By Lindsey Ramirez, PhD, C2ST Correspondent
Electricity is essential to everyday life, yet, the process of how it works still baffles most of us. Dr. Brian Campbell Deem, full-time physics lecturer at Loyola University, explains how electricity starts with atoms.
Join us for a special Fridays on the Plaza event at the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot, where community, and science come together in a meaningful way.
Curious about what’s in the soil beneath your feet? During this interactive event, environmental scientists will be on-site offering free heavy metal soil testing for community members. Bring a small sample of soil from your yard, garden, or neighborhood space and learn about the presence of metals like lead, arsenic, and more, along with what those results mean for your health and environment.
Come be part of a conversation about environmental health, right here in Lawndale.
The Chicago Council on Science and Technology and Chicago Public Library present The Science of Pokemon! In the world of Pokemon, adventurous explorers – called Pokemon trainers – can travel far and wide, catching and cataloging fantastical creatures to fill out their Pokedex, a digital index of various pokemon species. While you can’t find a Pikachu in any of the viridian forests on Earth, Pokemon masters have a real-world counterpart in the form of scientists! Scientists can be found in every corner of the world, discovering new species and cataloging their unique characteristics. This real life data collection has become the foundation for the design of Pokemon themselves! We’ve brought a panel of experts from across the sciences to talk to us about the real-life plants and animals that Pokemon are based on. If you’ve ever wanted the chance to have a conversation with Professor Oak, this is the next best thing! We’ve gotta catch them all!
Wild Science Encounters: Beyond the Pokeball
In the world of Pokemon, adventurous explorers- called Pokemon trainers- can travel far and wide, catching and cataloging fantastical creatures to fill out their Pokedex, a digital index of various pokemon species. While you can’t find a Pikachu in any of the viridian forests on Earth, Pokemon masters have a real-world counterpart in the form of scientists! Scientists can be found in every corner of the world, discovering new species and cataloging their unique characteristics. This real life data collection has become the foundation for the design of Pokemon themselves! We’ve brought a panel of experts from across the sciences to talk to us about the real-life plants and animals that Pokemon are based on. If you’ve ever wanted the chance to have a conversation with Professor Oak, this is the next best thing! We’ve gotta catch them all!
Save the date for Thursday, May 7th! The Chicago Council on Science and Technology will hold our largest fundraising event of the year: Science in the City 2026. Join us as we celebrate excellent public STEM outreach with academic and industry leaders, educators, community members, and young professionals from across Chicagoland.
By Donnisa Edmonds, C2ST Intern, University of Chicago
Keith Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, studies how language and the brain interact. For the past few years, Dr. Johnson has been working with a research group at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) on phonetic neuroscience. I recently sat down with Dr. Johnson to discuss this topic.
Continue reading “Bridging Language and the Brain: An Interview with Keith Johnson, Ph.D.”
