First Fridays Science Discussion | Natural History Museum Of Los Angeles

Informações:

Sinopsis

One of the many great attributes of science is that it allows us to use the tools of today to understand where we have been and to predict where we are going. Will we be walking among woolly mammoths? Will we be able to harness the power of your brain to be more creative? Is climate change causing us to evolve? Will we live in a building designed by termites? Are we doomed to go the way of the dinosaur? Or, perhaps, will we live forever? This is not science fiction of the future but the real science that is affecting our life today. Join us as we look at the latest happenings in the fields of genetics, neuroscience, evolution, biomimicry, paleontology and human biology and learn how the science of today is paving the way for a fascinating journey into our future!

Episodios

  • Velociraptor Is the Thing With Feathers

    07/05/2016 Duración: 52min

    Dr. Michael Habib, Assistant Professor in the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a Research Associate in the Dinosaur Institute at NHM, and Dr. Nathan Smith, Associate Curator in the Dinosaur Institute, dig into a conversation about film and dinosaurs.

  • In Space, No One Can Hear You Emote

    02/04/2016 Duración: 49min

    Dr. Clifford V. Johnson, professor of Physics at the University of Southern California and Professor Sean Carroll, professor of physics at California Institute of Technology will explore the influence of space and time travel in movies.

  • When in Doubt, Just Keep Swimming

    05/03/2016 Duración: 48min

    Dr. Chris Thacker, NHM’s Curator of Ichthyology (aka fish!) and Dr. Maddalena Bearzi, Ocean Conservation Society President, will dive into a conversation about what lies beneath.

  • With Great Powers Come Great Close-ups

    06/02/2016 Duración: 53min

    Spiros Michalakis, a research scientist for the Institute of Quantum Information and Matter at CalTech, and Alex Wild, professional photographer and Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, will dissect the body mechanics of hybrid superheroes such as Antman and Spiderman and the insects that inspired them.

  • How Bird Watchers Can Save the World

    06/06/2015 Duración: 57min

    eBird is a citizen science project that collects data about bird sightings from bird watchers around the world. The millions of observations recorded each month, logged into a central database at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, are enabling a global understanding of the distribution, abundance, and movements of thousands of species of birds. The information is used by scientists, land managers, and bird watchers to document changes in bird distributions, pinpoint bird populations in need of conservation, and locate cool places to find new birds. Bonney will trace the origin, evolution, and current use of eBird and show how it is being used not only at the global level, but locally in the greater Los Angeles area.

  • Mathemagics

    06/06/2015 Duración: 27min

    Using daring displays of algorithmic trickery, lightning calculator and number wizard Arthur Benjamin, mesmerizes audiences with mathematical mystery and beauty. A mathematician who is known throughout the world as the “mathemagician,” Benjamin mixes mathematics and magic to make the subject fun and easy to understand.

  • Covalent and Ionic Bonding (with Suzy)

    02/05/2015 Duración: 46min

    Sandra Tsing Loh is a professional science communicator and educator with many proud accomplishments, but all bets are off when sitting down with her 12 year old daughter Suzy. Lofty TED Talk theories and triumphal chants of "Hands-on STEM!" fly out the window when a parent tries to help her middle schooler with her actual science homework. Loh candidly addresses the cultural, societal and family influences on how science is taught, and to whom, arriving at surprising insights into how we might (re-)tell the stories of science to all audiences K-100, now and into the future.

  • Reinvigorating the Environmental Movement by Connecting the Public with Nature

    11/04/2015 Duración: 42min

    The first Earth Day was a national holiday that brought out millions of people from a wide variety of politics and persuasion. Today the environmental movement has lost its mojo – but if we connect people with nature, and engage them in science, we can rejuvenate environmentalism, and maybe even save the world at the same time we save people from themselves.

  • The Newest Frontier of Science Is in your Backyard

    07/03/2015 Duración: 56min

    With the help of citizen scientists all across Southern California, we have made many important discoveries, including that of nonnative frogs, geckos, and snakes that had not previously been reported in the region. In the last century, the human population in Southern California has grown dramatically, causing habitat loss and fragmentation. The resulting range shifts and declines of native species have been accompanied and exacerbated by introductions of nonnative species. Citizen science can help fill this gap in our biodiversity knowledge, because it crowdsources data collection by asking the public to photograph organisms they encounter and submit those photos to online databases.

  • Taking Control of Your World - Citizen Science Activism

    07/02/2015 Duración: 54min

    Our world is rapidly changing. The government spends billions of dollars each year monitoring Earth from space, but who is tracking the critters and watching the plants right in front of us? This responsibility has shifted; now you may take control. The tools are simple: smart phones, digital recorders, shared networks, data loggers, and apps. Participating in Citizen Science projects and focusing on a few key principles can help effect change in a big way.

