Janna Levin: "Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space" | Talks at Google

source: Talks at Google     2016年5月5日
Janna Levin joined us in Los Angeles to talk about her book, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, and why the recent recording of a black hole collision is so extraordinary. Recorded April 2016.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
In Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, Janna Levin recounts the fascinating story of the obsessions, the aspirations, and the trials of the scientists who embarked on an arduous, fifty-year endeavor to capture these elusive waves. An experimental ambition that began as an amusing thought experiment, a mad idea, became the object of fixation for the original architects—Rai Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Ron Drever. Striving to make the ambition a reality, the original three gradually accumulated an international team of hundreds. As this book was written, two massive instruments of remarkably delicate sensitivity were brought to advanced capability. As the book draws to a close, five decades after the experimental ambition began, the team races to intercept a wisp of a sound with two colossal machines, hoping to succeed in time for the centenary of Einstein’s most radical idea. Janna Levin’s absorbing account of the surprises, disappointments, achievements, and risks in this unfolding story offers a portrait of modern science that is unlike anything we’ve seen before.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Janna Levin is a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is also director of sciences at Pioneer Works, a center for arts and sciences in Brooklyn, and has contributed to an understanding of black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of spacetime. Her previous books include How the Universe Got Its Spots and a novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham Prize. She was recently named a Guggenheim

What is genetic modification?

source: The Royal Society      2016年5月24日
The Royal Society has produced an animation to explain the basic science of GM, compared to conventional plant breeding.
Read the full report here: https://royalsociety.org/topics-polic...

Laboratory Evidence of the Effects of Sponsorship on the Competitive Preferences of Men and Women

source: Harvard University   2016年3月11日
How can women get ahead in competitive fields? One proposed way is through sponsorship programs – where a person (the sponsor) advocates for a protégé, and in doing so, takes a stake in her success. While these types of programs have received popular attention, little empirical evidence exists on their effectiveness. Coffman uses a laboratory experiment to explore two channels through which sponsorship has been posited to increase advancement in a competitive workplace. In the experimental setting, being sponsored provides a credible signal of one’s ability and/or creates a link between the protégé’s and sponsor’s payoffs. She finds that both features of sponsorship significantly increase willingness to compete among men on average, while neither of these channels significantly increases willingness to compete among women on average. Similarly, sponsorship has a directionally more positive effect on the earnings of male protégés than female protégés. Therefore, sponsorship does not close the gender gap in competitiveness or earnings. This seminar will explore how these insights from the laboratory could help to inform the design of sponsorship programs in the field.

Oliver James on What Makes Us Who We Are

source: The RSA    2016年4月27日
Genetics is often cited as the key factor in explaining what makes us who we are. Recently, however, there is increasing weight given to the importance of our childhood in the formation of our ‘persona’. As adults we retain the ability to change, but what we learn as children is crucial and, therefore, education is key to shaping who we are individually - and our society as a whole. Oliver James explains a bold new contribution to the nature-nurture debate.
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David Reich: The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe

source: Harvard University    2016年5月4日
David Reich describes the three biggest discoveries about European pre-history that were revealed through genome-wide analyses of 51 ice-age-era humans.
Read the full story at hms.harvard.edu/news/history-ice

Big Data to Big Art with Henry Trae Winter | CfA

source: Harvard University    2016年2月19日
We currently live in the Information Age, where terms like "Big Data" and the "Internet of Things" are ingrained into the public consciousness. This massive compilation of data is useless without tools to aid us in comprehending what the numbers mean. These tools are almost always visual in nature and creating them requires not only a knowledge of math and science, but also an understanding of how human beings interpret and interact with the world around them. We will explore a few large datasets and the tools developed to visualize them, and see that the boundaries between art and science are very often blurred. Speaker: Dr. Henry “Trae” Winter

【台大探索第八期】基因、遺傳與造化

# 播放清單 (請按左上角選取)

source: 臺大科學教育發展中心    2012年10月17日

【探索講座八】楊偉勛教授：綜觀基因與遺傳 1:59:38
【探索講座八】陳沛隆助理教授：玩弄基因的物質世界 2:00:55
【探索講座八】陳秀熙教授：當生物遇見數學 2:06:36
【探索講座八】吳益群教授：以蟲為師 1:34:41
【探索講座八】楊偉勛教授：以後天克服先天 2:07:29
【探索講座八】王弘毅副教授：人類源起與物種未來 2:02:37
【探索講座八】陳沛隆醫師：基因與個人化醫療 2:05:12
【探索講座八】胡務亮教授：扭轉宿命的基因細胞治療 1:51:20

A.O. Scott: "Better Living Through Criticism" | Talks at Google

source: Talks at Google    2016年4月18日
Few could explain, let alone seek out, a career in criticism. Yet what A.O. Scott shows in Better Living Through Criticism is that we are, in fact, all critics: because critical thinking informs almost every aspect of artistic creation, of civil action, of interpersonal life. With penetrating insight and warm humor, Scott shows that while individual critics--himself included--can make mistakes and find flaws where they shouldn't, criticism as a discipline is one of the noblest, most creative, and urgent activities of modern existence.

Using his own film criticism as a starting point--everything from his infamous dismissal of the international blockbuster The Avengers to his intense affection for Pixar's animated Ratatouille--Scott expands outward, easily guiding readers through the complexities of Rilke and Shelley, the origins of Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones, the power of Marina Abramovich and 'Ode on a Grecian Urn.' Drawing on the long tradition of criticism from Aristotle to Susan Sontag, Scott shows that real criticism was and always will be the breath of fresh air that allows true creativity to thrive. "The time for criticism is always now," Scott explains, "because the imperative to think clearly, to insist on the necessary balance of reason and passion, never goes away."

Glen Weldon: "The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture"

source: Talks at Google   2016年5月4日
In *The Caped Crusade*, Glen Weldon lays out Batman’s seventy-eight-year history and his multitudinous iterations: from his dark beginnings on the comic book page through his introduction to Saturday morning cartoons, from toy shelves across the country to the silver screen and beyond.

Since his creation in 1939, Batman has been many things. He's helped make us who we are today and that's why his legacy remains so strong. Weldon shows us that each version of Batman is legitimate because he is personal to someone—he is someone’s “my Batman.”

What a Plant Knows with Daniel Chamovitz | CfA

source: Harvard University     2014年2月6日
To understand life in the universe, we first must understand life on Earth - both animal and plant. Plant life impacts everything from the terrain under our feet to the air we breathe. Scientist and author Daniel Chamovitz unveils the surprising world of plants that see, feel, smell, and even remember.