Nova Posted April 17, 2012 Posted April 17, 2012 A thread for lectures or discussions on science. Please post any interesting videos, lectures or documentaries you come across. :dance: Nothing too technical...that is for the nerd talk section. :) The Poetry of Science Two of science luminaries converse on the beauty of science. They discuss the elegance and beauty that science and the natural world have to offer to mankind, and why it is so important that everyone is exposed to this beauty. Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and host of NOVA and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins will explore the wonders of the Cosmos and of Life, its origins, its inspirations, and why science is not just an option, it is the only reality we possess. 9RExQFZzHXQ
Sachinism Posted April 17, 2012 Posted April 17, 2012 TFS. Will listen to it at work tomorrow if I remember
Nova Posted April 17, 2012 Author Posted April 17, 2012 Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between celebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples. This is a very fascinating talk, I watched last year. The human brain is so intriguing :) Rl2LwnaUA-k
akshayxyz Posted April 17, 2012 Posted April 17, 2012 TFS... started download, will watch sometime this week.
Sachinism Posted April 17, 2012 Posted April 17, 2012 Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between celebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples. This is a very fascinating talk, I watched last year. The human brain is so intriguing :) Rl2LwnaUA-k Seen this one before during my feasting on TED videos.
Nova Posted April 18, 2012 Author Posted April 18, 2012 A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss Lawrence Krauss gives a talk on our current picture of the universe, how it will end, and how it could have come from nothing. Krauss is the author of many bestselling books on Physics and Cosmology. 7ImvlS8PLIo This was a wonderful talk. Watch it for sure. :nice:
Nova Posted April 18, 2012 Author Posted April 18, 2012 Turn off the lights and close your eyes. What do you see? Total darkness...this is the reality of the universe around us. Completely dark... just NOTHING. I have always wondered what this nothingness or emptiness means. Turns out that the empty space is not empty at all but is full of virtual particles caused due to quantum fluctuations (from Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle). The above talk mentions "quantum fluctuations" as the cause of the origin of the universe. There is a wonderful science documentary, to further illustrate this point, which I recently watched: Everything and Nothing narrated by Professor Jim Al-Khalili Two-part documentary which deals with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing? In two epic, surreal and mind-expanding films, searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness. The first part, Everything, sees Professor Al-Khalili set out to discover what the universe might actually look like. The journey takes him from the distant past to the boundaries of the known universe. Along the way he charts the remarkable stories of the men and women who discovered the truth about the cosmos and investigates how our understanding of space has been shaped by both mathematics and astronomy. The second part, Nothing, explores science at the very limits of human perception, where we now understand the deepest mysteries of the universe lie. Jim sets out to answer one very simple question - what is nothing? His journey ends with perhaps the most profound insight about reality that humanity has ever made. Everything came from nothing. The quantum world of the super-small shaped the vast universe we inhabit today, and Jim can prove it. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yb59m
Nova Posted April 18, 2012 Author Posted April 18, 2012 Anil Ananthaswamy: What it takes to do extreme astrophysics All over the planet, giant telescopes and detectors are looking (and listening) for clues to the workings of the universe. At the INK Conference, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy tours us around these amazing installations, taking us to some of the most remote and silent places on Earth. Anil Ananthaswamy is the author of "The Edge of Physics." A former software engineer, he was inspired to become a science writer by his passionate curiosity about the world. BwOd20Mv0hM
rkt.india Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 T The above talk mentions "quantum fluctuations" as the cause of the origin of the universe. There is a wonderful science documentary, to further illustrate this point, which I recently watched: Then what about BrahmaJi. :headshake:
Sachinism Posted April 18, 2012 Posted April 18, 2012 Couldn't watch that first video all the way through, but it led me to this [ame= Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberley Academy - 2010-Jan-29 - YouTube[/ame] Watched this through, entertaining and informative
Nova Posted April 19, 2012 Author Posted April 19, 2012 ^ Watched it and enjoyed the interview, and you are right...it was fun. Eloquence matched with intelligence! When asked about what is the most beautiful thing or concept of science, Neil Tyson replied "E=MC^2". He emphasized on the nature of the equation's simplicity, and yet it tries to explain the complexity of the universe. I watched a documentary on this two years ago, which came out in 2005, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the famous equation. Here it is: Einstein's Big Idea (2005) Part 1 jqiRoKy0Gyo Part 2 jbmFcGhTnS0
f.b.m Posted April 20, 2012 Posted April 20, 2012 Damn, going to need to download a fair bit of stuff there. Not so much cosmology but still quite interesting to watch, its probably the single best video on depression that I have seen: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc]Stanford's Sapolsky On Depression in U.S. (Full Lecture) - YouTube[/ame]
Recommended Posts