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The Evolution of Human Skin
While we know much about the structure and function of our skin and the evolution of skin pigmentation, there is much left to learn. How is it that while our mammalian cousins are furry, we are virtually naked and we sweat like we do? And how is it that some of those sweat glands evolved […]
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Up Next Explores the Future of Space Exploration… and Death
Since the launch of Up Next eight months ago, Marty Lasden has produced programs on the future of everything from artificial intelligence to Judaism to marriage. In The Future of Being Dead, Lasden interviews Stanford University humanities scholar Robert Pogue Harrison. (Back in 2005, Harrison published a fascinating book called The Dominion of the Dead, […]
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All About Those 2° C
Among the international delegations of climate experts gathering in Paris for COP 21 this month, leading researchers from the University of California are presenting “Bending the Curve,” a thorough report covering their top 10 scalable solutions for reducing global warming and addressing the impacts of climate change. For a preview of what they are prescribing […]
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Water Policy and the Drought
If you’ve spent anytime in California in the last few years, you know this: California is in the midst of a severe drought. But while the lack of rainfall is not in dispute, there is widespread disagreement on how to respond. A panel convened for Cal Day at UC Berkeley explores policy options that could […]
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New Smart Puppy Episodes!
Holy hairball! Smart Puppy and Friends are back – this time enlisting friends from around the globe to have fun and introduce viewers to the basics of some fascinating facets of material science. Science? No, really it’s a goofy romp, and you might learn something you didn’t know you could learn from a talking Labrador […]
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The Future of Visual Computing
At the newly launched UC San Diego Center for Visual Computing – or VisComp – researchers are building a future when photograph-quality images can be rendered instantly on mobile devices; a future in which computers and wearable devices have the ability to see and understand the physical world just as humans do; and a future […]
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Understand Climate Change – and What You Can Do About It
Learn more about climate change with new programs that examine its impact from a variety of perspectives. Discover how humans and climate interact and affect one another, learn what you can do to reduce greenhouse emissions, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the Pope’s call to protect the environment. Climate Change, Consumerism and the Pope […]
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The Amazing Diversity of Fishes!
The aquatic world presents the widest diversity of habitats, so it’s no surprise that fishes have come to present the widest diversity of vertebrate species. From the darkest depths to tropical shores, there are more than 33,000 species of living fishes, accounting for more than half of the extant vertebrate diversity on Earth. For years, […]
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CARTA: Human-Climate Interactions and Evolution – Past and Future
The existence of Beringia had a great impact on the spread of the human species only 16,000 years ago – and not long after, climatic periods like the Medieval megadroughts extending into the second millennium moved Vikings to Greenland, vineyards to England and played a role in the collapse of the Inca and Anasazi cultures. […]
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Atmospheric Rivers: California Rainmakers
“If we went straight up from here to space, took every water vapor molecule, and condensed it into liquid, anybody hazard to guess how deep it might be?” So queried Marty Ralph, atmospheric scientist and director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes early on in his fascinating exploration of the newest understanding […]