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views:1012
00:09:00
30/06/2010
Atom - Illusion of Reality
In 1912, Victor Hess made one of the most astonishing discoveries in science – what would come to be known as cosmic rays. At the same time, scientist
s were studying radioactivity – rays coming out of atoms.
Almost a hundred years later, scientists have come to realize that the world we think we know, the solid, reassuring world of our senses, turns out to be just a tiny sliver of an infinitely weirder, more wonderful universe. Our reality is just an illusion.
In 1905, Albert Einstein conclusively proved the existence and size of an atom. Scientist Rutherford, a few years later, performed an experiment that revealed the shape of the interior of an atom. It is almost entirely empty space. How then could this empty atom make the solid world around us?
Danish theoretical physicists postulated that the world of the atom ran on principles that were completely different from everything we’d known before.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_7_EY8_78
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4pkc3MoxE4
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjK3Z_xIuMQ
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JTAyErIFB4
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Keywords:Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing, String Theory, bran Theory, Loop theory, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, theoretical physics, quantum theory
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views:1410
00:03:17
27/06/2010
Dealing with Stress
Stress can kill. It works silently and invisibly, eroding our minds and bodies. This is ironic, since stress evolved to help us survive. Sudden danger
triggers the release of hormones that rev the body up for a life or death struggle, or a frantic escape from danger. This adrenalin rush can be addictive. But when this adrenalin is constantly flowing, it actually harms the body.
Today, people no longer need be concerned about predators, but rather about work, their relationships, their money and their health. Over an extended period of time, these stress hormones can cripple the immune system and put harmful pressure on the heart – leading to a heart attack or stroke. In order to deal with stress, a variety of techniques are used, including meditation.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm9Ge-RXg_U
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiHHRXQ4vm4
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqmbvjGVphQ
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkp-APFAu9k
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLtd3IWyU4U
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Keywords:stress, meditation, adrenalin rush, stress related diseases, relaxation
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views:1186
00:02:34
22/06/2010
Drugs Factory
Modern drug discovery relies more on calculated gamble than on careful design. At GSK, a company in England, they have a library of over 2 million nam
eless chemical compounds. Scientists know very little about them. They could be highly toxic or they could be harboring a life-saving drug.
A known disease molecule – the target – is introduced to each of the 2 million compounds, one by one, to see if anything happens. With these 2 million or so compounds, they might get a few that are active against that target – as little as one or two. Chemists will then make hundreds or thousands of samples related to that original structure to try to improve that activity.
The samples must be screened over and over again. Just a handful will make it through to be tested on people. The cost in research to find a single drug is over one billion dollars and requires thousands of tests, over a period of fourteen years.
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Keywords:GSK, modern drug discovery
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views:960
00:02:05
21/06/2010
Google TV
Producers provide TV programs and movies to various networks, which in turn air them on television for people to watch. Prior to the advent of the int
ernet, audiences were at the mercy of the TV schedule. They could watch a program only at the time it aired. When the internet became popular, people could suddenly watch any TV programs they wanted on the internet, at any time they wanted…but the screens were small, not to be compared with big screen TVs.
Then came Google TV. Google TV brings everything you love about the web to your television. Right on your TV screen, you type on what you’re looking for, and Google TV will find it. It is an entertainment hub. Google TV also provides a full web browser. Google TV will make your TV smarter and easier to use.
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Keywords:television, TV schedules, channels, web videos, TV on demand
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views:1022
00:05:44
15/06/2010
From Molecule to Medicine
The human body is extremely vulnerable – many illnesses and disorders are still untreatable. However, science is always evolving in its efforts to fin
d drugs to help patients all over the world.
14 years is the length of time it takes to develop a new drug. Over this time period, 100 research projects lead to one drug being introduced to the market.
In many illnesses, one or more proteins in the body are not working correctly. Scientists are trying to discover which proteins cause an illness, and if any drugs can be developed to correct them. Our bodies, however, contain hundreds of thousands of different proteins. Finding a single protein that isn’t working properly is a long, labor intensive process.
