Lectures on Tap - Learning Without a Brain: How Intelligence Begins Small

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

📚 Lecture: "Learning Without a Brain: How Intelligence Begins Small"

🎤 Speaker: Dr. Deepa Rajan

Join us for an eye-opening evening with Dr. Deepa Rajan as we explore the fascinating concept of learning in organisms without brains. While we typically associate intelligence with complex nervous systems, emerging research suggests that even single-celled organisms exhibit behaviors like decision-making and learning.

Dr. Rajan will introduce us to Stentor coeruleus, a pond-dwelling organism that demonstrates habituation, a form of learning where its behavioral response diminishes after repeated exposure to a stimulus. Recent discoveries have unveiled the molecular pathways these cells utilize to form habituation memories, revealing striking similarities to human memory formation.

By examining learning at the single-cell level, we can gain insights into the very origins of intelligence.

Dr. Deepa Rajan holds a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of California, San Francisco. A former Fulbright Scholar at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in India, her research has taken her from the Himalayas to the Amazon Rainforest. Now based in San Francisco, she collects cells for study from local ponds. In her spare time, she enjoys writing short stories and playing the violin.

Don’t miss this chance to broaden your understanding of intelligence with Dr. Deepa Rajan!

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.