"It's not taking pilots out of planes. It's putting propellers on smart phones." So says Chris Anderson, co-founder of 3D Robotics describing "Solo," the world's first Smart Drone. Anderson was among a group of leading engineers in unmanned aerial vehicles gathered on the USS Midway to inspire San Diego students to consider careers in high technology. Others on board included Mike Atwood and Darren Moe of General Atomics describing the military missions of the "Predator" UAV, George Guerre of Northrop Grumman adding how its "Global Hawk" drone is also used for weather surveillance and other humanitarian purposes and finally, Mike Veale of San Diego Zoo Safari Park touched many in the audience by explaining how he plans to use drones to stop the poaching of rhinos and elephants in Africa. This event was presented as part of the STEAM Leadership Series, created by Intellectual Capital, KidsEcoClub and the Education Synergy Alliance. Recorded on 06/05/2015.

The Scripps Research Institute's Dennis Wolan takes you on a fascinating exploration of the human body's ecosystem and the myriad symbiotic relations found there that sustain and affect everything from immunity to behavior, and how his lab "mines" this microbiome for potential therapies.

Taught by successful educational entrepreneur and UC San Diego Computer Science and Engineering Alumna Sarah Guthals, an innovative new course for computer science students builds the skills necessary to communicate their field to others through the experience of teaching K-12 students the fundamentals of coding in extracurricular settings in schools and libraries.

The earth's climate is dynamic and complex. Large changes in climate are recorded in ice cores, ocean mud and over the last two centuries, instrumental records. However, to understand the large scale patterns in climate and their changes and drivers, climate models are not only useful, but increasingly necessary to make skillful predictions for the future. Though critically important, understanding the role of climate models is often misunderstood or distorted. Climate scientist Gavin Schmidt discusses how climate models are not only useful, but increasingly necessary. Recorded on 01/10/2018.

Cosmologist and author of "Losing the Nobel Prize" Brian Keating tells the inside story of BICEP2's mesmerizing discovery and the scientific drama that ensued in this interview with science fiction author David Brin. Keating describes a journey of revelation and discovery, bringing to life the highly competitive, take-no-prisoners, publish-or-perish world of modern science. Along the way, he provocatively argues that the Nobel Prize, instead of advancing scientific progress, may actually hamper it, encouraging speed and greed while punishing collaboration and bold innovation. In a thoughtful reappraisal of the wishes of Alfred Nobel, Keating offers practical solutions for reforming the prize, providing a vision of a scientific future in which cosmologists may, finally, be able to see all the way back to the very beginning. Recorded on 04/25/2018.

How often do you wonder about supercomputers and computers that "think" like humans? Supercomputers have been used to model complex scientific phenomena for decades. Now, scientists are entering a new era in computing, and computers are learning in a way that is similar to the human brain. With enough information, computers can learn to solve problems in novel and interesting ways. Specialized computers can even solve these problems using significantly less energy than "classical" computers. This talk describes using supercomputers to solve challenging problems and the evolving technologies of learning systems.

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is a sensitive mass spectrometric method for detecting and quantifying rare long-lived isotopes with high precision. This technique is widely employed in the earth and environmental sciences and is now being applied in the biomedical fields. AMS is primarily used to in the areas of pharmacology and toxicology to investigate the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of radiolabeled drugs, chemicals, and nutrients, as well as in the detection of chemically modified DNA and proteins in animal models and humans. The exquisite sensitivity (10-18 mol) of AMS allows for the use of low chemical and radioisotope doses and relatively small sample sizes, which enables studies to be performed safely in humans, using exposures that are environmentally or therapeutically relevant.

Hunting is considered a key human adaptation and is thought to have influenced our anatomy, physiology and behavior over time. This symposium explores the evidence pertaining to the origins of hominin hunting.

Panelists share their experiences about recently transitioning into a new opportunity, whether moving industries, changing job functions or developing a new company.

The Scripps Oceanographic Collections are world-renowned repositories supporting scientific research and education. They provide the basis for understanding the ocean's biodiversity, the evolutionary history of life on Earth, and the rates and characteristics of climate change. Get an insider's view into fascinating creatures in these irreplaceable scientific collections.

This time it's about things that are not visible to the naked eye, but that have a significant impact on our lives: the mobile phone network, fine particulate matter, the Big Bang and a super X-ray laser.

How it is possible for imagination to have practical social effects? The great potential size of human societies, in contrast to those of other primates, is due to a kind of shared imagination of which kinship and religion are important examples, says Maurice Bloch, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. Bloch says that the shared imaginary emerges in normal life at certain moments yet is still governed by the potential of imagination. The lecture is illustrated by Bloch's experience of an isolated village in Madagascar. Recorded on 06/04/2018.