Who Ya Gonna Call? on: Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is a galactic ghost buster, spotting hidden massive stars and other monsters lurking in our galaxy.
Craig Venter Geneticist A voyage of DNA, genes and the sea on: TedTalks Genomics pioneer Craig Venter takes a break from his epic round-the-world expedition to talk about the millions of genes his team has discovered so far, in their quest to map the ocean's hidden biodiversity. (Quite a task, when you consider that there are tens of millions of microbes in a single drop of sea water.) He updates the TED audience on his discoveries, from the 2,000 photoreceptor genes found in the Sargasso Sea to the thrill of being under house arrest in French waters. After touching on the potential of environmental genomics to monitor the safety of air, water and offshore drilling, Venter ends with his vision for engineered species that can replace the petrochemical industry by creating clean energy.
Bill Bryson author A Short History of Nearly Everything on: A Royal Society Bill Bryson, acclaimed author of 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' and winner of the 2004 Aventis Prize for Science Books, talks about how, in his biggest book, he confronted his greatest challenge yet: to understand - and, if possible, answer - the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Bill relays stories from his quest to find out such an array of strange and amazing facts which range from the moment of the Big Bang to the rise of civilisation.
Interview on: The Vega Science Trust Nicolaas Bloembergen , USA, shared half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1981 with Arthur Leonard Schawlow, USA 'for their contributions to the development of laser spectroscopy
XML11: An Abstract Windowing Protocol on: Google TechTalks This presentation introduces XML11, an abstract windowing protocol inspired by the X11-protocol develop by MIT. XML11 is an XML-based protocol that allows asynchronous UI updates of widgets to an end-device. To overcome high-latency connections, XML11 allows migration of application logic to the end-device.
Lab in Lorry on: CUSP gets out and about around the Festival with a look at Lab in a Lorry, a favourite of the children at the Festival. Megan talks to Helen Lloyd about the project, and looks at two of the experiments on offer. First up is polarizing light, followed by an explanation of how oil wells work.
Sidney Nagel University of Chicago Singularities and Topological Transitions: Breaking Away, Selective Withdrawal, Islets in the Stream. on: Fermilab Colloquium Lectures The exhilarating spray from waves crashing into the shore, the distressing sound of a faucet leaking in the night, and the indispensable role of bubbles dissolving gas into the oceans are but a few examples of the ubiquitous presence and profound importance of drop formation and splashing in our lives. During fission, a fluid forms a neck that becomes vanishingly thin at the point of breakup.
Taking in the Atmospheres of Faraway Worlds on: Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered clues about the atmospheres of two planets beyond our solar system
Houman Hemmati California Institute of Technology Insights into the Origins of Human Brain Tumors on: Caltech Houman Hemmati, a graduate student in biology at Caltech, discussed the recent advances in leukemia research that have identified bone marrow-derived stem cells as a source for brain-tumor cancers. Based on this work, scientists have taken a novel approach to identifying the origins of brain tumors. Their findings suggest that targeting tumor-derived stem cells is a promising approach to treating brain tumors.
Ray Kurzweil kurzweilai.net Ray Kurzweil: How technology's accelerating power will transform us on: TED Talks Prolific inventor and outrageous visionary Ray Kurzweil explains in abundant, grounded detail why -- by the 2020s -- we will have reverse-engineered the human brain, and nanobots will be operating your consciousness. Kurzweil draws on years of research to show the speed at which technology is evolving, and projects forward into an almost unthinkable future to outline the ways we'll use technology to augment our own capabilities, forever blurring the lines between human and machine.
Daily Controversy on: sciencelive The last of the live studio debates, this one tackles one of the big questions of our time: 'what should we do about climate change?' With contributions from a climate modeller, an expert on energy sources and one of Labour's most outspoken MPs, the discussion covers what is going to happen, what we can do to deal with it, and why nothing much has happened yet.
Donald McNeil New York Times A Simple Solution for Clean Water on: New York Times Donald G. McNeil Jr. demonstrates how a new personal water filter, worn around the neck, could help ensure people around the world have clean water to drink.
John Polkinghorne Cambridge University Interview on: Slate John Polkinghorne, formerly a theoretical physicist at Cambridge University, is an Anglican priest
Dancing with Mathematics on: sciencelive Chris Budd, Professor of Mathematics from the University of Bath manages to infect Liz with his enthusiasm for folk dance. What has folk dancing got to do with maths? you may ask. Maths is all about patterns, Chris says, and so is folk dance. Many English and American folk dances are based on simple mathematical rotations and symmetries. With the help of Robin Wilson, maths professor from the previous session, who is coerced into playing the recorder and two spare dancers from the webcasting team, Chris teaches a mathematical folkdance. He also speaks about the importance of teaching communication skills to maths and science students and what is going to be done with the å£4 billion recently assigned to help that happen.
Peter Ward University of Washington The Undesigned Universe: Part 2: Designing a Habitable Solar System on: Princeton Part 2: Designing a Habitable Solar System. This lecture will discuss the notion of a habitable zone around any sun, what a star system optimally designed for life would look like, and finally how our solar system measures up.
Steven Low California Institute of Technology Steven Low: Network Control: Local Algorithms for Global Optimality on: Caltech Dr. Steven Low, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Caltech, presented this lecture as part of the 0.1 Seminar series. He presents examples from potential and current distributions in electrical networks, routing in transportation networks and in telephone networks, and congestion control of the Internet to illustrate the intricacy and fascination of network control.