In modern labs, with advanced technology, up to 100,000 substances can be tested a day.
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Keywords:PhRMA, pharmaceutical industry, drug discovery, molecule, medicine
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views:939
00:49:00
13/06/2010
Total Isolation
Can a human being spend 48 hours in a room, in the dark, with no sensory stimulation whatsoever? Six people undergo a test to find out what happens to
their brains when they are kept in solitary confinement. Sensory deprivation has been used as a weapon and an aid in interrogation. The test is to discover whether their brains will still be able to process information when no stimulation reaches the brain – no touch or feel, no sight or sound.
Scientists, and interrogators, have long known of the impact of sensory deprivation on their subjects, but this is the first study to codify that impact.
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Keywords:total isolation, total solitude, sensory deprivation, human mind, walls in the mind
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views:1194
00:04:16
08/06/2010
Seeing the World as Never Before
Thanks to Swedish photographer Lennart Nielson, it is now possible to take photographs, and film, of the beginning of life in a creature – from the fe
rtilization of the ovum by the sperm. Nielson helped to develop an endoscopic camera in the early 1960s, which could show the journey of the blood through veins and arteries. After 12 years perfecting his photographic technique, Nielson went inside a fetus to take still photos of the first weeks of life. Today, it is possible to see the whole reproductive process in real time, from intercourse to conception to development to birth.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7OAg432oiE
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DbP2Q2jLSA
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjUKiHkFoWQ
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Keywords:conception, foetus, creation, human cells, Lennart Nielson, endoscope, inside the body, unborn baby video
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views:550
00:05:21
03/06/2010
Allen Telescope Array
The Allen Telescope Array, also called the ATA (and named after Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, who helped fund the project), is a radio telescop
e built at the Hat Creek Observatory in the California desert, outside of Berkeley. Ultimately it will have 350 antennas (or dishes), but at the moment, only 60 are in operation.
This is a new type of telescope – an array (large number) of small dishes, as opposed to single, very large dish. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, is the driving force behind the ATA.
The ATA has a very large field of view, and it records data very much faster than the typical telescope. It can see 200 square degrees at any given moment. Indeed, the ATA receives so much data that much of it is still waiting to be processed.
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Keywords:Allen Telescope Array, SETI, Hat Creek Radio Observatory, searching for alien life, Professor Geoffrey Bower, Moore’s Law
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views:1290
00:09:59
01/06/2010
Stephen Hawking's Take on Aliens
Do aliens exist? If so, where could they be found, what do they look like, what are they made of, are they intelligent, and if we met them, what would
it mean for human kind? Wherever Stephen Hawkings goes, he is always asked, “Do aliens exist?” and “Are we alone on this big blue ball.”
Hawking doesn’t think we’re alone in the universe. The simple vastness of the galaxies – billions of galaxies - and the universe makes it probable that life forms have evolved somewhere else in the cosmos.
To Hawkings, the mathematical numbers mean it’s obvious that life on other worlds exist. The only question is what do they look like? It could range from “simple green slime” to more advanced animals. Perhaps there are even intelligent beings, even civilizations.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X7KyD7l7Po
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4NMfuZcH8o
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb10ZtlWuz0
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGalM4pOUZc
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Keywords:extraterrestrial life, Stephen Hawking, aliens, life forms, mathematical probability of life
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views:1250
00:05:22
24/05/2010
Pushing the Limits of Healing
The human body has a remarkable ability to heal itself. However, in some situations, no amount of time or healing can help restore full function. For
example, individuals with severed spinal cords can not be helped to walk again, at the present time. However, such individuals find that the body never gives up trying to repair itself. A few muscles will strengthen as time goes on.
Helped by medicine, surgery or biotechnology, people with such injuries might one day be healed totally. The goal is to repair our bodies indefinitely, to prolong life as long as possible.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kydr1KdgnTg
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Keywords:medicine, medical breakthroughs, medical history, DNA, nanotechnology, Biotechnology, bacteria, Penny Roberts, spinal cord surgery
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