The Enlightenment is Under Threat and Lindau Alumni for Humanitarian Action (LAHA) Can Save It
Kant, in possibly his most celebrated essay, defined the Enlightenment as: Man’s emergence from his self-imposed period of immaturity. This immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. Without the freedom t....
More details | Watch nowHow do we keep things from deteriorating?
Norman Billingham talks to Jonathan Hare about the science and ethics of preservation and conservation.
More details | Watch nowHow I am inspired by science
Buckyball Workshop with Harry Kroto with balanced Buckyballs
Children's Buckyball Workshop in San Luis Potosi Mexico with Harry Kroto organised by Humberto and Mauricio Terrones. This group started a trend balancing Buckyballs on their heads. I hope the music background is acceptable as no one is making money ....
More details | Watch nowIdeas Come from Many Places
Come share with me the memories of where ideas have come from during my life - from childhood to old age. You may find it helpful in encouraging your own brains to come up with new ideas. They won't all be useful - as I have found in this case of min....
More details | Watch nowFinding Mutations that Affect Immunity
Beginning with an exception to normal function caused by a genetic aberration, one may hope to find at least one protein with non-redundant function in a certain biological process. This approach permitted the identification of the receptor for bacte....
More details | Watch nowA New Kilogram in 2018: The Biggest Revolution in Metrology Since the French Revolution
Metrology - the science of measurements - is responsible for the international uniformity and precision in standards. Today, the seven units for meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela of our international system of units (SI units....
More details | Watch nowWhat About Redefining Time Using a Stable Laser?
Several laser-based Atomic Clocks now have an accuracy potential of ~2 x10-18, a hundred-fold better than the best achieved after more than 60 years' experience with rf resonances in Cs atoms. Still, this long attention span documents that the Cs Fou....
More details | Watch nowA Random Walk in Science
I will discuss my random walk in science, from my graduate student on postdoctoral years testing the Weinberg-Salam-Glashow theory of electro-weak forces, and then to energy transfer in condensed matter systems, the spectroscopy of positronium, laser....
More details | Watch nowThe Origin of Elementary Particle Masses
In the beginning of the 60s, the laws of classical general relativity, Einstein's generalisation of Newtonian gravity, and of quantum electrodynamics, the quantum version of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, were known. These laws describe long range....
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Where am I From? Where Are You Going?
Scientific research is a never-ending 'journey of knowledge'. There is more meaning in experiencing various encounters and making a good journey itself than reaching the destination. Basic science has eternal cultural value; it has served to heighten....
More details | Watch nowTackling the great challenges of the 21st century
Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society and Lord Stern, President of the British Academy, discussed the new opportunities – and need – for collaboration between the traditional academic disciplines to respond to the big issues of our time,....
More details | Watch nowMy 4/5 Rule for Reliability of a Hypothesis
A brief explanation on the best way to test the validity of your hypothesis
More details | Watch nowNatural Selection and the Future of Life
In his lecture Professor Christian Rene de DuvŽ gives a rough overview on the history of life starting about 3.5 billion years ago with the first cells up to the appearance of the first primates 70 million years ago, and he states that all organisms....
More details | Watch nowCultural Values of Scientific Knowledge
The acquisition of scientific knowledge largely depends on the availability of appropriate research approaches and methodologies. Novel scientific knowledge represents cultural values. On the one hand, it enriches our world-view with impacts on our....
More details | Watch nowFrom the Structure of the Ribosome to the Design of New Antibiotics
Structural studies of the ribosome exemplify the evolution of structural studies in cell biology from the early negatively stained images of macromolecular assemblies in whole cells, to a detailed atomic understanding of the mechanism of action of a ....
More details | Watch nowThe Impact of Big Science on Astrophysics
The Chandra and Hubble Telescopes are in space and each costs (through operations) several billion dollars. VLT is on the ground but over 20 years of operations will also cost in excess of a billion. They all fall therefore in the category of what ....
More details | Watch nowFrom the Structure of the Ribosome to New Antibiotics
Structural studies of the ribosome exemplify the evolution of structural studies in cell biology from the early negatively stained images of macromolecular assemblies in whole cells, to a detailed atomic understanding of the mechanisms of action of a....
More details | Watch nowMan vs. Helicobacter _ The past 50,000 years and the next 50
The epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori continues to be an area of discovery and controversy in the 21st century. The transmission of this bacterium from mother to child allows Helicobacter DNA to mimic the evolution of maternal mitochondria DNA. B....
More details | Watch nowDeciphering Immunity by Making It Fail
Infectious microbes collectively represent the strongest selective pressure operating on our species, and over hundreds of millions of years, drove the evolution of the sophisticated immune system we have today. While the general outlines of immune ....
