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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Science for the Public

Science for the Public is a grassroots nonprofit organization committed to the promotion of adult science literacy. The organization hosts public presentations by scientists at Boston Public Library, a community science TV series, and online science resources. Citizen participation is actively encouraged in the development of our programs and resources. Today, many of the most pressing issues of modern life require the expertise of scientists. Citizens must therefore have a reasonable understanding of science in order to function as responsible members of society. Further, as the pace of scientific discovery accelerates, modern citizens must be able to grasp new concepts and information that are reshaping our perspectives. Although the issue of science literacy is now being addressed at the K-12 level, there is no science curriculum for the adult population. And it is the adult population that votes, pays taxes and raises children.

http://www.scienceforthepublic.org/

  • The Grand Geometry of Nature

    Tue, Sep 11, 2012
    "Professors Tom Mrowka and Gigliola Staffilani explain how an understanding of Nature inevitably depends on mathematics. Forces, processes, patterns 'they are all expressed in the unique and universal language of mathematics, and particularly in geometry. These mathematicians decode for a general public the deep aesthetics of these structures, and they explain how mathematics reveals the core of Nature. No need to fear math 'it is a whole new way to experience reality. Tom Mrowka, Professor of Mathematics Gigliola Staffilani,Professor of Mathematics, (both) Massachusetts Institute of Technology"
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  • Shocking News from Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

    Tue, Jul 10, 2012
    "Deep-sea hydrothermal vents represent one of the most extreme areas of Earth's biosphere: extreme heat, pressure, toxicity, darkness. What kinds of organisms have adapted to such an environment and how do they manage to thrive? The efforts to find out have changed the scientific view of the necessary conditions for life. Professor Peter Girguis describes the unexpected and unique biodiversity at the hydrothermal vents. He focuses especially on the microbes in this environment that are able to metabolize using a process called extracellular electron transfer (EET). This remarkable system is not only instructive about extreme adaptations; it has potential practical applications. In addition to his discussion of the adaptations of hydrothermal organisms, Dr. Girguis talks about the challenges of exploring the deep-sea hydrothermal vents, both with manned and robotic submersibles. And he also describes a project that invites the participation of citizen scientists. What is an extremophile? Find out more here: http://www.scienceforthepublic.org/things-to-know/life/life-extreme-forms-of-life/"
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  • Science Outreach Programs for Youth

    Tue, Oct 16, 2012
    "How do university educational outreach programs encourage high school interest in science? Dr. Irene Porro, a veteran outreach administrator discusses types and strategies of outreach programs, the programs she has been involved with at MIT, and her particular interest and commitment to improving science education in the United States. Dr. Porro's training was in astrophysics. She shifted her talents to developing effective youth outreach programs and has been worked on such programs at MIT for over a decade. She is now Outreach Programs Officer for the MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Program where she supports the coordination of all OEOP's local and national enrichment programs. During her previous tenure as the Director of the Education and Outreach Group of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Dr. Porro focused on adapting and making available education resources to support programming in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) for high school age youth and on establishing partnerships with local and national STEM out-of-school time organizations. She is also very active in promoting advocacy initiatives to support quality learning in STEM for under-served populations. In this context, she has been focusing on the issue of the transition from high school to college and overall on the STEM college experience of undergraduate students, especially from underrepresented minorities. Irene Porro, PhD, Outreach Programs Officer for the MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs, School of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "
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  • Update from the Large Hadron Collider: The Higgs?

    Tue, Sep 18, 2012
    "Professor Steven Nahn, who gave a very popular SftPublic lecture on the Large Hadron Collider in 2011 (Front Row Seat at the Big Bang) returns to tell us about the July discovery of the Higgs boson 'or something that satisfies the criteria. Finding the Higgs 'or Higgs-ish' is one of the greatest triumphs in the history of science. This is the source of mass that makes possible the existence of our familiar form of matter. Dr. Nahn explains what the Higgs boson is and why it is so important for a model of the structure of matter. He also describes the enormous challenge of finding the Higgs 'even with the power of the Large Hadron Collider' and the extreme requirements of scientific verification for this elusive particle. Dr. Nahn is involved in one of the two major projects at the LHC, the Compact Muon Solenoid. His research is concerned with major questions in particle physics today: the nature of the mass that makes atoms and molecules possible, asymmetry, dark energy and dark matter. Steven Nahn, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"
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  • Impact of Climate Change on Birds and Plants of Massachusetts

    Tue, Jan 15, 2013
    Over the past 10 years, **Richard Primack** and his colleagues and students have been using the journals of Henry David Thoreau and the meticulous records kept by other residents of Massachusetts to reconstruct the history of climate change in Massachusetts. In this lecture Professor Primack discusses how the warming climate is affecting plants, birds and insects in Massachusetts and the northeast in general. The Primack Lab's Concord project is considered a major contribution to the science of climate change. Dr. Primack is an international figure in conservation and his textbooks are major resources in university conservation courses.
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  • Public Acceptance of Wind Energy in Massachusetts: Factors, Implications

