≡ Category: Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
The title says it all. Lots of science lectures from leading thinkers. Some scientists (Dawkins, Hawking, etc.) listed here are household names. Others are not. Note that most lectures come from broader video collections that we were mentioned in our popular piece: Intelligent Video: The Top Cultural & Educational Video Sites.
via @acourosa. Also check out [...]
≡ Category: Physics, Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Back when I was at the now defunct Alliance for Lifelong Learning (an e-learning venture put together by Stanford, Oxford and Yale), we did a religion course that keyed off of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. No one thought highly of the book, but the dean of the Yale Divinity School believed that the book’s [...]
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Interviewed over at Edge.org, Jonah Lehrer (Contributing Editor at Wired and the author of the new book How We Decide) begins:
How do you take [the brain], this piece of meat that runs on 10 watts of electricity, and how do you study it in its actual context, which is that it’s not a brain in a [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Daniel Goleman has followed up his previous bestsellers, Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence, with a new one — Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything. Ecological intelligence is a way for us to avert environmental catastrophe, and it depends on our knowing whether products are truly environmentally friendly or [...]
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What will happen 3 to 5 billion years from now, when our galaxy will likely merge with the Andromeda galaxy? The (soundless) video above will give you a quick preview. This footage from the Hubble Space Telescope offers multiple views of recent galaxy collisions. It’s worth noting that when galaxies “collide,” they don’t literally hit one [...]
≡ Category: Science | ≅ 2 Comments
Just watch, and maybe turn down the sound a little…
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In April 1990, The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space and has since sent beautiful images back to earth. The Telegraph in the UK has gathered together some of the most spectacular ones. Click here to see some of the best. (And look to the top right for the “Next” button to see more.)
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
“NASA’s STEREO spacecraft sees Jupiter move behind the Sun in this 30 hour animation compressed into just 11 seconds. Meanwhile, you can see Jupiter’s moons orbiting it.” Get more on this cool footage from Discover Magazine and be sure to check out the Bad Astronomer Channel on YouTube, which features more videos along these lines.
≡ Category: Science, Stanford | ≅ Leave a Comment
This is Part 1 of a funny but also substantive talk about primate sexuality given by Robert Sapolsky to his Human Behavioral Biology class at Stanford University. As Cory Doctorow noted when featuring this video over at Boing Boing, Sapolsky (author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers) does a great job of lecturing on biology, [...]
≡ Category: Science | ≅ 6 Comments
This chart comes from a new Pew Research Center study that looks at the worldwide acceptance of evolution 150 years after Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. At least in the United States, only a minority of the public believes in evolution, largely because evangelical protestants (a large portion of the [...]
≡ Category: Physics, Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Perhaps you’ve pondered your own mortality. But have you ever imagined perishing as you fall into a black hole? Probably not. But if you’re intrigued by this admittedly unlikely scenario, then watch the clip above. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist who heads up the Hayden Planetarium in NYC, breaks down the scene for you step-by-step [...]
≡ Category: Religion, Science | ≅ 1 Comment
Is there “a philosophical incompatibility between religion and science. Does the empirical nature of science contradict the revelatory nature of faith? Are the gaps between them so great that the two institutions must be considered essentially antagonistic?” These were the questions raised by Jerry Coyne, a professor at the University of Chicago, in a long [...]
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This week the 2009 TED Conference is kicking into full gear, and it’s getting live blogged by BoingBoing throughout the week. See for example here, here and here. If you’re familiar with the TED format, you’ll know that the goal is to take influential thinkers and have them deliver the “talk of their lives” in [...]
≡ Category: Science, Stanford, Video - Science | ≅ 1 Comment
Back in October, I mentioned that Stanford had posted on iTunes a course called Darwin’s Legacy, which helped commemorate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.
The course brings together important scholars from across the US who explore Darwin’s legacy in fields as diverse as anthropology, religion, medicine, [...]
≡ Category: Online Courses, Physics, Science, Stanford, Video - Science | ≅ 3 Comments
This week, Stanford has started to roll out a new course, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Taught by Leonard Susskind, one of America’s leading physics minds, this course is the fourth of a six-part sequence – Modern Physics: The Theoretical Minimum – that traces the development of modern physics, moving from Newton to Black Holes. As the [...]
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ 1 Comment
Alex the Parrot spent his days working with animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg at Harvard and Brandeis. And, along the way, he upended the belief held by many scientists that birds lack basic intelligence and can only mimic words, and not really use them in any meaningful way. As you’ll see below, Alex (who died in 2007 [...]
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At the start of each new year, the Edge.org asks some of the world’s leading scientific thinkers a big enchilada question. This year, it’s “What Will Change Everything? What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?” Here you can find the answers given by 151 thinkers. (Collectively, the full set of [...]
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ 1 Comment
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out was produced in 1981 by the BBC and PBS, and it features Richard Feynman, the charismatic, Nobel prize-winning physicist, talking in a very personal way about the joys of scientific discovery, and how he developed his enthusiasm for science. About the program, Harry Kroto (winner of the Nobel Prize for [...]
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ 1 Comment
Voila, the birth, life and death of a G-type star, like our Sun. 12 billion years boiled down to six simple minutes. We’ve added it to our YouTube Favorites.
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via Digg
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According to Discover Magazine…
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Aired first in September, this BBC production asks famous scientists to offer important words of advice to the next American president. What does Obama need to know to make smart decisions about key issues ranging from nuclear proliferation to climate change? Here it goes:
>
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via Kottke
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What does the brain look like at its best? This online gallery will give you a sense. These images come from a European exhibition dedicated to raising public awareness of neuroscience. All pictures were derived from real laboratory experiments and cutting edge research.
via Metafilter
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
While working on the International Space Station, Astronaut Don Pettit created this remarkable video of the aurora borealis (otherwise known as The Northern Lights). How? By stitching together a large sequence of still images that he took from space. It makes for some good viewing.
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via NYTimes DotEarth
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ 1 Comment
It’s almost eerie to watch how a tornado takes shape. As you’ll see below, it starts with a wisp of nothing much and, within minutes, morphs into a terrible force. For more precise details on how tornadoes form, you can check out this dynamic presentation over at USA Today.
Related Content: Waves Freeze in Newfoundland
via Daily [...]
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This week, Wired has posted a piece — Top 10 Amazing Biology Videos — that has started swirling around the web. Here you’ll find some serious videos (for example, a clip below showing high speed gene sequencing in action) alongside some lighter videos that feature, um, shrimp running on a treadmill. This piece is [...]
≡ Category: Science, Video - Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
It’s grainy. It’s from 1964. It’s only a minute long. But, here, famed physicist Richard Feynman gives you the quick summary of what the scientific process is all about. Watch it below. (And if you want to watch him play the bongos and sing the praises of orange juice, then just click here. Also, you can download [...]
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Yet further proof that ants are endlessly fascinating, and, on a related note, see our earlier piece: Central Intelligence: From Ants to the Web.
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≡ Category: Business, Economics, Science, Video - Science | ≅ 3 Comments
Thomas Friedman has a new book out, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. And it gets into the whole question of what a “green revolution” is really all about. New books mean book tours, and here we have an outtake from a spirited talk he recently gave in Northern California. You can watch the full talk on [...]
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A NASA satellite caught Alaska’s Mount Cleveland in the act. An amazing image. For more brilliant volcano action photos, have a look here.
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