100 Incredible Lectures

100 Incredible Lectures from the World’s Top Scientists
By Sarah Russel
Unless you’re enrolled at a top university or are an elite member of the science and engineering inner circle, you’re probably left out of most of the exciting research explored by the world’s greatest scientists. But thanks to the Internet, and our list of 100 incredible lectures, you’ve now got access to the cutting edge theories and projects that are changing the world.

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Here are some our favorties:

Richard Dawkins on our "queer" universe: Listen to this talk from biologist Richard
Dawkins to consider the strangeness of our universe, and how there are so many
things out there we can’t comprehend.

Kary Mullis on what scientists do: Biochemist Kary Mullis references the 17th century as he talks about the nature of discovery and experimentation.

Lee Smolin on science and democracy: Physicist Lee Smolin discusses how democratic (or not) the scientific community it.

A Passion for Discovery: Peter Freund of the University of Chicago considers the
entanglement of physics experiments and their effect on the behavior of
scientists.

A New Age of Exploration: From Earth to Mars: This video isn’t just about space exploration: it’s about the new age of experimentation and research.

A New Kind of Science – Stephen Wolfram: Stephen Wolfram’s talk A New Kind of Science, credits simple computer experiments with challenging him to look at research in a new way.

WTC Lecture – collapse of WTC Buildings: Steven E. Jones discusses the collapse of the World Trade Towers from a physics perspective.

Machine Learning: Discover how machines "learn" due to statistical patterns, learning theory, adaptive control and more.

The Second Law and Energy: Listen to Steven Chu’s talk about thermodynamics.

Molecular Biology: Macromolecular Synthesis and Cellular Function: Qiang Zhou from Berkeley discusses new findings in DNA research.

Evolution of the Human Species: The discussion about evolution is still active. This lecture considers evolution from genetic and fossil records.

Craig Venter on DNA and the sea: Biodiversity and genomics scientist Craig Venter
talks about starting to writing the genetic code instead of just reading it.

How Bacteria Cause Disease: Warren Levinson explains how bacteria are transmitted.

The Origin of the Human Mind: Insights from Brain Imaging and
Evolution: Find out how the human mind continues to evolve.

Biological Principles of Swarm Intelligence: Guy Theraulaz discusses animal psychology and swarm intelligence.

Psychology, Sex and Evolution: This lecture combines psychology and
biology to find an answer to how preoccupied we are with sex.

Dynamics on and of Biological Networks: Case Studies on the Machinery of Life: Stefan Bornholdt discusses molecular networks in this lecture.

The Physical World: Topics in these lectures from The Open University include
quantum physics, Einstein, helicopter flight and more.

The Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy: Nobel Prize-winning Charles H. Townes talks about what’s next in terms of deep galaxy exploration.

What is the simplest quantum field theory?: In this lecture, Freddy Cachazo brings forth ideas of simpler quantum field theories.

Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe: Stephen Hawking asks questions about the beginnings of the universe, where humans came from and more.

The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether and the Unification of Force: Anticipating a New Golden Age: Frank Wilczek introduces listeners to his new physics theory.

The Second Law and Cosmology: Max Tegmark asks questions about entropy, temperature and equilibrium when studying the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

David Deutsch on our place in the cosmos: Scientist David Deutsch urges the greater scientific community to seriously consider global warming.

Planet Water: Complexity and Organization in Earth Systems: Rafael Bras is credited with launching the science of hydrology and discusses water complexity here.

E.O. Wilson on saving life on Earth: Biologist E.O. Wilson entreats society to become more educated on natural life on Earth.

The U.S. Energy Crisis and the Role of New Nuclear Plants: Thomas A. Christopher considers the effects of nuclear plants on the energy and environmental crises.

CO2 beyond tomorrow: a fundamental approach: This panel featuring Helmut List aims to predict future CO2 emissions effects.

In Antarctica: The Global Warming: Sebastian Copeland explains how Antarctica is a microcosm for what will happen to the rest of the world due to global warming.

Climate change from the scientific point of view: Listen to a scientist’s view of what’s
going on in the development in climate change.

Saul Griffith on everyday inventions: Listen to inventor Saul Griffith discuss the importance and elegance of designing everyday materials.

Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us: Ray Kurzweil introduces the idea of a future populated with nanobots.

Technology and Social Responsibility: Larry Page and Sergey Brin hold technology projects, researchers and companies to a higher standard in this lecture.

Living with Catastrophic Terrorism: Can Science and Technology Make the U.S. Safer?: Lewis M. Branscomb is actually a public policy professor and co-chair at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, but this lecture takes on a critical debate about the importance of science and technology in government.

Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science: Juan Enriquez explains how forward
thinking and science are going to pull us out of any crises or disasters.

Craig Venter is on the verge of creating synthetic life: Discover how synthetic
chromosomes may be in the future.

To upgrade is human: How can technology help human evolution? Gregory Stock
considers customized human babies and the future of adoption.

Helen Fisher studies the brain in love: If you’ve ever wondered about the physical
changes that the brain goes through when you’re in love, watch this lecture.

Science Education in the 21st Century: Using the Tools of Science to Teach Science:
Dr. Carl Wierman is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who comments on the future of science education.

Probability for Life Science: This mix of math and life science covers probability and beyond.

Psychology in Human-Computer Interaction: David Kieras considers human-computer interaction in this talk.

Renaissance Physicists: Steven Weinberg isn’t too optimistic about the future of science and discusses the characteristics that define a truly ambitious scientist.

Enjoy!

The Biosemiotic View of Nature

Life is Semiosis: The Biosemiotic View of Nature

by Marcello Barbieri

The idea that life is based on signs and codes, i.e., that “Life is semiosis”, has been strongly suggested by the discovery of the genetic code, but so far it has made little impact, and is largely regarded as philosophy rather than science. The main reason for this is that there
are at least three basic concepts in modern biology that keep semiosis squarely out of organic life.

(1) The first is the classical model that describes the cell as a biological computer made of genotype and phenotype. A computer contains codes but is not a semiotic system, and this makes it possible to say that the cell too can have a genetic code without being a semiotic system.

(2) The second idea is physicalism, the doctrine that everything in life must ultimately be accounted for by physical quantities. This amounts to saying that signs and codes do not exist at the molecular level and are but linguistic metaphors that biologists use simply because they are convenient.

(3) The third concept is the idea that all biological novelties have been brought into existence by natural selection, an idea which implies that semiotic processes did not have any creative role in evolution.

These arguments have effectively ruled out the existence of semiosis in the organic world, thus depriving the discovery of the genetic code of all its revolutionary potential, but here it will be shown that there are experimental facts against all of them. More precisely, it will be shown that the cell is a true semiotic system, and that the genetic code has been the first of a long series of organic codes that have shaped the whole history of life on our planet. Biological semiosis, in other words, is a scientific reality because the organic codes are experimental realities.

This paper intends to underline precisely the scientific nature of biosemiotics and argues that the time has come to acknowledge that semiosis not only is a fact of life but is ‘the’ fact that allowed life to emerge from inanimate matter.

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How Will Evolution Change Humans?

From Scientific America:

How Will Evolution Change Humans?

By Peter Ward

Contrary to popular belief, humans continue to evolve. Our bodies and brains are not the same as our ancestors' were—or as our descendants' will be.

People commonly assume that our species has evolved very little since prehistoric times. Yet new studies using genetic information from populations around the globe suggest that the pace of human evolution increased with the advent of agriculture and cities. If we are still evolving, what might our species look like in a millennium should we survive whatever environ­mental and social surprises are in store for us? Specu­la­tion ranges from the hopeful to the dystopian.

When you ask for opinions about what future humans might look like, you typically get one of two answers. Some people trot out the old science-fiction vision of a big-brained human with a high forehead and higher intellect. Others say humans are no longer evolving physically—that technology has put an end to the brutal logic of natural selection and that evolution is now purely cultural.

The big-brain vision has no real scientific basis. The fossil record of skull sizes over the past several thousand generations shows that our days of rapid increase in brain size are long over. Accordingly, most scientists a few years ago would have taken the view that human physical evolution has ceased. But DNA techniques, which probe genomes both present and past, have unleashed a revolution in studying evolution; they tell a different story. Not only has Homo sapiens been doing some major genetic reshuffling since our species formed, but the rate of human evolution may, if anything, have increased. In common with other organisms, we underwent the most dramatic changes to our body shape when our species first appeared, but we continue to show genetically induced changes to our physiology and perhaps to our behavior as well. Until fairly recently in our history, human races in various parts of the world were becoming more rather than less distinct. Even today the conditions of modern life could be driving changes to genes for certain behavioral traits.

If giant brains are not in store for us, then what is? Will we become larger or smaller, smarter or dumber? How will the emergence of new diseases and the rise in global temperature shape us? Will a new human species arise one day? Or does the future evolution of humanity lie not within our genes but within our technology, as we augment our brains and bodies with silicon and steel? Are we but the builders of the next dominant intelligence on the earth—the machines?

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