Show all events Symposium on Sustainability: Energy and Other Sustainability Challenges 11/14/2009 [view videos] 52 minutes Former Caltech provost Steve Koonin, currently the Undersecretary for Science in the U.S. Department of Energy, presented the keynote address at the Symposium on Sustainability on campus, sponsored by the Association of Marshall Scholars and Caltech's Office of the Provost. The symposium included a panel discussion with Harry Atwater, Paul Dimotakis, William Gross, Seema Jayachandran, Steve Koonin, James Langer and Mary Nichols. Ed Stone: Thirty Meter Telescope: The Universe in High Definition 9/12/2009 [view videos] 49 minutes Edward Stone, the David Morrisroe Professor of Physics at Caltech and former director of JPL, discussed the Thirty Meter Telescope in a lecture at Alumni College. Stone explained how if we collect and concentrate enough light from dim, distant bodies, we can observe them as they were near the beginning of the universe, over 13 billion years ago. Andrew Ingersoll: Exploring the Giant Planets: Results from Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini 9/11/2009 [view videos] 79 minutes At Alumni College, Andrew P. Ingersoll, Caltech's Earle C. Anthony Professor of Planetary Science, explained why astronomers keep sending spacecraft to the giant planets. Missions exploring Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have led to many surprising discoveries, and more revelations are yet to come. John Bryson: Energy and Climate Policy: The Decade Ahead 5/27/2009 [broadband] [high resolution] [56k modem] 95 minutes In a talk called "Energy and Climate Policy: The Decade Ahead," John Bryson discussed how California's distinctive approach to clean energy systems may help guide the United States and other countries in their efforts to lower carbon emissions. Bryson is a commissioner of the National Commission on Energy Policy and the former chairman, CEO, and president of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison. Gwyneth Card: Making an Escape: Neural Control and Biomechanics of Flight Initiation in Drosophila 5/14/2009 [56k modem] [cable/DSL] [high resolution] 56 minutes Gwyneth Card, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering at Caltech, explained how she and her colleagues have used high-speed videography to capture sequences of flight initiation by fruit flies. The group has discovered two types of Drosophila flight initiation, each resulting in a different type of flight performance once the fly is airborne. Their findings indicate a sophisticated motor program—evidence for a form of rapid, visually mediated motor planning in a genetically accessible model organism. Joshua Spurgeon: Rolling Out the Solar Carpet: Microwire Solar Cells in Flexible Polymer Layers 4/28/2009 [56k modem] [cable/DSL] [high resolution] 55 minutes Joshua Spurgeon, a Caltech graduate student in chemical engineering, discussed how solar energy has enormous potential as a carbon-free energy resource. The high cost of solar power in comparison to coal has prevented its widespread implementation, but Spurgeon explained an innovative scheme with the potential to enable the economic, roll-to-roll processing of wire array solar cells by incorporating inorganic semiconductor material grown on a recyclable substrate into an inexpensive, flexible organic layer. John Dabiri: Jellyfish-Inspired Engineering 4/22/2009 [56k modem] [broadband] [cable/DSL] 40 minutes Caltech assistant professor of aeronautics and bioengineering John Dabiri presented a Watson Lecture called "Jellyfish-Inspired Engineering." Recently named one of Popular Science magazine's "Brilliant 10," Dabiri described how his biology-inspired approach to engineering has placed jellyfish at the center of efforts to build next-generation underwater vehicles, to design more versatile onshore wind power, and even to diagnose heart failure. Jess Adkins: Exploring the Deep Sea for Corals and Clues to Our Climatic Past 4/1/2009 [56k modem] [cable/DSL] [broadband] 66 minutes In an Earnest C. Watson Lecture, Caltech's Jess Adkins, associate professor of geochemistry and global environmental science, explained how submarines, robots, lowered cameras, and dredges are used to find deep-sea corals. These archives of past climate are related to their surface cousins and can structure huge thriving communities hundreds to thousands of meters below the ocean's surface. Adrienne Erickcek: Looking Beyond the Cosmological Horizon 3/10/2009 [cable/DSL] [56k modem] [high resolution] 63 minutes Everhart lecturer Adrienne Erickcek, a Caltech graduate student in theoretical astrophysics, presented a brief history of the universe, focusing on evidence for a cosmic growth spurt called inflation. She and her collaborators have shown that structure outside the horizon may generate a puzzling asymmetry in the cosmic microwave background, which can be interpreted as a signature of pre-inflationary remnants lurking beyond the cosmological horizon. Climate Fingerprints: How Do We Know that Human Activities Have Influenced Global Climate? 2/19/2009 [56k modem] [broadband] [cable/DSL] 103 minutes Benjamin Santer, an atmospheric scientist with the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, presented a talk on human-caused climate change. His research focuses on identification of natural and anthropogenic "fingerprints" in observed climate records, the use of statistical methods in climate science, and climate model evaluation.