More details | Watch nowThe Revolutionary Impact of the GOOYouWiki World (GYWW) on Education and Student Success
Prof. Kroto starts his lecture with remarks on his boyhood and his passions at school and University, especially graphic art and drawing. He mentions his 4/5 rule and shows the connection between theory and experiments, and he is sold on scientific....
More details | Watch nowCanoeing in the Arctic, a Scientist’s Perspective
As scientists, our livelihoods are supported by teaching and research, but we also have the opportunity to make observations beyond our usual confines and share these with non-scientific citizens. Growing up in my native state of Minnesota, I have al....
More details | Watch nowPhotosynthesis, Biomass, Biofuels: Conversion Efficiencies and Consequences
It is generally accepted that the global warming, which we undoubtedly observe, is the result of an increased concentration of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Within this scenario it is evident that we have to re....
More details | Watch nowCross-Coupling Reactions of Organoboranes: An Easy Way for Carbon-Carbon Bonding
The palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction between different types of organoboron compounds and various organic halides in the presence of base provides a powerful and general methodology for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. The (sp3)C-B ....
More details | Watch nowCultural Values of Scientific Knowledge
The acquisition of scientific knowledge largely depends on the availability of appropriate research approaches and methodologies. Novel scientific knowledge represents cultural values. On the one hand, it enriches our world-view with impacts on o....
More details | Watch nowProteases and Their Control in Health and Disease
Proteolytic enzymes catalyse a very simple chemical reaction, the hydrolytic cleavage of a peptide bond. Nevertheless, they constitute a most diverse and numerous lineage of proteins. The reason lies in their role as components of many regulatory....
More details | Watch nowThe Real M-Theory
How can one advance a working hypothesis that will not be wrong tomorrow and ridiculous the day after? Beyond the Standard Model we find uncertainty and confusion, with both unclarity as to which might be the correct theory, as well as little in the ....
More details | Watch nowThe importance of science: an outsider’s perspective
Award-winning author Bill Bryson speaks to Professor Jim Al-Khalili about his personal experiences and perspectives on science, from childhood and his school years, through to writing the highly successful 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' and e....
More details | Watch nowFrancis Crick: anti-vitalist activist
In the course of his scientific career, Francis Crick changed research fields several times. In almost 30 years at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, he worked on protein crystallography, molecular genetics, developmental cell biol....
More details | Watch now(Re)Inventing science publishing: the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
Philosophical TransactionsÊis the worldÕs first and oldest scientific journal. Still published by the Royal Society, it is about to mark its 350th anniversary, and was instrumental in establishing many forms and facets of modern scholarly publishin....
More details | Watch nowIs Science Magic?
How does the reality of science reflect its portrayal in films, TV and other popular media?
More details | Watch nowNobel Prize Inspiration Initiative
A series of videos of Nobel Laureates speaking on everything from their childhoods and careers advice to communicating research
More details | Watch nowScience With Acquah (The Quiz)
My sister Rosalind Franklin
Jenifer Glynn discusses her bookÊMy Sister Rosalind Franklin. With the help of family letters and memories, the book puts Rosalind Franklin's DNA work in the context of her other achievements, and Rosalind herself in the context of her family.
More details | Watch nowMaritime science and the visual culture of exploration: the albums of a Victorian naval surgeon
Naval officers in general, and surgeons in particular, played a significant role in the development of maritime science, through their observations and their collections. This richly-illustrated talk explores the visual culture of maritime science, f....
More details | Watch nowScience Advice and Policy Making
Professor Sir John Cadogan was awarded the RSC Lord Lewis Prize 2010 in recognition of his distinguished research in organic chemistry and his wide-ranging, distinctive and significant contributions in industry and public service.
More details | Watch nowOur Light Materials
In the 21st century, even the toughest of metals are now being replaced by synthetic carbon-based materials that are so strong, light, and resistant to high temperatures that they can be used in the construction of high-performance aircraft. How....
More details | Watch nowBringing Science to the Olympics
Dr David Hassall, Director of Inhaled Sciences at Glaxo Smith Klein, gives a talk on how the provision of services presents a once-in-a lifetime opportunity for GSK to use its science expertise and make a material contribution to London 2012.
More details | Watch nowThe secret mathematicians
Artists are constantly on the hunt for interesting new structures to frame their creative process. From composers to painters, writers to choreographers, the mathematician's palette of shapes, patterns and numbers has proved a powerful inspiration.
More details | Watch nowThink, Study and Take Action
YSFH Educational Research Association (ERA) is established by students who would like to make better our studying and research about "Studying toward our own interests." At present we are trying to realize this in YSFH. In this presentation we tal....
