Science Events Audio

Healthy communities grow by leveraging intellectual capital to drive economic development while protecting cultural heritage. In the San Francisco Bay Area, as in other regions where earthquakes occur, success depends in part on the ability to rebound from major earthquakes. But action plans for reducing losses have stalled. Chris Poland will present the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association's (SPUR) Resilient City Initiative. This Initiative is an effort to avoid post-Katrina-type problems by defining the seismic hazards and response performance goals for San Francisco in terms that everyone can understand. SPUR's path and plans will improve San Francisco's ability to recover and are a guide for other cities preparing to cope with disasters.

Abstract: How can communities in urban areas convert their concrete flood control channels into natural stream systems? What are the benefits to the owner of a channel, often the flood control district, to convert their channels to natural streams? What role should the flood control district play, or the community play, or non-profit groups play or regulators play in achieving this vision? This talk will explore these questions and the concept of using long range planning such as a "50 year plan" to accomplish this.

Why It's Not Possible to Solve Climate Change Without China Speaker:  Orville Schell Dr. Schell is a former professor and Dean at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the current Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a regular participant in the World Economic Forum at Davos. Schell is also the author of fourteen books, nine of them about China, and a contributor to numerous edited volumes.  

Lucy Shapiro Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research, School of Medicine, Stanford University Lecture I: Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health Tuesday, March 31, 2009 – 4:10 p.m. International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley  Lecture II: The Systems Architecture of a Bacterial Cell Cycle Wednesday, April 1, 2009 – 4:10 p.m. International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley  Lucy Shapiro is renowned for her contributions to the fields of developmental biology, molecular biology, and genetics. Her research focuses on the cell cycle of a developing microorganism, particularly on the process by which the cells divide into dissimilar, rather than identical, “daughter” cells. This process remains, in Shapiro’s words, “one of the most fundamental questions of developmental biology.”  Shapiro's pioneering work has revealed the genetic circuitry controlling a bacterial cell with 3,767 genes, providing the basic principl

Neil Shubin is a distinguished paleontologist whose research seeks to understand the mechanics behind the evolutionary origin of anatomical features of animals. His work focuses mainly on the Devonian and Triassic periods to understand the pivotal ecological and evolutionary shifts that occurred during that time. In 2004, after scouring the Canadian Artic for six years, Shubin and his team unearthed the Tiktaalik roseae, a fossil “fishapod,” which, despite its fish-like features, had a neck, skull, ribs, and parts of limbs similar to land animals. This discovery represents the transition between fish and four-legged mammals that occurred over 350 million years ago.  Hitchcock Lecture description: Evolutionary biology is a science that allows us to make predictions, about fossils in the geological record and the activity of different genes in different kinds of creatures.  In his first lecture, Professor Shubin will discuss how this type of approach helps us to understand some of the grea

John Perry is renowned for his significant contributions to the field of philosophy, including his work on language, logic, personal identity, and philosophical issues related to cognitive science.  Perry's investigation of the issues of personal identity begins with the fundamental question of continuity: "Is one person the same person over time?" The way we respond to this question as a society is of special concern regarding moral judgment and penal codes, in both religious and secular contexts. Howison lecture description: In his lecture, John Perry investigates two quite different ways of thinking of ourselves; one, that we express with the first person, that is a special way of considering ourselves; the other, for which we use our name, that allows us to think of ourselves more or less as others do.  He will explore these two different ways of thinking, and talking, about ourselves, and draw some conclusions about the structure of thought and language.

Abstract: California is experiencing its worst water crisis in history with drought combining with increasing regulatory restrictions and inadequate infrastructure to generate significant negative impacts on both the environment and economy. This presentation explores the root causes and possible solutions to this crisis. Californias water system was conceived and constructed under very different natural resource policies than those that exist today. In the mid 20th century, natural resource policies focused on resource extraction for human economic purposes. As we move into the 21st century, natural resource policies are focused on the restoration and sustainability of the environment, quite apart from any economic value to human beings. Not surprisingly, the physical system that was conceived under extraction policies in the 20th century is characterized by high levels of conflict between societys 21st century environmental and economic goals. Governor Schwarzeneggers Blue Ribbon Delta Vision Task Force has

Speaker/Performer: Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Nobel Laureate and Honorary Professor, Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure Our ability to control and to manipulate atomic systems has considerably increased during the last few years. We will review in this lecture a few recent advances in this field, emphasizing in particular the new fruitful dialogue which is being established between atomic physics and other disciplines like statistical physics, condensed matter physics, molecular physics and quantum information. Very precise measurements with ultracold atoms provide now more refined tests of fundamental theories like general relativity. The possibility to control all experimental parameters of an ultracold atomic sample, like the temperature, the density, the strength of the interactions, allows one to realize simple models of more complex systems found in other fields of physics and to get a better understanding of their behavior.

