EXPLO.TV - Webcasts, Video Clips, and Podcasts from the Exploratorium

Origins: Astrobiology: Life's Ingredients (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:43:30

Julia Child and physicist Philip Morrison once cooked up (and sampled) "primordial soup," a mixture of ingredients said to be the materials from which life sprang on Earth. How accurate is this notion? David Deamer studies how some molecules self-assemble into order, and has developed new theories about how life evolved from components on Earth. We’ll talk with him, do hands-on experiments, and watch vintage footage of Julia Child tasting the soup. Guests: David Deamer, Director, UC Berkeley SETI Program, and Karen Kalumuk, Exploratorium staff scientist.

Project: Origins: Astrobiology: The Search for Life | Browse All

Date: November 16, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Life Science/Biology, Chemistry

Keywords: self-assembled structures, self-assembly processes, directed assembly process, primordial soup recipe, building blocks of life, life on other planets, life on mars, chemical reactions, amino acid production, molecule formation, density column, emulsifiers, emulsifica

Real: 256K

Origins: Astrobiology: Live from Licancabur Volcano in Chile (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:32:56

Nathalie Cabrol, Planetary Scientist, Principal Investigator at NASA Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute, looks for Mars analogs in extreme environments on Earth. She found one at the world’s highest lake at Chile’s Licancabur volcano, site of a unique analog to ancient Martian lakes. We chat with Dr. Cabrol as she investigates the life forms at Licancabur.

Project: Origins: Astrobiology: The Search for Life | Browse All

Date: November 16, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Life Science/Biology

Keywords: astrobiology, fundamental features of life, life beyond earth, biochemistry, extremophiles, extreme environments, microbes, bacteria, ecosystems, organisms, complexity of life, microbial life in extreme environments, life at low temperatures, stromatilites,

Real: 256K

Origins: Astrobiology: Is There Life Elsewhere? (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:58:53

How can a mathematical equation frame the question of life in the universe? We’ll talk with Frank Drake, one of the founders of the SETI Institute, about his famous equation and how it frames the search for signs of intelligent life in the universe.

Project: Origins: Astrobiology: The Search for Life | Browse All

Date: November 15, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Astronomy/Space Science

Keywords: astrobiology, seti, search for extraterrestrial intelligences, intersteallar communication, drake equation, stars with planets, planetary detection, planet detection, primordial soup, radio telescopes, designing interstellar messages

Real: 256K

Light and Landscape: Charles Ross and Star Axis (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:10:19

Join the Exploratorium's Dr. Paul Doherty as he visits a "sculpture to observe the stars" in northern New Mexico, where the Sangre de Cristo Mountains meet the eastern plains. There artist Charles Ross is creating an art installation that is also a star observatory. This major earthwork has two main elements: the Star Tunnel, which allows you to walk through the entire history of the earth's changing alignment to our North Star, Polaris; and the Solar Pyramid, where one can visually experience an hour of the earth's rotation.

Project: Light and Landscape | Browse All

Date: September 16, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Arts, Astronomy/Space Science

Keywords: sculpture to observe the stars, naked eye observatory, star geometry, grand cross, shadow field, star tunnel, earth-star alignemnt, earth's movement, cycles, time, earth-to-star axis, earth's rotational wobble, equinoxes, celestial time, 26, 000 year cycle, architectoni

Real: 225K

Return to Mars: Only Mars (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:07:57

See an 8 minute video of the planet Mars from the James Lick Observatory telescope!

Project: Return to Mars | Browse All

Date: August 28, 2003
Format: Expedition
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Astronomy/Space Science

Keywords: mars, mer, robots, science, images, horizon, craters, surfaces, dry lakes, rocks, wheels, cameras, nasa, jpl, rat, solar power, target.

Real: 225K

Return to Mars: Red Planet: Up Close and Personal (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:37:05

We stayed up with Exploratorium scientist Ron Hipschman at the Lick Observatory in San Jose, California, for the best view we've had of Mars in a long, long time. At midnight on August 27, Earth and Mars passed closer to one another than they have in 60,000 years. Astronomers were on hand to tell us all about our nearest neighbor—its geography, orbit, and why both NASA and the European Space Agency have chosen this time to launch robotic missions to Mars.

Project: Return to Mars | Browse All

Date: August 27, 2003
Format: Expedition
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Astronomy/Space Science

Keywords: refracting telescope, feautures of mars, surface of mars, james lick observatory, earth, mars

Real: 256K

Origins: Cold Spring Harbor: Dr. Eric Lander (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:22:30

Dr. Eric Lander, a leading figure in the Human Genome Project and director of the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research, tells us about the recently completed mouse genome and how the study of other genomes gives key information about human genetics and evolution.

Project: Origins: Unwinding DNA at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | Browse All

Date: March 2, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Life Science/Biology

Keywords: phenotypes, genetics, mathematical neurobiology, definition of gene, genomics, genome meeting, junk dna, repeating dna, regulatory sequences, parasitic dna, sense of smell in ancestors, smell receptor genes, degenrations of genes, mouse genome project, mutations, mouse

Real: 256K

Origins: Cold Spring Harbor: Dr. Francis Collins (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:20:25

Dr. Francis Collins is the Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which is responsible for coordinating the government-sponsored effort to map and sequence the entire human genome, considered by many as one of the most important scientific undertakings of our time. Dr. Collins is a physician and geneticist whose own work led to the identification of the genes for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, and Huntington's disease. In this Webcast, Dr. Collins explains the different strategies for finding disease genes, the competition between public and private efforts to decode the human genome, and the next steps for the Human Genome Project, now that the first accurate gene maps have been created.

Project: Origins: Unwinding DNA at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | Browse All

Date: March 1, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Life Science/Biology

Keywords: disease genes, dna sequence variation, completion of the human genome project, dna genome sequence of other animals, comparison of dna genome sequencing, evolution, comparing genomes, conflict of religion and science, moral values, ethical decisions, interent tech

Real: 256K

Origins: Cold Spring Harbor: James Watson (Webcast)

Running Time:
0:28:42

Dr. James Watson is the President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the codiscoverer of the double helix, for which he won a Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1962. Dr. Watson was also the first director of the Human Genome Project. He talks with us about early discoveries in molecular biology, the Human Genome Project, and what makes Cold Spring Harbor a unique scientific institution.

Project: Origins: Unwinding DNA at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | Browse All

Date: February 28, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Medicine, Life Science/Biology

Keywords: dna, james watson, cold spring harbor laboratory, medicine, double helix, human genome project, molecular biology

Real: 225K 1M

Windows Media: 659K

Origins: Cold Spring Harbor: Dr. Carol Greider (Webcast)

Running Time:
00:18:34

Dr. Carol Greider is a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University. She worked with molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn to discover the role of telomeres—segments of DNA that protect and stabilize the ends of chromosomes. Dr. Greider tells us about her work and shares her thoughts about the importance of mentors for women in science.

Project: Origins: Unwinding DNA at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | Browse All

Date: February 28, 2003
Format: Interview
Category: Science in Action
Subject(s): Life Science/Biology

Keywords: telomeres, molecular biology, genome research, genetics, role models for women, chromosomes, elizabeth blackburn, basic science research, barbara mcclintock, women scientists, mentoring women in science,

Real: 256K


		Streaming Technology provided by: Digital Rapids	Webcasts made possible through the generosity of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The Jim Clark Endowment for Internet Education, the McBean Family Foundation,.and the Corporation for Educational Networks Initiatives in California (CENIC).