  • Urban Beekeeping in Los Angeles and Around the World

    07/06/2014 Duración: 01h06min

    If you eat food, then you need to know about bees. As pollinators, bees help produce over 130 fruit and vegetable crops. As an economic force, honey bees alone contribute over $14 billion to the U.S. economy each year. Yet, bees are dying. Peculiarly, urban beehives seem to be thriving. The recent popularity of urban beekeeping is more than just a fad - data show that honey bees might actually do better in cities. Are beehives a necessary part of city living?

  • Back to the Future: The Scientific and Cultural Importance of Rancho La Brea

    03/05/2014 Duración: 45min

    To be trapped in asphalt is a terrible way to die but a wonderful way to preserve fossils! The literally millions of fossils recovered from the sticky seeps of the world's richest Ice Age fossil site document what life was like in California when the first humans arrived here. A hundred years of excavation has revealed who was living here, what the local habitats were like, the changes that took place in response to global cooling and warming, and hints at why we no longer encounter sabertooths and mammoths.

  • Paleofantasy: What Evolution Tells Us About Modern Life

    05/04/2014 Duración: 51min

    We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football - or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Everyone is fond of paleofantasies, stories about how humans lived eons ago, and we use them to explain why many elements of our lives, from the food we eat to the way we raise our children, seem very distant from what nature intended. We sometimes assume that humans in a modern society aren't evolving any more, that we have somehow freed ourselves from evolution, or at the very least, that evolution always requires so long to act that we can't expect to have adapted to our current circumstances. But popular theories about how our ancestors lived - and why we should emulate them - are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence, and they reflect a basic misunderstanding about how evolution works.

  • Killer Newts, Awesome Lizards, and Scaly Serpents: Why We Need Them Back in L.A.

    08/03/2014 Duración: 56min

    Southern California has historically been home to one of the most diverse reptile and amphibian faunas in North America. Some of these species continue to persist in and around urban LA, others are declining, and several have gone locally extinct. In this discussion, we will talk briefly about three projects that members of the UCLA/La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science are conducting that explore what we have done to eliminate these amazing species, and what we are doing to try to bring them back.

  • Wet and Wild: Coastal Ecosystems and the Future of Southern California

    08/02/2014 Duración: 51min

    Southern California is inextricably linked to the ocean. We depend on our coastal ecosystems for food, commerce, and recreation, and we celebrate our stunning vistas, but at the same time our actions on land and sea have compromised the health and wellbeing of our foremost asset. What steps have we taken to protect our seas, and have we been successful? What are the challenges and opportunities for protecting our coastal ocean in the future? Join Dr. Roberta Marinelli, Director of USC's Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, to learn about the role science can play in conserving our resources and adapting to the challenges that humans present.

  • What Dinosaur Cancer, Drunken Stallions, and Obese Dragonflies Can Teach Us About Being Human

    11/01/2014 Duración: 50min

    From Jurassic cancer to diseases of civilization, animals and humans face many of the same health challenges. Yet their doctors - physicians and veterinarians - rarely communicate with one another, and they often treat similar conditions in vastly different ways. What does breast cancer in jaguars and beluga whales, for example, tell us about breast cancer in women? How can psychiatrists find new ways to help patients with eating disorders and anxiety by learning about social fear responses in pigs and elk? Waxwing birds, wallabies, and cocker spaniels can abuse intoxicating substances - even stallions can have sexual dysfunction. How would our physical and mental health improve if the two disciplines shared new discoveries and tools? Drawing on the latest in medical and veterinary science - as well as dynamic new findings in evolutionary biology - we'll explore how animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and heal patients of all species.

  • Fossil Genes: Surprising Clues in the DNA Record of Evolution

    04/05/2013 Duración: 45min

    Sean B. Carroll is an award-winning scientist, author, and educator. He is currently Vice President for Science Education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the largest private supporter of science education in the United States, and Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin. Carroll is a pioneer of, and widely considered to be the leading figure in, the field of evolutionary developmental biology, or "evo-devo," the study of the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity.

  • The Disappearing Spoon

    06/04/2013 Duración: 47min

    Why did Gandhi hate iodine? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium? How did radium nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why did tellurium lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? The Periodic Table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it's also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The Disappearing Spoon delves into every single element on the table and explains each one's role in science, money, mythology, war, the arts, medicine, alchemy, and other areas of human history, from the Big Bang through the end of time.

  • Living in Earthquake Country: Los Angeles and the Big One

    02/03/2013 Duración: 52min

    Earthquakes are a part of life in Los Angeles. But even people who have lived in L.A. their entire lives haven't experienced L.A.'s "big" earthquake yet. The Northridge Earthquake in 1994 and even the Long Beach Earthquake of 1933 won't compare to the big San Andreas Earthquake.

  • Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

    02/02/2013 Duración: 43min

    From the Masters and Johnson artificial-coition machine to Dutch gymnasts coupling in MRI mchines, the study of human sexual physiology is the most vital, surreal, awkward, and oddly overlooked branch of modern science. Roach salutes the bravery of early pioneers and takes us through the highlights (and a few low points) of the past hundred years.

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