Category Archives: Podcast

Podcasts, webcasts, online video and audio on science and engineering topics.

Ocean Life

Iridescent nudibranch

Photo: This iridescent nudibranch looks like a creature from another planet. Larger photo.

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce?) includes a huge photo and videocast gallery including: invertebrates, vertebrates and seafloor.

Also see an exploding volcano under the sea for the first time ever, from the:Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 Exploration, NOAA Vents Program.

Microsoft Wants More Engineering Students

Microsoft Marching For More Engineering Students:

“We believe it is in the best interests of our industry, to have a continuing stream of high-quality, well-educated students in the sciences and technology. Software is a people-intensive business. Microsoft is committed to technical innovation, research is a primary arm of that, and we, therefore, want to continue to hire technically innovative people,” Roy Levin said.

Webcasts from the event with National Science Foundation, National Academy of Engineering and Microsoft representatives.

Related:

Donald Knuth – Computer Scientist

photo of Donald Knuth playing his home organ

Love at First Byte by Kara Platoni:

In the early ’60s, publisher Addison-Wesley invited Knuth to write a book on compiler design. Knuth eagerly drafted 3,000 pages by hand before someone at the publishing house informed him that would make an impossibly long book. The project was reconceived as the seven-volume The Art of Computer Programming. Although Knuth has written other books in the interim, this would become his life’s work. The first three volumes were published in 1968, 1969 and 1973. Volume 4 has been in the works nearly 30 years.

Its subject, combinatorial algorithms, or computational procedures that encompass vast numbers of possibilities, hardly existed when Knuth began the series. Now the topic grows faster than anyone could reasonably chronicle it. “He says if everyone else stopped doing work he would catch up better,” deadpans Jill Knuth, his wife of nearly 45 years.

Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms – Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms – Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Sorting and Searching

Usually a lone wolf, Knuth collaborated on his typography programs with some of the world’s best typographers and his students. He produced two software programs, the TeX typesetting system and the METAFONT alphabet design system, which he released to the public domain. The programs are used for the bulk of scientific publishing today. “He made everybody’s life so much better and made the scholarly work so much more beautiful,” Papadimitriou says. “He has exported a lot of good will for computer science.”

See photo:

He likes to hide jokes in the index, as in Volume 3, where “royalties, use of” leads you to a page with an illustration of an organ-pipe array, a little wink to the 16-rank organ that dominates his home. He plays four-hands music with Jill, who swears that the neighbors tend to complain that the music emanating from their house is in fact not loud enough.

Related:

Science and the City

Science and the City, from the New York Academy of Sciences, serves to show how much all of us outside of New York City miss, but, also offers value to those away from NYC. Those of you lucky enough to be in New York City can find an amazing array of science related activities. For example this week you could choose from:

  • Making Chinese Medicine Modern at Columbia University Medical Center
  • Squishy Gel Phases as Templates for Nanostructured Materials at the City College of New York
  • The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize at the New York Academy of Sciences
  • This Just In: The Latest News from the Universe at the American Museum of Natural History
  • Condensed-Matter Physics & Materials Science Seminar

Those are less than 10% of the listings included on the Science and the City calendar for this week.

For those of us outside NYC their site does offer a great deal of useful information including: Science and the City podcasts featuring interviews, conversations, and lectures by noted scientists and authors. Recent additions include: Father of String Theory Muses on the Megaverse by Leonard Susskind and In Search of Memory by Eric Kandel.

Great stuff for those in NYC, and elsewhere.

Feynman on Discovery

The pleasure of finding things out a video interview with Richard P Feynman (Google Video broke the link so I removed it).

A great mind expands upon our recent post: Science for Kids. He provides some good insight into learning.

Related book: Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character packaged with an hour-long audio CD of the 1978 “Los Alamos from Below” lecture.

Nobel Laureate Discusses Protein Power

Nobel Laureate discusses protein power – Podcast

Nobel Laureate Professor Robert Huber visited the The University of Queensland – Brisbane to discuss the future of biomedicine.

He presented the studies that earned him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 and discussed the future of protein crystallography to reduce several diseases such as influenza and cancer.

Nobel Prize

Robot Dreams

RAYERD-X robot

Video podcast of amazing robot:

One of the most surprising robots that appeared at the 9th Robo-One competition held here in Tokyo on March 18-19th, 2006, was RAYERED-X developed by Asurada. Its unique design allows it to reconfigure and transform itself into some amazing shapes. At first it looks like a short tower, then becomes a carousel, then a walking spider, then into a tall biped battle robot.

All sorts of robot news via the Robot Dreams blog, including RAYERD-X – The Magical Robot:

The robot really surprised the crowds, but may have puzzled the panel of judges to some extent. It’s hard to make a direct comparison between RAYERD-X and the more conventional robot designs. Nevertheless, it did capture the 24th position during the initial Demonstration phase of the Robo-One 9 competition and was awarded the Sunrise Special Prize.

RAYERD-X web site (Japanese).

Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics

photo of science presentation

Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics (EYH)

EYH facilitates conferences for middle school and high school girls on science and math and information on careers involving math and science.

Over 625,000 young women have participated in the these conferences so far. Many of these conferences conduct concurrent programs for parents and educators so they may more effectively support young women and their technical aspirations.

A typical conference takes place on a Saturday at a local college or university and is attended by 200-500 young women from nearby middle schools and high schools. The schedule includes a keynote address encouraging girls to persist in mathematics and science courses, and two varieties of workshops.
…
In most of the workshops, young women participate in hands-on learning experiences led by women scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. In other workshops, role models share career awareness information and discuss job satisfaction, necessary education, and descriptions of a typical day on the job.

List of conferences with contact information

Related Posts: Wow! That’s Engineering? – Science Camps Prep Girls – Inspire Students to Study Math and Science – Engineering is Elementary – The Future is Plastics – Intel Science Talent Search Results – Math in the “Real World”

What Happens at an EYH Conference?

A LOT OF FUN!

At an EYH conference, you will attend talks, participate in hands-on workshops, and meet with women scientists and engineers. You will also spend time with other girls who are thinking about their futures. Through these activities you will:

  • Experience the fun of math, science and engineering;
  • Learn about math and science-based careers;
  • Find out about the education required for these professions;
  • Discover what scientists do in a typical day;
  • Obtain first-hand information about the lives of women in science and the various paths leading to careers in the sciences.

Podcasts of previous events

Via: Expanding girls’ horizons

Directory of Science and Engineering Education Sites