    Tue, May 14, 2013
    Dr. Maria Petrova considers the numerous factors that shape public attitudes toward wind energy, including economic, aesthetic and environmental concerns. She explains differences of perception and experience in Falmouth, Hull and Kingston and how such views impact policy. Dr. Petrova received her PhD in Environmental Science from Oregon State University in 2010. Her research in Oregon focused on public acceptability of wave energy technology, a major renewable energy form there. She has emphasized the importance of public opinion in the shaping renewable energy policies. Dr. Petrova also does comparative research on renewable energy policies in the US and the EU. She won first place at the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) in Spain in 2010.
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  • Brain Map: How the Brain Orchestrates Motion

    Tue, Apr 9, 2013
    "Scientists have worked for decades to decipher how the brain controls movement. Their discoveries are being applied to rehabilitation and to advanced robotics engineering. Tamar Flash of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and Emilio Bizzi of the McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explain how the brain converts the mental intention into actual motion. Tamar Flash, Ph.D., is the Dr. Hymie Moross Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute, Israel. Professor Flash received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. After postdoctoral studies at MIT she joined the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. She was appointed full professor there in 1998 and served as Chair of the department in 2004-2007. She is a 2012-2013 Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research. Emilio Bizzi, M.D., Ph.D., is an MIT Institute Professor, Principal Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and Human Behavior (MIT). He received his M.D. from the University of Rome in 1958 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pisa in 1968 and joined the MIT faculty in the same year. He served as director of the Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology from 1983 to 1989, and chaired the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences from 1986 to 1997. He was appointed Investigator at the McGovern Institute in 2001. Among many other honors, Dr. Bizzi became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1968 and the Institute of Medicine in 2005. He received the President of Italy's Gold Medal for Scientific Contributions in 2005 and in 2006 was elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences."
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  • The D-Lab at MIT: The People's Engineering Team

    Wed, May 29, 2013
    "Amy Smith, Founder and Director of the famous and award-winning D-Lab at MIT ('Design-Develop-Disseminate') discusses the D-Lab's unique innovative approach to improving life in the world's poorest nations. Collaborations of D-Lab engineering students and villagers in developing nations create effective tools and equipment to improve lives. The D-Lab collaborations demonstrate that the capability for innovation exists even in impoverished communities with very limited resources, and that people everywhere can learn to improve their lives significantly. The D-Lab is an outstanding humanitarian project and a very effective one. One objective is to help communities in developing nations to create engineering solutions for specific needs in health care (including prostheses), water purification, grain processing, and other concerns, using mostly the materials at hand. The D-Lab provides workshops to get people started, and soon villagers themselves develop equipment and even start businesses. The second objective of D-Lab is to engage MIT engineering students in the design-development-dissemination process. The D-Lab courses are so popular that students are accepted only by lottery. Engineering students and ordinary people collaborate on simple, elegant and inexpensive equipment that meets specific local needs around the world. D-Lab is a whole new way of learning for everyone involved."
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  • The Widespread Resistance to Antibiotics

    Tue, Aug 13, 2013
    "Dr. Stuart B. Levy is Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology and of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine; Director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance; and President of the International Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics. He is a past President of the American Society for Microbiology. In this recording, Dr. Levy discusses the crisis of widespread ineffectiveness of antibiotics that were originally considered miracle drugs. Dr. Levy was one of the first medical researchers to alert the international scientific community and the public about the dangerous consequences of the misuse and over-prescribing of antibiotics. Because bacteria are able to mutate rapidly to evade the effects of antibiotics, many bacterial diseases and infections now fail to respond to antibiotics. The threat extends to our food because livestock are given antibiotics to ensure rapid growth and weight gain. And because livestock waste from industrial farms penetrates soil and water, antibiotic residuals are pervasive in the environment. Dr. Levy led the first, and perhaps only, prospective farm study showing that feed containing low-dose antibiotics led to the emergence of antibiotic resistance in animals and people. He has published over 300 papers, edited four books and two special journal editions devoted to antibiotic use and resistance. His 1992 book, The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the Miracle, now in its second edition, has been translated into four languages."
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  • Beyond the Gene: Epigenetics Revealed

    Tue, Jun 12, 2012
    "Professor Mary Gehring discusses how an how epigenetics works. An organism's phenotypic traits are in large part hard-wired in the sequence of its DNA. Yet phenomena described more than 50 years ago indicated another layer of information exists on top of the genetic code: the epigenome. Chemical modifications to the proteins that package DNA or to the DNA itself can alter how the cell interprets the genetic code. This lecture will explore the contribution of epigenetics to growth and development, with a particular emphasis on plants, which have served as an important model system for understanding these processes. Dr. Gehring specializes in plant biology, and her research focus is epigenetic reprogramming in a plant that is especially well suited for investigation of epigenetic processes generally, Arabidopsis thaliana."
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