Recently in Videos Category

The University of Nottingham has created a collection of short videos about sixty commonly used symbols (or concepts) in physics and astronomy. From Eigenvalues to Theremins, each video is about 5 to 10 minutes long, provides a "fun chat with men and women who love their subject and know a lot about it!" and often includes an interesting demonstration.

 To start watching visit or http://www.sixtysymbols.com/ or view the short Transistor video below.

 Also available from the University of Nottingham, the Periodic Table of Vidoes

NASAimages.org, brought to you by the Internet Archive, has just announced that high resolution pictures from NASA science, exploration, and aeronatuics are now available for download.

Started in the summer of 2008, NASAimages.org is a treasure trove of videos and images on everything NASA from beautiful pictures of space to educational content. What can you do with all these videos and images, well according to their faq:

"In general our content is not under copyright and so can be used without express permission, as long as the use does not imply that NASA endorses a product or cause. The credit line used in connection with the images should read 'NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org.'"

The sonic boom image above is courtesy of nasaimages.org.

Content is continuously being added. To keep track of their news and updates visit the NASAimages blog.

Bill Gates has purchased the famous Feynman lectures on Physics and made them freely available to view on the Web. Available on Microsoft Research website called Project Tuva. The Microsoft Silverlight browser plug in is required to view the videos. The video player plug in was designed to make the viewing experience more interactive by allowing the viewer to search the lectures, take notes while you watch, and click on links to related content  on the Web.

To learn more about this project, you can read the Microsoft press release here

IEEE Emerging Technologies Roundtable webcast - 10:30 a.m. March 10, 2009

As part of its 125th anniversary celebration, IEEE is hosting a roundtable webcast on emerging technologies and their potential to change the world. On March 10, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. EST “top minds in human-technology interactions” will form a panel to discuss such topics as biomedical engineering, biometrics, computing, robotics, telecommunications, wireless power, and more. The IEEE announcement’s list of speakers follows:

“Scheduled speakers include:

• Miguel Nicolelis, professor and co-director, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University Medical Center
• Roy Want, senior principal engineer, Intel Corporation
• Krishna Palem, professor, George Brown School of Engineering, Rice University
• Katie Hall, chief technology officer, WiTricity
• Rangachar Kasturi, professor, University of South Florida
• Dharmendra Modha, manager, congnitive computing, IBM Almaden Research Center
• K.J. Ray Liu, professor, University of Maryland, College Park”

To view the rest of the announcement and register for this event click here
http://www.ieee125.org/engineering-the-future/media-roundtable.html

The next wave in “open courseware,” Academic Earth is a website that hosts free streaming video lectures from scholars at top academic institutes in the United States including Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.

Featured and top lectures include “Private Equity and the Financial Crisis” by Stephen Schwarzman, “The World is Flat 3.0” by Thomas Friedman, “Elliptical Orbits” by Walter Lewin, or “The History of Computing” by Mehran Sahami featured here:

Along with individual lectures, you will also find lecture series for full courses, all free to watch, share, and embed. iPod download is available for many lectures where the “Download to iPod” link is provided. The Playlists page provides a group of six lectures on a particular theme, such as “Understanding the Financial Crisis”, “First Day of Freshman Year”, and just in time for Valentine’s day, “Love Is In the Air”.

Subject coverage ranges in difficulty and currently includes: • Astronomy • Biology • Chemistry • Computer Science • Economics • Engineering • English • Entrepreneurship • History • Law • Mathematics • Medicine • Philosophy • Physics • Political Science • Psychology • Religion

Visit http://www.academicearth.org/

Starting today and continuing every Wednesday until February 18, 2009, the Lewis Library will be showing a 27 minute film from the Thirsty Planet series on World Wide Water topics. Several of the films should be interesting to a variety of engineering disciplines from civil and environmental engineering to resource management.

The following films will be shown in the Lewis Library electronic classroom (Room 225) from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.

1. Water for the fields ( 1/14) Looks at the use of water for agriculture from locations around the world, surveying both disasters of agricultural irrigation, such as cotton farming in Uzbekistan, and innovative successes in water-efficient techniques and crops, such as in California and India. Also looks at the destructive effects of deforestation and overgrazing, the difficulty of fighting erosion and reclaiming arable soil, and the urgency of the motto: more crop per drop.

2. Waters of discord (1/21) Almost half the world gets its drinking water from rivers that cross national boundaries. Analysts predict that more wars will be fought over water than oil. This program surveys a number of active or potential hot spots: Israel and the river Jordan; the Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey and its effects on Syria and Iraq; Egypt’s Toshka Canal and the Nile Basin Initiative; and the Tehri dam in India. The program also looks at the effects of the Hoover dam on the Colorado River delta in Mexico and the success of Lesotho’s Katse dam.

3. Watery visions (1/28) In a dramatic reversal of policy since apartheid, South Africa has become a model of water fulfillment. Despite being one of the driest regions on Earth, India’s Rajasthan is an oasis due to the revival of a system of ancient rain basins. This program looks at these encouraging examples to show how sustainable solutions to long-term water management can be achieved, while a visit to Sertão in Brazil illustrates the appalling alternative — two very different futures.

4. Testing the limits of possibility: massive dams and waterworks (2/4) Looks at the construction of dams examining the positive and negative impact as well as the politics and economics of several ongoing or proposed projects: China’ Three Gorges Dam, Egypt’s Mubarak pumping station, pit-mine reclamation in Germany’s Lausitz Region, and Spain’s controversial national hydrological plan for the Ebro River.

5. Water for profit 2/11 When demand outpaces supply, water becomes a commodity to be traded on the global market. But who owns water and how can a price be set on water? In this program the pros and cons of privatization are assessed in a number of water management situations around the world: Aguas Argentinas in Buenos Aires; the Bechtel Corporation in Cochabamba, Bolivia; Thames Water Company in Jakarta and a public/private test partnership in Albania.

6. Water for the cities 2/18 Takes a hard look at the mounting challenge of providing millions of people in urban areas with potable water and adequate disposal of waste water. To highlight the difficulties, segments focus on the water problems of the magalopolis, cities with populations over 10 million people such as Lagos, Jakarta and Mexico City. The massive logistics that enable Las Vegas, Nevada to prosper in the middle of a desert are also explored.

www.NewScientist.com - NEWSFLASH*

See the first images of proton collisions from the Large Hadron Collider and read our physics editor’s report from CERN: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14699

And watch our whistlestop video tour of the LHC here: http://www.newscientist.com/video.ns?bctid=1785292087&DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt10headInside%20the%20LHC