Dr. Renee Kidson, Chief Hydrologist (Water Accounting) Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

Australian water law is now in its fifth epoch with the passing of the Water Act in 2007. The lecture will review the other epochs and the pitfalls inherent in these epochs. The water law processes in each epoch will be cast in the light of the social contracts and political movements that fostered them and the changes leading to the transition to the new epoch. Pitfalls and success stories will be presented for epoch 4 with emphasis on the regional water planning process. These have great lessons to offer. The latest epoch represents a radical legal change overcoming Constitutional impediments and other socio political challenges.

David M. Kennedy Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Stanford University An Invitation to Struggle: The Constitution, the Military, and Political Accountability Tuesday, February 3, 2009 – 4:10 p.m. Lipman Room, Barrows Hall, 8th Floor Read the Berkeleyan article: The march to war, from Bonaparte to Bush As a historian with an academic background in American Studies, David Kennedy is known for sharp analysis of American history through the multiple lenses of culture, economics, and politics.  In his 20th century United States history courses Kennedy explores the many aspects of American political and social thought, American foreign policy, American literature, and the comparative development of democracy in Europe and America.  Recently, his research interests have touched on the relevant issue of the power dynamics among the nation’s governing branches and the social and political consequences therein.  Jefferson lecture description: The American Founders granted Congress

James Hansen, renowned climate scientist and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies gives a compelling, lecture regarding the implications of today's actions on earth's future. Sponsors: Berkeley Institute of the Environment, Energy and Resources Group, Department of Geography, Progressive Perspectives, Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center, Sierra Club

S. Geoffrey Schladow Director, Tahoe Environmental Research Center; Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis

Marios Sophocleous Senior Scientist, Kansas Geological Survey

Gary Wolff Vice Chair, California State Water Resources Control Board   Water is the lifeblood of California. Without it, the landscape we know today would not exist. Throughout California’s history, water has been a source of food, commerce, energy, and recreation. It makes possible the bountiful Central Valley farms and the vibrant coastal cities. It has inspired countless poets and painters. Californians have simultaneously fought over water, marveled at its beauty, and - through impressive feats of engineering - moved it hundreds of miles. The popular lecture series, the California Colloquium on Water, continues. Scholars of distinction in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, law and environmental design will offer monthly lectures. These lectures are designed to increase the understanding and appreciation among students, faculty and the general public of water resources and to contribute to informed decisions about water in California.

There is much current excitement about the interesting advances in science and the unusual physical properties of carbon nanostructures, particularly carbon nanotubes and graphene, which are both of great interest at the present time.  A brief review will be given of the physical underpinnings of carbon nanostructures that were developed over the past 60 years, starting with the electronic structure and physical properties of graphene and graphite, and then moving to graphite intercalation compounds which contained the first carbon nanostructures to be studied experimentally.  Liquid carbon studies were precursors to the fullerene family of nanostructures and vapor grown carbon fibers were precursors to carbon nanotubes.  Particular emphasis is given to the recent developments in our understanding of the photophysics of carbon nanotubes and graphene, with perspectives on future research directions for these fields and applications that are emerging. Speaker:  Mildred Dresselhaus, MIT

Richard M. Frank - Executive Director, California Center for Environmental Law & Policy; Professor, UC Berkeley School of Law    

Center for Computational Biology Industry Seminar - June 26, 2008 23andMe: Empowering Consumer-Enabled Research Anne Wojcicki, co-Founder, 23andMe

Center for Computational Biology Industry Seminar - March 20, 2008 Information-Based Personalized Medicine Alain Rappaport, General Manager of Health Search, Microsoft Health Solutions Group