavash Safarian Pour

Distributing science in simple language for all, Safarian Pour reiterated that he and his colleagues had been perusing almost the same in "Night Sky".

Master Tarzi was creating a clay art piece from the "Caspian Seal" and young artist Zahra Esmaili was there completing her handicraft during Safarian Pour’s Talk.

Next was Soosan Tofighmanesh, the first junior talk lecturer to be judged by audience. The "Law of Attraction" was her title of six-minute mTalk as Fatemeh Shayesteh was performing a mixed painting collage on the same topic. Ehsan Rezaei criticized Tofighmanesh for her choice of the topic and Safarian Pour praised her for performing without vocal aids on the tribune.

"Is there a link between psychological stroking and general wellbeing?" was the next title from junior talk lecturer Kherdmand Bagheri. "Stroking", in Bagheri’s terms acts within a triangle of mental/psychosocial state, nervous system and immune system, enhancing one’s wellbeing.

"Human beings can boost each other’s immune system, caring and caressing for others". -Kherdmand Bagheri

Professor Mokri who had just joined the jury and Professor Kajbafzadeh both endorsed the timeliness and importance of the topic.

Niloofar Torkzadeh created a dough collage with neurons depicted as lively interconnected units, during Bagheri’s lecture.

Ameneh Saghazadeh, medical student presented the next topic, sixth sense. In the third lecture of the first block of talks on Neuroscience, Saghazadeh tried to scientifically justify existence and controllability of our Sixth Sense. Sara Sadat Hosseini was the young artist with her decorative painting on a clay bowel. Guest jury members, Dr. Rezaei Zadeh and Dr. Mehdizadeh credited Saghazadeh’s strength of performance and lecturing prowess.

Thirty minutes past 4 O’clock, Professor Mokri started his "Tendency to Find a Correlation when there is None!", proving to be an interesting and controversial topic to him as well as the audience. A "script" is a constellation of events with similar emotional flavour. Every new memory or experience is quickly assigned to one of the many scripts in our brain, providing grounds for a biased interpretation of future events, "finding associations when there are none". Sensing intentions in other behaviours when there isn’t any or finding patterns when there are none, are all examples from the same logic. "Biased brain", "prodigious brain" and "superstitious brain" were some of the keywords Professor Morki’s 30-minute mTalk. Emotions are the reason that some memories tend to consolidate and some don’t. Emotions interfere with your memory registry system:

-My recommendation to push you forward, beyond sixth sense or the law of attraction; lower your sensitivity to rejection and being judged. –Professor Azarakhsh Mokri

Fast and frugal brain has tried to recognize connections even there are none. There is no such thing as "all", "ever" and "never". –Professor Azarakhsh Mokri

Parastoo Saberi created an embroidery in shape of a brain and Mina Abdoos painted a clay bowel with a picture of a Galaxy during Professor Mokri’s Talk.

Mahya Latif was a nanotechnology master student explaining her experience in finding resolution to "generate energy from trash through plasma gasification", a cause that appeared to be something she cared about and also her master degree project. Bringing with her a small plasma sphere, Latif’s  tried to give the audience a glimpse inside the Plasma Generator. Waste plasma gas, product of the generator is a non-toxic, NOx, SOx free waste. Asal Ebrahimi painted an environmental theme of the clay, during Latif’s energetic lecture. Professor Mobasher and Ehsan Rezaei, both pointed that Latif had to justify using Plasma Gas generator over existing alternatives.

"Search for Aliens", was Reza Mahmanzar’s mTalk topic, an astronomy student, as his colleague, Sepideh Sargoli, was creating a stand-out handicraft.

Habitability paradigm was first confined to "earth resemblance", but was later expanded to involve factors like, energy source, water, or the so-called triad of life. No wonder that Professor Mobasher had a lot to comment on Mahmanzar’s talk. He so emphasized that search for life has long suffered from the "Carbon based" life, while we might have gone so far, neglecting. Safarian Pour criticized Mahmanzar’s "concentration of scientific extract" and lack of generalization of the scientific facts.

Saleheh Ebadi Rad and Mahshid Mobalegh Nasery were the next and final junior mTalk:Art pair. "Life in space", Ebadi Rad tried to justify the possibility of vitality on extreme planets seeking resemblance from "extremophiles", living units who survive through extremes of heat, osmolality and even gravity on earth. Are we able to transfer the same genes to human being and lunch him into extremes of space? Mahshid Mobalegh Nasery created a collage of microscopies from cell cultures of neurons under extreme conditions. Professor Mokri, positively commented on her tactic and preparation of slides and also on Mobalgh Nasery’s creative collage.

Professor Bahram Mobasher, USERN advisory board member who had earlier joined an exclusive "meeting with the expert" focused group talk with junior USERN members, executed the final verse of this third season of USERN mTalks. Within about 90 minutes, Professor Mobasher explained the reasons "why do we exist?" as part of the immense harmony of life on earth, reasons why our planet is one of the many perhaps habitable ones. 

Sepideh Sargoli won the title for the best art performance, as Reza Mahmanzar and Saleheh Ebadi Rad, founder of the Space Biology And Astrobiology Research Team (SBART), jointly won the best junior mTalk lecturer, receiving a gold key to next round of USERN mTalks. 

If you are interested to find out more on USERN mTalks seasons Click here for: Season 1: USERN 3rd Anniversary and Season 2: February 1st 2018

By Farzaneh Rahmani