Rebecca Lai, associate professor of chemistry, will compare fantastic beasts from the Harry Potter books to other magical creatures in a 7 p.m. Feb. 1 in the Adele Coryell Hall Learning Commons in Love Library.

The talk kicks off the 2017 SciPop Talk series, which is organized by the University Libraries.

Lai plans to explain the “magical properties” of animals in the world today that are similar to beasts in the Potter book series by J.K. Rowling. Topics to be discussed include animals that can forecast weather and predict earthquakes, like augureys; scientists that use scorpion, bee and snake venom for scientific discoveries; and how wizards strategically utilize demiguise hair to make invisibility cloaks.

Lectures in the SciPop series are free and open to the public.