EVENTS

Science Communication YouTuber Challenge 2025: Everyday Science Hackathon

About the competition: Science in 5 minutes Unleash your inner scientist with HKU Science! Join our 'Science Communication YouTuber Challenge: Everyday Science Hackathon'. Spot an everyday problem, whip up an app solution using scientific know-how, and bring your creative ideas to life in a captivating video. This is your stage to harness the power of science to create solutions and become the next generation of science communicators!   Eligibility The contest is open to students studying in Forms 3 to 5 (equivalent to Grades 9 to 11 / Year 10 to 12) in local secondary schools (i.e. schools located in Hong Kong, including public schools, schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme, international schools, etc.) during the academic year 2024-2025. Criteria: Participation in the contest will be based on a group format, with each group comprising 3 to 6 students. All participating group members must be students of the same school. Each school can enter a maximum of two teams in the contest. *Participating groups must either submit entries through their respective schools or be nominated by their schools to enter the contest   If you want to be a YouTuber with HKU Science, please go here for the details!

HKU Distinguished Lecture by Mok Hing Yiu Distinguished Visiting Professor: Coding and Decoding of Calcium Signals in Plant Growth and Defense

Room 6N11, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, Main Campus, HKU

  Specificity in cell signaling is paramount to plant responses to specific environmental changes. Although calcium is a ubiquitous messenger in plant responses to numerous signals, the mechanism of signal-response specificity remains unclear. Studies in the past four decades in both animal and plant cell models have established the “calcium signature” concept that depicts a distinct calcium change in response to each specific signal. How a calcium signature is encoded by calcium transporters and channels working together and decoded by calcium sensors and their targets represent exciting but challenging questions in the field. The Luan lab has been working on both encoding and decoding mechanisms for the past 25 years. They have made several breakthroughs on calcium encoding mechanisms, including the identification of calcium channels responsible for calcium spiking in pollen tube growth, pollen tube reception, and immune responses. They also pioneered studies on the “decoding” process by identifying the Ca-CBL-CIPK signaling network that regulates nutrient sensing and homeostasis in plants. Professor Luan will summarise these research findings to provide a conceptual framework for calcium signalling mechanisms in plants.