Outdoor Science Talk: The Secret Life of Viruses

Please join us for Stanford’s acclaimed Summer Science Lecture Series on the lawn adjacent to Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center on four Thursday evenings. You are invited to come early and wander through the art museum, buy dinner in the Art Center’s Cool Café or bring your own picnic, and then settle on the lawn outside to hear informal lectures about cutting-edge research from four of Stanford’s most esteemed professors.

We promise that all of the talks will be delivered in terms understandable to the lay public. So bring your entire family (high school age and up) and enjoy! The Outdoor Science Series is sponsored by the Stanford Office for Science Outreach, the Cantor Arts Center, and Stanford Continuing Studies.

Outdoor Science Talk 2: The Secret Life of Viruses

Viruses exist in the hazy zone between the living and the nonliving. Though too small to see, they profoundly affect our lives from annoying colds to deadly Ebola. They spread invisibly from person to person and then attack humans from within. In this talk, we will address the basic question of “What is a virus?” and look at the special properties that distinguish viruses from more conventional life forms as well as the features that viruses and humans have in common. We will walk though the typical strategies that viruses use to expand their numbers and to thwart the immune system, and look at some of the tools at our disposal for combating these devious predators.

ROBERT D. SIEGEL
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Robert Siegel is course director of the infectious disease component of the required pre-clinical curriculum and co-director of the international health scholarly con centration. His work focuses on infectious disease, virology, HIV, and molecular biology. A recipient of numerous teaching and advising awards, Siegel received three of his five degrees from Stanford—a BA in psychology, an MA in education, and an MD from the School of Medicine. He also received a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Colorado.

Thursday, July 9
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Lawn outside Cantor Arts Center
FREE; no registration required
Open to the public