On March 26, 2012, Ocean frontier explorer and Academy Award winning filmmaker James Cameron plunged 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) below the ocean surface in a one-man submarine to the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, the first solo diver to reach such depths. On "Journey to the Deep" the 2013 Nierenberg Prize recipient shares his experiences and perspectives from his record-setting dive.

The Scripps Research Institutes' Ryan Shenvi, who searches for ways to synthesize new medicines from both synthetic and natural sources, explores the crucial roles of imagination and critical thinking in the practice of the scientific method.

Nina Jablonski explores the nature and sequence of changes in human skin through prehistory, and the consequences of these changes for the lives of people today. Recorded on 03/01/2017.

Particle accelerators have been revolutionizing discoveries in science, medicine, industry and national security for over a century. An estimated 30,000 particle accelerators are currently active around the world. In these machines, electromagnetic fields accelerate charged particles, such as electrons, protons, ions or positrons to velocities nearing the speed of light. Although their scientific appeal will remain evident for many decades, one limitation of the current generation of particle accelerators is their tremendous size, typically a mile long, and cost, which often limits access to the broader scientific community. Acceleration of electrons in plasmas, in particular in laser-driven plasmas, has been drawing considerable attention over the past decade. These laser wakefield accelerators promise to dramatically reduces the size of accelerators and revolutionize applications in medicine, industry, and basic sciences.

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.

Alysson Muotri of UC San Diego's Stem Cell Program discusses his work creating cortical organoids from modern humans and Neanderthal to compare the brains of humans and human predecessors. Recorded on 06/01/2018.

Exploration of our oceans continues to reveal strange new animals. Come along as Scripps Oceanography's Greg Rouse reviews some of the more famous discoveries dating back over the last century, and documents some of the more recent amazing discoveries focusing on California and the eastern Pacific Ocean. This will include the bizarre bone-eating worms known as Osedax, the green bomber worm Swima, the enigmatic Xenoturbella, and recent work on the extraordinary Ruby Seadragon. Recorded on 09/17/2018.

Scientists are often puzzled when members of the public reject what we consider to be well-founded explanations. They can't understand why the presentation of scientific data and theory doesn't suffice to convince others of the validity of "controversial" topics like evolution and climate change. Eugenie Scott, Founding Executive Director, National Center for Science Education, highlights the importance of ideology in shaping what scientific conclusions are considered reliable and acceptable. This research is quite relevant to the evolution wars and the opposition to climate change, and to other questions of the rejection of empirical evidence. Recorded on 10/03/2018.

We take a look at the grey matter between our ears: Is the brain gendered? What we do know is that it can be stimulated using targeted electrical currents.

Across the tree of life, we can trace cancer vulnerabilities back to the origins of multicellularity. Cancer is observed in almost all multicellular phyla, including lineages leading to plants, fungi, and animals. However, species vary remarkably in their susceptibility to cancer. Amy Boddy (UCSB Integrated Anthropological Sciences Unit) discusses how this variation in cancer susceptibility is characterized by life history trade-offs, as cancer defense mechanisms are a major component of a body's maintenance. She also looks at how understanding these trade-offs in the context of evolution may help explain the variability we see in cancer susceptibility across human populations. Recorded on 07/18/2018.

Polymers, known colloquially as plastics, abound in the world around us due to a host of useful properties. In this talk, Christopher Bates (UCSB Materials and Chemical Engineering Departments) discusses a fascinating subset of these materials known as block copolymers, which naturally self-assemble into intricate, nanometer-sized patterns. Bates' lab provides a look into the natural universe through the lens of chemistry and materials science. Recorded on 07/02/2018.