Oxford Science Café

September 2026

The Science of Stuttering Is Settled. Please Ignore the Mice

Dr. Greg Snyder, Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Mississippi.

For nearly four thousand years, people have tried to explain stuttering. Its cause has been blamed on curses, the humors, the tongue, personality, family relationships, and learned behavior. Today’s science points to genetics and neurophysiology, but history suggests that even useful explanations can leave important evidence unseen.

Communication disorders scientist Greg Snyder traces this story from ancient Egypt and Greek pebbles through tongue surgery, modern genetics, a mouse carrying a human stuttering-linked mutation, and exploratory metabolic testing. Drawing on Thomas Kuhn and Robert Pirsig, he asks what the settled science of stuttering has made invisible. What comes into view when we drop our value rigidity?

Old and new evidence suggests that the biology underlying stuttering extends beyond speech, with possible parallels in signed language and handwriting. This raises a stranger possibility. What if the hallmark repetitions and prolongations are not simply failures, but attempts by the nervous system to restart or stabilize an interrupted movement? If the visible stutter is partly a solution to a deeper problem, how might treatment change if it worked *with the stuttered brain* rather than merely suppressing what listeners do not want to hear?

Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Heartbreak Coffee, 265 North Lamar Blvd, Oxford
And via Zoom

April 2026

Designing Advanced Fuels for the Next Generation of Nuclear Reactors

Samrat Choudhury, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Mississippi.

One of the great challenges mankind faces in this century is to develop alternative technologies to meet our daunting energy needs in an environmentally sustainable way. With world-population predicted to be nine billion by the year 2050, various energy analyses conclude that even with most aggressive energy conservation our energy needs are expected to double by 2050 and triple by the end of this century. Among the various sustainable energy alternatives, nuclear energy is the most proven one (with 16% of world energy and 18-20% of US energy is supplied through nuclear energy) with very small carbon footprint. Currently, nuclear fuel can only be used until about 6 to 8 % burn-up, reducing the efficiency of nuclear fuel as well as increasing generation of nuclear waste. These factors limit the wide adaption of nuclear energy. To generate exceedingly high throughput of nuclear energy to meet our energy needs as well as to reduce generation of nuclear waste would require rapid discovery and subsequent qualification of advanced fuels for next generation of fission reactors.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Heartbreak Coffee, 265 North Lamar Blvd, Oxford
And via Zoom

March 2026

Science and Certainty in the Trial of France's Most Reviled Serial Killer

Theresa Levitt, Department of History, University of Mississippi.

Hélène Jégado was placed on trial in 1851, accused of murdering some 30 people by poisoning them with arsenic. Chemists and medical doctors were crucial to her conviction, using a newly developed apparatus that could detect the presence of arsenic in the bodies of some of her victims. She was executed by guillotine, and went on to be a legend of wickedness for generations. But studying her case, I have come to believe they got it wrong. While her trial was celebrated as a triumph of the certainty that science provides, further scientific advances undermined their claims, and point to tensions in the link between “science” and “certainty” that the courts tried to maintain.

Tuesday, March 17, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Heartbreak Coffee, 265 North Lamar Blvd, Oxford
And via Zoom

February 2026

Searching for New Physics with the Belle II Experiment

Jake Bennett, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Mississippi.

The field of experimental elementary particle physics seeks answers to some of the most fundamental questions of the universe. What are the building blocks of matter and how do they interact? Is there anything more than what we see, and if so, how can we study it? Physicists and engineers from all over the world collaborate to build massive particle accelerators and detectors with which to study subatomic particles and their interactions. Join us at the next Oxford Science Cafe, where Dr. Bennett will give an introduction to subatomic particles and discuss recent studies from cutting-edge particle physics experiments.

Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Heartbreak Coffee, 265 North Lamar Blvd, Oxford
And via Zoom