The end of the year seems synonymous with top ten lists. We couldn’t quite limit ourselves to only ten out of the hundreds of programs we premiered in 2014 so we expanded it to twenty to give you more of a taste for the amazing diversity of topics and presenters on UCTV. From the Congo to the oceans, the brain to human evolution, business competitions to medical breakthroughs – there truly is something for everyone.

20. Can You Hear Me Now? Coping with an Increasingly Noisy Ocean
Explore how ocean noise varies across the Pacific Ocean and what it may mean for whales, fish, and other animals that rely on sounds for their survival.

19. Reversing Paralysis – Health Matters
Is it possible for damaged nerves to be rewired? Justin Brown, MD joins host David Granet, MD to discuss how patients suffering from paralysis due to nerve injuries can regain function as well as future implications of this novel technique.

18. Big Bang – UC Davis Business Competition 2014
66 teams competed in the UC Davis 2014 Big Bang competition. Aspiring entrepreneurs were awarded cash prizes aimed at helping get ideas from academia into the real-world market.

17. Challenges to Conserving the Congo Basin Rainforest: Climate Change and the Second Scramble for Africa
Thomas Smith, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, describes how the best science available is being leveraged to identify new protected areas in the face of resource extraction and climate change.

16. The Brief History and Future Development of Earth System Models: Resolution and Complexity
Warren Washington, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and an internationally recognized expert on atmospheric science and climate research, describes the research that led to the 2007 Nobel Prize.

15. Confronting Climate Change: A Political Reality Check
NextGen Climate Founder and President Tom Steyer discusses the urgency and complexity of mitigating climate change.

14. Listening in the Deep – Using Sound to Study Animals We Cannot See
Simone Baumann-Pickering details how patterns of echolocation are allowing scientists to document the natural acoustic behavior of a species, and determine if those natural patterns are being disturbed by man-made noise.

13. From Genes to Biology in Autism Spectrum Disorders
The last several years have ushered in a new era in the genetics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This lecture will review this recent progress and address the next steps in moving from the systematic discovery of ASD genes to a fuller understanding of the neurodevelopment processes that underlie social disability.

12. Understanding the Down Syndrome Program: From Science to the Family
Recent estimates place the prevalence of Down syndrome at 1 in 691 births, making it the leading known genetic cause of intellectual disability. This presentation provides an update on what is known about Down syndrome, its impacts on the individual and the family, and possible treatments.

11. Innovation Crossroads: Creating a Policy Climate for Global Innovation in San Diego
The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons joins Paul Jacobs of Qualcomm, Greg Lucier of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and US Rep. Scott Peters (D) for a panel on attracting more investment in the technology sector to spur more innovation.

10. Do 4.2 Million Children Really Need Ritalin? An Integrative Approach to ADHD – 2014 Update
Dr. Sanford Newmark specializes in the integrative and holistic treatment of children with autism and ADHD. He combines conventional medicine with nutrition, behavior management, and various complementary modalities.

9. Sports Concussion Evaluation and Treatment
What is a sports related concussion, how is it evaluated and treated, and how many concussions is too many?

8. UC San Diego Founders’ Symposium 2013
Passion for their work is evident as six of UC San Diego’s young innovators share their latest research as part of UCSD’s celebration of its Founders. Speakers include Eric Allen, Jamie Alexandre, Jessica Graham, Dana Velasco Murillo Morgan Nunn Martinez and Jacopo Annese.

7. Development of the Brain’s Functional Networks
Review methods used to study functional interactions and networks with rs-fcMRI and how these methods have been used to define developmental changes in network functional connectivity.

6. Getting Serious About Climate Change – Charles David Keeling Annual Lecture
UCSD School of International Relations and Pacific Studies Professor David Victor, internationally recognized leader in research on energy and climate change policy on creating more effective strategies for protecting the planet.

5. Lessons Learned in the Electric Brain
Michael Okun, MD discusses the processes and prospects for deep brain stimulation (DBS). Learn why we apply electricity to the brain, how DBS works, and how we can use DBS to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease.

4. What’s Next for the Food Movement? – with Michael Pollan
What does the future hold for the food movement? Join Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan and author and UC Berkeley Professor of Journalism Michael Pollan in conversation with reporter and Journalism faculty member Linda Schacht.

3. Medical Radar: Next Generation Life Saving Medical Devices
Learn about efforts to build new medical tools in the hope of saving lives in remote places. Hear about new efforts to build medical tools to determine life threatening traumatic injuries to the head and torso by using the Micropower Ultrawideband Impulse Radar (MUIR).

2. Neurologic Mysteries
How the neurologic examination is a particularly vital tool to understanding which part of the nervous system is being affected and how this guides the diagnostic and therapeutic planning.

1. And the Number one program of 2014 is… Well, actually it’s two series of programs from CARTA – both of which were extremely popular this year.

CARTA – Birth to Grandmotherhood: Childrearing in Human Evolution
From the moment of birth, human infants require an inordinate amount of care and, unlike our nearest living relatives, remain dependent on a variety of caretakers during an unusually long maturation period followed by extraordinary adult longevity. How did such a distinctive pattern of development evolve?

CARTA – Male Aggression and Violence in Human Evolution
In the last few decades, new sources of evidence have continued to indicate that male violence has played an important role in shaping behavior in the human lineage. This symposium takes a fresh look at the causes and consequences of variation in aggression, both between and within species.

Watch these and other popular programs on UCTV.