rssAbsolute Zero - The Conquest of Cold
April 30th, 2008 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)
The first in a 2 part series that takes the theme of conquering cold, as the premise for human progress.
channel: 'science'
John Maynard Smith - Royal Institution Discourse on “The Origin of Life”.
April 28th, 2008 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)
Here, the late, great, Maynard Smith talks about what it means to say something is living. Like many virtuosos, he makes something difficult seem simple, with utterly clear explanations - the lecture is a small masterpiece.
He considers that what some biologists (such as Stuart Kauffman) define as life i.e. self reproducing things that metabolize, does not differentiate between life and something like a flame and that we must always add heredity (of infinite possible variety) to account for what we consider to be truly alive.
This leads to life as seen from an information perspective i.e how we transmit information between generations, and he outlines 9 milestones in the evolution of life from this vantage point, from replicating molecules to electronic information communication.
2 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: science talks
History of the Bevatron
April 21st, 2008 · 2 comments or link to (permalink)
The history of the first great particle accelerator.
time: 23 mins
2 comments » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: history science
Do You Want To Live Forever?
April 17th, 2008 · comment or link to (permalink)
Do You Want To Live Forever?
A question that is not as easy as it sounds. A deliciously eccentric documentary which profiles the ideas of the exceedingly eccentric Aubrey de Grey.
1 h 16 mn 36 s via: www.sens.org
Spacefest Preview
March 8th, 2008 · comment or link to (permalink)
Spacefest 2009 will be held in San Diego Feb 19-22 next year in San Diego. This trailer is a great taster. It is also a way to plug the place where I found it, my favorite new weblog: Bad Astronomy, which is bad ass, indeed.
comment » (report dead embeds in comments) tags: clips science