# 9523
Five years ago I highlighted an online (and free) holiday lecture series offered by HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) that focused on Infectious Diseases. Those four (roughly 1 hour lectures) were geared for and delivered to an audience of high school science students.
In HHMI’s Holiday Lecture Series: 2012, I highlighted this series again, this time featuring four lectures on our changing planet, while in 2013, the focus was on medicine in the Genomic Era.
These lecture series are a yearly event, and for nearly two decades they have focused on a variety of topics, including: Cancer, Genomics, Biodiversity, Immunology, Neuroscience, and Infectious Diseases. This year, the focus is on Biodiversity in the Age of Humans, with a half dozen 30-minute lectures available.
A link, with a brief description, follows:
The 2014 Holiday Lectures on Science
Biodiversity in the Age of Humans
Now available for on-demand streaming!
Lecture 1: Learning from Past Extinctions, by Anthony D. Barnosky PhD
Lecture 2: Humans, Biodiversity, and Habitat Loss, by Elizabeth A. Hadly PhD
Lecture 3: Rescuing Species, by Elizabeth A. Hadly PhD
Lecture 4: Extreme Life of the Sea, by Stephen R. Palumbi PhD
Lecture 5: Ocean Species Respond to Climate Change, by Stephen R. Palumbi PhD
Lecture 6: Dodging Extinction, by Anthony D. Barnosky PhD
Are we witnessing a sixth mass extinction? What factors threaten ecosystems on land and in the sea? What are researchers doing to try to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems such as tigers in Asia and coral reefs around the world? What tools do we have to avoid a global catastrophe? In six half-hour lectures, three leading scientists describe the state of biodiversity on our planet and how to face the great challenges that lie ahead.
Our lecturers are:
Anthony D. Barnosky, University of California, Berkeley (link to lab page)
Elizabeth A. Hadly, Stanford University (link to lab page)
Stephen R. Palumbi, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University (link to lab page)
For those who would like to sample the earlier lectures, their are 86 of them available as free podcasts through iTunes.
The rest of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute website is well worth exploring as well, for it contains numerous short science films, virtual laboratories, and interactive mini-lessons, all designed to feed your `inner science geek’.
This is a veritable treasure trove for science geeks everywhere, and I’m looking forward to sampling many of these lectures over the holiday