More details | Watch nowJonas Moore and his ‘Mapp of the Great Levell’
The mathematician and surveyor Jonas Moore was elected FRS in the 1670s, as a result of his close involvement in plans for the founding of the Royal Observatory. At that stage he was employed as Surveyor General of the Royal Ordnance, but under the....
More details | Watch nowScience for all: popular science in the age of radio
How do you get ordinary people to take an interest in science? This was already becoming a problem for the scientific community in the early twntieth century. But rather than letting outsiders do the job, the scientists took an active role. They ....
More details | Watch nowAbout Time
'If you knew Time as well as I do,’ the Mad Hatter says to Alice, ‘you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.’ In this event, three writers well-acquainted with time discuss how it (or he) both controls and captivates us. Dame Gillian ....
More details | Watch nowNeuroscience of emotion
Panel discussion involving Professor David Freedberg, Dr Daniela Schiller, Ian McEwan and chaired by Professor Ray Dolan FRS, as 2011. Does emotion serve a particular function? How important is emotion in artistic expression? How do we study emotio....
More details | Watch nowScience and the Church in the Middle Ages
It is commonly assumed that what little scientific advance there might have been in the Middle Ages was held back by the power of the Church. But, in fact, there was important progress in science and technology during the medieval period. And the....
More details | Watch nowThe Notorious Sir John Hill: Georgian Celebrity Science and Attacks on the Royal Society
No man in Georgian England ever attacked the Royal Society more savagely than Sir John Hill (1714-1775), and no one in his era was more notorious for public scandal. This talk sketches Hill's multi-faceted life and assesses his attacks on the Royal S....
More details | Watch nowNatural History and the Rights of Woman
During the two-year period of the composition and publication of her Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of Mary Shelley and early advocate of women’s rights, read and reviewed a number of important works of n....
More details | Watch nowUK research: building bridges, building prosperity
World leading in quality and impact, UK research is helping us to identify new sources of energy for a more sustainable future and to seek cures for deadly and delibitating diseases. New and profound insights allow us to unearth the secrets of our ....
More details | Watch nowBuckyball workshop
Professor Sir Harry Kroto shows local schoolchildren in Sheffield how to build a buckyball
More details | Watch nowAn audience with Professor Sir Harry Kroto
Staff and students at the University of Sheffield ask the Nobel Prizewinner about his life, work and science
More details | Watch nowThe Ursula Project
Wobbly bridges, inkjets and microbubbles
A panel of 3 academics answer questions from school-children about their lives and research
More details | Watch nowAre IT Services Cooperative?
A cross-cultural study on individual, team, organisational and institutional factors affecting knowledge sharing willingness in the IT services industry – a general overview and summary of initial results.
More details | Watch nowShakespeare the metallurgist, Eliot the spectroscopist: the cultural journey of the chemical elements
From the moment of their discovery, each of the chemical elements has embarked on a journey into our culture. Over millennia and decades, they have gained meaning through encounter and manipulation. Those long known, such as gold, silver, iron and su....
More details | Watch nowRuder Boscovic, the eighteenth-century polymath
Roger Boscovich (1711-1787) was a true polymath, making original contributions in science, technology and the humanities. He was born in Dubrovnik but spent much of his working life in Rome, at the Collegium Romanum. This lecture will introduce his l....
More details | Watch nowHow to film the Earth from space
Two University of Sheffield students have recorded a video of the Earth from the edge of space, using homemade equipment and on a shoestring budget.
More details | Watch nowEnhancing communication and structured data on the Web
Rigid interfaces force people to present or look at information the wrong way. We need a new generation of flexible Web tools that help people gather the information they want from wherever it is, organize it however they like, create the interaction....
More details | Watch nowTowards a decentralised and personalised Web
Social networks and collaborative tagging systems have taken off at an unexpected scale and speed. Pretty much everyone now generates Web content. This represents a revolution in usage and a great opportunity to leverage collaborative knowledge to en....
More details | Watch nowThe nature of collective intelligence
Digital data stem from our own personal and social cognitive processes and thus express them in one way or another. But we still don?t have any scientific tools to make sense of the data flows produced by online creative conversations at the scale of....
More details | Watch nowOrigin of Life on Earth: Abiogenesis
This presentation portrays a general overview of the theory of abiogenesis and its conceptual history. From the theory of spontaneous generation to biogenesis to the modern-day abiogenesis, the changing perception of the origin of life is discussed.....
More details | Watch nowSeeing Further – The Story of Science and the Royal Society
The Story of Science and the Royal Society - a panel discussion chaired by Melvyn Bragg. The panel is made up of Bill Bryson, Maggie Gee, Richard Holmes and Ian Stewart FRS.
More details | Watch nowGreen Chemistry – an overview
Chemi- and bio-luminescence
Chemiluminescence and bioluminescence. General chemistry explained and examples such as fireflies, Wintergreen mints, etc. are introduced
More details | Watch nowA natural history of scientists
For most of his life, Richard Fortey, has worked with collections in London's Natural History Museum, so curation has become a kind of unbreakable habit for him. In his Michael Faraday Prize lecture he will present another collection: his own persona....
More details | Watch nowBenjamin Franklin in Europe: electrician, academician etc.
Benjamin Franklin, American patriot and natural philosopher, was born 300 years ago. Apart from a brief stay in England as a young man, he spent the first fifty years of his life transforming himself from a nobody into the leading citizen of Philadel....
More details | Watch nowRisk: food, fact and fantasy
We all take risks, but most of the time we don't notice it. Eating, like everything else in life, isn't risk free. Is that next mouthful pure pleasure or will it give you food poisoning? Will it clog up your arteries as well as filling your stomach?
More details | Watch nowMathematical curiosities and treasures.
Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities, a surprise Christmas bestseller, is now accompanied by his Hoard of Mathematical Treasures. Both books are mathematical miscellanies for the general public, ranging from one-liners to mini-essa....
More details | Watch nowSeeing the invisible: observing the dark side of the universe
It seems that most of the universe is made up of mysterious ingredients which we cannot see directly. Dr Bridle describes in pictures 'gravitational lensing', the bending of light by gravity, which is predicted by Einstein's General Relativity. Dr Br....
More details | Watch nowRestoring Science to its Rightful Place
They were the words that scientists everywhere wanted to hear and President Obama couldn't have been clearer, promising to 'restore science to its rightful place'.
More details | Watch nowProof-reading: Telling stories with numbers and words
How does doing mathematics and writing stories compare? What role is mathematics playing when it is used in literature? Are stories important to understanding mathematics? Do writers have eureka moments? Marcus du Sautoy and Mark Haddon discuss the f....
More details | Watch nowWashing dirty lab coats on the page and the stage
The drive to publish first, even the order of the authors and the choice of the journal; the collegiality and the brutal competition; grantsmanship; the still existing glass ceiling for women; Schadenfreude, even Nobel lust - these are the soul and b....
More details | Watch nowIslam and science: beyond the troubled relationship
The basic sources of Islam - the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad - place a great deal of importance on science. So, theoretically, the relationship between Islam and science is both close and very deep. It was this relationship that....
More details | Watch nowContinuing the voyages of the Endeavour
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin's address applies certain lessons learned from one of the Royal Society's greatest explorers to the endeavours NASA is carrying out today in exploring the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets of our solar system and o....
More details | Watch nowThe social function of history: policy, history and twentieth-century science
Historians bring to thinking about science policy a very particular understanding which should be central to policy: historians are trained to know in their bones that the future is unknown and to understand the power of the cheap futurism which char....
More details | Watch nowMathematics in the real world: From brain tumours to saving marriages
Practical mathematical models are becoming an accepted part of most medical and scientific disciplines. A few of the more unlikely applications are justifying intertribal warfare, the benefits of cannibalism, how the leopard gets its spots and demons....
More details | Watch nowThe House of Wisdom and the legacy of Arabic Science
In a way that never took place with early Christianity, the spread of Islam heralded a remarkable period of scientific advances, particularly during the golden age of the Abbasids of Baghdad between the 8th and 11th centuries AD.
More details | Watch nowSmoking and lung cancer genes
Some of the strongest evidence that lung cancer risk variants are common in the general population appears in Nature and Nature Genetics, although the three papers differ on whether the association is direct or mediated through nicotine dependence. W....
More details | Watch nowGeogebra
GeoGebra is dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. It offers multiple representations of objects in its graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet views that are all dynamically linked.....
More details | Watch nowScience in the 21st Century
Harry Kroto talks to undergraduate scientists at FSU about his ideas for the future of science in the 21st century.
More details | Watch nowMediasite global outreach competition winner – 2009
Steve's winning presentation in the Mediasite Global Outreach Challenge 2009
More details | Watch nowPresident Obama’s speech to the National Academy of Sciences, April 28 2009
President Obama commits the USA to a research and development sector of above 3% of GNP. This will double much of the current spending for many agencies.
More details | Watch nowJoseph Rotblat 2
Joseph Rotblat 1
Soldering
This clip is about solder (a low melting point metal mixture) that can be melted using a hand-held soldering iron. The solder also has flux within it to help combat corrosion and produce a good solder joint to the components and circuitry.
More details | Watch nowBernal and the Social Function of Science
Chris Freeman, the founder and first director of the UK's Science Policy Research Unit introduces Bernal, the father of the protein crystallography techniques which enabled the double helix structure of DNA to be unravelled. Bernal's major impact on ....
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